The Acts of the Apostles 28

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense IV

Acts 7:30-36.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 18, 2022.

We have been looking at Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin, although he is actually on offense here.  Last week, he reminded them about the rejection of Moses. 

Today, we are going to be reminded of the fact that God later sends Moses back to Egypt to serve as His representative.  He would be used first to deliver Israel from their bondage, and second to bring them to their promised inheritance.

Deliverance in God is not just about getting out of trials and difficulties.  We cannot say, “God get me out of this difficulty,” and then, “I’ll take it from here,” after He delivers us.  God is a deliverer, but He is not AAA.  Of course, if the AAA guy tries to tell you how to live your life, you will remind him that you are only paying for him to tow your vehicle to the shop.  However, with God, there is always a positive thing that God is bringing us towards when He delivers us out of difficult things.

Let’s look at our passage.

Remember that the rejected Moses came back to lead them out of Egypt (vs. 30-36)

Stephen calls to their attention that the rejected Moses is sent back to Egypt to lead Israel out of slavery.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why he would be pointing this out in light of the events surrounding Jesus. (The backdrop to this found in Exodus 3-4).

We last saw Moses hightailing it out of Egypt because Pharaoh has put his picture on the Top 10 Most Wanted List in all of Egypt’s post offices (just kidding about the picture).  At 40 years of age, Moses flees from Egypt into the Sinai and then keeps going into what we would call northwest Saudi Arabia, the land of Midian in those days.

The Midianites came from a man named Midian.  He was the offspring of Abraham and his marriage with Keturah, whom he had married after Sarah had died.  The several sons that he had with her were given gifts and sent eastward so that they would not interfere with God’s promise to give the land to Isaac.

Moses meets a “priest of Midian” named Reuel, and also called Jethro.  He marries one of Jethro’s daughters and has two children.  It is 40 years later (Moses would then be 80) that God shows up to call him back to Egypt. 

This part of the life of Moses is skipped over very quickly.  In fact, this happens a lot in the Bible.  Sometimes Christians can wonder why God doesn’t do something supernatural everyday in their life, but we forget that even biblical prophets sometimes felt the same way (see Habakkuk 3:2).  God does do amazing supernatural things from time to time, but He also is with us in the in between times of routine.  It is there that we live out the faithfulness of trusting Him.

In fact, human beings were not created to be in a frenetic state of excitement all of the time.  It would kill us.  So, we serve God greatly during the times of routine, even if it doesn’t seem to be something great to us.

This brings up another issue.  If the only thing you ever do is marry and raise a family to replace yourself in the next generation with the torch of faith, then that is a great thing.  Think of how many people have failed to do this, and have even caused the fall of people from believing God.  We can be very poor at seeing what is really great.

We don’t really know where Moses received his understanding of God.  Was it all from the bush forward, and directly from God?  Or, is it possible that this priest of Midian, his father-in-law, still held to the faith of Abraham his ancestor?  There is no way to know.

Let us notice that the call of God upon Moses began long before he could show himself faithful to God.  God did not spare the child in the basket because his faith was so strong.  Yet, there comes this time as an adult where God comes knocking, and Moses is going to need to respond with faith.  It looks like Moses was a little shaky in his faith.  At one point, he even tells God that the plan is great, but that He should do it with someone else.  So, what is the key to responding in faith when God comes knocking?  The key is to live a life of faith during the routine times.  It may seem like God isn’t doing anything, but nothing in our life goes to waste with God.

The forty years of being trained in the wisdom of Egypt in the house of Pharaoh and the forty years of learning to be a husband, father, and shepherd in the desolate wilderness would be important parts of God’s preparation in the life of Moses.  Don’t get me wrong.  Everything you are going through is important for you right now, but it is also preparatory.  We are not generally told why God allows us to go through what we do, but God will not waste it in the end.  God often uses the routine times to build in us the greatest thing that we can have and that is faith in Him.  So, let’s be faithful today.

