Trusting God in the Darkness (Afternoon)
Download MP3Well, good evening, everyone. It's good to be here with you. We are continuing our study through the prophet Isaiah. And tonight, we find ourselves in Isaiah chapter 50. It's printed there in your worship guide.
Jeffrey Heine:Just a a quick word as we begin. It's always a privilege and it's always a joy to, to open up the scriptures with you here at Redeemer. I just particularly just wanna note that this passage tonight, behold like, time in it this week, beholding the truths, within it, I am especially excited to be opening up God's word with you tonight. This passage, it's it's a tricky one. It's a tough one, but the glory of Christ, the beauty of Jesus is all over it.
Jeffrey Heine:So And we're gonna we're gonna go together, and we're gonna we're gonna take our time through this passage. We we will make our way through all the verses, but to begin our time, I would like to read from another place in scripture in the New Testament, Paul's letter to the Philippians in chapter two. And so to begin our time from, Philippians chapter two beginning in verse five, and let us listen carefully for this is God's word. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be held on to, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jeffrey Heine:Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. O Lord, our redeemer and deliverer, it's so easy for our minds to wander from you, from your truth, and even from your love.
Jeffrey Heine:And may our time together in your word tonight awaken us in heart, mind, soul, and strength that we might once again or perhaps for the very first time bow before the throne of heaven and with all joy and all humility and all confidence confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening to the glory of God the father and the power of God the spirit, and in the name of Christ our king, we pray. Amen. If you've ever been to a Broadway play or a musical, you have been handed a playbill on your way into the theater. It's the little five by eight magazine with that iconic yellow and black cover.
Jeffrey Heine:The Playbill, it started in 1884. It's a robust theater magazine containing the play's authors, the the composers, the cast list, the production credits, and a breakdown of the acts and the scenes. And every now and then, with these beautifully designed and full color printed magazines, a little slip of paper is tucked inside the pages. A little white rectangular piece of paper with black text printed on one side, jagged scissor cuts likely made a few minutes before the doors opened, and the little piece of paper will say something like, due to illness, for tonight's performance, the role of Daniel will be played by James Stevens. And these little pieces of paper indicate that an understudy who has remarkably learned multiple roles in the production is called up sometimes at a moment's notice and jumps into the role.
Jeffrey Heine:If you were to imagine the book of the prophet Isaiah like a Broadway play, which I must say is pretty fun to do. If you imagine Isaiah as a play and that there was a playbill that listed out all the cast of characters and the performers, would be overflowing with these little white slips of paper. Because every time a voice speaks in Isaiah's prophecy, a stream of characters and roles leap from the page. Who is talking? Who is the prophet?
Jeffrey Heine:Who is Israel? Who is Zion? Who is the servant? Who is the mother, the child, the disobedient donkey? Who is the adversary, the coastlands, the nations?
Jeffrey Heine:Which nation? And even if you figure out who is talking and what they are talking about and who they are talking to, there's a high likelihood that when you turn the page, your answer will no longer apply exactly in the same way in the next scene. If you have read much of the French reformer John Calvin or if you've argued about him in a dorm room, you've probably known him as a bold and confident theologian. But in his excellent commentary on Isaiah's prophecy, he caveats multiple conclusions with phrases like, for my own part, I believe, or it is my conclusion that, or my favorite, if anyone prefers to view this differently, let them enjoy their opinion. These caveats are because following the threads of who is speaking and to whom they are speaking about, these countless metaphors and images, it's it's often hard to follow.
Jeffrey Heine:But then again, given the subject matter at hand, we should not be that surprised, especially here in chapter 50 where we are given admission into the grand theater of heaven. So let's set the the scene. There are two lead roles in chapter 50. Two speakers. They offer extended dialogue, but they're not in conversation with one another.
Jeffrey Heine:The two speakers are actually giving monologues, divine monologues. The narrator of the scene is the prophet Isaiah, and the initial audience of the divine monologues, it's the exiled people of God, the people living in bondage under the oppression of Babylon. The first speaker is Yahweh. As you may recall, Yahweh is the personal name of God revealed to Moses in Exodus chapter three. It's the personal name, Yahweh, that the people of God, they know him as Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the name that's above every name, and we can understand this to be the voice of God the father. The second speaker is the servant of Yahweh. Isaiah introduced us to the servant in chapter 42 where we read in chapter 42 verse one, behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I've put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations.
