Isaiah Chapter 52 Verses 1 – 2
· I count eight times in these two verses that God is telling His people that there is something for them to do. In the recent previous chapters leading up to this one, God has described what He has done. In Chapter 50 verse 4 we read, “He awakens me morning by morning.” In verse 5 of Chapter 50 we read, “The Lord God has opened my ear!” In Chapter 51 verse 3 we read, “For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden.” And in verse 16 of Chapter 51 he said, “I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”
· Over and over, we have heard what God has done for His people. And that goes for us as well. Ephesians 1:3-13, just this single chapter alone says that in Christ, God has blessed us. God has chosen us. God has accepted us! He has redeemed us. He has abounded towards us. He has given us Himself as an inheritance. He has sealed us unto eternal life now and to come! And a verse that I refer to often and lean on personally all the time is 2 Peter 1:3, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.”
· All that God has given to me and to you to them and to us and so many times I find myself pleading with God for something more… Doesn’t that just land on your mind right now as at least mildly absurd!? It does for me. God has given all. Has withheld nothing, not even Himself, not even His only Son…
· So as the son of God that I am, the son of the King of kings, grafted/adopted into His family by the blood of Jesus…, as the called, redeemed, chosen and right now fully equipped person that I am right now, at times and maybe even all the time my play is not to wait here in my misery to be endowed from on high with some sort of new strength but to as we read in these verses, awake, put on what is already mine in Christ, arise, loose myself from the bonds of my captivity and take hold of the Word that God has already spoken to Me!
· That is faith!! And its faith that moves mountains! Not new, more, additional, supplementary strength…, but by taking a hold of who I am and what I am and what has already been given to me in Christ… Again, that’s FAITH!! And according to scripture, if I can just grasp that about the amount of a mustard seed then I don’t need Dr. Phil or Dr. Strange or Dr. Dolittle, HA…, mountains in front of me begin to move!! Eight times in two verses…, stop crawling in your catastrophe…, step back into God’s promises… Check this out…
Isaiah Chapter 52 Verse 3
· The term “sold yourselves” is the single Hebrew word, “makar,” and it has a dark connotation to it. Like death… And it means not that you placed yourself on eBay but that you have lost yourself…, and the reason why men and women lose themselves in this life truly, in the end, is nothing…
· How much is $1B worth when you come to your last moments? Can your wealth buy you another day of life? What about that success? That position you secured by working all those late nights and weekends? Can your title give you more time? Can your bank account balance, or the contents of your garage, or your modernized beautiful home that you worked so hard to afford, maintain and upgrade…, can it make your adult sons and daughters children again so that you can redo their formative years when you were their hero and now you’re just their father?
· God issues this statement to the nation of Israel but this warning to me and to you. What is it if a man gains this entire world and yet loses his soul? And whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, but whoever seeks to lose his life for the sake of knowing God, will gain it! Proverbs 4:7-9 says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory she will deliver to you!”
· All of the things of this life are not bad in and of themselves. In fact, Titus 1:15 says, “To the pure, ALL things are pure.” Anything that gets priority in your life over the Lord, anything…, is selling yourselves for what in the end will be nothing. So, what is the answer to having all things and yet not missing what is important? Priorities… Seriously, that’s it. Redemption comes without money. What’s that redemption? Yes, Jesus…, but left unprioritized in your life He is there and yet you can still lose yourselves… It’s priorities. Simple as that…
Isaiah Chapter 52 Verses 4 – 6
· It’s wonderful that the people will know God even in their toughest times…, and Spurgeon once said that if you find yourself in the dirt, praise Him there…, but God has delivered all things to you and to me in His Son and frankly, I’d rather praise Him from a position of gaining my life… At any rate, in good and in tough times, God is ever ready to extend to us His grace.
Isaiah Chapter 52 Verse 7
· Is this a proclamation of praise for those that preach the gospel? Sure. You can go there. But I simply see this as how pleasant, refreshing, and how thankful I am for people in the faith that are just positive, kind and in that remind me that God reigns. There’s so few. And there’s so many Christians… Doesn’t make sense to me.
Isaiah Chapter 52 Verses 8 – 10
· This is Isaiah speaking prophetically about the captivity to come under the Babylonians, the desolation that is to come at the hands of the Romans, the return to their land and ultimately the redemption of Israel at the second coming of Christ. That although a nation has gone through what they have gone through, they have made it through and this small sliver of global grounds, this nation that bears the name of God Himself, yet lives…
· AND for the heavy burdened, for the person that their life has been perhaps ransacked by the enemy, can’t seem to get a break, verse nine says, “a waste place,” and verse ten says, “a scrawny arm…,” that person will become a living substantiation of the strength possible in the human heart WHEN they surrender all and go all in after the Lord!
Isaiah Chapter 52 Verses 11 – 12
· I love that! You who bear the vessels of the Lord, meaning, you who wear His brand! Like a Nike shirt or Under Armor shoes! You ever see someone that only wears one brand? Like everything Nike!? This is just like that however your brand loyalty is to the Lord of lords and the King of kings. The One who gave His life for yours! And the promise here is that calm, peace, comes upon you. Which is just another way to say confidence!
· Walking with the Lord is itself a benefit but if I had 10 hours to preach tonight, I couldn’t begin to give or to describe to you the compensation package that a person, a soul, a mind, a life receives when they sign a “brand deal” with Jesus Christ! (MJ has made $1.5B dollars off of Nike since 1986. $150M alone in 2023.)
Isaiah Chapter 52 Verses 13 – 15
· The pronouncement of the coming King moving into the next chapter which many call, “The Holy of Holies of the Bible.” Marred more than any man…, damaged mentally, emotionally, physically to the extent that they couldn’t even recognize Him as a man any longer…, and that is the price that was paid for my salvation…