At 80 years of age, Moses has a spectacular event.  The Angel of the Lord appears to him in the middle of the wilderness in a burning bush.  It is clear that he is not intending to go back to Egypt, but God has different plans.  Don’t you just love it when God has plans other than what you have?

It is not a burning bush that draws his attention.  I have read that bushes on fire are a common thing in that area.  However, this bush is not being consumed by the fire.  This is what causes Moses to go over and see what is up with this bush.  It is then that he finds out that this is no normal bush and it is no normal fire.  It is the Angel of the Lord.

This picture of a natural thing on fire by God and yet not consumed is an important one.  It is a good picture of how God made human beings.  Our God is a consuming fire, and yet, He created us to be filled with Him and yet not be destroyed.  Of course, our fallen, mortal state does need to be resurrected in order for us to be perfectly fit to dwell in the presence of God.  However, even in our mortal state, God has made us to be capable of being filled with His presence and displaying His glory without dying.  Two things operate together to make this possible.  First, there is His work of mitigating, or moderating, His powerful glory.  However, there is also our faith in Him.  God is to be feared because He does not suffer fools.  However, the believer who trusts in Him does not need to fear that God’s presence will consume him.

This also connects to the Day of Pentecost.  The 120 believers had tongues that looked like fire come down and set above their heads.  They each became a bush on fire from the presence of God, and yet not consumed.  Quite the opposite, they become a source of life.  They are not a big Redwood, or a Cedar of Lebanon, but rather just a simple bush on fire of God.

The cross itself is the most ignoble tree of the earth, and yet the Son of God hung on that cross as the fire of God’s wrath came down upon him.  The cross is a place of consuming and Jesus did die.  Yet, he was not destroyed because He is the Lord of life.

This angel speaking from the bush is no normal angel.  It is the Angel of the Lord.  This passage in Exodus is one of the classic passages of demonstrating that this angel is unique from all of the others.  Though he is an angel (messenger), he speaks as if he is God.  In another place, God refers to this unique angel as having His Presence within him and having His Name upon Him.  Some scholars of Israel before the first century would even refer to this as being a Visible Yahweh versus the Invisible Yahweh.  It was a way of God accommodating Himself so that people could see and interact with Him.  Of course, this Angel of the Lord could only be the Lord Jesus Christ.

Regardless, the Angel tells Moses to remove his sandals because he is on holy ground.  The idea of sacred space is huge in the Old Testament.  You don’t just walk into sacred space without making sure you have permission and do it in the proper way.  To us moderns, it may appear that God is creating arbitrary barriers to approaching Him, but it is anything but arbitrary.  We are taught to be very careful how we treat holy things, things set apart for God’s purposes, as opposed to the common things that are for our own purposes.  Christ makes us holy and shows us how to humbly approach God the Father in prayer.  This space is not holy because of its coordinates on the earth.  It was holy because God was there.

This brings up another issue.  What are God’s holy things?  Do you not know that you were made to be a holy, sacred space, for God?  Do I treat my life as a common thing to do whatever I want, or do I recognize that I am a holy person set apart for His purposes, and so I should be careful what I do?  How many Christians tell themselves that fornication isn’t so bad because many people are doing far worse in this world.  Yet, this excuse will not stand us in good stead.  We should not fool ourselves that God won’t care.  The only way to fix this is through repentance and faith in Jesus.  This can cleanse us so that we can go forward.  When the temple was defiled, you couldn’t just say, “Oops!” and then just continue on with sacrifices.  They would have to stop and cleanse the temple before they could resume service to God.  For Christians, we must listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, instead of grieving Him, and repent before the Lord while putting our trust in the way that Jesus shows us to live, in Him period.

The Lord also let’s Moses know who is talking to him, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Moses hides for fear of dying from seeing God, but God instead reveals to Moses a new name for Himself.  He is to be called Yahweh, The Being One.  In the past, He is the Being One; in the present, He is the Being One; in the future, He will still be The Being One.  All things that exist find their source in The Being One.

