Categories: Isaiah, Old Testament, Westminster Confession of Faith, Word of SalvationPublished On: January 24, 2025
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Word of Salvation – January 2025

 

Has God Really Preordained everything?

 

Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on Isaiah 45:1-10 & W.C.F. 3:1

Reading: Matthew 11:20-30, Isaiah 45:1-10, Westminster Confession – art.3:1

Singing:        BoW.102       You, O Lord, are God alone
–                       BoW.033a     O righteous in the Lord, rejoice
–                       BoW.210       Have Your own way, Lord
–                       BoW.170       Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Theme: The preordaining of a ruler to ‘save’ God’s people is evidence of God’s unarguable sovereignty.

 

Introd:  It’s often very hard for us to make sense of what’s happening in the world around us.

What we see day by day are only the outward circumstances… the external events.
But it’s often hard for us to make sense of those events.
That’s true when it comes to big picture stuff like terrorism or the economic downturn.
But it’s just as true with personal issues like sickness and job opportunities.
How does it all fit together?
When we can’t see how it all fits together it can make us depressed?

 

That’s one reason why we should keep our Bible next to our newspaper.

And why we should look at God’s Word before we look at the headlines.
God’s Word repeatedly gives us glimpses behind the scenes.
And those glimpses behind the scenes help us make sense out of life.
That’s true with big picture stuff like natural disasters… and changes in government.
But it’s just as true with personal matters like unemployment and family issues.
God gives us glimpses of how it all fits together.
And because we are given those glimpses it fills us with hope for the future.

 

One Bible passage that gives us some good glimpses behind the scenes is Isaiah 45:1-10.
There we get to see behind the world politics… the politics of God.
Behind the personal life of King Cyrus… we get to see the strong hand of God.
And in those glimpses we see a God who has already worked it all out.
For whom there are no surprises… and no accidents;
who has pre-ordained everything that happens.

 

A]        THE FORE-ORDAINING WORK OF GOD.

 

  1. I want to begin by zeroing in on vs.7 which gets right to the heart of the matter.

It is one of a number of powerful statements in the Bible about the absolute sovereignty of God.

That God is not only in control… but God even makes things happen just as He wishes.
I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster,
I, the Lord, do all these things.

 

Here is a glimpse behind the events of daily life.
God gives us a peek behind international politics… and behind personal happenings.
And we see God holding the reigns… God has the strings in hand.

 

Four things are listed… two pairs of opposites: light and dark… prosperity and disaster…!
And the grammar of the original text implies
that whenever these things happen it is God’s doing.

Light in all its appearances… whether the light of day or the light of salvation…
Darkness in all its forms… whether the darkness of night or the darkness of unbelief…
It’s all in the hands of God.

Prosperity… whether that be the wealth of a nation… or your personal bank account…
or even spiritual prosperity… God is the One who does it.
Disaster… whether it be the defeat of a nation at war… or your unemployment…
or even spiritual disasters… God is the One who holds the strings.
A Sovereign Lord is behind absolutely everything that happens in life.

 

  1. Many people struggle with this teaching of the Bible. Many more blatantly reject it.

Does the Bible really teach this?  Has God really pre-ordained everything?

The Westminster Confession certainly believes that to be the case.  It says:
From all eternity and by the completely wise and holy purpose of His own will,
God has freely and unchangeably ordained whatever happens.

 

Let’s examine this part of the Bible a little more closely then to see if that is indeed the case.

 

Notice in vs.1 that this is part of a message that God told Isaiah to address to a king called Cyrus.
Cyrus was a pagan king; a Persian king.  That tells us two things about God’s sovereignty.

First:  God’s sovereignty is not limited to believers… it is not just concerned with God’s people.
Cyrus is in God’s hand even though it is twice stated that Cyrus does not acknowledge God.
Second: God is also behind those in government… the issue here is international politics.
And God is saying that behind the scenes He is at work making things happen as He wills it.

 

This chapter makes very clear that God is appointing King Cyrus to a special task.
He has been anointed by God’s Spirit to set God’s people free from their captivity in Babylon.
And the Lord is going to make sure it happens by holding Cyrus by his right hand.

From secular history we know that Cyrus the Persian was a successful world conqueror.
Nation after nation fell before him: the Syrians and Assyrians, the Greeks and Egyptians.
Look at those events and on the surface you see a king wise in the ways of war.
From the perspective of the headlines a man who cleverly wielded great power.

But in those opening verses God gives us a view behind the scenes.
It is God who empowers Cyrus to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their armour.
It is God who overrules so that doors are open before him and gates are not shut.
He (God) will break through gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron for Cyrus.
All of that literally happened in 539 BC when his armies captured Babylon.
They diverted the river into a nearby swamp and walked in under the river gates.
Amazingly the inner bronze gates had been left inexplicably unlocked.
Daniel 5 tells how the Medes and Persians took the city from the Babylonians.

