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Awake, Awake, O Arm of the LORD!
(ISAIAH 51:9-16)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? 10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 11 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

 

1. [v.9-11] *Biblical principle – “WAKE UP, GOD!” – Calling for His Strong Arm: Calling upon the LORD to awake is purposed to wakeup ourselves from our slumber, recalling His strong arm that leaves us to ask, “Was it not you…?” The LORD does not need to be woken up, for He has never fallen asleep (Psalm 121:4). Rather, we are the ones who are asleep, in slumber, and need to wake up from assuming He has been inactive to hear or help us. God’s people at the time had been hopeless in His deliverance, asleep to His powerful arm that moved to deliver them in the past from the pride of Pharaoh, described as “Proud One” (=Rahab [Isaiah 30:7]) and “dragon” (Ezekiel 29:3). Although his pride chased them to the sea, it was the LORD’s mighty arm that dried up the sea, making a path for the redeemed to pass over. Call upon the LORD to awake, for you yourself to awake, with gladness and joy, to His powerful arm!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – When have we desperately called for God to wake up? Was it God who needed to be woken up, or you who had fallen asleep?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – The LORD desires to pierce our prideful and anxious desperation that labels Him asleep. When God appears asleep in our times of desperation, how should our reactions of “sorrow and sighing” be warnings to awake ourselves? In all circumstances, how can we awake to reactions of “everlasting joy upon our heads…. obtaining gladness and joy” in His presence? Share a time when God awakened you to give thanks, rejoice, and pray no matter what the circumstance you found yourself in (see 1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)?

 
12 “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, 13 and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? 14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.

 

1. [v.12-14] *Biblical principle – SNOOZING HIS ALARM – Forgetting His Comforting Arm: The LORD’s response for Him to wake up is to assure us that He has never fallen asleep. He has remained our promised comfort and Creator while we have consistently forgotten Him by fearing man and things in creation. Like pressing the snooze button constantly after the alarm has rung, God’s people were consistently forgetful in their spiritual slumber. He had promised to be their rock of comfort (Isaiah 51:1-3), turning their wilderness back into a garden again. Yet it was the trials and oppression along the way that made them waver from the LORD. They continually set their fear on their captors – the Babylonians – and lost hope in being delivered. Some even preferred life in Babylon over hoping in God’s promised return to their homeland. Snoozing numbs the soul to remember. Stop snoozing! Start arising to His alarm!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – God is always awake and at work within us, around us, ahead of us, for our greatest good and His highest glory. Yet at times, we “snooze” His work, delaying it or forgetting it in our lives. When have you “snoozed” God, asking for Him to come back another time or not come back at all? How are you deferring the work of God by fearing things of creation?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – When the time came for the release of God’s people after 70 years in Babylonian captivity, a large portion of the people did not want to be freed. Instead, they wanted to stay in Babylon under their new rulers (the Persians) because they had grown comfortable to life in a foreign land/language, treated fairly well by their newer captors, and had forgotten God’s word to return them back to their home. In addition, the prospect of the long and difficult journey back home to a ruined city with nothing left for them was daunting and unappealing. Many did not want the added task of rebuilding the demolished temple for worship nor the crumbled city walls. What and where is your “Babylon” – your bed that you have refused to wake up and move out to do what the LORD asks of you? What is the “Babylon” that makes you settle for the prosperity of here and now, cancelling out the narrow road to life with Jesus as something too daunting and unappealing because there’s nothing in it for you? Where are the ruined temples of worship and walls of God’s protection we need to stop delaying and starting rebuilding in our lives?

 
15 I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

 

1. [v.15-16] *Biblical principle – [v.15-16] “WAKE UP, CHURCH!” – Covered in His Arm: Like the stirring up of the sea so that its waves roar, the LORD stirs us to wake up from our slumber – not uncovered, but covered – by His promised Word to roar them through our mouth. If we know the LORD has always been awake, and His alarm has gone out to comfort and deliver us, it must move us to arise from our slumber. He stirs us and shakes us to wake up, as He does the sea as it awakes with the roar of its waves. The LORD stirred up His people to move out of captivity in the past. He still does the same today. We arise out of slumber and sleep, fully clothed with His shadow – His image – on us with the words He put in our mouth. Only those awake can roar the words that He has become our God, and we have become His people. Only those He has awakened are stirred up to speak what comes from the power of His arm covering them!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – What are you “stirred up” by? What does God need to “stir up” to get your attention and wake up to His presence, like He stirs up the sea so that its waves roar?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – In the movie “Inception,” the “totem” was an object that could show you if you were still in the dream world or back in the real world. For us, this is the Word of God. When God’s Word remains closed, what dream world are you living in? When God’s Word stays open, what real world is before you? How can we be God-dreamers instead of daydreamers? Read the following Scriptures:
      1. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. (LUKE 21:36)
      2. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:6-11)