Following this, the Angel has a message of deliverance for Israel.  Three phrases are given by Stephen to represent God’s message:  I have seen their oppression; I have heard their groaning; and, I have come down to rescue them.

Have you ever doubted that God saw your difficulties and heard your cries?  Have you doubted because He didn’t come down and rescue you in the past?  This is part of the faith that we are called to have.  Imagine how many Israelites died in slavery before this moment.  A generation passed away in liberty and then finally a generation will see deliverance.  Is this fair?

We don’t always understand the timing of God, but know this: He always sees and hears, even if He doesn’t come down to rescue.  Death itself is a type of rescue that takes the righteous into the presence of God.  I doubt that in the Resurrection those who experienced deliverance in Egypt will grouse over those who didn’t.  This kind of thing becomes irrelevant in light of eternity because they all had to have faith, whether waiting for deliverance, or being delivered. 

So, why does God wait for deliverance?  First, it calls for us to learn humility, which is an essential part of imaging God.  Some would emphasize that none of us deserve deliverance, but I think this misses the point.  There are things that we need to learn and experience before we are delivered.  This is true as individuals, or as a nation, or as a world.  God’s timing optimizes His grace with our ability to learn.  God sees you and He has a day of deliverance for you regardless of how your trial goes.  In fact, the cross itself is God declaring, “I see you; I hear you; and I have come down to save you!”  In some ways, Moses is a type of Christ, but in this burning bush episode, he is a type of us coming to the cross and receiving a revelation of who God is.  There as the wrath of God burns upon the Son of God, He tells us that He sees us and hears us and will save us.  Yet, this burning God/man is asking you to participate in His deliverance of others!

Did God need Moses to deliver Israel?  Why is God in Midian convincing Moses to go to Egypt?  God technically doesn’t need us in the sense of our abilities, but He does need us in the sense that He created us to bear His image.  No father needs their son to come and work with them.  The boy isn’t good at it and often gets in the way.  But, a father also needs, or wants badly, for his son to grow up and become a man like He is.  Of course, we will never be Gods like our Father is, but we can participate in His divine nature as Sons of God.  God often waits because it is the only way we will ever learn to become like Him, and He calls us to join Him in the deliverance of others (as well as ourselves) because He wants us to learn to become like Him!

Stephen emphasizes that God sends Israel a deliverer that they had rejected, “the Moses whom they disowned.”  If they wanted to be delivered, then they would have to get behind Moses and follow him.  There would not be another.

Moses would become a savior and a ruler over them because God chose him.  However much Moses had been trained to lead, it is not he who would do the heavy lifting of saving Israel and bringing them to the promise land.  God would do the great wonders and signs.  Whereas, Moses is His representative.  Even surviving in the desert is not mainly at the ability of Moses, but the provision of God.  The ruling of Moses is mainly him explaining the laws that God had legislated.  The ruling, and saving, of Israel by Moses is overshadowed by the Angel of the Lord, the true Savior and Ruler of Israel.  Moses was simply a mediator.

This is the tension that exists between being called of God and yet not to do it in our own wisdom, strength, reason, etc.  Sure, our past is preparatory, but not always for us to do what we think.  Many times, our training helps us understand that God is working due to the contrast.  Ultimately, we must be prayerfully making decisions and asking God for wisdom. 

Are not our people in slavery today under the Pharaoh of this world?  Can we not hear the Holy Spirit saying that He sees, hears, and has come down?  Who among us will choose to labor with God?  Perhaps today, He is intersecting your life and calling you to come with Him to work for the souls who are held in bondage to sin in this world.

Defense IV audio

The Acts of the Apostles 25

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense I

Sorry about the delay.  We lost power this week for several days :)

Acts 7:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 27, 2022.

Stephen has been arrested and put in front of the Sanhedrin.  They have charged with multiple counts of blasphemy.

