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Old deaf ones,

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listen. O, blind ones look intently to see.

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Those are the blunt words that Isaiah addresses to the people of

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Yahweh.

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But how can deaf ones

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listen?

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How can blind one see? As incredible and hard as that is it's not the

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least bit surprising to hear that coming out of the mouth of Isaiah.

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After all when he was called as a prophet

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Yahweh said to him, go and tell this

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people be ever hearing but never understanding be ever seen but never

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perceiving.

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Make the heart of this people calloused make their ears dull and close

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their eyes.

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Otherwise, they will see with their eyes hear with their ears

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understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.

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Isaiah would see the realization of those very hard words that came

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forth from Yahweh.

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The people would not listen to his word.

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They refused to see what he was doing.

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And so their hearts were hard.

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Now, what a stark contrast that is from what Israel was called to be.

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Israel was called to be the servant of Yahweh.

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So that Israel was called to open eyes

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 that are blind. And instead Israel has blinded himself. Blind and

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deaf to yahweh's word

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Israel is now hard-hearted.

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So Isaiah rightly says Yahweh poured out his wrath upon him.

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His anger and it's set him ablaze all around but he did not understand.

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It burned him

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but he did not take it to heart.

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Now, that's exactly where we find ourselves at the close of Isaiah

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chapter 42. Israel called, to be the servant of Yahweh has failed

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miserably. That was true in the 8th Century BC

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when Isaiah delivered, these words to God's people. It was true in the

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6th Century BC

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when Jerusalem would know that wrath of Yahweh as their hauled off

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into Exile.

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It was true in the first

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Century AD when Yahweh would call his son to be Israel reduced to one.

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To be the true servant of Yahweh who opened eyes that are blind, so

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that they could see. Who opened ears, so that they could hear. Who losed

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the tongue of the mute so that they might proclaim

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what God had done. The arrival of the true servant of Yahweh

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changes everything.

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But no matter how much things change, some things, never change.

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What about Israel

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The people of God today?

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What about the church?

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How often do we blind ourselves and turn a deaf ear to what he is

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doing among us? Like our forefathers in the 8th Century BC

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we are distracted by our idols.

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They look to their idols to guarantee their prosperity. For them

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God was simply a means to a greater

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end. Securing the desires of their dule hearts.

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Yahweh called them to open their eyes to see that he was the end.

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The end alone who satisfies the created yearning of the heart.

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And we struggle with the exact same sin today. Blind to Yahweh, as the

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fullness of what we need.

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We run after idols, that will give us what we want

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or so, we think. That they will give us security amid a pandemic.

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Financial confidence amid inflation.

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And our fear that all of this is being orchestrated by some nefarious

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groups that are looking to give us the great reset, deafens us to

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Yahweh's call for a great reset within each and every one of us,

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repentance.

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Isaiah's hard words for Israel are words for us as well.

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And as shocking as those hard words are in Isaiah 42. Far more

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shocking are the sweet comforting words of Yahweh in Isaiah 43

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that we just heard read. Isaiah seizes our attention in Isaiah 43

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saying, but now

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in other words, something far different, a big change is being

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delivered to you.

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Lest

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you think that Isaiah is just offering an unrealistic dream.

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He proclaims thus says Yahweh.

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This isn't Isaiah's word, it is Yahweh's, word, certain and true. And

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the certain and true word proclaimed in Isaiah 43.

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Is that despite

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the condemnation of Isaiah 42.

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Isaiah, 43 says that God is for you.

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There is no missing out that Yahweh is at work for you. In the first

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seven, verses of Isaiah 43.

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There are 22 uses of the first person singular, whether it be the

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pronoun, the pronominal suffix, or in verbal form. 22 times

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we hear 

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Yahweh referring to himself in the first person.

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I am redeeming, you. 

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I am calling you by name.

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You are mine.

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I am with you.

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I will gather you. And did

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you also notice the prevalence of you?

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In these 7 verses

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there are 26 instances of the second person singular.

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It is as if Yahweh were saying for whom do I do all of this?

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You you you.

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The steady rhythm of the first person singular

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and the second person singular makes it clear that this is not

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something abstract.

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Yahweh is not holding you off at an arm's length in the third person.

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But instead here we have the intimate concern of I for you.

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And yahweh's intimate concern is seen in what he does.

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The text begins with Yahweh, identifying himself as he who created

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you.

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Oh Jacob, he who formed you O Israel.

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And the text ends with Yahweh, identifying those for whom he acts as

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everyone whom I created for my glory whom I formed and made. There

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you see the doctrine of the creation is the bookends

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for this very text with the redemptive work of Yahweh sandwiched in

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between. You cannot pull apart the first, and second articles of the

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Creed. Creation, those whom God has created

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He then seeks to redeem.

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Yahweh's, creative work and redemptive work are bound up together.

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So, how can you be sure that Yahweh is interested in redeeming, you?

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He's created you and as if that were not enough and with Yahweh,

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there's always more than enough.

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You have certainty that Yahweh redeems you because of what he has done

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in the past.

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Yahweh here in Isaiah 43, takes up the language of the Exodus.

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When he talks about how when you pass through the waters

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I will be with you and through the rivers

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they shall not overwhelm you.

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Not only does Yahweh recall the Exodus when Israel passed through

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the waters of the parted

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sea. He also brings in the entrance into the promised land when they

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go through the River

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Jordan again, parted that they might receive what Yahweh had done for

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them.

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Yahweh is defining himself as the God who fights for his people.

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What he did in the days of Moses and Joshua

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he will do for Israel

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even in Exile.

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He will do it for you, even amid your sin.

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Yahweh brings about a new and greater Exodus.

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And just how great is it?

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His people not only pass through the waters and the rivers. Yahweh

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promises that when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned.

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The flame shall not set you ablaze.

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This is the fire that we heard about earlier from the end of Isaiah

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42.

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As Yahweh poured out his wrath, his anger and at set them ablaze. But

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here in Isaiah 43

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Yahweh promises, his Israel, his people, his church, you, he promises

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that when you pass through the consuming fire of the wrath of Yahweh,

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that you will be unscathed.

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Not a hair, even singed and all for just one reason.

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Yahweh himself has passed through the River

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Jordan.

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He has identified himself with sinners, receiving a baptism of

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repentance for the forgiveness of sin.

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He who knew no sin became sin for us.

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He takes the consuming fire of Yahweh's righteous wrath against sin,

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so that you pass through unscathed.

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That is the God who has chosen to dwell with you.

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No wonder Isaiah records

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the word of Yahweh.

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Do not fear.

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For I have redeemed, you. One more time.

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Do not fear for I am with you.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.