Inspiration in Isaiah: The Glory of God

In the now-famous words of Rick Warren, “It’s not about you.” Life is not about us. We come into this world as the most self-centered of creatures: a newborn baby. Our only thought is for ourselves: feed me; change me; rock me; cuddle me. But as we grow up, and encounter others, we discover that we are not the center of the universe. Unfortunately, many of us never do grow up beyond the self-centeredness of our infancy. We still expect our friends, and our spouse to meet our needs. We shop for churches, and leave churches, based on whether they meet our needs or not. And worst of all, some of us continue that same self-centered mind-set into our relationship with God. We come to Jesus because we want Him to save us, to heal us, to help us find a boyfriend, to give us a job, etc.

But right there, we run into a brick wall. Because, as committed as God is to us, life is not about us; it’s about Him. He is the center of the universe, not us. And He is not going to bend His purposes, or change His ways just to suit us.

Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet who delivered this message in a powerful way to the people of Israel and Judah. Let’s look at what He had to say to them, and to us.

What do you want out of life? What is your highest goal, your greatest priority? If you could have just one thing, what would it be? Does it have something to do with your needs, your wants, your desires and preferences? Or is it about God?

When the Bible speaks about the name of God, it means all that God is. His name is a symbol for Himself, not just a name tag pinned on His robe. Renown here means memory, remembrance, memorial; it’s what God is and does that make people remember Him. In the context of the Old Testament, the primary thing that made God memorable was the Exodus, and all the miraculous events surrounding that. In the New Testament, the focus of what makes God memorable is on the salvation won through the death and resurrection of Christ, leading His people out of slavery to sin. Verse 9 is essentially a rephrasing of v.8—I long for you, I yearn for more of you, I long for you to do those things that will cause you to be remembered forever. I want you to be famous!

Is that your prayer? What do you really want? What do you want more than anything for yourself? Do you find yourself saying, “Lord, I want more of you”? “Your name—all that you are—and your fame are the desire of my heart! I want to be closer to you, and I want you to do those things that will cause people to remember you for generations to come. I want to see your name on the front page of the paper, in the evening news, on the lips of patrons of every coffee shop in the country. Your name and renown are the desire of my heart!” How I long for God to purify my heart and my desires so that I want what He wants, above everything else.

At the time of this prophecy, Israel was in a precarious peace, but had been through some rough times, and more were ahead. The point of v.12 is that whenever they were at peace, it was because of the work of God. In the New Testament, our peace comes through our relationship with Jesus Christ, and that is available to us even in the midst of very troubling circumstances. This is the “peace of God, which transcends all understanding”, because it is not based on the external circumstances of our lives, but is the direct result of God working in our hearts.

The general principle is in v.12: “All that we have accomplished, you have done for us.” A specific example of that is in v.15: In years past, especially under David and Solomon, God had indeed enlarged the borders of the nation of Israel. At the height of Israel’s glory days under Solomon, the kingdom was about four times as large as it had been under Saul.[1] What Isaiah is reminding them here is that this was the work of God, not the powerful accomplishment of their kings.

The Apostle Paul said the same thing about his many accomplishments: 1 Cor. 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” This is an interesting passage, because Paul acknowledges that he worked extremely hard to do what he did; in fact, he claims he worked harder than any of the other apostles. But at the end of the day, he knows in his heart that anything that he accomplished was not due to his hard work, but to the grace of God that was with him.

If we are honest, we will say the same thing. We work hard, we plan, and prepare, and organize, and execute our plans as well as we can; we do everything we can to raise our kids well to know and love the Lord; we try to be the best husband or wife we can be; we give of our time and effort to serve the kingdom of God, both in and outside of the church. But at the end of it all, we know that if we have done anything worthwhile, it is because of God. The goofs are ours; the glory is His. So we say with Isaiah in v. 13, “Your name alone do we honor.” We are tempted to pat ourselves on the back, but we know that’s undeserved. We often honor people in ways that make it sound like they did something great, as when you kindly say nice things to the preacher about the sermon; but he knows (even if you do not) that if it was good, it was because of God. God’s name alone is worthy of honor. He alone should get the credit for everything we do.