This chapter is Stephen’s answer, or defense, before the court.  It will take a while to get through this chapter, but Stephen is pretty much making the same argument through a multitude of examples from the history of Israel.  He is simply obeying God like Abraham did, like Joseph, like Moses, and like all the prophets.  They, however, are resisting the Holy Spirit just like the tribal patriarchs, the Israelites in the days of Moses, and all of those who persecuted the prophets.

This whole chapter begs the question, “Just who is on trial here?”  Or, we might ask it this way.  Stephen knows that he is on trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin, but he also realizes that they are all on trial before the God of heaven.  If anyone is being blasphemous here, it is the council who continually sits in the seat of Moses, contravening the truth of God.

Let’s get into our passage.

Remember Abraham (vs. 1-8)

The high priest asks Stephen what he has to say in regards to the charges against him.  Stephen starts with reminding them of the patriarch Abraham.  He is extremely important to Israel, the father of the faith.  God’s covenant with Israel was an extension of a prior covenant, or a greater Promise, that God had made with Abraham, their forefather.

Clearly, these men have not forgotten about Abraham per se.  Rather, they have forgotten what is most important about Abraham, and how that should impact their activity.  The most important thing about Abraham is found in Genesis 15:6, “He believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”  So, how was this belief, this faith, of Abraham displayed in his life?

First, God had called Abraham to leave Ur and to travel to the place that God would show him.  When you read Genesis 12, it appears that God speaks to Abraham while he is in Haran (a town on the Turkish side of the border with Syria).  Ur is a city much further south between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.  We would call this Iraq today.  Historically it is also called Babylonia, Chaldea, Sumer, and Mesopotamia.  Yet, in Genesis 15, God tells Abraham, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit.”  God seems to date His call upon Abraham back to his time in Ur.  This was the traditional understanding in the first century AD as well.

Abram displayed his faith by leaving his home country and heading out on the road.  He first moved into Northern Aram, Syria.  There he lived until his father died, and then he moved south into Canaan.

It is not clear how to read this.  Was Abraham disobeying to stop in Haran?  Of course, God said that He would show Abraham, as in, Abraham did not know the destination yet.  It is quite possible that God first moved Abraham out of Ur, and then later told him to head south into Canaan.  There is no hint in the Bible that Abraham’s stop in Haran was a moment of wavering faith, so we should not try to force it into that narrative.  Stephen’s language is “He [God] moved him [Abraham] to this land in which you now dwell.” (Acts 7:4 NKJV).  I believe it is best to see this as God leading Abraham in a staged fashion.

Ultimately, Abraham is depicted as one who believed God.  He believed God to the degree that he held nothing of his family and ancestors sacred.  He let it all go in order to follow God.  Imagine God speaking to you such a thing today.  Of course, God’s calling is not always about geography as it was with Abraham.  However, it is always about the things that make us comfortable and shroud the truth of God to us.  Abraham needed to leave Mesopotamia, and eventually Haran, if he wanted to fully know God.  We too will have to let go of things in order to fully know God and walk in the inheritance that He has for us.

Once Abraham was in Canaan, God promised the land to his descendants.  Abraham lived as a nomad in the deserted areas between the cities and towns of Canaan.  Thus, Stephen says that he did not have an inheritance.  Abraham lives the rest of his life in a land that he has no inheritance in and has faith in God’s promise that it would be given to his descendants. 

There are two facts that add to the amount of faith that Abraham displays.  First, Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran and 99 years old when Sarah became pregnant.  So, this whole time he believed that God would help him, even though he did not have any offspring.  Yes, even back then, Sarah was considered past child-bearing years.

In fact, this is what led to the whole Hagar fiasco.  Sarah’s lack of faith led Abraham to also stumble in trusting God.  Yet, that stumbling was not without recovery.  God help us as spouses to be careful in this area.  We do not want to be a stumbling block to our mate.

