The Bible Breakdown

Isaiah 48: God's Stubborn Love

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 626

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Speaker 1:

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, isaiah, chapter 48, and today's title is God's Stubborn Love God's Stubborn Love. I heard someone say one time and I've mentioned it the past few days on our podcast that if you were to look at the Bible, you could see the whole Bible as God's stubborn, relentless pursuit to have a relationship with his creation. And I think that's beautiful and tragic, but very true as we look at the book of Isaiah, as, over and over again, god just refuses to give up on this nation that he has chosen to love. And it's so encouraging to me because if he never gives up on them, he's never going to give up on us. And we're getting into all that in just a moment. But if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast it really does help and make sure you're doing two things. Number one make sure you are texting RLCBIBLE to 94000 so that we can send this to you every day in the morning, so you have access to the podcast and all the different things. Also, make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, where they're doing an amazing job doing devotions every day, because the more we dig, the more we find If you have your Bibles.

Speaker 1:

I want to open up with me to Isaiah, chapter 48. Remember, the overall theme of Isaiah is God, our salvation. And, as we've been talking about throughout this long journey, that during this time in the nation of Israel they have got so much turmoil going on. They have political, social, spiritual everything you can think of is always going to like it's always continually going into this place of just chaos, and it's just amazing how all of this is also so very reminiscent of the time we live in now. Well, there's just all this turmoil going on, all this social upheaval, and the same message to them is the same message God has for us today and that is the only peace is with me, that if you have peace with me, then I will help you find peace everywhere else. So come to me, come to me, come to just over and over and over again. And then also he's saying don't trust these other nations more than you trust me. Make sure you put your trust in me first. And that's why we see throughout so many of the early chapters, all of this woe that he has for everybody else. Well, as we see now, as we're transitioning toward the end of Isaiah, he's going to continue to do that, but he's also going to continue to talk about God's relentless love for the nation of Israel.

Speaker 1:

And what it reminds me of is it reminds me of a story someone told me not long ago, and it was this gentleman was talking about when he married his wife, and he was talking about how they had dated for a little while and pretty quickly he just realized she was the one right. He just fell in love with her, wanted to marry her, and he proposed to her and she said no. She was like, uh, no, I like you, I like dating, you Don't want to marry you. Well, because of that, she broke up with him. But the problem was he had fell in love with her, and so what he did was he went on this long journey of staying her friend and this was back several years ago and so he would write her letters, he would go see her, and he never talked about like romantic love, none of that. He just wanted to be her friend.

Speaker 1:

But he had a plan and they stayed friends for two or three years and as he got a little bit older and she did too, and they got into doing uh like, he started his career and she did, you know, went off to college, all this stuff. He just kept this relationship going, this friendship going, until finally she began to realize he is my best friend and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. And eventually it was her who came back to him and said you know what, if you asked me again, I probably wouldn't say no. And he was like, oh yeah, he had been waiting for. I think it was like five years of just continuing to just be faithful until she finally realized, yeah, I really do love you. And I can't imagine the amount of patience that took and the amount of times it probably just tore his soul when he would hear about her going on a date with some other guy and talking about that relationship and him trying to play that long game.

Speaker 1:

But then, when I think about it that's what I think about when I think of God how many times does God see us have other quote-unquote loves in our life, idols in our life, where God is still seeking after us and drawing us to himself and how much it must hurt him when he sees us love other things more than him. But God's stubborn love never quits, and we see a glimpse of that in Isaiah 48. And so, if you're ready, let's read God's word together and let's see what God will tell us today. Isaiah 48, verse 1 says this Listen to me, o family of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Judah. Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and call on the God of Israel. You don't keep your promises, even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on God of Israel, whose name is the Lord of heaven's armies.

Speaker 1:

Long ago, I told you what was going to happen. Then, suddenly, I took action and all my predictions came true. For I know how stubborn and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron. Your heads are as hard as bronze. That is why I told you what would happen. I told you beforehand what I was going to do. Then you could never say my idols did it, my wooden images and my metal. God commanded it to happen. You have heard my prediction and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it.

