Plans are important not just for us individually, but also when we think about nations. In Singapore, we have a National Day Rally, an annual event that’s always important because of the plans that are introduced. But, apart from the plans, the person is also just as important. The plans being revealed are important, because of the person who is behind the plans. In Isaiah 44, we see a God who speaks to a people in exile. He has a plan for this people, despite their circumstances. 

(A) Redeeming grace returns creation from idolatry (Isa 44:21-23)

Isaiah 44:21 speaks of “these things”. It is important for us to remember the context. God is seeking to remind HIs people in a foreign land. They are not to be like the people described in Isaiah 44:9-20. Instead, they are to remember that God made them and they are His. They are to be clear about who they are and whose they are. They are to live out the theological structure set out here, in contrast to the world’s ideas. 

Isaiah 44:18-22 presents us two groups — God and God’s people contrasted with idolaters and idols. The verses compare and contrast the differences between the two groups, and teach us the conditions necessary for returning to God. God’s people remember (Isa 44:21a), and are meant to have a certain clarity of mind and sharpness. In contrast, idolators do not know, discern, see, or understand (Isa 44:18).

God’s people also know that God forms, not forgets and this is the God that they worship (Isa 44:21b). On the other hand, Isaiah 44:12-15 points out that idols are formed by idolaters. See the irony here. Why work for a God that is the product of your very own hands? Why serve a god who is formed by his people? 

Isaiah 44:2 speaks of a God who delivers by blotting out sin, redeeming and enabling the people’s return to Him. Yet, idolaters and their idols cannot deliver themselves (Isa 44:17,20). Those who persist in their idolatry are “deluded” (c.f. Isa 44:20) as though these things fail, they are still stuck and keep going back. They are entirely powerless to deliver themselves. After all, how can a dead heart save? 

In contrast, God can! Christian, today we know more fully how God has acted swiftly to blot out our sis. Christ has blotted out our transgressions and sins when He bore it on the cross. 

What kind of a God is this? He is a personal, tender God who is also passionate. This is a God who promises that He has not forgotten them, though they are in a foreign land.  Therefore, His people are commanded to “remember”. Notice also that the content of the message is to focus on God. It is a God-centred message. We are to remember that God has redeemed His servants, and will bring them back though they are in exiles. Though they have poured themselves out to serve idols and think that God has forgotten them (c.f. Isa 49), God says that He cannot forget them.

God promises to accomplish a final action. He promises to be glorified, or display His beauty, in Israel (Isa 44:23). This is redemption that commands creation’s praise, and it calls us to look beyond our tiny lives, toward His expansive plans.

But when we read this, we might struggle with a sharp disconnect. We may read these words, but these don’t necessarily describe our Christian experience. Is the joy that we experience one that all creation will share? It goes back to the issue of our heart. Do we think that just because God has saved us, we think that everything centres around us? Yes, we are significant enough that God has died for us and folded us into His plans. But we are also not significant enough for God to just love us (individually) and to only have plans for us (individually). He has much larger plans. 

Do we walk around with a sense of restlessness? We know a sort of restlessness that feeds into a low-grade sense of anxiety or despair. Our hearts, in sin, think that rest will come when we get what we want in life. But here, God’s revelation blows up this idea. Yes, it is true that there is something more, and this is not situated in ourselves. There is beauty and glory beyond our idea and definition. 

These verses in Isaiah is also prompting us to think about how we relate to God and His people. He intends for His glory to be displayed through His people. How then, do we relate to His people? Perhaps tonight, we are to confess and admit that God’s plans for us is not to get the dream job and life that the world tells us we should strive for. We are designed to know Him, and to know Hm and His redeeming grace is so much better, for it is one that all creation sings about. 

(B) Frustrating grace stands sovereign through God’s servant (Isa 44:24-28)

Isaiah 44:24-27 has a series of “who” statements, where the LORD who is Israel’s Redeemer reveals more of Himself as He relates to the world (Isa 44:24b), wisdom in His world (Isa 44:25-26a) and His purposes (Isa 44:26b-27).