All of us will have difficulty walking in faith with God without stumbling.  We must be quick to admit our fault when the Lord holds us accountable, and we must be quick to repent and turn back to the proper path.  In Abraham’s case, repentance would not erase the effects of his lack of faith.  God can redeem these things, even though they will add difficulty to our path.  Abraham learned a valuable lesson about waiting upon the Lord.  God always has a better plan than we can make for Him.

The second fact that adds to the amount of faith Abraham had is that God revealed to him that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land and not return to take up this promise for 400 years.  God makes some awesome promises to Abraham about judging that nation, and giving Canaan into their hands, but why let them become slaves in the first place.  Also, it would be such a long time down the road.  Can you imagine God calling you to a place in which you have no inheritance and dwelling as a nomad all your life, and it won’t truly “pay-off” for your descendants until 400 years down the road?

Knowing the future is not all that it is cracked up to be.  God in His mercy reveals enough of the future that we can have confidence, yet not so much that we would be overwhelmed.  Of course, people lose confidence in God every day, and feel overwhelmed with life.  However, this is not a lack of God’s grace, but a lack of my faith.

Following God is never easy.  It always calls us to live a life of faith and pass the torch on to the next generation.  Abraham’s life seems grand in the telling of it, but it was quite domestic in the overall living of it.  Long periods of time can grind a weak faith into powder.  However, that same time can increase our faith little upon little, layer upon layer.  Abraham’s journey to a life of great faith was a series of days in which he kept trusting God.

Stephen then touches on something that Israel took great pride in.  They were the circumcised as opposed to the uncircumcised Gentiles.  In Genesis 15, God cuts a covenant with Abraham, but it is in Genesis 17 that God reconfirms His covenant and gives Abraham a task.  He must circumcise himself and his offspring.  This circumcision is a sign, a symbol, or a token, of the covenant that God was making with Abraham.

Now, the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 3 makes a big deal about the fact that this covenant with Abraham is technically a Promise, whereas the covenant at Sinai had a great number of requirements that Israel had to do.  Yes, Abraham needed to walk before God in blamelessness and circumcise his offspring, but Israel would receive a whole set of laws that involved stuff beyond the moral realm of right and wrong.  This covenant of Sinai and its laws become the works of the Law versus the fruit of the Spirit shown in Abraham’s life.

May God give us a heart like Abraham’s that was not afraid to follow God into new places that we have never seen.  You will stumble along the way, but He will be faithful.  He will always show you your fault, and He will always point out the door of repentance.  Let’s walk through that door into life every day!

Defense I audio

They That Wait upon the Lord

Isaiah 25:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 24, 2016.

It is hard to fathom the joy we will experience at the Second Coming of Jesus.  Yes, it is true that he will bring judgment upon the nations of the world.  However, at the same time He is restoring things to rightness.  He will be removing oppression and tyranny and replacing it with healing and deliverance.   This is an important point because the United States of America has become a prime example of how even good government can be corrupted over time.  Thus the decree of God is that no national leadership will be found to be righteous in that day.  Even in the name of liberty, our true, God-given liberties are taken away.  The average person then finds themselves living in an oppressive and tyrannical environment, whether it be the hard form found in nations like North Korea, or the soft form found here in my own country. 

Thus Isaiah describes a people who have waited for God’s deliverance from wicked leaders and powerful men.  They have endured long trials and weariness to the point of giving up.  However, when Jesus comes their joy will be immense.  Waiting for the Lord to act is a theme throughout Isaiah.  The well known passage in Isaiah 40 says, “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.”  Regardless of what your situation requires, be it flying, running or walking, the Lord will give strength to those who trust in Him.  Those who trust in Him will not be put to shame in the end.  They will have the final joy because God is for them.  Thus the coming judgment of God begs the question for each of us.  Will that day be a day of rejoicing because I trusted in Jesus, or will that day be a day of grief because I put my trust in my own pride and the pride of mankind?