Jeffrey Heine:And we can understand this as the voice of God the Son. The first speaker, Yahweh, and then the second speaker, Yahweh's servant, will address their audience, the people in exile. Their address, these monologues are in response to something that Isaiah recorded that the people said just a few paragraphs earlier in chapter 49. The people in their exile, in their suffering, in their misery, they cried out a complaint. They said in chapter 49 verse 14, but Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me.
Jeffrey Heine:My Lord has forgotten me. These complaints, they they are the prompt, the initiator for these divine responses from Yahweh and the servant. The people called out using the personal name above all names in anger and derision saying, Yahweh has abandoned us. So naturally, Yahweh has something to say in reply. So that's the information in our playbill this evening.
Jeffrey Heine:That's the setting. Those are the characters. That is the context of the monologues that we are about to see unfold. The house lights dim. The prophet Isaiah steps onto the side of the stage, approaches the narrator's podium, and he introduces the first speaker.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look together at Isaiah chapter 50 beginning in verse one. Thus says Yahweh. Yahweh enters, takes the spotlight at the center stage, and addresses the complaints of the people in exile. And he says, where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
Jeffrey Heine:Yahweh begins his monologue with two questions. In response to the people saying that they have been abandoned and forgotten by god, Yahweh says, show me the receipts. He literally asks for documentation. He says, I wanna see the certificate of divorce and the bill of sale. Now it's helpful for us to understand the historical and cultural background to these documents because they are distinct from our modern uses.
Jeffrey Heine:In ancient Mesopotamia, these documents, both of them, would represent fault. They identified blame. The people have said that they had been abandoned, and Yahweh brings up the metaphor of divorce. A certificate of divorce at that time was a legal document that a husband would give to his wife to officially state that she had done nothing immoral, and she was therefore free to remarry, the husband simply did not want to be married to her anymore. And this document legally stated that he was responsible for the dissolution of the marriage.
Jeffrey Heine:So the first document is an image of innocence, evidence proof that the people did not do anything wrong to deserve this exile, this present suffering, Yahweh is to blame. The second document. That was the bill of sale to the creditors. At that time, if a man became terribly in debt, he could sell himself, his wife, even his children to be indentured servants to pay off that debt. And the Lord uses this image to call out their claims of abandonment.
Jeffrey Heine:A bill of sale to creditors is a document of proof that it was the father who was to blame, and the people did not do anything wrong to deserve this exile. A pattern that you will notice throughout these monologues in Isaiah chapter 50 is that after questions are posed, the answer will begin with the word behold. This can be translated as look or see here, and it will occur five times throughout these two monologues. Yahweh poses the questions and then he delivers the answer. At the end of verse one, let's look together.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions, your mother was sent away. No certificate of divorce proving the husband is at fault. No bill of sale showing the failure of the father. Yahweh says, you can't find any evidence like that. It is not because of God's unrighteousness that the people suffer.
Jeffrey Heine:It's solely because of their own sin. It's not because of the Lord's unrighteousness or his unkindness that the people suffer exile. It is because of their iniquities and their tran their transgressions. And just to clarify those two words, the iniquity is the disobedient nature. The transgression is that nature in action.
Jeffrey Heine:The actions of sin. Yahweh says it's because of your sin that you are in exile. The late Australian theologian Caroline Batchelder wrote in her excellent book on the servant psalms, charged with the glory of God is the name of it. She said this, quote, Zion's present darkness is not because Yahweh has forgotten her. Zion's darkness is because Yahweh remembers Zion, both the guilt which deserves judgment and as Yahweh intends her to be.
Jeffrey Heine:End quote. In other words, their darkness was not because Yahweh was forgetting his people, it was because he was simultaneously remembering their rebellion which requires judgment and their glory that he was committed to restoring. This tells us something incredibly important about life with God, important and perhaps even startling. What can feel like God forgetting us is actually him remembering us. What can feel like God's neglect for our flourishing and our good is actually him actively remembering us because he never forgets us.
Jeffrey Heine:He cannot forget us. He might not be remembering us as we wish him to, but he is committed to our redemption into his grace and his glory. Yahweh leaves no room for misinterpretation. This present suffering is because of their rebellion against him and his love. The divine monologue continues.
Jeffrey Heine:Yahweh poses more questions. Let's look together beginning in verse two. Yahweh asks four questions in rapid succession. Why when I came, was there no man? Why when I called, was there no one to answer?
