The Bible Breakdown

Isaiah 51: Help is On the Way

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 629

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Speaker 1:

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, isaiah, chapter 51, and today's title is Help is on the Way. Don't give up, help is on the way. I can't wait to get into this and to share a story with you that is hard for me but hopefully will be helpful for you. But before we do that, as always, 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 leave us a five-star review on the podcast and also make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. The more we dig, the more we find, and what they're doing there is they're doing a new devotion every single day. That goes with this and it really helps us to dig deeper into our relationship with God. Well, if you have your Bible, want to open up with me to Isaiah, chapter 51. Remember, the overall theme of Isaiah is God is our salvation. And if you remember, we were saying that during the time of Isaiah, there was political, social, spiritual unrest everywhere and God is saying yes, it is crazy out there. You need to come back to me, you come back to me, you can make it through any storm, any silliness, any craziness, but you got to come back to me and then I can take care of you. And that's just the constant call that's happening. Well, at this point, assyria has tried to come in and take over Israel, and they failed. And then Babylon is on their way, and so there's another wave of trouble coming, and what we've been seeing over these past few chapters is God is saying hold on to me, pay attention to me, don't give up. It's going to be all right. And today it's going to be about help is on the way and it's a call to trust in the Lord. And what this reminds me of is back several months ago.

Speaker 1:

I've got two, and, as of this recording, one of my daughters is driving and I was in a meeting one day, and while I was in a meeting, I saw my daughter called me and I knew that she had got to where she started calling me on her way home, and so it was almost never important, right? So I just was going to screen it and call her back later. Well, she called me again, and when she called me the second time, as soon as I picked up the phone, she was just crying hysterically. Well, you know, if you're a parent, you know how that goes. Immediately, I just stood up and I told the person hey, listen, I need to go.

Speaker 1:

And so while I'm talking to her, I'm getting my stuff together and I'm getting ready to go, and she'd been in an accident and because she was crying the way she was, she couldn't really tell me you know how she was, except she told me she was hurt. And of course, I'm panicking and I'm like okay, I'm on my way, help is on the way, right, and I'm talking to her and I could also hear her because somebody had stopped, because they saw her in her accident, and it was another young lady who had stopped to see if she was okay. And as I'm talking to her, I said okay, baby, I'm on my way. You stay right there, are you okay? You know? And she's like I don't know, daddy, I don't know. And it was just, oh, it's tearing my heart out, right. But what I'll never forget, that fills me to this day with like. To this day, I struggle Like, if you've ever. You'll see, I keep my phone close to me because this just echoes in my brain, because she's talking to me, and then I hear her talk to this other young lady and she said I'm okay, my daddy's on the way. And can I tell you that when that happened, my heart dropped Because I didn't know where she was. She was in such shock she couldn't tell me where she was, but she thought her daddy was on the way. Now, luckily, I had an app that, uh, we have ever since my, my girl started driving so that I could find out where they were, and so I found out where she was.

Speaker 1:

But you want to talk about feeling a responsibility. Once she tells someone my daddy's on the way, then that meant she thought the help was on the way and so I better get there. Well, when I think about that, I think about God, because how many times have we been in horrible situations and no one around us seems to understand, no one around us seems to care like we do, and we just need help. But what the amazing thing is is we can go to God and we can say God, I need your help. And then we can trust him to the point that when somebody asks you, what are you going to do, you say my daddy's on the way. I don't know what it looks like yet I don't know how it's going to happen, but this I know. My God is on the way.

Speaker 1:

Let's read this together and God's word to us about a call to trust him in Isaiah 51, verse 1. It says this Listen to me. All who hope for deliverance, all who seek the Lord, consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined. Yes, consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined. Yes. Think about Abraham, your ancestor, and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation. Abraham was only one man when I called him, but when I blessed him he became a great nation.

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Verse 3, the Lord will comfort Israel again and have pity on her ruins. Her desert will blossom like Eden and her barren wilderness like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found there. Songs of thanksgiving will fill the air. I love this.