Joy Will Fill The People

Isaiah depicts a joyous time of jubilation similar to some of the statements made in the book of Revelation.  Though God’s judgment is a sobering thing, it will be for the joy of mankind.  In verse 1 we notice several things about the exclamations that Isaiah makes.  First, is the rejoicing in the fact that God is “my God.”  It will be a day when joy will not just be a general thing, but a very particular and personal thing.  Those who have trusted in God will marvel in the realization that God was not just the God of Adam, Noah, and Abraham et. al.  They will have personally witnessed the amazing fulfillment of God’s Word to His people.  God will have proven Himself in our time and not just  in the ancient past.

It will also be a wonder-filled joy.  The “wonderful things” of verse 1 are a reference to the miraculous, supernatural work of God.  The omnipotence of God has a way of removing the most impossible problems and delivering from the most powerful enemy in only a moment.  Thus the powerful acts of God demonstrated in Egypt before Pharaoh (who by the way was considered the son of the Gods) are a picture of how His great work in the face of Antichrist and the “gods” that back Him up (i.e. Satan and his fallen cohorts).  They will be impotent as God delivers His people from under their oppression.

The last part of verse 1 mentions God’s “counsels of old.”  These are the directives that God has given to His people in the past.  Of course Isaiah would be looking back to Scriptures and mainly the first 5 books of the Bible (Torah).  Yet, we can add to that today the counsels that were given through Jesus and His apostles 2,000 years ago.  It is easy to grow weary of counsels that stretch over thousands of years.  Our humanity wants to have deliverance now.  Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life” (NKJV).  God’s way doesn’t always make an immediate change, especially if we are waiting for Him to deal with the wicked of the earth.  Yet, these counsels will prove out to be faithful and true.  Those who continue to trust the ancient counsel of God will find themselves in exactly the right place.  But those who have cast off the ancient counsel of God will find themselves in the wrong place, and caught up in the judgment of God.  Thus the warning of Psalm 1 is very appropriate.  We must remain in the way of the Lord while we wait for Him.  Yet, the ungodly, the sinners, and the scornful tempt us to join their way, to walk upon their paths, and to sit with them in a seat of judgment against God and His people.  Thus the object of the trust and faith of the sinner will prove to be a delusion and impotent.  But, those who wait upon the Lord will find that it is true and will prove faithful in the end.

In verses 2-5 we see the “terrible nations” and the “terrible ones.”  These are those who are following the path of their own wisdom and of Satan.  They use their power to dominate others and to rule over them.  Such cities have always existed and in fact, the history of the world can be seen as a history of the nations which clamor to be “king of the mountain.”  These empires had become proud and arrogant oppressors of the peoples of the earth.  The days before Christ’s coming will be no less.  In fact the greatest empire and thus the greatest tyranny this world has ever seen is still in the future.  We are cruising at an ever increasing speed towards this reality.  Freedom is being stamped out upon the earth and absolute tyranny is taking its place.  This is the judgment of the “City of Confusion” in Isaiah 24 and the Kings of the earth and their armies.  Whatever survivors that may be left from the nations will no longer walk in pride, but they will have a reverent fear and awe of the Lord and His powerful reality.  They will recognize that the ways of God that they had rejected for so long were the true paths.

Another reason why there will be so much joy is because God will have defended the helpless.  Isaiah uses two words, the poor and the needy.  God will be their refuge.  Now, not all the poor and the needy will turn to God for refuge.  In fact, though the poor and needy are often crushed under this world system, for the sake of survival and “getting mine,” many fight for the scraps beneath the table.  They basically trust the way of this world and trust in their own ability to make it.  Like the Olympic trials they fight and clamor to see if they can climb up into that ultra society of “winners.”  Of course most do not make it, however, there are levels of honor and perks all the way up.  This “dog-eat-dog” mentality that uses others as rungs on the ladder of progress belongs to sinful man and fallen angels.  There is coming a day when God will rise up in defense of all those that have been and are being taken advantage of.

