The New Normal, C R Oliver [most read book in the world .TXT] 📗

The New Normal
Isaiah 40-42

Introduction:

Across the nation, trade magazines and trade shows are defining, for their clients, "the new normal." Each of them taunts the reality that neither the nation nor its people are the same after 2008. Satisfaction with reduced sales, tighter company policies and continued searches for new directions are a constant format for retailers.

Nothing can be counted on to resemble the "old line of thinking." Suggestions have ranged from "green" merchandizing to streamlined internet combined with "direct customer" combinations.

Everything seems to be "up for grabs" as economies struggle to cope with debt and extremism. (Threats that have never been seen before in history (because of the scale of the capabilities for assault on a nation or a people) plus a populous which is growing more dependent on large national programs as opposed to personal initiative.) Great struggles exist from the encroachment of government into private lives and into every arena of social posturing from education, to religion, to family life.

There is a cry for help from the Hezekiah's of the world (if there are any remaining). The people, who are writhing in disorder and the threat of chaos, cry out, "Help Me." In answer to this cry, God's response is rapid.

Listen now to the opening lines of Isaiah 40 and acknowledge within your psyche the need you have for God to speak these words to you and your situation. It is, of course, made famous through Handel's Messiah.

Isaiah 40:1
'Comfort, yes, comfort My people!'
Says your God.

Beginning with this chapter and going to the end of Isaiah's work, "Comfort" is the theme.

In a day where events are changing so rapidly man is unable to cope---it is time to single out God's people and be about the work of "Comforting them."

God focuses on Jerusalem to begin with. The following verses may well apply to a future time-- which may yet be experienced by that ancient city. (Many commentators say it refers to the return of Judah from their Babylonian captivity.)

Isaiah 40:2
'Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the LORD's hand
Double for all her sins.'

Jerusalem, the target of Assyria in Chapter 39, is now the recipient of pardon and release. Certainly this is not the Jerusalem returning after a 70 year captivity in Babylon and yet to be sacked by Rome and burned in 70 AD? Surely this is not a promise to Israel as it rises from the dust in 1948 which has been a continual target by Islam? Jerusalem has had many brief reprieves from warfare, but there must be a time to come referred to here, when the New Jerusalem rests over it and Jesus reigns supreme.

In the greater plan of God, Jerusalem, under the reign of Christ, receives eternal comfort. God desires to give His people rest. He desires to embrace His people and let them know that, as Father, He has everything in tow. The song says, "Publish Glad tidings, tidings of peace, tidings of Jesus, Redemption and Release."

Here, God is re-introducing Himself to His people in these ensuing chapters. He is also revealing the principles which act as guidelines for His actions. Clearly these two themes surface during the unfolding of these next twenty-six chapters.

One of the repeated themes therein is, "Remember, I am the great Creator."

Over and again, He returns to being the Creator, starting with Isaiah 40:12 and onward. (A separate study could be made of all the Biblical references to God as Creator. Starting with the Genesis account, through Job, through the prophets, through the N.T. preachers like Stephen, Paul, Peter and their writings, they all touch the Rock of Creation as their creedal foundation. [See: for example, Isaiah 40:12-28].)

Because this is a vision of future events stretching over thousands of years, it should not be a shock to see a seven hundred year leap to the forerunner of the Christ. He clearly speaks about the ministry of John, the Baptizer. (Because John's ministry follows immediately the passage on comforting Jerusalem, this may be a composite vision applying to the time of Jesus.) Matthew 3 clearly states John's fulfillment of what is called, "the Voice."

Crying out against the religious citadel of that day, he called for a baptism of repentance. Had he never been known as "John, the Baptizer," he would have been known as, "the Voice."

Isaiah 40:3-5
The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
"Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert 
A highway for our God. 
4 Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight 
And the rough places smooth; 
5 The glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

John was anointed from his mother's womb. He knew his calling from birth, and he grew into that calling through the promise of God --"the mouth of the Lord has spoken it."

Luke 3:1-6
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying:

"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight. 
5 Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight 
And the rough ways smooth; 
6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

(I believe there are those of us who knew their calling before they were of age. I remember preaching to neighbors kids at age 5. As an infant, I was dedicated by James Cass Oliver to belong to the Lord and he prayed, "Let this boy go where I could never go." James was an old time Texan, horseback riding, gun toting, Baptist preacher, who planted churches in West Texas, many times preaching in saloons.) Oh, that there would rise up a modern Voice in this wilderness of a world.

Jesus said that of all the prophets, John was more than a prophet. His work was to make smooth the way and take down the barriers to Jesus' ministry. This formidable task, against the establishment of government and religion, was never easy and caused his death. Please note in the Luke passage that God by-passed every governmental and religious figure of John's day to plant His word in "the Voice." (I have a message I once preached entitled, "Past Kings and Priests." God often "by passes" the most popular, most equipped according to world standards, to anoint someone on the back side of nowhere to be His Spokesperson.)

Mathew 11:7-24
As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. 9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 10 For this is he of whom it is written:

"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.'

11 "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. 15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
16 "But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, 17 and saying:

"We played the flute for you,
And you did not dance;
We mourned to you,
And you did not lament."

18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' 'But wisdom is justified by her children.'

(Gen 19:12-14; Luke 10:13-15)

Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done because they did not repent: 21 "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." 

(Ravenhill: Sodom Had No Bible!)

In the following verses, the salvation of God was being revealed in His Son--God said it would happen and it did. Oh, the labor of our lips and the work of our body should be in preparing the way of the Lord in these days. Instead of erecting barriers, we should be pointing to smoothed out highways. Our efforts should be in line with His purposes, it is our voices which should be crying, "What Shall I Cry?"

Isaiah 40:6-8
The voice said, 'Cry out!'
And he said, 'What shall I cry?'

'All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass. 
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.'

If then, verse 8 was Isaiah's total message, for it brought so much truth with it--that every promise of God in the Bible bore down on that foundation. "The word of OUR GOD STANDS FOREVER!". Every encouragement, every assignment of His Word will never falter or fail to reach its destination. Though generations' will blossom and then fade like the grass of the earth, His word remains. What the early church depended upon can still be depended on. His word stands Forever!

The strong message of glad tidings from Zion contained three words: "Behold Your God."

Isaiah 40:9
9 O Zion,
You who bring good tidings,
Get up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem,
You who bring good tidings,
Lift up your voice with strength,
Lift it up, be not afraid;
Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"

It is time to say to the cities of the world, "Behold your God." Look how different God is from the way He has been presented. Look at how tender and caring He is toward those who are in His flock. Somehow there needs to be a stalwart group who will rise up and declare the true God in the churches of the world. They, like the religious system of John's day,