Deliverance and Restoration of Israel – Isaiah 40-44

Bible Passage: Isaiah 40 – 44

We all know, through the records of the Bible, that the Israelites were stubborn people. (But are we any better?)

But our God, being a God of love and righteousness, He would not and will not pamper His children and allow them to go unpunished when they do wrong.

When God chastises His children, it would be for their benefits, so that they could learn from the wrongs that they had done.

In chapter 40, we are being assured that we have a great God who is living and is in control of all things; no idols or so called gods in the whole world put together can thwart His good plans for His children.

In 44: 9 – 20, God spelled out the foolishness of making idols and to fall down to worship them. For they are fashioned from the same wood that men use to burn for warmth and for cooking; therefore they are no gods at all, whereas the God who had chosen Israel is the God of creation and giver of lives.

Remember what happened to the idol Dagon when the Philistines captured the ark of Covenant and placed it in the temple of Dagon?

When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon.
And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth
before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again.

1 Samuel 5: 2 – 3

Though His children had sinned and was given to be oppressed by a foreign people as a punishment, He promised them deliverance, and He told His children, “Fear not!”

Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

“Behold, all those who were incensed against you
Shall be ashamed and disgraced;
They shall be as nothing,
And those who strive with you shall perish.

You shall seek them and not find them—
Those who contended with you.
Those who war against you
Shall be as nothing,
As a nonexistent thing.

For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand,
Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’

Isaiah 41: 10 – 13

Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
And gather you from the west;
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’
Bring My sons from afar,
And My daughters from the ends of the earth—

Isaiah 43: 5 – 6

Indeed, whatever God had promised, He will bring them to pass. And from the words He spoke, we can sense His compassion towards His children like a loving father would to his children.

So today, for us who have been called by Him and being brought into His fold, we have to be thankful for His wonderful grace and love.

We know our weaknesses, but as long as we continue to live under His grace and put full trust in Him, we will experience His protection.

Just as how He has described the Israelites as grass (40:6-8), lambs (40:11), grasshoppers (40:22), and even as worms (41:14), God protected them as His very precious and own possession. (43:4, 21).

God also promises us that if we put full trust in Him, He would give power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.(40:29-31).

With such a great and awesome God as our God, how can we not proclaim His Name to the people of the world?

O Zion,
You who bring good tidings,
Get up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem,
You who bring good tidings,
Lift up your voice with strength,
Lift it up, be not afraid;
Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

Isaiah 40: 9

Yes, we must preach and proclaim the salvation of our God, who had incarnated as Jesus Christ whom we can behold Him.

For without His sacrificial love for us, we would not have received freedom from the bondage of sin. Therefore, only in Jesus Christ can we have deliverance from the clutches of the devil, and be restored to our noble status as the children of God, a people precious in His eyes.

All glory and praises be given unto our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ.

Shalom