The Bible Breakdown

Isaiah 57: God Knows What He's Doing

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 635

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Speaker 1:

to the hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, isaiah, chapter 57, and today's a tough one we're going to call today God Knows what he's Doing. God knows what he's doing. Disclaimer today's going to be a little bit tough. I want to challenge you with a couple of things and I'm looking forward to hearing in the comments and on the Facebook discussion group what group how you relate to this message. But before we get into all that, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast and also make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion group on Facebook.

Speaker 1:

The more we dig, the more we find. Well, if you have your Bible and want to turn with me to Isaiah, chapter 57, we're really getting close to the end of the book of Isaiah. We're really getting close to the end of the book of Isaiah and remember, the overall goal of this book is God is our salvation. And the people of Israel. At the time, they are surrounded by so many enemies right there, locally around them, but then they also have the threat of these foreign invaders that are coming in it's even further, from Assyria and from Babylon, and so there is political, social, religious unrest Everything you can think of is happening around them, and God is saying I need you to turn back to me and I need you to trust me. Trust me, remember, we talked about a couple of days ago that trusting God is important, because if God were to try to show us his plan, we wouldn't understand it anyway. And so I honestly truly don't think that God is trying to just test us continually by not telling us I think he's going, listen, you're just not going to get it. I mean, here's the thing I would tell you, but you're not going to get it. And I think that is important, because many of us grapple with the idea of God having different wills in his life, god having different plans. I've talked to people who have three different ideas.

Speaker 1:

There's three prevailing ideas about God's will. You have one which is God doesn't have a clue, he's living right now just like everybody else, and so he ultimately is like go for it, you have free will, so I hope it turns out for you. So you have that one. Then you have the second one, which is God knows how it's going to end, but he leaves the middle up to you, and so you have free will, and he knows, in the end, who's going to end up in heaven, but he doesn't really know how you're going to get there, and so he's not in both of these. That would mean he's not omniscient. It means he doesn't know all things, he just knows the end. And so there's all these different paths that you can take, and therefore you go for it. And then there's the third kind, which is God knows everything, because God sits outside of time. If he is truly omniscient, which is a God-like character of knowing all things, that means then there is no way that he couldn't know. It would be impossible for him not to know. Now, that doesn't mean he takes away your free will. He just already knows what you're going to do.

Speaker 1:

Here's the example. Let's say that I wanted to watch a football game, but I couldn't watch it at the time because I was busy. But I record the game and I go back and watch it later. When I go back and watch it later, even though I now know who won the game, does that mean I have control over the decisions they make on the field? No, they're making the decisions. I just already know what they're going to do.

Speaker 1:

And so there's the third one, and so you have to grapple with what you think, and I think God's word actually speaks pretty clearly. But let me give them to you again. One is that God has no idea what's happening. Good luck. The second one is God knows how it's going to end, but he has no idea how you're going to get there. And the third one is God knows all of it. There's no way he couldn't know. That doesn't mean it takes away your free will. It just means that he already knows. That's important because there are people who have struggled and grappled with things that's happened in their life and they struggle to think does God truly know that? Did God let me walk into this valley? And so therefore they have to say God couldn't have known, because if God loved me, why would he do that? Well, maybe there's reasons that we don't know about, and so we're going to read this chapter. It's kind of heavy at the very beginning. Then we're going to come back and we're going to talk about this idea of knowing God's will, and I want to challenge you a little bit today you ready.

Speaker 1:

Isaiah, chapter 57, verse 1, says this good people pass away. The godly often die before their time, but no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die. But you come here, you witches' children. Man, thank you. You, offspring of adulterers and prostitutes, whom do you mock, making faces and sticking out your tongues? You, children of sinners and liars.

Speaker 1:

You worship your idols with great passion. Beneath the oaks and under every green tree, you sacrifice your children down in the valleys, among the jagged rocks and cliffs. Your gods are the smooth stones in the valley. You worship them with liquid offerings and grain offerings. They, not I, are your inheritance. Do you think all this makes me happy? You have committed adultery on every high mountain. There you have worshipped idols and have been unfaithful to me. You have put pagan symbols on your doorsteps and behind your doors. You have left me and climbed into bed with these detestable gods. You have committed yourselves to them. You love to look at their naked bodies, good heavens. You have gone to Molech with olive oil and many perfumes, sending your agents far and wide, even to the world of the dead.

Speaker 1:

You grew weary in your search, but you never gave up. Desire gave you renewed strength and you did not grow weary. Are you afraid of these idols? Do they terrify you? Is that why you lied to me and forgotten me and my words? Is it because of my long silence that you no longer fear me? Now I will expose your so-called good deeds. None of them will help you. Let's see if your idols can save you when you cry out to them for help. Why a puffed up wind can knock them down. You just breathe on them and they fall over. But whosoever trusts in me will inherit land and possess my holy mountain.