 
The central truth of this word was –
Will each new morning of 2024 awaken you to more of His strong arm at work in your life? Let us set our alarms aright – not for God to wake up to our needs, but for us to wake up to His ways. Call upon the LORD’s strength which He is working in you and has worked for you, even from the days of His overwhelming power over Pharaoh’s pride in ancient Egypt, to the way He made by drying up the sea for the redeemed to pass over. Stop snoozing the alarm of His Word ringing to get your attention. Snoozing strengthens forgetting. Do not forget Your Creator who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth! He remains as Your promised Comforter and Deliverer from all oppression! His arm destroys the fear of anything in fallen creation. When we bow down to Creator and not creation, the LORD stirs us up to be freed from our slumber with the roar of His Word indwelling us. Awake, O soul, for your LORD God is not asleep!

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)

Listen to Me! Look to the Rock! (ISAIAH 51)
1.[v.1-3] Look Back: “Listen to me… Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you”
2.[v.4-6] Look Up:
      A.[v.4-5] to My Righteousness: “Give attention to me… My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out”
    B.[v.6] to the Vanishing Heavens: “Lift up your eyes to the heavens… for the heavens vanish like smoke”
3.[v.7-8] Look Out: “Listen to me, you who know righteousness… fear not the reproach of man”

 
Listen to Me! Look to the Rock!
(ISAIAH 51:1-8)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. 3 For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

1. [v.1-3] *Biblical principle – LISTEN, LOOK BACK: Listening to God in what He has done in the past is the gift of His promised comfort to joyfully live out the present and future. Listening to God is far more critical than speaking to God, for the only right thing to say before Him (and to one another) is rooted first in what is heard from Him. God’s people, who were presently in a period of darkness, had to learn to listen to the LORD again. The call to listen meant to look. Therefore, listening is not passive action, but active obedience. If the people truly heard and listened to the LORD, they were to look back to how God had formed them through an aging Abraham and barren Sarah. He had created them from a hopeless condition. He had multiplied one promised son (Isaac) into a multitude of people. He had turned their wilderness into His garden of Eden again. Comfort was found in Him. All who look back to what He has done will hear it and have it. Joy and thankfulness will be their song!
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – How is listening not a passive action but active obedience before God? How did Abraham model this for us in Genesis 22, when God tested and removed the treasure of his heart – his son, his only son, whom he loved, Isaac? That day, God prevented Abraham from offering Isaac’s life as a burnt offering, yet who did Father God not withhold in giving up as a sin offering for you and me? So, how did God listen to the brokenness of our lives entangled in sin?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Where is God calling you to look back but not turn back? What do you hear from there? Look back to Abraham and Sarah – By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore... By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back (Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19). What do you hear? How were their graves turned into gardens of Eden (=God’s delight/pleasure) again?

 
4 “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

1. [v.4-6] *Biblical principle – LISTEN, LOOK UP: The ears that listen back to what God has done will move the eyes to look up to who God is eternally – our righteousness and salvation that never vanishes. Listening to God causes us to look away from ourselves and look up to His words and ways. When our ears are tuned to hear Him, our eyes will follow to see His righteousness drawing near instead of our own and His salvation going out for us instead of living to save ourselves. Now, His law – His Word – is righteous instead of unfair or unjust. He is the light we wait upon and welcome to shine upon us instead of avoid or repel away in shame. Listening to the LORD lifts up our heads to see His righteousness that cover us and saves us despite our own unrighteous estate. When our eyes are lifted up to Him, only what is eternal matters. In our eyes, there is no more glistening treasure in the vanishing heavens above or earth below, except the righteousness and salvation gifted in Jesus Christ.
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Listening can either lift up/perk up your head or it can put down/hide away your head. Which one is happening before these words of the Lord? Do we wait to look up for His righteousness (=His justice, His faithfulness, His innocence, His judgments) to be revealed or look away for Him to come another day? Are we growing in longing to say, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!” or “Not now… stay away, Lord Jesus, stay away”?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – We can either look up to the vanishing heavens (and earth) or look farther up to our imperishable LORD. How far have you looked up in your listening of His Word? Are you putting a glass ceiling on the endless heavens of God’s voice? Is listening to God like wearing out an old garment? Or have you heard and looked up to see this salvation so forever great and righteousness that never dismays?