Speaker 1:

Now I will tell you new things, secrets you have not yet heard. They are brand new, not things from the past, so you cannot say we knew it all the time. Yes, I will tell you of things that are entirely new, things you never heard of before, for I know as well what traitors you are. You have been rebels from birth. Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out. I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. I will rescue you for my sake, yes, for my own sake. I will not let my reputation be tarnished and I will not share my glory with idols.

Speaker 1:

Verse 12. Listen to me, o family of Jacob Israel, my chosen one. I alone am God, the first and the last. It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand that spread out the heavens above. When I call out to the stars, they all appear in order. Have any of your idols ever told you this? Come, all of you, and listen.

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The Lord has chosen Cyrus as his ally. He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylon and to destroy the Babylonian armies. I have said it I am calling Cyrus. Now, remember this is 150 years before Cyrus would ever live, and Cyrus is the king of the Persians who would come and destroy Babylon. Verse 15,. I have said it I am calling Cyrus for a long time in the future. I will send him on this errand and will help him succeed.

Speaker 1:

Come closer and listen to this. From the beginning, I have told you plainly what would happen, and now the sovereign Lord and his spirit have sent me with this message. This is what the Lord says, flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sands along the seashore too many to count. There would have been no need for your destruction or for cutting off your family name. Yet now be free from your captivity. Leave Babylon and the Babylonians and sing out this message. Shout it to the ends of the earth. The Lord has redeemed his servants, the people of Israel. They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert and he divided the rock, and the water gushed out for them to drink. But there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord.

Speaker 1:

Well, the overall idea of Isaiah 48 is that God's got this big idea for us and he shows over and over again his faithfulness and he shows that God can make a way when there really is no other way and that, when God is all you have, god is all you need, however, he says. No matter how many times he shows us this, we constantly go back to the familiar things. We go back to the easy answers and the easy way out and we default to what culture around us is doing. But what I love is he says and yet still, if you'd listened to me, you would have been free, but I'm not going to give up and I'm going to continue to make a way for you where there is no way. Isn't that amazing God's stubborn love for us? I want to ask you this question Can you see God's handiwork in your life?

Speaker 1:

Can you see times when there should not have been a way and you prayed and you asked God, and God may have done it differently than what you would have hoped for, but he still made a way. And now, when you look back, you go. You know I would have done it differently, but I can't deny that it worked, and actually I'm not even mad. He did it that way, it turned out to be great. Can you? I'm not even mad, he did it that way, it turned out to be great. Can you see God's handiwork?

Speaker 1:

Would you also admit that there are times that, even though you know to trust God, you tend to go with what's familiar, what's easy, what you see the rest of culture doing. You tend to trust the crowd rather than trust the king. If you would say yes to that, can I tell you you're human, you're normal, we all struggle with that, but that doesn't mean we stay there. It means we come back to God every day as we get ready to end our time together. I want to ask you this question to think about, and maybe we'll call this the question of the day. Maybe that's what we should start doing is have the question of the day to reflect about.

Speaker 1:

And here it is Is there an area of your life where you're trusting in a thing rather than trusting God? Can you see a time in your life when you trusted God before and it paid off, and can you use that testimony to trust God today? So let me say it again Is there a place in your life where you're not trusting in God, but you can see a time in the past when you trusted and it worked out. Can you use that testimony to trust God in that area? Today, let's pray together, god. Thank you so much that you are trustworthy, god.

Speaker 1:

I'm also thankful that, no matter how many times we turn away from you, you always call us back to yourself. You're not mad at us, you're not angry with us. You regret that we've turned away, but you're always stubborn in your pursuit and you never give up on us. Thank you, god, for never giving up on us. Help us to turn our hearts back to you today. In Jesus name, we pray Amen. Now what God's word says in Isaiah, chapter 12, verse two say it with me. God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has given me victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Isaiah, chapter 49.

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Brandon Cannon

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