Our Unseen Friend (Part A)

Notice how, here where he says, who gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings. Notice how Isaiah delivers this future event in the past tense, treating prophecy so sure of fulfillment that it's already taken place.

Because from God's perspective, the future is always past, or else he couldn't tell the future. It's that God can't learn. He knows it all. How does he do it?

If I knew, then I'd be on his level. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 41, as he begins his message, Our Unseen Friend. So looking right at verse 1, Isaiah 41, that's where we are. Verse 1, Keep silence before me, O coastlands, and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near.

Then let them speak. Let us come near together for judgment. Well, it starts off sounding like this is a nice invitation, but it's God calling for a courtroom hearing with the Gentiles.

And the proceedings have started. He's going to challenge them and their heathen beliefs and their hatred towards his people. This is what he's calling them for. The prophet is laying this out not only for the generation that he lives in, for the generation that will be a hundred years later, over a hundred years later, coming out of Babylon, and then down through the ages for the believers. As we consider this, we get to see God in action in a very splendid way, because he's dealing directly with false beliefs, and we get to see what he thinks about these things, and from a different perspective than other sections of Scripture, I think. So this first verse is aimed solely at the Gentiles, where he says, Keep silent before me, O coastlands. And this is coming from a Jewish prophet, summonsing them to reason about God on behalf of Israel's future, the other part of it. The coastlands are the distant lands, the farthest regions from where God's people will spread, especially after they are sent or released, free to go from Babylon and down through the ages.

These coastlands lead to inlands, and so the peoples of the world are in sight with that word. It is revelant beyond the day of Isaiah until the last days, until the return of Christ, what he is going to address here. And so he says also in verse 1, And let the people renew their strength. In other words, collect yourselves, be ready, and come before me.

It's a challenge. I started to name this message a challenge from God, but I wanted to keep it closer to the spirit of comfort that started off this second section of the book of Isaiah in chapter 40, Comfort, yes, comfort my people. And we'll get to this unseen friend as we move into God's address to his people, but right now he's dealing with Gentile thought, and he says, Let them come near and let them speak. So it is Yahweh verse the man-mades.

When I say the man-mades, I don't mean men who are acting like maids, I mean the man-made gods. Present your evidence on why you should be taken seriously, homemade religion. We do this to this day whenever we engage people and discuss, you know, why we believe in Christ and why we have categorically rejected every other religion on earth. Christianity, as a reminder, is incompatible with every other religion on earth, and so he says, Let us come near together for judgment. Let's settle this, and that word judgment tells us that this is not, you know, he's not inviting them to encourage them.

He wants to get to the bottom of this with whoever will listen. Verse 2, now still God speaking through the Jewish prophet, he says, Who raised up, this is a question, Who raised up one from the east? Who in righteousness called him to his feet? Who gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings? Who gave them the dust to his sword as driven stubble to his bow? So, again, opening with the questions, there are six of these Who questions in verses 2 through 4. Now where he says, Who raised up one from the east?

He is referring to King Cyrus of the Persians who is not going to be born for about another 150 years, and he is naming him by name, and this is where he's calling the other gods. Come on, bring your stuff to me. I'm going to tell you some of what I can do. What I can do is I can tell the future, and that's what this, you know, the challenge is about.

What can your little idols do? They can't do anything. You're going to run to them for help.

They're not going to help you. And when I don't help my people, it's because I told them they were doing wrong and I'm going to punish them. But when I tell my people I'm going to help them, that is what I'm going to do. And this is just an overview of what is going on in this chapter. Now the prophet Isaiah does not name Cyrus as this character here in verse 2, and he's going to talk about him a little bit in this opening section until chapter 44. It's his style of writing, but he doesn't leave you, you know, you're still engaged, and if you've read through Isaiah, you know you're reading right along.

There's stuff you don't understand, but there's a lot you do understand. So he introduces him here. The direction at this point is vague, but it will be very clear by the time he gets to chapter 44 verse 28 where he names them, and then again in chapter 45 is the second witness in verse 1. And the Jews living in the days of Cyrus would have, and we know from the book of Daniel that the Jews were high up in the Babylonian kingdom.

Well Cyrus, of course, he conquers, well the Persians, Medes and Persians, they conquer the Babylonians, and we see Daniel still plugged in to the leadership, and so we know it's safe to conclude that there were Jewish, righteous Jews high up in the kingdom of the Medes and Persians who would have pointed this out to him. It'd be almost silly not to take that view as what we know just about human nature and how the world turns, and so Isaiah, if he spoke these prophecies in Hezekiah's day 700 years before Christ, just using that as our benchmark for a timeline, give or take 10, 15 years really doesn't matter. It's still going to be 100 years away. Does it matter if you call a prophecy 50 years away or 60, oh it was only 61 years, you didn't make it in. It's an incredible prophecy. The critics, of course, hate it and they try to, well he wrote it after the fact, but there's too much evidence against that. Anyway, his prophecies about Cyrus predate the birth by about 150 years and predates his rule as king about 120 years.