 

  1. At this point it is tempting to say: Well, so what? God empowered Cyrus to defeat the Babylonians.

That does not yet prove that God ordained it to be that way beforehand.

It’s one thing for God to intervene in human affairs… it’s another thing to foreordain those events.

 

However God does not just act… He does preordain these events too.
You see, this prophecy was given some 210 years before it actually happened.
Isaiah lived and prophesied long before the Babylonian exile.
And more than two centuries later what God predicted here literally happened:
I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places.

 

So God not only acts in human affairs but He even decrees beforehand that He will do it.
Go back to Isaiah 14 and you’ll see that this truth is confirmed by other Bible texts.
There in Isaiah 14: 24 we read:
Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,           and as I have purposed so it will stand.
Or I think of the words of Psalm 33:11
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever.
the purposes of His heart though all generations.

 

No wonder that the prophet Amos could say: When disaster comes to a city has not the Lord caused it?

That was certainly true of the disaster that befell the city of Babylon in 539 BC.

God did it… sure, God did it through secondary causes… thru Cyrus… but God did it.

 

B]        IS NOT TO BE ARGUED AGAINST BY MAN.

 

  1. This teaching of the Bible causes people immense problems.

For starters these verses have often been dismissed as not really having been written by Isaiah.
Well… at least not the same Isaiah who wrote the first forty chapters.
They claim there were two Isaiahs… or even three.
And of course this chapter must have been written after the return of the exiles from Babylon.

People who believe that even bring up lots of so-called scholarly arguments.
But the bottom line is usually that they don’t believe Isaiah could have predicted this.
How can you possibly predict what will happen in more than two hundred years time?
And then not just in vague and general terms… about Babylon being overthrown.
But very specifically that God will raise up a world conqueror, called Cyrus, for that task.
Even including the details of God opening gates of bronze for His servant Cyrus.

 

But it is not only the predictive prophecy that is dismissed.
So is the matter of God’s eternal decrees about what He will or will not do.
In fact – predictive prophecy is really just God telling the prophets what He has already decreed.
And that doesn’t go down well with lots of people.  Let me give you two examples:

 

In the last couple of decades there has been a move away from that sort of thinking about God.
There is a movement today called “The Openness of God” theology.
It holds to the idea that God has not decreed everything that happens.
They suggest that God may not even know the precise details of everything that happens.
At best God has decreed where it will all end up.
But the details all depend on what we do and how humans react.
That’s a far cry from what is taught here in Isaiah 45.

 

When we apply this fore-ordaining of God to our salvation then people have even bigger problems.

On one occasion ‘New Life’ carried a review of a book entitled: “Why I am not a Calvinist”.
It was not pleasant reading.  The reviewer really had a chip on his shoulder about this teaching.
He talked about going to Geneva to spit on John Calvin’s grave for teaching this stuff.
(That would have been rather futile because Calvin was actually buried in an unmarked grave.)
This stuff does not come from Calvin… it comes from Isaiah… who was told about it by God.

 

  1. Our problem is that we cannot understand God or the ways of God.

Someone once said:
Show me an insect who understand humans, then I’ll find you a man who understands God.

 

In this chapter the Lord already anticipated that many would find this teaching hard to accept.
So he warned about it through Isaiah.  In vs.9 He says: Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker.
In comparison to God we are like discarded bits of crockery lying on the ground.
And then the irony of it all comes out so very clearly in a simple little illustration.
To argue against these things is like the clay arguing with the potter.
Can you imagine that?  The clay is calling the Potter to account.
Why are you making me into a cup and not a jug?
Even mocking the ineptitude of the Potter… as having no hands.

 

It’s crazy for us fallible and frail human beings to question the sovereignty of God.
Just to make sure we get the message Isaiah gives us one more illustration
(if possible, an even more ridiculous and even more ironic example).
Questioning God’s sovereignty is like an infant questioning its own parents.
Saying to its Dad: What have you begotten?  And to its Mum: What have you brought to birth?
There is even the hint of disrespect in the original text.
Here is a child who has no respect and who demands an explanation from its parents.

 

  1. The point is that we need to simply accept that God is in control of all the events of life.

He ordained the outcome of the international politics of Cyrus.

Just as He also ordains the outcome of every political election here in Australia.
He ordained the events of the personal life of Cyrus 600 years BC…
Just as He ordains the affairs of your life in 2009 AD.
We don’t demand an explanation about that from God… we simply accept what He says.

 

At the same time that does not mean that we always get this teaching right.
We need to balance this truth with some other truths from the Bible.
Let me mention, for example two mistakes we could make.

 

We could conclude from our text that we humans are therefore mere puppets in God’s hand.
God pulls the string and we dance.
God raised up Cyrus and so Babylon was doomed.
God sovereignly hides the truth from some and reveals it to others… and so it’s not their fault.