Jeffrey Heine:Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem, or have I no power to deliver? Each one of these questions is exposing the exiles not only for their disobedience that led to their suffering, but exposing their neglect and their disinterest in Yahweh's redemptive power. He asks them, when I showed up in the midst of your suffering to help you, when I came to rescue, why weren't you there waiting for me? When I called out to save you, why didn't anyone answer me? Is it because you think that my arm is too short to rescue you?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you think I'm incapable of salvation? Is it because you think I don't have the power to redeem? Yahweh answers his own question. And again, he begins with the word behold. The latter half of verse two, he says, behold, by my rebuke, I dry up the sea.
Jeffrey Heine:I make the rivers a desert. Their fish stink with lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering. He answers his questions by describing for the people in exile a time a thousand years earlier when he led Israel out of their suffering and their exile in Egypt. He's recalling the Exodus when his unlimited power was on display.
Jeffrey Heine:Yahweh parted the seas, darkened the skies, and he led his people out by the hand to freedom. And Yahweh purposely poses these questions and refutes them by what would be a well known story to the people in exile. The story of the exodus of the people of Israel. They would have heard the story of exodus since they were children, especially every year at the Passover. They would have known these words that we find in Deuteronomy chapter 26 verse eight.
Jeffrey Heine:Then the Lord brought out brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm with terrifying power and with signs and wonder. Yahweh is reminding these forgetful people that he has done all of this before. He bears a strong hand and an outstretched arm to redeem. This is not new for him, and he is no less powerful today to deliver and redeem those who are in darkness. But when he came to rescue them, Yahweh says that there wasn't anyone there to meet him.
Jeffrey Heine:No one even answered when he called. These are crushing words offered by Yahweh to rebuke this fantasy that he had abandoned and forgotten his people. Because even when he came, he came to them to call them back to himself, to redeem them through repentance. They proved their rebellious hearts once again because no one even answered his call. And with that, Yahweh closes his portion of the divine monologue.
Jeffrey Heine:He steps back from the spotlight and a new figure emerges onto the stage. It is the servant of Yahweh. He steps into the spotlight and begins his monologue to the people. Let's look at verse four. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.
Jeffrey Heine:Morning by morning, he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The servant describes how Yahweh has equipped him for his service. He has given him his wisdom and his words. Morning by morning, this empowering happens.
Jeffrey Heine:This phrase is to convey the perpetual empowerment of the servant by Yahweh. It it isn't that the servant is somehow depleted of wisdom and needs Yahweh to rouse him to awake. It's that Yahweh is constant and committed to the servant. And with his words empowered by Yahweh, the servant is powerful enough to sustain a weary soul. John Calvin describes the sustaining power of the word as the first aim of all doctrine, all theology, and all scripture.
Jeffrey Heine:They are to comfort our weariness with the truth of God. The servant says that the power he bears in his word, in just one word, can sustain the weary. The servant continues his monologue. Verse five. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious.
Jeffrey Heine:I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting, but the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and therefore, I know that I shall not be put to shame.
Jeffrey Heine:He who vindicates me is near. Unlike when Yahweh came to his people and there was no one to be found, no one answered when he called, Now we see the faithful servant who hears and responds to Yahweh in perfect obedience. The servant describes how Yahweh has opened his ear to what Yahweh decrees, and the servant has not flinched or shrunken back from anything that he has been commanded to do. Unlike the people in exile, the servant was not rebellious against what Yahweh has commanded. And even though what Yahweh has commanded, the servant to endure includes terrible suffering, the servant says, I didn't run away.
Jeffrey Heine:Instead of turning backward, he says, I gave my back to those who would strike. He didn't hide his face from disgrace. He endured his enemies in faithfulness to Yahweh. The servant has not only received suffering from his enemies, the servant declares that he has enjoyed that which the people in exile have long refused. He has received the aid of the strength of Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:And because he has received this powerful help from Yahweh, he knows that he has not been disgraced, not ultimately. Instead, he has been strengthened like a flint, like rock, and he knows that he will not be put to shame. In other words, he knows that he will not be abandoned. He will not be forgotten by Yahweh. In the first divine monologue, Yahweh exposed the people's complaint as a lie.
Jeffrey Heine:And here in the second monologue, the servant declares and embodies the Lord's strength for those who trust God. He shows what it means to be remembered by Yahweh, to be strengthened by him, to be vindicated by him. And the servant closes this section by declaring what the people in exile failed to believe or even desire. He who vindicates me is near. Regardless of what the servant faces as a result of his obedience to Yahweh, the one who delivers, the one who rescues, who avenges is near to him.
