All glory to God our Father
Revelation 21:5: “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
Our King Jesus told John this from His throne in Revelation, but it holds for the whole book. Keep that in mind when you hear that this Bible is too old and outdated to be of use.
Let us turn to Isaiah 43 where we find El Shaddai, that is Hebrew for Mighty One, speaking to Israel, about to redeem them with these words from his prophet.
1 But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
We are going to pause right here and find the first reference of Jacob as Israel.
Genesis 32:28
He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”
This was right after Jacob wrestled a man till daybreak. That man was Jesus. Jacob had been concerned over meeting his brother Esau again after so many years, remembering that he stole Esau’s birthright and ran off to live with Laban and gain 2 wives. He was thinking it might not go well so he sent his 2 wives, 11 children and all the rest that he had, across the stream and then went back across to spend the night alone, brooding over the coming day. God arranged that for Jacob, just like he arranges our lives for us. Have you ever had something happen at just the right time and place, that you wondered at it? I believe we would call serendipitous, works of God we are too self absorbed or just plain clueless to understand. Never discount how God works in our lives and put it down to luck.
So Jacob gets named Israel and those 2 names become interchangeable and used many times in the Bible. Isaiah uses it this way 21 times in his book of prophecy. And in that form, it is God’s special attachment to the seed of Abraham.
Back to the verse at hand:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine!
This is the best thing that could ever be said to a people, “You are Mine! This redemption God is talking about will not be complete until Christ returns to reign over his faithful remnant, all those who believed and accepted Christ.
Verse 2:
2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
This is symbolic of all the travails that we will be confronted with throughout the centuries. God promises them, they, the remnant, will survive it all.
3 “For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your place.
God delivered his chosen from Egypt and will also deliver them from Babylon and all future exiles. Cush was Ethiopia and Seba is in Southern Arabia, across the Red Sea. They became compensation, so that God could spare Israel.
Verse 4
4 “Since you are precious in My sight,
Since you are honored and I love you,
I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.
5 “Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
And gather you from the west.
6 “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring My sons from afar
And My daughters from the ends of the earth,
We saw this in 1948 when the Jews came back home. Called from the ends of the earth.
Verse 7
7 Everyone who is called by My name,
And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”
Israel Is God’s Witness
8 Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes,
And the deaf, even though they have ears.
This speaks of them having their spiritual eyesight and hearing restored.
Back in chapter 6, Isaiah was talking to a people that could not see or hear the word of God.
Jeremiah 5:21 said the same thing:
Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not.
Verse 9
9 All the nations have gathered together
So that the peoples may be assembled.
Who among them can declare this
And proclaim to us the former things?
Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified,
Or let them hear and say, “It is true.”
Those smooth talking idolatrous soothsayers could not predict Cyrus would deliver Israel from Babylon. The gods of those nations showed no ability to predict anything at all. They had no witnesses to accredit their gods that they could speak prophetically.
Verse 10
10 “You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“And My servant whom I have chosen,
So that you may know and believe Me
And understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
And there will be none after Me.
On the other hand, Israel’s God was able to not only predict the future, but could make the present do what He wanted. Thereby enabling Israel to witness accurately that their God was real and a Mighty God!
Verse 11
11 “I, even I, am the Lord,
And there is no savior besides Me.
12 “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed,
And there was no strange god among you;
So you are My witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“And I am God.
El Shaddai!
Verse 13
13 “Even from eternity I am He,
And there is none who can deliver out of My hand;
I act and who can reverse it?”
Deuteronomy 32:39
‘See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and give life.
I have wounded and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
Babylon to Be Destroyed
Verse 14
14 Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
“For your sake I have sent to Babylon,
And will bring them all down as fugitives,
Even the Chaldeans, into the ships in which they rejoice.
Babylon was very proud of those ships and now the fugitives of the conquering arrny of Cyrus left in those very ships to escape Judgement.
Verse 15
15 “I am the Lord, your Holy One,
The Creator of Israel, your King.”
The Lord was King over Israel from the very beginning, but the people asked for a human King.
1 Samuel 8:4-7
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; 5 and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.
From king, small caps, to KING, all caps
Luke 1:31-33
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
Verse 16
16 Thus says the Lord,
Who makes a way through the sea
And a path through the mighty waters,
17 Who brings forth the chariot and the horse,
The army and the mighty man
(They will lie down together and not rise again;
They have been quenched and extinguished like a wick):
18 “Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
Deliverance of the nation in the past will look small in comparison to the future deliverance that the Lord will give his people.
Verse 19
19 “Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.
20 “The beasts of the field will glorify Me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because I have given waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My chosen people.
21 “The people whom I formed for Myself
Will declare My praise.
Elohim, that is God in Hebrew, is telling His people that He is God over all, which seems obvious to us, well some of us in this age, but not so much to his people back then. They had a notoriously short memory and a what have you done for Me lately attitude. Idolatry was rampant back then. As evidenced by how many times God asked rhetorically for the idols to come up with something, anything at all. Which of course they could not.
1 Kings 18:21
Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word.
450 prophets of Baal and they could not get a response from their god, even after cutting themselves and becoming hoarse from shouting to get Baal’s attention.
Elijah’s God not only burned the sacrifice, but the stone altar and the water that was in the ditch. That’s a great story and I encourage you to investigate it on your own.
God has a grievance with the people.
The Shortcomings of Israel
Verse 22
22 “Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob;
But you have become weary of Me, O Israel.
23 “You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings,
Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
Nor wearied you with incense.
24 “You have bought Me not sweet cane with money,
Nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices;
Rather you have burdened Me with your sins,
You have wearied Me with your iniquities.