A second reason Isaiah gives us for why God is glorious is because He is the only God.

There are lots of contenders for the role of God, aren’t there? Nebuchadnezzar demanded that his subjects worship a golden image of himself; some of the Caesars insisted that they were divine; many tyrants through the ages have acted as though they thought they were God. Demonic spirits empower false religions in an effort to get people to worship them. In our materialistic society, we worship money, and power, and pleasure as false gods. But by definition, there is only one supreme being, only one God above all gods, only one who is “most high”, and His name is Yahweh. So God says through Isaiah, 45:5,6, “I am the LORD –Yahweh--, and there is no other. “

God tells us some other things about Himself in these passages that make Him glorious: He says He is the first and the last. He was here before anything else existed, and He will be here long after everything created has passed away. You and I come and go; He brackets all of existence.

He also points out that no one else is like Him in His ability to predict the future. He kind of throws down a challenge to anyone else: Go ahead, try to foretell the future; see if you can. No one but God can do that, because He exists outside of time; He sees the end from the beginning. We live life on a time line, but God exists above that line, and can see the whole span of time at once.

And then He mentions His amazing compassion and mercy and grace. He says He is going to strengthen His people for the trials they will have to face, even though they have not acknowledged Him. They rejected Him, ignored Him, put themselves and their own interests first (as we have done), but God in His grace is going to help them so that men from the east to the west will know that He is the only God. What other “god” have you ever heard of who treats his people like that? The gods of the neighboring peoples to ancient Israel were not that merciful. The gods of the Greek and Roman pantheon certainly had no compassion on their worshipers. What about the gods of Islam, or Hinduism, or other cults today? Do they continue to bless their followers even when those people ignore them and turn away from them? No, this is the mark of the one, true, glorious God. Yahweh is His name.

Because there is no other, God gets jealous when we worship other things as gods.

Way back in Exodus 20, when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and gave them the Ten Commandments, He said, Exodus 20:3,5, "You shall have no other gods before me…[5] You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.”

To understand this, you have to remember the way God described His relationship with Israel. Among other images, He often used the picture of being their divine Husband. Jeremiah was God’s spokesman who charged the people with being unfaithful to Him, with committing spiritual adultery. We often think of jealousy as a negative trait, but when a man and woman are married, they have made an exclusive commitment to each other. It is right and proper for a husband to be jealous of his wife if he suspects her of being unfaithful to him, or for a wife to be jealous of her husband who may be drooling more over pornography than her. So God is properly jealous of us when our allegiance and affection wander to other “gods”.

No one else is worthy of the honor and praise that we rightfully give to Him. He insists He will not give His glory to another, or His praise to idols, because they do not deserve it. As we read earlier, “Your name alone do we honor.” God is glorious, no other. God is holy, no other. God is omniscient, foretelling the future from the past, no other. God is compassionate and merciful to those who refuse to acknowledge Him, no other. So only He is worthy of the glory and honor we give Him.

V. Why Does God Do What He Does? Isaiah 43:25; 48:9-11. Cf. 1 Samuel 12:22; 2 Samuel 7:21; Psalm 23:3; 25:11; 31:3; 79:9; 106:8; 109:21; 143:11; Isaiah 37:35; 42:21; 43:25; 48:9; 48:11; Jeremiah 14:7; 14:21; Ezekiel 20:9; 20:14; 20:22; 20:44; 36:22; 36:32; Daniel 9:17; 9:19; Romans 1:5.

We might tend to say that He does these things because He loves us, or He has mercy on us, etc. That is true, but that is not the whole truth. The Bible gives a different, and surprising, answer to this question.

Isn’t that interesting? It’s not about us. Here are just three examples of things God does: He forgives us ; He delays His wrath, holds it back from His people so as not to cut them off; He refines us and develops our character. And in each case, He does these things not so much for us, as for the sake of His own fame and reputation. He’s not about to let others defame Him by saying evil of Him, by saying that He is vengeful, and angry, and harsh in His discipline of His children. He will not let others get the glory that He deserves by acting out of character. So He always does that which will bring Himself the greatest glory—including things that are good for us.