Jeffrey Heine:Next, just as Yahweh did in his monologue, the servant presents a back and forth of questions and answers to instruct the hearers in the ways of God. The first set of question require inquires as to who is against the servant along with bold daring challenges for them to come forward and present themselves. Look at verse eight. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together.
Jeffrey Heine:Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. The servant responds to these questions not by naming who is against him, who contends with him, or even who his adversary is. He responds with who is for him. He invites those enemies to come at him, but he stands and responds with verse nine, behold, the Lord God helps me.
Jeffrey Heine:In the face of adversaries and contenders, the servant is focused on the reality that the Lord God helps him. Yahweh is near to the servant. He vindicates and aids him in all that he does. And because he is equipped by Yahweh to carry out all that is commanded of him, and because he has the aid of Yahweh in all that he does, the servant has no fear of his enemies. The servant goes on to ask in verse nine, who will declare me guilty?
Jeffrey Heine:And he responds, behold, all of them will will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up. This sets the stage for the final question in his divine monologue. And this two part question is the culmination of all that has been said so far. It is the question that demands a response not only from the servant himself, but from everyone who encounters the question from you and from me.
Jeffrey Heine:The servant asks this in verse 10. Let's look together. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? The two parts of this question are tied together in a holy reverent fear of Yahweh. Who fears Yahweh?
Jeffrey Heine:And then this obedience to the voice of the servant. This is introducing a new concept to the people of God that their obedience to the service is irrevocably tied to their obedience to Yahweh. They have become one and the same. What the servant says is what Yahweh says. Yahweh clarified for the people in exile that their suffering was a result of their disobedience, not his neglect.
Jeffrey Heine:And the servant is instructing the people that obedience to Yahweh means obeying his voice. This is where we find a slip of paper in the playbill that informs us that the part of the servant is not going to be played by Isaiah tonight. Though many of the things can absolutely apply to Isaiah, but the part of the true ultimate servant of the Lord, the servant of Yahweh, is Jesus the Christ. And the servant replies to his question by describing who fears and obeys the Lord by saying in verse 10, let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God. Let him who walks in darkness.
Jeffrey Heine:The darkness that the servant is talking about here represents the suffering of the exilic life. There is suffering. There's confusion. There's a lack of wisdom. And the command that the servant gives the people who walk in darkness and have no light is to trust and rely on the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Obedience to the voice of the servant does not mean safer, easier roads to travel. It does not mean walking in liberation from suffering or confusion where everything makes sense and unfolds without pain or turmoil. Obedience to the voice of the servant means trusting and relying on God in the midst of the darkness. It's a call to trust in the dark. And the servant ends his divine monologue with one last answer to his questions.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 11. Let's look together. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire. And by the torches that you have kindled. This you will have from my hand.
Jeffrey Heine:You shall lie down in torment. What is this warning? Well, it's his last answer to the last question which was, who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of the servant? And in his reply, the servant addresses those who disobey, those who do not fear the Lord. And rather than relying on God and trusting in the name of Yahweh in the dark, they kindle their own fire to contend with the darkness.
Jeffrey Heine:They hope in their own wisdom, in their own strength, in their own name. And the servant warns these people, he promises them that those who trust in themselves like that will lie down in torment. Their efforts will not lead them where they think they will. The light of their own torches will lead them only to further suffering. In other words, it's better to trust God in the dark than to walk in the light of our own wisdom.
Jeffrey Heine:Because relying on God, putting all of the weight of your life and your soul on him is not the path of weakness. It is the way of redemption by the strong-arm of the Lord. Weakness is walking by the light of your own wisdom because it results in the torment that only foolishness can bring. Foolishness says, I know best. I can make my own way.
Jeffrey Heine:But the servant instruct us that trusting in God even and especially in the dark is better than any light that we can conjure on our own. And here this chapter ends. This divine monologue, this scene, the servant exits the stage, the spotlight fades to black. What are we to gain from listening to these words of Yahweh and the servant? In Isaiah 50, we are given admission into the great theater of heaven to hear divine monologues of God the father and God the son.
Jeffrey Heine:And they speak and offer holy words of wisdom, not for their benefit, but for ours. So what is the benefit that the Lord holds before us tonight? Are we simply to enjoy it like a performance? Are we to critique it like poetry, analyze it like logic? There are countless benefits in this sacred passage, but I wanna hold out six.