Thus Isaiah gives two images.  The first is a storm that blasts and howls against a wall.  The poor and the needy are often torn apart and destroyed by the powerful blasts.  They are unable to survive it.  The second image is that of an oppressive heat wave.  In fact this week the Middle East had several places recording a temperature of 129 degrees F.  The oppressive heat makes even the shade of no relief.  This oppression sucks the life out of people and leaves them with little ability or desire to do anything, but die.  Yet, no matter how loud the terrible ones howl (the storm), nor how powerful their oppression (the heat), when God intervenes there will be immediate relief.  Like a cloud that comes between the sun and the ground, the change will take place that quickly.  It is easy when you live in the land of comforts and ease to hear this and scoff.  However, even in America there are people who hear what I am saying and recognize that it is exactly how they feel.  Friend, don’t let the oppression of this world’s system suck the life out of you.  Turn to Jesus today and put your faith in Him.  That is the only thing that will ever prove faithful and true to you in the end.

The Lord Will Make A Feast

Starting in verse 6 we see that this will be a time of celebration.  The old tyrants have been thrown down.  Peace and freedom lies ahead.  Thus the Lord prepares a feast for the peoples of the earth that have survived without taking the mark, and His people who have returned with Him.  This feast will take place upon Mt. Zion, which is in Jerusalem, because this is the mountain referenced at the end of the last chapter.  All the “mountains” of the earth, that is the kingdoms, will be flattened.  But the “mountain” of the Lord will be raised up.  This pictures a gathering of people in the land of Israel.  Of course this deliverance is not just for Israel, but for all the peoples of the earth.  And, all will join in the celebration.

God supplies for each one choice food and drink.  Under this world system the elite at the top are the ones who get the choice food.  But here God brings forth the best food and drink for all those who had endured oppression to enjoy.  Instead of being the means of provision for the oppressors, God will provide for the “common person” uncommon food.

Verse 7 speaks of a covering that will be destroyed.  I believe that it is connected to the statement in verse 8 that death will be swallowed up forever.  Thus the veil here is most likely a reference to The Curse of Genesis 3.    The Curse has hung over mankind like a veil or shroud for most of its existence.  Yet, God will remove and destroy it.  Another aspect of this covering is that Satan has used the fear of death as a means to manipulate mankind.  He has used the threat of the shroud to create a veil over the minds and hearts of mankind.  This veil of ignorance and manipulation by spiritual powers will have also been destroyed by God.

Those Who Wait For The Lord Will Be Vindicated

In verse 9 Isaiah brings us back to the celebration.  Vindication is that moment in which faith is proven true.  Yet, all people are putting their faith in something.  Thus those who put their trust in something other than the Lord will not find vindication, but rather humiliation.  What they put their trust in will ultimately fail.  But the righteous will recognize that their wait for the Lord was not in vain.  Thus the declaration “He will save us.”  The verb here is a form that means God has done it but isn’t done doing it.  Thus it means that in light of what He has done, we know He will complete our salvation.  God is our savior in every way.  He cannot and will not fail.  He is able to deliver and defend you from every enemy.  It may not be in the way at the time that you desire.  But if you will wait on Him instead of going the way of your own heart and mind, you will find that He will be true to you in the end.

Isaiah ends the chapter with a reminder that just as the humble will be raised up, so the pride of the wicked will be pulled down.  No matter how great and powerful the position and place of the world may be, it will not stand before God’s judgment.  Though the world be as powerful as a mighty ocean, God is the swimmer who will pull the waves down beneath Himself and us.  He will bear us out from the crushing depths and rescue us out of the waters.  No matter how strong the walls of their city God will pull down all their defenses.  The powerful of this world, whether in business or in government, are not leading us down the right path.  Reject the way of the proud and walk in the way of humility that Jesus has shown us.  His counsels will be proven true and faithful.

Wait upon the Lord audio