Isaiah 48:1-2
1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
Here Jehovah, the One true God, is speaking through His prophet, Isaiah, to those of the southern kingdom of Judah, particularly those who dwelt in the city of Jerusalem. They were of the children of Israel and particularly of the tribe of Judah, the very tribe which the Messiah was promised to come through.
They swore by Jehovah’s name… by that is meant they invoked His name in their religious exercises. They sang praises to Him. They honored Him with their lips. They professed to remember His works of old as they observed their solemn feasts, yet their hearts were far from Him. All those religious things they did were not done in truth or in righteousness. To them, at this time, Jehovah was one God among many, for they practiced idolatry.
In verse 2 we understand those Jehovah is speaking to are from Jerusalem because they called themselves “of the holy city.” Jerusalem was known as the holy city because that was where the temple was and that was where God met with His people. Though they called upon the name of Jehovah and considered themselves to be right in His sight because of who they were and where they lived, yet they were strangers to God and His saints.
They professed to trust in Jehovah and to lean upon Him, rely on His power, His providence, His mercy and goodness; yet they were simply religious hypocrites. As I mentioned, their hearts were far from Him…
Isaiah 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.
How else do we know their hearts were far from Jehovah?
Micah 3:9-11
9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? None evil can come upon us.
As I read and studied these first 11 verses of Jeremiah chapter 48, I found myself wondering if I was reading about Judah or the United States of America in 2013.
Isaiah 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
Here in verse 3, Jehovah shows His omnipotence and His sovereignty. Why is He declaring these things to those in Jerusalem? Jehovah is proving to the household of Judah that He alone is worthy of glory…He alone is omnipotent and sovereign. There is no other God beside Him! In this verse He shows how from the time of Abraham, their father, He declared what would happen to his descendants; that they would live in Egypt, be afflicted there, and come out with great wealth. Also that He would bring them into the land of Canaan and drive out the inhabitants before them.
Genesis 15:13-18
13 And he said to Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come our with great substance.
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
Jehovah told these things to Abraham by the very word of His mouth. He showed Abraham all that would take place and even in Abraham’s time they began to take place…for Abraham had a son named Isaac who had a son named Jacob whose name God changed to Israel. He had 12 sons and they went down to Egypt as you well remember. Everything Jehovah spoke came to pass precisely as it was foretold. Not one thing spoken of the LORD failed to happen.
Joshua 21:45 There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
Again, the LORD did this to prove that He alone was Jehovah or the One true God and that He alone was deserving of glory. Why would Jehovah need to show this to Judah?
Isaiah 48:4-5
4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.
The LORD knew the kingdom of Judah was heart hearted and rebellious, stiff necked and not at all compliant with the will of God. They were impudent and not ashamed of their sin and refused to hear the warnings of the prophets. Jehovah foreknew this and that is why from the times of Abraham He declared all that would happen before it came to pass. The LORD knew they would attribute those things that came to pass to their idols. In effect, He has stopped them before they could start giving credit to their false gods.
Isaiah 48:6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.
In this verse, the LORD tells Judah, You have heard all these things and knew they were told to you long before they ever happened. In your life you have seen them come to pass exactly as they were predicted. He said, look at those prophecies again and compare them with the events…pay close attention as to how they were perfectly, exactly fulfilled. When you have done so, can you be so arrogant and hard hearted that you will not admit it?
Here the Lord also reminds them of a more recent prophecy that He had just declared to them through Isaiah in chapter 45 and that is the prophecy of the rise of Cyrus, king of Persia who would deliver the Jews in the future. As of chapter 48 it had not happened yet. Their deliverance was hidden by the LORD and unknown to Judah until it was prophesied. At the time of the prophecy about Cyrus, Judah was still 100 years away from seeing it take place.
In a similar way, the deliverance from sin seen in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is hidden to men until it is made know to them by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 48:7-8
7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.
8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.
Jehovah is saying, the prophecies of Cyrus delivering Israel from captivity, were new and not told to Abraham. They were created or decreed now and not from the beginning. God reserved them in secret before Judah heard about them, but in His time He revealed them to Judah, so they could not ascribe their knowledge of these prophecies to their own abilities to figure things out.
In verse 8, Jehovah reproves Judah showing them that they were far from knowing the events that would take place before He gave them the prophecy. He said He gave them the prophecy when they did not want to listen, when they didn’t understand, receive or embrace it. Rather, Judah turned a deaf ear to the prophecies of Jehovah.
