GOD IS FOREVER FAITHFUL

(A series from the book of Isaiah: Chapter 51)

The words of God here in Isaiah chapter 51 is a continuation of God’s foretold reassurance of His people during the exile in Babylon. To be under an oppressive power is not an easy matter. In short, God’s people are slaves in Babylon. Being a slave is the worse experience humans would ever experience. Slavery has marked deeply in some cultures and the world and it was an ugly picture of humanity.

During the slavery period under the Babylonians, Isaiah was shown the reality of God’s people, they are in the spirit of murmuring and complaining and insecurity of any future deliverance. Chapter 51 then begins with the statement of assurance of His faithfulness. God is trying to point out, why have you forgotten who am I. It is like God saying, “Are you having the amnesia?” So verse 1 starts with a call to listen…

1“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness

and who seek the Lord:

Look to the rock from which you were cut

and to the quarry from which you were hewn;

God is inviting them to remember His faithfulness in the past. God’s faithfulness in the past is their assurance for future hardships. Whatever difficulty that they are allowed to go through, there is no difficulty that God can never turn for the good of His people and His plans.

3 The Lord will surely comfort Zion

and will look with compassion on all her ruins;

he will make her deserts like Eden,

her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

12 “I, even I, am he who comforts you.

Who are you that you fear mere mortals,

human beings who are but grass,

13 that you forget the Lord your Maker,

who stretches out the heavens

and who lays the foundations of the earth,

that you live in constant terror every day

because of the wrath of the oppressor,

who is bent on destruction?

For where is the wrath of the oppressor?

14 The cowering prisoners will soon be set free;

they will not die in their dungeon,

nor will they lack bread.

15 For I am the Lord your God,

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

the Lord Almighty is his name.

16 I have put my words in your mouth

and covered you with the shadow of my hand—

I who set the heavens in place,

who laid the foundations of the earth,

and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

God is a personal being and takes care of His people in a very special and personal way. He said, “12 “I, even I, am he who comforts you.” The God who comforts Israel is the God who is in charge of everything that makes the world go round. The God who comforts Israel is the God who is the ruler of all creation. Although He does not do what they think should be done to them, they are rest assured, that from the great and mighty works of God in the past, everything will be put in place for their God despite the hardships.

God kept on repeating that the hardships are not the picture of how God loves them. The presence of hardships does not mean God is not loving and caring anymore. God’s people are asked to look beyond the physical circumstance to the spiritual things God is doing beyond the hardships.

The chapter ends with an assurance of deliverance that would not only happen for them but the entire world. Because it will not only them who will be oppressed by a tyrant.

The whole world will be oppressed by Satan. God promised that Israel’s deliverance

Will foretell how God will soon deliver all His people in the whole wide world.

Against the dominion of sin.

Friends, God’s faithfulness, and His control in our lives in the past is our great assurance of who will He be as our God of today and tomorrow.

Let me share to you some parts of a song a newly listened to entitled, “Faithful Now,”

I am holding onto faith

'Cause I know You'll make a way

And I don't always understand

And I don't always get to see

But I will believe it, I will believe it

'Cause You make mountains move

You make giants fall

And You use songs of praise

To shake prison walls

And I will speak to my fear, I will preach to my doubt

That You were faithful then, You'll be faithful now

You're forever faithful, Lord!

And I trust You, Jesus

And I am standing on Your word

And calling Heaven down to earth

And You will fight enemies, and this will end in victory

And I will believe it, yes I will believe it