76 Sermons On The Old Testament Given By Jesus
Sermon 62 - Isaiah, the messenger of good tidings.
July 21st, 1963
Received by Dr Samuels
Washington D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
Isaiah’s writings, therefore, are replete with personal emotion, with lyricism, and with exultation that the day of redemption had at long last arrived. He called himself the “Messenger of good tidings,” and called upon the others, also, to proclaim the good news to Zion:
“On a high mountain get you up O heralds of good news to Zion! Lift up your voice with strength. … ”
(Isaiah 40: 9)
Now, when I spoke in Palestine, I was also the bearer of good tidings - the redemption of the soul from sin unto everlasting life through the Gift of the Father’s Love, which He had made available to mankind with my coming. I therefore felt that my cue in preaching the Father’s Love should be taken from the Second Isaiah, the preacher of redemption from exile and God’s forgiveness of Israel’s sinful past, in that Israel had forsaken its former iniquities to renew its covenant with Him. This did not mean complete freedom from sin, as Isaiah was aware, but it did mean a sincere effort on the part of Israel to mend its ways, a fact which greatly pleased the Heavenly Father who was quick to show his appreciation in shaping, through His instrumentalities, events leading to the liberation of His people at the time. Isaiah, as did Ezekiel, took this to mean that the Lord was doing this for His Own Sake. (Isaiah 43: 25) The prophet himself made this plain in his poetry:
“Her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
(Isaiah 40: 2)
By “warfare,” the Second Isaiah meant Israel’s time of punishment. And again he declares:
“Jacob was given for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers because they sinned against the Lord.”
(Isaiah 42: 24)
But with Cyrus’ might and magnanimity in dazzling array, Isaiah thought the Persian leader must be the Lord’s anointed and, as I have already mentioned, called him Messiah (Chapt. 45, verse 1). Also in Chapter 44, verse 28 he has the Lord call him “My shepherd.” Now this was difficult for followers of the earlier prophets to accept, and when Isaiah recited his verses in the synagogue, he was reminded quickly that only a son of the royal house of David could be the Messiah, or the Lord’s shepherd. So Isaiah had to explain that actually the use of the word “shepherd” was a play of words so frequent in Hebrew, and which I was fond of myself, for Cyrus, though meaning “Sun,” in the analagous Cassite tongue, is “Kuras,” meaning Shepherd. And he also explained, in verses composed shortly thereafter, that the term “Messiah” was used not in spiritual terms, but as a material instrument of God, such as He had used to punish the people in days gone by. Cyrus was going to bring about God’s Will of redemption from exile. He has God declare:
“I have roused him up in victory. And I make level all his ways; He shall build My city, And he shall let Mine exiles go free, Not for price or reward, saith the Lord of hosts.”
(Isaiah 45: 13)
But let me return to Isaiah and the theme of the people’s return to the land of Israel. This redemption now at hand is thus the work of God, who commands and disposes at His Will. Isaiah tries to emphasize the greatness of Jehovah to the people, who have seen the mighty armies of Babylonia, and now of Persia, serving gods of wood and iron. In Babylon they have watched the parades, learned the story of the fertility queen of heavens and dying deities, and seen the shrine to Tammuz. Isaiah, on different occasions, emphasizes the nothingness of the pagan gods and the certainty of Jehovah as the one spiritual living God, with Whom Israel has a covenant of righteous conduct, and who loves Israel with a love surpassing that of human understanding; and he states, as did Hosea before him:
“But Zion says, ‘Jehovah has deserted me and the Lord has forgotten me,’ Can a woman forget her baby, And not have pity on the child of her womb? Even if these shall forget, yet I will not forget thee. See, I have engraved thee on my palms, Thy walls are constantly before me.”
(Isaiah 49: 14 - 16)
Once again did the Second Isaiah deliver a message on the Father’s Love, done in God’s Own Words to His people, so stirring, so beautiful, so deep and sincere, that these lines, if inspired originally by Hosea, stand forth as among the greatest in religious verse, never to fade or die wherever there will be people to respond to the Father’s Love:
“For like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, has Jehovah called thee, And like a wife from youth when she is rejected, says thy God forsook thee; ….But with great mercies will I gather thee. In quick anger I hid my face from thee for a moment. But with enduring love will I have compassion on thee; Says thy vindicator, Jehovah. For like the days of Noah is this to me; In that I swore that the waters of Noah shall not again pass over the earth; So have I sworn not to be angry with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains may remove, and the hills may totter, But my Love will not leave thee, nor will my covenant of peace waver; says Jehovah who has compassion on thee.”
(Isaiah 54: 6 - 10)
Here is the Heavenly Father, pouring out His Divine Love for His people, as He loves all people, regardless of race or nationality, seeking their return to Him in those days in a covenant of walking humbly with Him and doing justly and mercifully, as He now seeks them in a covenant of Divine Love - to love one another and Him, through sincere prayer for His Love, which became available to mankind with my coming. The terrible days of Jerusalem’s destruction by Titus was, as God had promised, not due in any way to anger, for He had none, but was brought about by adherence to a material concept of national policy, that led Israel into the iron grip of material laws and subsequent destruction by ruthless Rome.
Jesus of the Bible
and
Master of the Celestial Heavens