The LORD knew they would deal very treacherously and were transgressors from the womb…that’s even before birth. Does this not a perfect of picture of every single one of us? We were all conceived in sin and formed in iniquity inside our mother’s wombs. We went astray from God as soon as we were born. The imagination of our hearts was evil from our youth and we are continually breaking the righteous law of God and therefore justly deserve to be called a transgressor. Just as Judah needed a deliverer, we needed a deliverer…His name is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
In verse 9, Jehovah declares a truth that mortal men do not like and that is why God saves or delivers His people. Men like to think it is because God looked down from heaven and saw some good deed they would do or some good choice they would make to follow Him or invite Him into their hearts…not so!
Isaiah 48:9 For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
Everything that Jehovah does is for no other reason than for His name’s sake and for the praise of His glory. Though Judah was wicked and steeped in idolatry, God would not cut them off because they were called by His name and said to be His people. He did not want His name to be a reproach among the heathen or to have His glory diminished.
Because He alone is Jehovah God and because He is holy and just and righteous, He could not allow the sin of Judah to go without correction. His name was at stake.
Isaiah 48:10 Behold I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
Therefore, the LORD refined them, in the furnace of poverty and captivity. He brought the Chaldeans from Babylon to take many away from Israel and those left in Judah and Jerusalem were left in poverty and affliction. Are we not refined through the affliction and conviction of our souls? Isn’t that how the LORD draws us to Himself? Do we not see ourselves in these verses?
Isaiah 48:11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory to another.
It was for His name’s sake that he deferred His anger and did not cut off or destroy the Jews of Judah living in Jerusalem. How should the name of the only true, holy, just and righteous God be polluted? How should it be spoken evil of among the nations of this world? If Jehovah did not deliver His people, the nations of the earth could say that He didn’t really love His people or He was not able to deliver them and the gods of the Babylonians and Persians were stronger than He was.
There are many places in the scriptures that tell us the LORD does as He pleases for His name’s sake. In Ezekiel 36, which we looked in a previous study, the LORD is dealing with those Israelites who had been taken captive to Babylon. He says plainly that He was not going to deliver them for any reason other than for His name’s sake…they too had fallen into idolatry.
Jehovah, again through Isaiah, had previously told them…
Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
He told them He was the self-existing One; eternal and immutable and He would not give His glory to another god or His praise to idols or graven images. For God to give His glory to another god would be idolatry on His part. That can and will never happen for the attributes of His holiness, justice, righteousness, all flow from within Himself. He cannot sin. Idolatry is sin. If we give glory to anyone or anything other than to Jehovah God, we are guilty of idolatry…guilty of robbing God of His glory.
This is dangerous ground to walk on and yet we as mere mortal men often tread it just as the children of Israel did before us. I imagine most here would say, “I do not practice idolatry!” I’m sure it’s safe to say that none here have a statue or image that we bow down to and worship. We are not a nation that worships other gods! …Or are we? Do we unwittingly practice idolatry and ascribe glory to another other than Jehovah?
Consider the gods that men worship today and that have been worshipped in our country over the past 80 years or so. The reason we can say these “gods” are “worshipped” today is because anything for which a man will live, give his time, his energy, his money to is a god to him. If it excites him, enthuses him, if he lives for it, is controlled by it and is prepared to sacrifice all for it, then it is his god.
What gods do we serve here in the United States of America? How about Patriotism? Just look at the hero worship of soldiers that goes on in our country. Or the “American Dream”…money and wealth, and the things these can buy such as acreage, homes, cars, boats, social status and position. Then there is the god of “power”…climbing the corporate ladder or political office to assert one’s authority over others. There are parents who worship their children. I know of those who this very day worship the body and physical fitness.
What is the one of the most widely worshipped god in the state of Texas…they just started practicing for it this past Monday. I am speaking of the god of the gridiron…Texas High school football. Not just to pick on football you can name any sport you like. Americans worship sports it is a god to them. How can I say that? In the vast majority of churches across our land, let the preacher preach past noon and cause his church members to miss the pre-game show or the kick-off or tip-off and see the reaction…even if it is in a sarcastic joking tone (there is truth in sarcasm), sports mean much.
We are masters at justifying the worship of our gods at the expense of serving the one true God. Hunting, fishing, our hobbies, you name it…there are many gods worshipped across our nation.
In and of themselves these things are not evil, but when a person becomes willing to forego reading the word of God, praying, or attending church in order to participate in these things, they have become his god…and men will justify it in their minds.