 
7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”

1. [v.7-8] *Biblical principle – LISTEN, LOOK OUT: When God’s righteousness becomes ours in Christ Jesus, we can fearlessly listen and step into His future, even in the face of criticism and discouragement. If our eyes have looked up to behold the LORD, they also must look out to the path He has given in our active obedience before Him. The discouraged people of God were called to press on fearlessly in the face of their captivity, to trust in His deliverance and not let the reproach or revilings of man affect them, for these would vanish one day like an old garment. They were to keep His law in their hearts and press forward fearlessly in the path God had carved out for them. We too can step into this fearless listening and obeying of the LORD in the face of anything that comes our way, fearing God above anything else. The strength of His Word in our hearts is more than able to carry us through this journey!
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – There is a cost to listening to God. It will invoke fear. It will bring conviction to our core. It will floor us to something unnatural and uncomfortable. Certainly, there will be consequences to listening and obeying His voice from the outside. Yet by this, we advance in our walk with Jesus. How do you know you are truly listening to Jesus today? How are you listening and obeying the guide of the holy Spirit today? What is the cost you are counting for it?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – The twin towers that cause us to look back instead of look out and press on in the LORD is “reproach” and “revilings.” The fear of disappointment/disapproval of others (reproach) and the discouragement of criticism/insults (revilings) from others is a real struggle both inside and outside the church. How can we guard our hearts from both with His law in our hearts? How can we look forward and press on toward the goal of growing into Christlikeness and extending His salvation to lost souls through our lives on mission with Jesus? Read the following Scriptures:
      1. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:16-17)
      2. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)
      3. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)
      4. Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; (James 1:19)
      5. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. (Proverbs 12:15)

 
The central truth of this word was –
As the new year 2024 is in full swing, let us hear from the LORD clearly, learning to strengthen our listening of His Word and the guide of His holy Spirit in our lives. To listen to Him is to look at Him. God calls us to turn our ears to listen and our eyes to see our everlasting Rock from which we were cut-out, the quarry from which we were dug-up. We press forward into 2024 by pressing back on our ears so prone to not hear, our eyes so prone to wander, from the unchanging Rock in ever-changing new time. Look back to Abraham, Sarah, and all the flawed men and women of faith that listened to the LORD rather than the counsel of man (Hebrews 11). Look up to His righteousness and salvation for you. Give attention to what cannot vanish but lasts forever – His law in our hearts. Look out to press on, fearlessly listening to His Word, obeying Him above all else. May Jesus say of us, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:16).

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)

 
I Have Set My Face like a Flint
(ISAIAH 50:7-11)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
7 But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

1. [v.7] *Biblical principle – IMMOVABLE FLINT: Like streaks of immovable flint rock trapped between sediments of towering stone in the Judean wilderness, the face of Jesus was immovably set towards Jerusalem at the cross for the joy of bringing you to Father God (Hebrews 12:2): Jesus was resolutely unshakable in His mission – to give His back to those who strike, give His cheeks to those who pulled His beard, give His face to those who disgracefully spit. Like flint rock that cannot be removed in sediments of stone, Jesus’ face never moved away from the earthly shame and sufferings of the cross. Yet by the LORD’s help, He was not disgraced nor shamed, but rather vindicated for His perfect obedience and sacrifice for our sins. So Jesus has never looked-off of you. Are you moved by His immovability? Set your face to Jesus!
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – In honor/shame culture of biblical times, shame was to be avoided on the face at all costs (known today as “save-face”) in order to preserve being honored. Yet, how does Jesus show the way to truly “save” our face? Was the face of Jesus “saved” by avoiding shame or bearing shame? In what ways has your face avoided shame in following Jesus? In what ways have you welcomed shame in following Jesus?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Our sin nature is set on shaming ourselves, shaming one another, and shaming God. With the Lord God’s help, we can overcome all three of these shaming ways like Jesus did. How do you need to repent in these three areas? Shame is hard to look at, but does the face of Jesus move away/turn away like us? How is the immovable flint-like face of Jesus helping you not turn away from shame, but use shame to bring glory to God through Christ-exalting confession and testimony? With godly discretion, wisdom, and discernment, confess the shame that Jesus has delivered you from that brings glory up to the Savior and joy down to the saved.