This is incredible information. This Gentile king, who we don't believe became a believer, God used him, but it doesn't seem he became a believer and I'll open some of that up later, but this king, Cyrus, such an important figure to the Jewish history, he's named in 2 Chronicles, he's named in Ezra, here in Isaiah, and also in the book of Daniel. Daniel probably lived long enough to meet with this Cyrus. Anyway, he says here in verse 2 that he is from the east, literally the Hebrew is the rising sun, from the direction of the rising sun. In verse 25, he is said to be from the north. Well, it's no contradiction because Cyrus ruled over the Persians, which in modern day Iran, and you have an Iraq and Iran, there should be an Iran.

Anyway, there's not. Coming back to this, blocking out of my head silly jokes, he is ruler over the Persians to the east, but also the people of Media to the north up towards Crimea. We are told in verse 25 that he will trample the opposition. In chapter 44, we are told that he is referred to as a shepherd of God's people and that he is going to be the one that releases the Jewish people to go back to Jerusalem where they will build their temple and rebuild their walls. And in that sense, he is a shepherd given by God to take care of the people of Israel. And that's why he's mentioned in the book of Ezra. In the first four verses, it's very clear that Cyrus is the one giving the edict. In chapter 45 of Isaiah, he is appointed by God, we're told, to do what he's doing. Well, he's being introduced here again. And then in chapter 46, he is referred to as a raptor, a bird of prey that cannot be stopped because he is God's instrument.

And that is just more exciting to what we're going to get. Continuing in verse 2, it says, who in righteousness called him to his feet. Now what I'm getting out of this as a believer is my God is sovereign. My God does not have a future and a past distinction like we do. It's all one to him. And he is totally in control of it. And I know his character. He's not a Lex Luthor character that is evil. He's good.

He's loving. And this is the God who has this power that Isaiah is introducing and why it is so relevant to the believer. He says, who in righteousness called him to his feet. God is appointing Cyrus. Cyrus doesn't know this until the righteous Jews may have pointed it out to him.

But here we need to observe the difference in the pronouns. The who in this clause, who in righteousness is God, called him, that's Cyrus, to his feet, at the feet of God, to come before him. And it's colorful language to say that God put Cyrus on his radar for a purpose. And when we say, who is the someone controlling Cyrus to bring the Jews back to their people? It's God. In the days of Ezra, they'll be able to point that out.

Well, it's a rubber bell. They'll say, you know what? We're living here as we're packing up to go back to Jerusalem. This is just what the prophet Isaiah said a century ago. That ought to encourage their faith and take away from them reasons to go back to idols, who gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings. Now God is saying, I'm going to hand the nations to Cyrus and he is going to free my people. And Cyrus comes in. He has a different approach. You know, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, they would conquer. They'd take the people from their homeland and make them assimilate amongst other people and that would keep them from organizing and rebelling. Cyrus has a different approach. I think we covered this in Daniel pretty extensively. But in Ezra, Cyrus approaches, oh, let's put the people back in their land.

Let's support their culture. And that is how it came about. Notice how here where he says, who gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings. Notice how Isaiah delivers this future event in the past tense, treating prophecy so sure of fulfillment that it's already taken place. Because from God's perspective, the future is always past. Or else he couldn't tell the future.

It's that God can't learn. He knows it all. How does he do it? If I knew, then I'd be on his level. And none of us know.

We know. He tells us. And he's going to push it right up front in these next few chapters of Isaiah about God's ability to foretell and to make it happen and to name names along the way for future generations to trust him. And then God doesn't overplay it so that we treat him like a Ouija board or one of those other demonic elements, a crystal ball or something. He's not that to us. He is God. We're subject to his will.

We want to line up with where we belong in his will, not trying to squeeze something out of him all the time. So, well anyway, Jesus said this. He said, I'm going to the cross and I'm coming back. And then he adds this, John chapter 14. And now I have told you before it comes that when it does come to pass, you may believe.

Well, in that case, it's just a matter of days. He marched into Jerusalem as the Lamb of God. They arrested him, crucified him. He died.

He rose again. He showed himself to the disciples in waves. So it's still miraculous. It's the same person, the same Jesus that told his disciples that when it comes to pass, you may believe. It's why Isaiah is giving us what he's giving us, that his people, God's people will believe.

Now we can't expect God to duplicate this for every single generation and every single person. That's where faith comes in. God says, I'm going to give you enough information to get you there.

And from that point, from that point, I will come along with you and I'll help you out. And he does it through his Holy Spirit. It says, who gave them the dust to his sword and driven stubble to his bow.

This is what makes, you know, sometimes the Old Testament difficult and you've got to just dig. One, an alternate translation that doesn't take away from this, the point is still the same that Cyrus will have a complete victory. He will vanquish his enemies. But an alternate translation is he makes their sword as dust and their bow as driven stubble. And so you can go either way, but you're going to come to the same point that God is going to make Cyrus invincible. He will trample his enemies as mentioned.