Speaker 1:

God says rebuild the road, clear away the rocks and stones so my people can return from captivity. The high and lofty ones who lives, the high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the holy one, says this I live in a high and lofty place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those who repent with repentant hearts. For I will not fight against you forever. I will not always be angry. If I were, all people would pass away All the souls I have made. I was angry. I punished these greedy people. I withdrew from them, but they kept going their own stubborn way. I have seen what they do and I will heal them anyway. Man, wow, isn't that amazing.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to say that again, verse 18, I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway. I will lead them, I will comfort those who mourn, bringing words of praise to their lips. May the Lord have abundant peace, both near and far, says the Lord, who heals them. But those who still reject me are like the restless sea which is never still but continuously churns up mud and dirt. There is no peace for the wicked, says my God.

Speaker 1:

Wow, what has just happened in this chapter is you can really look at it in three sections. God just drops a bomb on us in the first two verses and he says Maybe I know what I'm doing when I do something you don't agree with, when I do something that you are so upset about that you choose to reframe your theology in order to not get mad at me. That's the first part, first two verses. And then he says from verse three through almost the rest of it. Then he says and here's why, because you keep on going, after all these other things, thinking you're doing something right when really you're doing it all wrong. And then at the end he said and even though you do it wrong, I'm still going to heal you, I'm still going to make a way. Isn't that amazing how God does that? And he's saying I'm doing things you don't understand because you keep going the wrong way, and I'm still going to heal you even when you do so.

Speaker 1:

Let's go back to that beginning question that we all grapple with. When I was growing up, I heard someone use a verse I believe it's in Romans that said then we will be able to do the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. And they use that verse to say there are three wills of God there's the good, there's the acceptable and then there's the perfect. And they even went so far to say there's two different wills of God there is the perfect and the permissible. You ever heard that one and I believed that for a really long time, and I am not going to tell you either way, because I want you to study it for yourself.

Speaker 1:

But what I do want to challenge you with is is God perfect or is he not? I want to pause on that for a moment and I'm kind of tipping my hands so you can kind of see what I think after a lot of study Is God perfect or is he not? If he is not perfect, that means that he can't be omniscient. And omniscient means to know all things. Because if he doesn't know what you're going to do, then that makes you kind of more powerful than him, because you have the power to make a decision that he can't overturn because he doesn't know yet what you're going to do. Right, but if God is all-powerful, if he really does know all things, then do we need to rethink this? Do we really need to rethink that? Maybe God knows. Now we have free will, so he lets us make a choice, but he already knows within his sovereign plan what we're going to choose and has already made a plan for us. Now, if that doesn't hurt your brain a little bit, you're not thinking hard enough about it, because how is it possible for us to have free will and, at the same time, god still has sovereign rule? Yes, that's a hard one, but think on it, and I want to read this part to you again, verse one and two Good people pass away.

Speaker 1:

The godly often die before their time, in other words, before we think they should, but no one seems to care or wonder why no one seems to understand that God is protecting them from evil to come, for those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die. Let me say this a different way Bad things happen to good people, but nobody seems to wonder why we just get mad. We don't realize that God is always doing something better than we can understand, and because we don't understand why bad things happen to good people and why good intentions are not rewarded, we find a way to manipulate the facts in order to let God off the hook, when he is not asking to be let off the hook. Instead, he's saying can you trust me? I think we do a lot of harm sometimes to the sovereignty of God by trying to make him look good when he is already the essence of goodness. It's just sometimes his view of good doesn't always line up with our view of good, because his is perfect. Ours has to do with whatever's going on at the time, and so here is my challenge to you Is it possible that we can trust God even when we don't understand, even when we go?

Speaker 1:

God, there is no way that could be your will, because they were innocent, they didn't do that. That shouldn't have happened to them. I don't understand that. That shouldn't have happened to them. I don't understand that. Is it possible? God knows what he's doing and that's hard, but that's what it is to serve God. We're not God's partners, we serve him. So, even when we don't understand, we have a choice to make. Are we going to trust him or are we going to tell God we know better than him? If we are going to tell God we're going to know better than him, we're going to struggle. But when we say, god, I don't understand, but I trust you. And you know who showed us how to do that Jesus.

Speaker 1:

Jesus is in the guard of Gethsemane. He's talking to his father. He's an example to all of us. He's praying to his father and he says, father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. In other words, he is saying, father, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this, I do not want to do this. But you know what he says Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

Speaker 1:

That is a hard prayer, but it is powerful when we trust him. Who's in charge? Let's let Jesus be in charge today. Let's pray God. Thank you so much for today. Thank you for your word, because it's hard. It's hard and it's like sandpaper, god, and it challenges us. Who's going to lead? Are we going to let you lead or are we going to basically ask you to serve us? God, that's hard, that pushes against the nature that's inside of all of us. But, god, we trust you. We have come to know that we can trust you even when we don't always understand. I pray, god, that you will move us to trust you more. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen.

Speaker 1:

Well before we read our Bible verse that we're memorizing today. Today may be very challenging for you, especially if you grew up thinking about the will of God in a different way, and so I want to ask you to do some study, research God's word, research God's word and come to a realization based on the truth, not what we want to be true, and then be settled on it, and I'm excited to hear in the comments what you find out. God's word says in Isaiah, chapter 12, verse 2, god has come to save me and I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord, god, is my strength and my song, and he has given me victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Isaiah, chapter 58.

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Brandon Cannon

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