In my opinion, greater than any of these gods which are served in America, by even professing Christians, is the god of “man” himself. The belief in man and his powers is almost endless. There is nothing man can’t do if he sets his mind to it. Some would call it humanism. We see it in Romans 1.
Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
We in America have changed the truth of God into a lie…we have imagined Him to be like we are.
Romans 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
We have taken the incorruptible God in all His glory and in our minds have changed Him to be like a corruptible man. Men’s ideas of God today are pathetic even among professing Christians. The “God” that so many serve today is the god of their evil imagination and not the Jehovah of the Bible. He is more like a feeble, gentle, old grandpa who reminds us of Santa Claus. He is known as the “man upstairs” and not Jehovah God.
Today, in our country, men worship the creature (man) rather than the Creator (God). This has even crept into our churches. You may say we don’t have idols or tiny statues in our homes or our churches. American Christians may not have golden images they bow down to, but the sinfulness of idolatry comes from ascribing value, worth, greatness and praise (that belongs only to God) to someone or something other than God. We, in our churches have done just that. How?
Many Christians today believe that the free will of man is sovereign over God’s perfect, eternal will. They often tell me that it is God’s will that all men, women and children be saved and they point me to 2 Peter 3:9, yet God is powerless to save them until they make a decision to open the door of their hearts and let God come in. They believe this based on their understanding of Revelation 3:20.
Read the Scriptures! First, 2 Peter 3:9 is written to “us-ward” the beloved or the elect of God. Second, Revelation 3:20 is written to the church, not lost men, women, and children. Let me ask you a question. When was the last time man gave God permission to do something? Did Job give God permission to take his herds, his flocks, his children and eventually his health? Did God ask Job for his permission? Absolutely not!
In my humble opinion, the greatest robbery of God’s glory is done by Christians in regard to the salvation of man. Too many do not give God 100% of the glory for their salvation. They reserve a little glory for themselves. Jehovah alone deserves all the glory for our salvation because He alone has caused us to be saved. The only reason any of us have any hope of forgiveness of sins and eternal life is because He alone chose to act on our behalf, and we contributed nothing. Repentance and faith are gifts granted or given to us, not offered if we want them.
2 Timothy 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
Acts 11:18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
In our day, across this nation, many pastors will stand and tell their congregations that God provided the way of salvation in Jesus Christ, but it is up to you to exercise your free will and choose to repent and believe the Gospel. If you do so, then God will respond to your faith and save you. They say God offers the gift of salvation and will save whosoever will stretch out their hand in faith to receive it.
That is not the Gospel. The Gospel is not, “Jesus has done all He can do, and now He stands at the door of your heart knocking, hoping and praying you will open the door and let Him in.” If that was the case, the Jehovah God would be sharing His glory with men. Since the final decision regarding salvation is presumably dependent upon man, he would be able to boast, “I opened the door of my heart. I let Him in. I accepted Christ. I chose to be saved. I closed the deal. I was seeking God. I found Him. I repented of my own free will and for all practical purposes, I saved myself because I was wise enough to see it.”
Those thoughts fly in the face of the Scriptures…
Psalm 14:2-3
2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
3 They are all gone aside, they are all together come filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Isaiah 64:6-7
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Salvation is a gift granted, not a gift offered. He is God and He gives His gift to whomsoever He will. Many unwittingly rob God of His glory because they do not really believe He alone is Sovereign, as they say they do. Many Christians say that God, in His sovereignty, left man with a free will and basically left his salvation up to himself. If God did so then, again, He would have to share the glory of man’s salvation with man…and God said, “My glory will I not give to another.”
Had God, in His sovereignty, not chose us, called us, given us the gifts of repentance and faith and caused us to come willingly in the day of His power, we would never have done it. Because He has done all those things for His elect, we have been saved by His grace and He alone receives all the glory for it.
Search your heart. Search your soul. Is there anything you love more than God? Jesus Christ is worth everything, even your life. Even if you must die to follow Him, He is of such infinite value that if you are not willing to give up your life for Him, you are not worthy to be among those who call Him Savior.
Who deserves glory, honor and praise more than the LORD? If He is not worth everything to us, we are idolaters even as those of Jerusalem in our text in Isaiah 48. If anything is of greater value to us than God Himself, whatever it is, that is our god.
Never forget…the LORD will not give His glory to another, neither will He share it with another!