Scripture never permits us to talk that way.  God does not take away our freedom.
Daniel 5 shows us why Babylon was doomed.
It was not because God had sovereignly anointed Cyrus to be His servant.
It was because Belshazzar and his cronies despised the God of heaven.
Matthew 11 shows us why Capernaum and Nazareth were doomed.
It was not because God had hidden spiritual truths from their eyes.
It was because they refused to believe despite the miracles Jesus did among them.

God is sovereign but He in His sovereignty does not override human responsibility.
So we must always balance this teaching and hold it in tension with our accountability.

 

We could also mistakenly conclude from our text that this makes God the author of sin and evil.
If God not only forms the light… but also creates the darkness…
If God not only brings prosperity… but also creates disaster is God then not responsible for evil?
The answer is that God permits evil… even directing it in certain ways.
But our God is not in any way the author of sin and evil.

 

C]        THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH IT HAPPENS.

 

  1. Why then does the Bible speak out at times in these strong ways about God’s absolute sovereignty?

Here it is addressed to Cyrus and it is about Cyrus.

In Matthew 11 it is about the cities of Galilee.

In Ephesians 1 it is about believers being chosen from before the foundation of the world.

Why does God talk that way?

 

Verse 3 tells us that the purpose is for those concerned… this is first of all for Cyrus himself.
God says that He decrees this and that He does it so that Cyrus might know the God of Israel.
So that Cyrus will know that God alone is in control and at work behind the events of the world.

 

You see, this king had a rather different view of life and of human affairs.
He did believe that something happened behind the scenes.
But the Persians had a dualistic view of God and of life.
There was a good god who made the light… and an evil god who created the darkness.
The good god brought peace… and the evil god created disaster.
But now Cyrus had to hear that it is Yahweh God alone who does all these things.
God wants to show Cyrus that He is sovereignly in control of all of life.

 

The Jewish historian, Josephus, tells us that 2 centuries later Cyrus was influenced by this prophecy.

And while He did give God the glory we are not sure if he ever gave up his pagan gods.

 

  1. Secondly, vs.4 tells us there is a purpose in this also for Israel.

God spells out His sovereignty and His decrees so that God’s people will stand in awe of Him.

 

The sad thing is that Israel had long ago lost sight of God as sovereign.
They had begun to see the Almighty as just another God among the many gods of the nations.
They even felt that they could control Him.
After all they were the chosen people… the descendants of Abraham.
Surely this God had to bless them… regardless of how they lived.

 

So in all His dealings with Israel God had been teaching them… and disciplining them.
They no longer worshipped God alone.
They had even begun to practice the abominable things that the Canaanites had done.
Like… participating in child sacrifice.
And so God used Nebuchadnezzar to punish and discipline them.
The temple was burned down and Jerusalem destroyed.
And the nation went into exile in Babylon for 70 years.

 

But now God decrees that He will use Cyrus to liberate and restore them.
And God tells Isaiah all about it more than 210 years before it actually happens.
So that when it does happen, the people of Israel will say: Wow!  Isn’t our God awesome?
Two centuries ago God foretold it by speaking about a king called Cyrus.
And now here is this king and he captures Babylon exactly as God ordained.
For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name…!

 

The decrees of God and what God plans and fore-ordains is not meant to be a problem for us.
It’s meant to comfort us that God is in control and to reassure us of the wonder of our salvation.
That’s why vs.8 talks about salvation springing up and righteousness being restored.
God’s people respond to this teaching by living righteous lives
in thankfulness for the salvation that God planned and that God decreed.

 

  1. Finally there is a third goal behind God spelling out His sovereignty.

It is not just so that Cyrus will know and so that Israel will know.

It is also so that all of humanity will know this great and marvellous God.
So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting
men may know there is none besides me, I am the Lord and there is no other.

 

I guess that to some extent this did happen when Cyrus captured Babylon…
And when he then allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem.
Some from other nations would have heard how God had decreed it and it had happened.
And they would have worshipped the Lord God of Israel.

 

But I don’t believe this prophecy was totally fulfilled at this point.
From the rising of the sun to its setting…?  The whole earth…?
That did not happen instantly.  There was a certain progression in it.
In fact ultimately this was fulfilled only in Jesus Christ.
And so we see the gospel already foreshadowed in these verses about God’s sovereignty.

 

God decreed to raise up Cyrus… and 210 years after telling Isaiah He made sure it happened.
Not just to impress Cyrus with God’s greatness…!
Not just to restore Israel’s faith in their Sovereign God…!
But so that people would indeed return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
And so that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, die on Calvary and rise from the grave.
So that now then message of God’s saving love is proclaimed around the globe.

 

It’s true…. God has really preordained everything that happens…
but it’s so that we and all nations might worship Him and proclaim His glory!                       Amen.