 
8 He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

1. [v.8-9] *Biblical principle – IMPERISHABLE FLINT: Like flint rock that cannot perish over time, the face of Jesus remains imperishably unblemished, without guilt nor defeat from unjust prosecutors nor adversaries, because the LORD vindicated Jesus by raising Him from the dead forever: Jesus can never fade away nor become worn out like an old garment. He is immortal as the very substance of eternal God. No one can contend to stand up and over Jesus. No one can be an adversary equal with Jesus. No one can get away with declaring Jesus guilty. Everyone’s face will become blemished with perishable existence, but the face of Jesus continues to eternity without a single blemish. Because we were in danger of perishing, the imperishable Jesus put on perishable humanity to show the way to Father God. Is your face turned that way?
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – What perishables are you afraid to stand up against because they have become such a contender in your life next to Jesus? What perishables have you allowed to defeat you as a stronger adversary next to the still stronger Jesus? With a tight grip on your perishables, how is your face accusing Jesus as guilty, inadequate, a failure, at fault, deficient, limited, weak, defective, constraining, or flawed?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – If the perishables perish, why do we keep holding on to them and what eventually happens (like perishable food) when they expire? What is the worn-out garment you are still wearing, where your face still thrills with excitement for? When we look into the imperishable flint-like face of Jesus, what happens to our rotten, smelly, blemished/stained, worn garments? How can we throw away our perishables, stop covering-up our blemishes to preserve our own self-image and secrecy, look-off ourselves to behold the unperishing beauty of what is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ? What does a life look like that is face-to-face with this unperishing beauty of Jesus Christ?

 
10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.
11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.

1. [v.10-11] *Biblical principle – ILLUMINATING FLINT: Like the luster shine of flint rock alongside its power to produce fire when struck together with steel, the face of Jesus illumines the way to walk, even into our present darkness, guided by the fire of His voice calling us to trust and obey Him: In the darkness of Babylonian captivity, the people had to trust that God was going to deliver them. This was the illuminating light He was shining forth to His people. Yet instead of listening to His voice and following His light, they kindled for themselves their own fire, equipped themselves with torches, and walked by the light of their own illumination. The only end that awaited them was torment. Let us discern which fire is warming us, which voice is guiding us, which light is illumining us to walk. Our kindled fires will burn us and harm us, while God’s fire will heal us and guide us, even through this present darkness.
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” When we walk in the light of Christ, His Word is a lamp to our near-sighted next step on foot as well as far-sighted long distance by path. Walking in His light means to fear the LORD and obey the voice of His servant Jesus. How is your fearing of the LORD and obedience to Christ illuminating both your next step and long-distance path?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – How has your own kindled light and fire burned and harmed you? How has God’s light and fire healed and guided you? How can we discern which light is illuminating us to walk? A central work of the holy Spirit is illumination. We cannot understand spiritual truth by our own efforts or knowledge, but only when the Spirit illuminates His Word into our minds and hearts. Ephesians 1:17-18 says, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” How is the Spirit’s illuminating glow being a teacher, corrector, trainer, reprover/admonisher, even rebuker, warning you of your own kindled light?

 
The central truth of this word was –
Into the new year 2024, where will your face be set? Jesus set His face resolutely to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), to bear your sins in His body at the cross, for the joy of bringing you to God. Like an immovable flint rock, nothing can turn the face of Jesus away from you. Like a flint rock that cannot perish, the face of Jesus did not grow old, wrinkly, and defeated. Instead, He conquered His perishable enemies and remained unblemished as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Like flint rock that shines and ignites real fire, Jesus’ face speaks the light of God’s words that carries us through the darkness. Won’t you turn your face to His face more and more this new year? Fear Him. Walk courageously into your present darkness, for Your Rock like a flint sees you, goes before you, and is the light to carry you through.

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)