Can you imagine what God thinks of us today??? We no longer have to sacrifice or follow the Law. We merely believe and accept His Son as our Savior and Lord. Elohei Chasdi, which is The God Of My Kindness, in Hebrew. For God is my stronghold, the God (Elohim) who shows me lovingkindness (Chasdi). Psalm 59:17.
Today, with all the pull of our modern life style, looking up from our phones takes more willpower than many people have. Our Merciful God has offered us a wonderful gift. He wants our worries, all of them, so that we might not be burdened. And he wants the details of our life, the good things, the bad things, the mundane things. A Father is interested in His children.
Verse 25
25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.
God hates sin and He won’t remember ours. The only thing better than that is eternal salvation.
In spite of Israel’s absolute unworthiness, the turning away, wanting their own king, idolatry and all that, God is still offering His hand and will not remember their sins. A merciful God indeed.
Verse 26
26 “Put Me in remembrance, let us argue our case together;
State your cause, that you may be proved right.
27 “Your first forefather sinned,
And your spokesmen have transgressed against Me.
Sins of their patriarchal ancestors, like Abraham, kept them from claiming personal merit.
Verse 28
28 “So I will pollute the princes of the sanctuary,
And I will consign Jacob to the ban and Israel to revilement.
Even though God will forgive the nation in the messianic age, she must still suffer in the intervening interval.
Let us now turn to 1 Kings Chapter 3, and pick up where we left off last week.
God had blessed Solomon with great wisdom and here we find that he is judging a complaint made by 2 women. Harlots living in the same house and had babies within days of each other. One woman slept upon her baby son and smothered it. On finding this she took her dead son and swapped it out with the other woman’s live son. The other woman, waking in the morning and trying to nurse her son, found it was dead. But looking closely, she was able to tell it was not her son at all. So now they are standing before their King and Judge.
Turn now to verse 23 and let us read how Solomon judged.
1 Kings 3:23
23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” 24 The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. 25 The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!” 27 Then the king said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.” 28 When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.
A very well known story, I think I heard a more sanitized version of it in Sunday school. We didn’t talk about harlots in those days, possibly just women living together and we were left to draw our own conclusions as to why women did things like that. I still wonder sometimes.
Solomon had indeed been given great wisdom. He now acquired much wealth and power to go with that, like bookends. The scripture talks of how many horses and chariots he had, how much stuff it took to run the kingdom from day to day. A staggering amount of provisions that were brought in from all over the kingdom. Everybody shared the burden of keeping the King and his people well fed and happy. While this was going on, Solomon was said to have spoke 3000 proverbs and over 1000 songs. He was known far and wide as the wisest King.
1 Kings 4:34
Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
Solomon now forms an alliance with King Hiram of Tyre, which is just North of Solomon’s Kingdom. Hiram had been a friend of King David and was happily surprised that Solomon turned out to be a chip off the ole block, so to speak. Hiram lived in the hill country with all the trees and his people were known for their skill in lumbering and shipbuilding.
1 Kings 5:3-6
3 “You know that David my father was unable to build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. 4 But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune. 5 Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to David my father, saying, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name.’ 6 Now therefore, command that they cut for me cedars from Lebanon, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
And Hiram was pleased…
1 Kings 5:7
7 When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord today, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.”
So Solomon starts work on the house for the Lord. A big job like that takes a lot of people. The conscription of forced labor, malcontents, people conquered and captured in war, 30,000 of them were levied from all across Israel. He sent them in relay, 10,000 a month. They worked 1 month in Lebanon and 2 months at home. This project required a tremendous amount of skilled labor also.
1 Kings 5:15-18
Now Solomon had 70,000 transporters, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, 16 besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work. 17 Then the king commanded, and they quarried great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with cut stones. 18 So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timbers and the stones to build the house.
It was the 480th year, since they walked out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, taking a slight 40 year detour in desert for bad attitudes and now the Lord’s house is being built. So far, so good. Solomon is getting busy, building things, astounding all with his wisdom. He seems to have his head in the game. This is where pride lurks, when you are doing well and feeling good about it. I’ve felt it, back in the day when I rebuilt an entire School District’s technology backbone. Basically stuff I learned and I have always been good at learning on my own. Came up with a plan, gave it to my Boss and he said make it so, and I did. The best part was, it was free. I used technology that they already had and made it work my way. I actually felt pride flowing through my fingertips as I typed this. Dangerous stuff.
1 Kings 6:11-14
Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon saying, 12 “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father. 13 I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”
I think God had seen in Solomon, the beginnings of the corrosive agent of pride and gave him a little pep talk. “You’re doing good Son, keep up the good work and I will not have to take off my belt and give you a whoopin.”
1 Kings 6:37-38
In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv. 38 In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it.
The Lord’s House is done and it is beautiful! Gold and Cedar, it must have smelled wonderful, until they started sacrifices again. Now Solomon starts on his palace, because what good is it to be King if you don’t have a super swell palace to lounge in. He also hires a skilled bronze craftsman named Hiram from Tyre. It must have been a common name, either that or the King of Tyre named Hiram, moonlighted in bronze for walking around money. Whoever this Hiram guy was, he was good at what he did. He outfitted the Lord’s house, gave it all the bells and whistles it needed. A very handy guy to have around.
We finish it out here with Solomon being just about done with the Temple.
1 Kings 7:51
Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.
Everything is going well. The Temple has a few details left to get done. Solomon’s house is also about done. What is Solomon going to do with his time now? We will find out next week.
Let us end with a couple of proverbs from Solomon about pride.
Proverbs 11:2
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Proverbs 27:2
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
A stranger, and not your own lips.