Jeffrey Heine:It'll only take an hour more. Six brief lessons from these monologues. I'm gonna say them quickly. I'm not gonna repeat them. Write them down if you want.
Jeffrey Heine:First, we heard God the father address the lies that our hearts so easily believe, namely the lie that God has forgotten us or abandoned us. We learned that so often our feelings of forgottenness are related to our neglect, our disregard, and even times our distrust of the Lord. He is faithful to his children, and he's faithful to his promises. Jesus will later embody this truth as recorded in the letter to the Hebrews chapter 13 where it says, I will never leave you or forsake you. Second, we heard the father remind us, us forgetful people that his power to redeem has been displayed before, and it has not diminished in the slightest.
Jeffrey Heine:The power that he had in creating all that is seen and unseen, the power to deliver Israel from Egypt, the power to raise Christ from the dead is just as present today even in this hour. Jesus will later embody this truth as recorded in Luke chapter 21 when he says, and they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Third, we heard the servant describe that he has been equipped and entrusted to do the will and work of the father. The father and the son are in constant unity and harmony. Jesus' complete focus will be to do the will of the father, to be the servant of Yahweh whose very sustenance is the work the word and the will of the father.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus taught this truth as recorded in John chapter four when he said, my father has sent me. I must do what he wants me to do. I must finish the work that he has given me to do. That is my food. Fourth, Jesus declares his complete obedience to the father even to the point of his suffering.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus taught this truth as recorded in John 14 when he said, he comes so that the world may learn that I love the father and do exactly what my father has commanded me. And as we read at the beginning from Philippians chapter two, Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Fifth, Jesus proclaims that he is aided and strengthened by the father to endure and not be put to shame. Jesus fulfills this role of Yahweh's servant as it's recorded in Hebrews chapter 12, which says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And sixth, Jesus commends us to examine our own lives before God. He calls us to respond with fear, obedience, trust, and reliance, while at the same time warning us of the results of trusting in our own strength. Jesus embodied this truth promising to be our light even in the places where our obedience may lead to darkness or further suffering. As he said in John eight, again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
Jeffrey Heine:Through the prophet Isaiah here in chapter 51, Jesus has given the people of God a picture of his faithful obedience to the father. Jesus is both a servant who achieves our redemption and a model of a life of obedience. But it is critical that we understand those things in the right order. If Jesus is only a model of a servant and obedience, it is not good news for us. If Jesus is only a model of a servant, that is not good news.
Jeffrey Heine:And if it's not good news, it's not the gospel. The good news of the gospel is that he is first and foremost not a model, but the suffering servant. The perfect ultimate final sacrifice. The servant who lay down his own life so that we could become the children of God. And then as the children of God, we too can become humble obedient servants of God, empowered mourning by mourning through his grace by the Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:The servant makes us servants, not simply through modeling or instructing, but through his own life, death, and resurrection. We are made children through his grace and servants through loving obedience. The difference between the Broadway play and the divine monologues we find in Isaiah 50 is that we aren't an audience watching and listening for mere entertainment. When the Lord finishes the scene and the house lights go up, it's not just for us to shuffle out and whisper our reviews. I really like that.
Jeffrey Heine:That was pretty good. Those songs weren't really my favorite. Maybe we should come back next week when Joel is preaching. Now these monologues aren't for our entertainment or our education. God is actually truly personally talking to us, to you.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord finishes his monologue and then it's our turn to respond, not with applause, but with our lives. What darkness is in your life tonight? And are you trusting God in it? Are you relying on him and believing in his power, his grace, and his forgiveness? Are you turning again today from selfishness and sin and death and finding the perfect love of the father, the grace of the son, and the fellowship of the holy spirit?
Jeffrey Heine:He leads us in paths of righteousness because he is leading us through the dark with his power. Our obedience is not the to do list of our discipleship. It is the fruit of our redemption. Obedience is the outward overflow of our inward confession that Christ is the Lord. He is Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:That we have been joyfully subdued by his overwhelming love, a love that comes to us only through the servant's obedience. After Jesus was obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross, we are told that God has highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is the message of the divine monologues, that the name of Jesus, at that name, we would bow our lives in surrender and confess with joy that the servant son is Yahweh himself to the glory of God the father. May each of our tongues, may each of our lives confess this tonight, now and forever. Let's pray.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, by your spirit, would you draw near to us? And in drawing near, give us the eyes to see Jesus, to lay down the torches of our own kindling and walk by the light of the sun. Oh, Lord, be near. Lord, we believe, help our unbelief. In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.
