Expanding Your Views: Seeing the World God's Way by Youth with a Mission (Author)

Chapter One

God, the Unshakable loundation Isaiah 40

Traffic! Caught in a jam on his way to work, Philip flipped on the radio. It had been a few days since he'd prayed to see the world as God sees it. He'd meant it, but busy as always, he'd barely thought about it since. Now here he was listening to more bad news over the airwaves. He thought of his few snatched minutes of Bible reading that morning, when he'd turned to Isaiah 40. It had struck him that the whole chapter could be summed up in the phrase: "God is in control!"

God in control? Really? Throughout that day and for many days he wrestled with the thought. At times he even got angry at the idea. The world was a mess, and his own life didn't seem much better. There were so many confusing questions unanswered. He studied Isaiah 40 to see what it really said about a world that sometimes seems out of control. Incredibly, in spite of his questions, his heart gradually filled with an overwhelming confidence. He began to see that the hand of God was indeed at work in the events of history.

In this study, we look at a period when the Jews, like Philip, are asking major questions about God and his control of events. Decades after Isaiah's time, the Jews are in exile in Babylon. Many rebellious years of idolatrous kings, sinful lifestyles, and national decline ended when the Babylonians invaded their land. Jerusalem fell, its walls destroyed, and the temple ruined. A dispirited and humiliated people settled into a ghetto on the banks of the Euphrates. At first many spoke of a two-year exile, but now seventy years have gone by. To the grandchildren of the first exiles, it seems as if God has abandoned them, or perhaps that he was never with them at all.

Imagine their amazement when someone reads aloud what the prophet Isaiah wrote so many years earlier for this very time. Into their hopeless situation, as into Philip's confusion, God speaks with power and tenderness: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God" (Isaiah 40:1).

As you work through this study, ask God to open your eyes to see that he is in control.

Preparing Heart and Mind

How might the present circumstances of your life be influencing the way you see God?

What questions do you have for God?

What does our culture and education tell us about God's involvement in the world?

Engaging the text

Read Isaiah 40

1. In this chapter there are several pictures used to describe God, creation, or humanity. Choose one which especially strikes you and take a moment to envision it. What does this picture mean to you?

2. People are likened to various things in verses 6-7, 11, and 22. How do you feel about being described in these ways?

3. God asks many questions in verses 12-26, but they all (excluding v. 21) have something in common. What is God emphasizing, and why?

4. Throughout the passage there are pictures contrasting God with his creation. In verse 26, what does God's care for the stars tell us about his daily relationship with his creation?

5. Think of a time when you felt you knew better than God. Describe the circumstances.

What do verses 13-14 have to say about this attitude towards God?

6. In verses 18-20, God is confronting the idolatry of the Jewish people. Idolatry might be described as finding our comfort, security, or motivation in something other than God. Compare Old Testament idols with what our modern idols are like.

7. Think of three or four things that give you security and motivation. These may not be wrong, but they have the potential of becoming idols in your life. What steps can you take to ensure that they stay in the right place in your list of priorities?

8. Name five of the most powerful leaders of nations and empires in past history. Compare where they are now, and what became of their empires, to what God says in verses 23-24.

9. What similarities do you notice between what God says about world rulers (vv. 23-24) and what he says about ordinary men and women (vv. 6-7)?

10. The Jews to whom this prophecy is spoken are asking major questions about what God is doing while they are suffering so much (v. 27). How would you paraphrase God's response (v. 28) to Israel's complaint?

11. Put into your own words what God promises in verses 29-31 to those who are struggling in difficult circumstances.

12. What circumstances are you (or someone you know) facing, in which you may feel like complaining as the Jewish exiles do (v. 27)? Would it be appropriate for God to say to you what he says to them in verses 28-31? Explain.

Setting the stage

Around 600 BC., Babylon is the world's superpower, a ruthless nation that has conquered much of what today is the Middle East.

The prophet Jeremiah has told the Jews that seventy years in exile in Babylon is God's judgment on their national sin.

At the end of the seventy years, the Jews witness overnight the Babylonian Empire and its mighty rulers ceasing to exist.

The Babylonians believe their fate is in the hands of their gods and can be divined from the planets and stars. It is likely that Babylonian beliefs have influenced the Jews' perspective of life.

Isaiah 40 is written as poetry. As poetry it uses picture language to unfold greater richness of meaning, communicating the truth of God with remarkable intensity. Poetry helps us to put aside the limitations of our analytical minds and let our emotions and spirit be touched deeply. The saying is true: a picture is worth a thousand words!

Clothed in Splendor

The sun beat down on lifeless desert sands. Relentless wind stirred the dust, sucking dry all moisture. At last distant clouds appeared, slowly increasing until the sky was dark and forbidding. The wind died, replaced by penetrating stillness. Suddenly the rain came, the first for many months. The parched ground was initially unable to absorb it, and it ran in torrents over the surface before slowly sinking in. A miracle was taking place in the drenched earth. Seeds lying dormant since the last rains burst into life. The rain stopped, and in two days shoots completely covered the red-brown soil with a greenish hue. Three days later the landscape was as lush as any riverside meadow. Another two, and the green had given way to a glorious carpet of flowers-red, blue, purple, yellow-each clothed more splendidly than a king.

Insects that had survived on shriveled remains now filled the air, excited by the vivid colors, racing to feast on the pollen and nectar. Thus pollinated, the flowers quickly set seed and within twelve days of first appearing, were laden with seedpods.

But already the dry wind was blowing again, and already the ground had turned to dust. The plants withered, the last flowers fell, and the wind buried the seeds beneath the ever-shifting soil. Within three weeks nothing but a few bare stalks remained.

How helpful this picture is as we consider humanity! Noble, glorious, made in the image of God, yet frail, short-lived, fallen, and sinful.

What does this symbolic picture of humanity tell you about your life? How does it confront any self-sufficiency there may be in you?

Questions for God

God is not afraid of our questions. It's not wrong to ask them, nor is it inappropriate to express to him our deepest feelings. The writers of the psalms did it many times. Honest questions open up the heart to receive new perspectives-if as we ask them we desire a two-way conversation. God may well have questions for us in return. The result is worthwhile; like Job, we'll be able to say, we "had heard of you but now [our] eyes have seen you" (Job 42:5).

During his days of torment, Job fired a volley of questions about God's ways. God let him carry on, uninterrupted. When the Almighty did not respond immediately, Job's friends tried to speak on his behalf but only managed to get themselves into even deeper water than Job.

Finally God spoke, never once attempting to justify himself. He simply asked Job a host of questions in return! Job soon understood what was going on. His concerns were put into perspective as he glimpsed the greatness of God. Humbled before the all-wise Ruler of the universe, he did the only thing he could. He worshiped!

What questions do you have for God? What questions does he have for you?

(Continues...)

Finding Your Purpose: Becoming...

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Lessons on Assurance

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Integrity: Living the Truth

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Daniel