God is my salvation

Notes from a sermon heard on Sunday 6 January 2013

Isaiah 12

“Behold God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.”

When Isaiah chapter 12 verse 1 is put in context it is speaking of a day yet to come, a day still to be fulfilled.  Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet – what was the day he was singing about?  It was not the second coming of the Lord.  He was an Old Testament prophet who didn’t know anything about the rapture of the Church.    Isaiah was speaking of a day when the Lord would set up his throne, his kingdom here on earth.  Isaiah was looking to a day when the Lord would set up his kingdom after the rapture.  Verse 2 “behold God is my salvation”.  Look at the present tense.  If we have eyes on the rapture of the church we need this assurance in our heart.  If not we will miss that day when it comes.  Isaiah starts us off in the new year with a tremendous example, putting God first in his life.  There are 2 steps in this verse – first of all the reality of God in the prophet’s hearts and then the working out of the response in the prophets actions.

The profession the prophet makes.  Isaiah has his eyes on the Lord God of Israel.  He is his present help in time of trouble but it wasn’t always like that for Isaiah.  In Isaiah 10  he wrote of the Syrian forces whom God was putting to flight.  Then in Isaiah chapter 11 he gets his eyes on God setting up his own kingdom.  In chapter 12 Isaiah is singing a song of praise to the God of heaven.  Was there a moment in your life when you accepted Christ as Saviour?  In Isaiah’s life there was a crisis in his life and as a result a challenge came to his life.  Chapter 6 Isaiah talks of day when he went into the temple.  Uzziah the king was dead after 50 years of reign.  God helped him but he lifted himself up, he turned his back on God of heaven.  He thought to himself “I have done all this myself.”  For Uzziah there was rebellion in his heart.  God struck Uzziah with leprosy until he day of his death.  It wasn’t until this king died that the prophet Isaiah got his eyes on God.  What is keeping your eyes off God?  A relationship or companionship?  In the house of God Isaiah received a revelation of God, of who he is, the character of God, that he was of purer eyes to behold iniquity.  God turns his eyes inward and lets him see what he was like on the inside.  Isaiah said “I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.”  The angel came though and purged his sin.  God came with tremendous power and made Isaiah aware of his sin.  Has there been a turning point in your life?  Maybe you remember the occasion well but sadly since then you have grown cold.  God touched Isaiah’s lips.  Until we get this double revelation – of who God is and what I am we will never be changed.  Peter fell at Jesus’ feet and said “depart from me I cannot stand in your presence.”  He realised he was a sinful man.  Will you get your eyes off everything else and onto Jesus?

Isaiah now had God’s protection.  God is our protection for all that life throws at us.  Isaiah realised that whatever lay ahead God would lead and guide him.  When Jesus first came to the fishermen who were mending their nets he simply said “follow me”.  Are we sure that the God of heaven is before us today?  He is leading and guiding us.  All the Lord is asking of us is to follow him.  When you are doing that he is going before us.  He is taking care of everything.  We fret and worry unnecessarily – to know God is before us what have we to fear?  If God be for us who can be against us?  The disciples realised all they had to do was follow him because he was going before them.  God is our protection today.  Joseph was asked by his father one morning to take food to his brothers.  He left his father’s home that day and never saw him again for 20 years.  Joseph said to his brothers “you meant it for evil but God meant it for good.”  You don’t know what will happen in this year, maybe even in this day alone.  As a young man Joseph knew God was with him.  In Potiphar’s house Joseph knew that he could say God was his profession but more importantly he was his protection.  Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph but Joseph said “I cannot do this and sin against God and your husband.”  Joseph ran from the house but Potiphar’s wife concocted a story that landed him in prison.  God was with Joseph in the prison house too.

Isaiah knew that God was his power.  God is not going to take us into something that he cannot take us through.  The Psalmist could say “The Lord is my shepherd … yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.”  God has promised he will never leave us nor forsake us.  He will take us through because he is our power.

Isaiah could also say that God was his praise.  God put a song in his heart.  When the children of Israel were carried into captivity in Babylon they were asked to sing.  “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.”  There was no joy in their heart.  The Psalmist also said “restore unto me the joy of my salvation.”  In the prison house at midnight Paul and Silas were able to sing praises to God.

God is also our provision.  He will provide for all that you need.  All that you need and all that you want may be 2 different things.  As we go into a New Year let’s put God first in our fellowship and in our lives – ask the Lord to be first in our lives.  If he is not Lord of all he is not Lord at all.