Jonathan Edwards has a long list of Scriptures showing that this is the ultimate reason God does everything: to maximize His glory, to demonstrate to all creation that He is the glorious One. On your outline, I have listed a number of passages that say God is doing something “for His sake”.

Isaiah tells us our very creation was for the sake of God’s glory. In Isaiah 43, we have a passage that was written to the exiles in Babylon. God predicted that they would be taken into captivity, and then addressed those who would later wind up there. He promises to bring them back from captivity, and to restore them in their own land once again. Along the way, He says something about who these people are to Him.

He is speaking of His people, His sons and daughters, His chosen ones. These are all phrases that are applied to believers in Christ, so what He says about them is also true of us. We were formed for God, that we might proclaim His praise; we were created for His glory.

The French have a phrase that applies here: raison d’être, reason for being. What is your raison d’être, your reason for existing? Why are you here? How would you go about justifying your existence on earth? Many might point to the helpful things they do at work, providing some needed service or product; parents could point to the fact that they are caring for their children, raising them to be contributing members of society; others might say that their existence is justified by their ministry for Christ. But this is the bottom line: every believer in Christ was created “for God”; “for Him”, not for ourselves, or our children, or even our society. We exist for God’s purposes and pleasure.

I want you to think about that for a minute. What does it mean to you that you were created “for Him”, and not for yourself? You exist to proclaim His praise, to enhance His reputation, His glory, to make God famous. What are the implications of that?

Well, to begin with, it means that our time, and our money, and our effort, is not our own. We can’t just spend these resources the way we want, on whatever interests or pleases us, because that’s not why we were made. Now we have to think about how to use those resources in the ways that will best accomplish our raison d’être. Many of you give unselfishly of your time to serve God in various volunteer positions in the community and in the church, but some of you are just plain selfish with your time. You never think about what God may want you to do with your free time—you just spend it on your hobbies, or watching TV, or playing video games, or whatever.

Some of you never stop to consider what God may want from you in terms of your budget; you just spend whatever you’ve got on your own interests, going out to eat, more gear, nice vacations, etc. And the many of you who are pinching your pennies to provide for your kids—do you ever ask if the things and experiences you are buying for them are part of God’s plan for them?

Folks, we do not exist for our own sake. We exist for God. We were created by Him, we were re-created in Christ by Him, and now our whole reason for being here is to make Him famous. Life is not about you. It’s about Him.

Here is a prayer that expresses this well. Let’s pray this together, as an act of worship.

Lord, I'm Yours. Whatever the cost may be, may Your will be done in my life. I realize I'm not here on earth to do my own thing, or to seek my own fulfillment or my own glory. I'm not here to indulge my desires, to increase my possessions, to impress people, to be popular, to prove I'm somebody important, or to promote myself. I'm not here even to be relevant or successful by human standards. I'm here to please You.

I offer myself to You, for You are worthy. All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to You. I'm Yours by creation, and every day I receive from You life and breath and all things. And I'm Yours because You bought me, and the price You paid was the precious blood of Christ. You alone, the Triune God, are worthy to be my Lord and Master. I yield to You, my gracious and glorious heavenly Father; to the Lord Jesus who loved me and gave himself for me; and to the Holy Spirit and His gracious influence and empowering.

I give You any rebellion in me, that resists doing Your will. I give You my pride and self-dependence, that tell me I can do Your will in my own power if I try hard enough. I give You my fears, that tell me I'll never be able to do Your will in some areas of life. I consent to let You energize me, to create within me, moment by moment, both the desire and the power to do Your will.

I give You my body, and each of its members. I give you my entire inner being: my mind, my emotional life, my will. I give you my loved ones, my marriage or my hopes for marriage, my abilities and gifts, my strengths and weaknesses, my health, my status (high or low), my possessions, my past, my present and my future. I give you the whole matter of when and how I'll go Home.

[1] See Maps 4 and 5 in NIV Study Bible, Zondervan, 1985.

[2] Adapted from Ruth Myers, 31 Days of Praise