Speaker 1:

Verse four listen to me. My people hear me, israel, for my law will be proclaimed and my justice will become the light to the nations. My mercy and justice are coming soon. My salvation is on the way. My strong arm will bring justice to the nations. All distant lands will look to me and wait in hope for my powerful arm. Look up to the skies above and gaze down on the earth below, for the skies will disappear like smoke and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing. The people of the earth will die like flies, but my salvation lasts forever. My righteous rule will never end. So listen to me, you who know right from wrong, you who cherish my law in your hearts. Do not be afraid of people's scorn, nor fear their insults, for the moth will devour them as it devours clothing. The worm will eat them as it eats wool. That's gross. My righteousness will last forever and my salvation will continue from generation to generation.

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Wake up. Wake up, o Lord. Clothe yourself with strength, flex your mighty right arm, rouse yourself, as in the days of old, when you slew Egypt. The dragon of the Nile, are you not the same, the one who dried up the sea, making a path of escape through the depths so that your people could cross over? Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear and they will be filled with joy and gladness.

Speaker 1:

I, yes, I am the Lord who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans who wither like grass and disappear. Yet you have forgotten the Lord, your Creator, the One who stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations of the earth. You will remain a distant dread of human oppressors. Will you remain a constant dread of human oppressors? Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies? Well, where is their fury and anger? Now? It is gone. Soon, all you captives will be released. Imprisoned, starvation and death will not be your fate, for I am the Lord, your God, who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar. My name is the Lord of heaven's armies and I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safely in my hand. I stretched out the sky like a canopy and I laid the foundations of the earth. I am the one who says to Israel you are my people, wake up, wake up, o Jerusalem.

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You have drunk the cup of the Lord's fury and you have drunk the cup of terror, tipping it out, tipping out its last drops. Not one of your children is left alive to take your hand and guide you. These two calamities have fallen on you desolation and destruction, famine and war. And who is left to sympathize with you? Who is left to comfort you. Your children have fainted and lie in the streets, helpless as antelopes caught in a net. The Lord has poured out his fury. God has rebuked them.

Speaker 1:

But now listen to this, you afflicted ones who sit in a drunken stupor, though not from drinking wine. This is what the sovereign Lord, your God and defender, says. See, I have taken the terrible cup from your hands. You will drink no more of my fury. Instead, I will hand the cup of your torments. I will hand that cup to your tormentors, those who said we will trample you into dust and walk on your backs. Can I say this to you? Help is on the way.

Speaker 1:

That's what God was saying to the nation of Israel. He was saying I see you, I see the difficulties you've been going through. I see the tough things that's been happening. Some things have been happening to you because of nobody's mistakes. It's just we live in that fallen world. Some things are happening to you because of mistakes you have made. But no matter what, I'm coming, I'm on the way, and this is what I feel like God's word is for so many of us today. And that is just like when my daughter was talking to that stranger and said it's going to be okay, my daddy's on the way. That filled me with anxiety and fear because I had no idea where she was, but I knew now I better get there because my baby trusts me.

Speaker 1:

Here's the difference. When God hears us say it's going to be okay, god is on the way. It doesn't fill him with fear and anxiety, it makes him smile. I think God's love language is trust. When we trust in him, it brings glory to him. And so when we trust him and say, god, I can't see you right now, I can't see what you're doing. Everything looks dark and lonely and, if I'm honest, I'm afraid. But I know that you are on the way and we do that. God is. He's on his way. He was already on his way before we acknowledged it, but he still is.

Speaker 1:

So here's my question for you today Are you trusting in God's promises or are you letting the current situation overwhelm you? Are you trusting in God's promises or are you letting your current situation overwhelm you? If you are, it's okay, but it's time to course correct and remember God has not let you down yet Now. Maybe he's done things you didn't want. Maybe he went left when you thought he should have gone right, but you're still here. You still made it. You still are alive today, which means God's not finished with you yet and he's working out more than you can see. And if you can trust him, then you can trust him today.

Speaker 1:

Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you are our salvation and that you are with us. I'm so thankful that help is on the way and, god, while we want to hold on to that, there still may be some things in our lives that are so strong and they're so loud that it can cause us, lord, to fear. I pray, holy Spirit, that you will come in like a flood and you'll remind us that you are near and that your deliverance is on the way. We thank you now for that. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. And then what God's word says in Isaiah 12, verse 2, say it with me God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord, god, is my strength and my song. He has given me victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Isaiah, chapter 52.

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Brandon Cannon

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