Now verse three, continuing with the question format of beginning with who pursued them and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Well, God is going to have Cyrus, the future king of Persia, grow an empire and his conquest will be over territories he had not been to before. And that is just appealing to the student who is alive in the days of the fulfillment of these things.

Just like Isaiah said it would happen. We're doing that with Revelation now. We're looking at all this junk coming out of technology.

When I say junk, how the evil use of it, because technology is good in the hands of good people. But it's going to be a beast. I mean the weapons of war are changing at such a rate with these supersonic missiles. I mean, it's really just more and more a time for Christians to remain steadfast in the basics of our faith. Anyway, that verse four is saying that he's going to conquer territory that he's not even been to before. Verse four, who has performed and done it, calling the generation from the beginning. I, Yahweh, the first and the last and with the last I am he.

Let me reread that. I, Yahweh, am the first and with the last I am he. Really is, we would say I am God, the eternal, existed before history. He will exist forever.

He always has been here. And this is a divine description appropriated by Jesus Christ. And we know that, students of the New Testament. We read the Lord say I am the first and the one that is the last, I'm he too.

It might be not good English, but that's the point. So we pick it up, Revelation 1, and I hope I never preach from the Old Testament without quoting the New Testament. He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. And everybody knows in the New Testament, when we use the word Lord, we're talking of Jesus. And there is a direct appropriation of the Lord Jesus to being divine. And applying this verse from Isaiah to himself and where it says, I am he, again, appropriately, appropriated by Christ to himself, John chapter 8, Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

It is an exact. It is no stretch to make it mean what it says. And it is very beautiful to see Christ walking around in the Old Testament in these verses and just all over the place. Verse 5, the coastlands saw it and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid. They drew near and came. Verse 6, everyone helped his neighbor and said to his brother, be of good courage.

So you got to watch the context. It shows up in Joel, one of the pronounced places where Joel says, go ahead, you know, prepare for war. Beat your plowshares into swords. He's not encouraging God's people. He's telling the enemy, you want to fight?

Well, get your stuff ready. Well, here, it's the nations facing Cyrus and his invading armies, the prophet is saying, they're going to rally together. When the day comes for Cyrus to start marching through territories that didn't belong to him yet, they're going to arm themselves. The nations are going to turn to each other for help. And they're going to make more idols doing it.

They're going to double down with their fake gods. And Isaiah is trying to bring this to the front and say, let me show you what human nature does without God. And it's quite proud of this. And we see the secular world without God, there's camaraderie there.

There are fraternities and brotherhoods. And there are noble human characteristics about it. Human love is not evil.

It is the, you know, the phileo, the stroge. It's nothing evil in and of itself. It just becomes a problem when that's as far as you go. It's like sinking on a nice boat. You got some nice things there, but you still perish without reaching your destination. And agape love is that it's love with God's fingerprints. And we struggle to have that kind of love because it is an exotic love. It is imported from heaven.

It doesn't come natural to us anymore since Eden. Anyway, these human alliances, they're not able to defeat God's prophetic word. This is what I think about his number being six, six, and six. The scripture says, calculate his number. I think as arrogant as evil is, the personified evil, Satan, Lucifer, Antichrist, and those who side, I think they're going to mock the Bible and intentionally use that number. Just playing right into God's hand. God is saying, I gave you the number to tell you what you were going to do.

Thinking, you would say, wait, wait, let's not do this. Let's repent. But no, you won't.

So I bypassed you and I've turned my attention to my martyrs. And that, I think, is how it's going to play out. That it will be an intentional, because the world knows about that number.

And I'm seeing it pop up on some things every now and then. I'm saying, no, I'm getting the feeling that these techies behind this stuff is doing this on purpose. Well, it really doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong. God is right and it's going to be that number and I won't be here to be worried about it. And neither will you, who believe. Anyway, they will turn to their idols for help.

One of the worst things they could do. And we want to tell that to an unbeliever in trouble. One of the worst things you can do is turn somewhere else than Jesus Christ for help. And maybe you want to say, add to that, maybe you don't believe Christ because you've had bad experiences with Christians or people who say they're Christians. That's not enough in the court of God to get you off the hook. God is not going to say, well, I told you to follow my people.

He's going to say, I told you to follow me. Anyway, sharp satire coming from Isaiah, no surprise there. I started a file, you know, sarcasm from the prophets.

I couldn't keep up with it. It's so much. This is getting to be clerical.

I need a scribe just to enter these things. Anyway, he describes the various trades, the workmen, helping each other fabricate useless gods. He's mocking them. And what they're doing here with woods and metals and other materials, the end time generation will do with their imagination and technology. That deep fake is upon us. And hopefully more to come about how this artificial intelligence is really shaping humanity into a funnel to go right to Antichrist, right into his arms. If once they reject the truth of Christ, they're going to love what technology has for them. Tragedy for most. Anyway, in verse six, it talks about just a natural thing of circling the wagons.

Everyone helped his neighbor, encouraging each other to defy Cyrus, you know, die with your boots on. Yeah, but God is not on your side here and it would be better if you would submit. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.