Firstly, the LORD, who is their Redeemer and formed them from the womb is also the LORD who is sovereign in salvation and self-sufficient in creating the world (Isa 44:24b). He creates in a way that is unique, and it displays His sovereign power. He creates in a way that is unlike all of us who create. In creation, we see “the perfect wisdom of our God”:

The perfect wisdom of our God
Revealed in all the universe:
All things created by His hand
And held together at His command.
He knows the mysteries of the seas,
The secrets of the stars are His;
He guides the planets on their way
And turns the earth through another day.

What sort of a God creates and holds all things by Himself? A God who is sovereign and wise. He is so proficiently God at doing the things only God can do! 

Secondly, the LORD, who is their Redeemer and formed them from the womb is also the LORD who shows wisdom in His world (Isa 44:25-26a). The LORD who frustrates human wisdom and reveals their foolishness, is the same LORD who guarantees that His word will come to pass through those who bear His name and message. We are to rightly expect that there will be counterfeits but we are not to be discouraged and demoralised. God will sort out what is true. He will reveal them for what they truly are. This is a God who is antagonistic to the wisdom of the world. 

Thirdly, the LORD, who is their Redeemer and formed them from the womb is also the LORD who has His purposes (Isa 44:26b-27). These verses call to mind the action of the Exodus. They show us a God who promises return and rebuilding – He has done it before, and He will do it again. He will bring His purposes to pass. 

In Isaiah 44:28, God says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose.” Cyrus is not the deliverer they want, but it is the deliverer that God has decreed. In so doing, God shows Himself sovereign even over the powers that seem to afflict. 

This is a God of frustrating grace. The people may not understand why He is acting in this way. But remember His goal: to deliver them from their sins and to bring them back to Him. 

God is training His people to renounce the ways of the world and to trust who He is, though His acts may not seem logical or what they expect. This is a people who long for comfort, safety, peace, happiness, fruit and productivity. God comes in and says that His grace works differently. This is the sort of grace that God brings. Have you been frustrated in this sort of way as a Christian? Maybe this has also shown it out in your ministry. Friends, God is so committed to destroy our idols and unshackle ourselves from our own plans. 

They are to trust in Him for He is their Redeemer. They are to be frustrated away from their myopic desire for deliverance from circumstances on their own terms. Remember – the real problem is not captivity in Babylon, but captivity from sin. If they were not prepared for rescue from Babylon by His frustrating ways, how would they be prepared to accept that greater deliverance from sin that completely confounds the world’s wisdom?

Do you know this God of frustrating grace? 

In 2 Chronicles 36:22-23, we read of how God stirred up Cyrus to build Him a house in Jerusalem. In Ezra 1, we read of how God shows Himself true, as God’s people returned to Jerusalem. Indeed, God has shown Himself sovereign through the servant He has chosen for Himself — Cyrus. 

How are we to relate to the LORD of frustrating grace? Later in Isaiah 52:13-53:3, God says that His servant will come in an astonishing way, one that the people would not expect. And years later, who would have thought that the way of deliverance was by way of a Roman Cross? The Lord’s servant is the astonishing one who also sprinkles many nations clean. 

Those that have their ears attuned to His words and hearts softened to receive it are prepared to receive the wisdom of God. Ultimately, He saves by hanging on that cross, that sins will be blotted out forever. When He does that, all creation rejoices. His way is so different from what the world tells us, but His greater, redeeming frustrating grace is better. 

What is God is saying to you through HIs word t oday? How are you experiencing His redeeming, frustrating grace? Whatever it is, take heart, for we are people with hope.

There is a hope that stands the test of time,
That lifts my eyes beyond the beckoning grave,
To see the matchless beauty of a day divine
When I behold His face!
When sufferings cease and sorrows die,
And every longing satisfied.
Then joy unspeakable will flood my soul,
For I am truly home.