The Call to Servanthood

I. Hymn Practice and Opening Prayer (00:00)

We learned the first two lines of a hymn yesterday

Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, thou fount of

Light the hope of men Let’s sing it together. Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts. Thou fount of life. Thou

light of men. And the rest of that first verse is, if I can remember it

From the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to thee again. From the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to thee again

Let’s start at the beginning. Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, thou fount of life, thou light of men. From the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to thee again. All right, we’ll do it tomorrow again. Let’s pray together. Jesus, you are the joy of our hearts You are what makes sense of life Without you, without your crucifixion love and your resurrection life, and the Spirit whom you have sent, life is meaningless.

But with you, with you, there is joy, there is hope, there is purpose. Thank you. So we ask you today again to come and to teach us from your Word. Teach us what we each need to hear. Thank you for that glorious beauty of your Holy Spirit, that you can speak to each of our hearts, and that we each can hear a word designed for us alone.

Thank you. In your name we pray, amen. The first– Yeah, you can have your phone back. Thank you. The first section, as we defined it yesterday, and I hope you can see it on your handout there. By the way, uh, those handouts cost Joy Griffin about a dollar and a half a piece. So, uh, the basket is here, and if you picked one up and can spare a dollar and a half, that would be a good place to put it.

“But with you, with you, there is joy, there is hope, there is purpose.”

II. Judgment and Hope in Isaiah 1–5 (02:58)

The first section that we defined yesterday is the call to servanthood. Now, one of the principles of Bible study is observation. You gotta see what is there. And if you don’t see it, you can’t interpret it. So when we look at these first five chapters, one of the things we see is what can be defined as interchange.

That is A, B, A, B, back and forth between two ideas. And what we see in this chapter, or in this section, is an interchange between judgment and hope. And there’s no transition between them. You go from one to the other like crossing railroad tracks. So chapter one, we’re gonna look at in more detail in just a moment.

Chapter one shows us this interchange, but chapter one ends with judgment. If you’ve got your Bible, and by the h- way, you need to bring your Bible, we’re gonna work through the text as we do this week. Verse thirty of chapter one: “You’ll be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water. The mighty man will become tinder, his work a spark.

Both of them will burn together with no one to quench the fire.” Judgment. Then chapter two This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains. It’ll be exalted above the hills. All the nations will stream to it.

Huh? We went from a withered garden that’s set on fire to all the nations coming to Jerusalem, and we’re gonna be told in the next verses to learn his Torah.

“How can this Israel ever become that Israel?”