• one of the Lord’s chief aims:
• four expressions of urgent worship

• after an announcement and authentication
• repeated and reciprocal
• exhortation based on the information

• from word to action
• hunger to see and know

• message received and relayed
• response to revelation: wonder
• glory and praise based on what is heard and seen
• just as He said

• She kept on “keeping together…”
• preservation and evaluation
• true nourishment through quiet reflection

• Because of the Lord’s revelation of Himself in Christ, respond in urgent worship.
• “One of God’s chief aims in saving sinners is to make them true worshipers.” (MacArthur)
• “Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand. Ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in His hand, Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand. King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth He stood, Lord of lords in human vesture, in the body and the blood. He will give to all the faithful His own self for heavenly food.” (Moultrie, adaptation of 5th century Liturgy of St. James)

• Luke’s meticulous record
• a decree and a registration
• providential coordination (Micah 5:2, Prov. 21:1)
• glory and conformity

• what He surely could have done
• what He willed to do: no vacancy (2 Cor. 8:9)
• swaddled in a manger
• hammered on a cross
• an unsettling otherworldliness

• Because God reigns over both the massive and miniscule issues of your life, joyfully rest in His stewardship of your circumstances.
• “Some providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read backwards.” (Flavel)
• “God rules over even motel capacities for the sake of His name and people.” (Piper)
• “Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown, when Thou camest to earth for me; but in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room for Thy holy nativity. O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for Thee…” (Elliott)

• prediction of births (1:13 and 1:31)
• nature of births (1:7 and 1:35-36)

• words of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:11 and John 3:30)
• affirmation of Gabriel (1:32-33)

• Zechariah: “I can’t be sure.” (1:18-20)
• Mary: “I don’t understand.” (1:34)
• explanation and declaration (1:35-38)
• resulting praise (1:46-55; 67-79)

• Because God excels at doing the humanly impossible, trust His promises.
• “The Son of God became man to enable men to become the sons of God.” (Lewis)
• “And our eyes at last shall see Him, Through His own redeeming love; For that child so dear and gentle, Is our Lord in heaven above, And He leads His children on, To the place where He is gone.” (“Once in Royal David’s City,” Alexander)

• lament psalm for Thanksgiving?
• from desperate intensity to dependent sufficiency

• individual lament
• four-fold use of “How Long…?”
• forgotten, forsaken, sorrowful, subdued
• Num. 6:22-27

• “…O LORD my God…”
• consideration and illumination
• grounded in dependence

• affirmation of trust
• anticipation of thanksgiving and praise
• basis of consolation: bountiful dealing

• Because of God’s mercy, trust God and anticipate joy even in your trial.
• “We are to bring our emotions underneath the jurisdiction of God’s character and God’s purpose…God’s care for his children is like the sun: it’s constant. Even though the clouds obscure it, it doesn’t mean the sun isn’t there.” (Begg)
• Connection to Christ: Psalm 22, Isa. 49:15

• 4th “Servant” song
• 700 years before Christ’s birth

• action and exaltation of the Servant
• exaltation of the Servant
• contrasting revulsion
• world-wide impact: sprinkled nations and shut mouths

• a question expecting a negative answer
• observed and misunderstood
• despised and rejected

• His suffering explained
• the voluntary and undeserving nature of His suffering
• a suffering Substitute for straying sheep

• the LORD’S pleasure
• a concise exposition of atonement theology
• the LORD’S testimony to His Servant

• Because of the stunning impact of the suffering Substitute’s substitution, bow before Him in worship now!
• NT connections: Mark 10:45, 1 Cor. 15:3, Rom. 15:21
• Man of Sorrows! What a name, for the son of God, who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood; sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we; spotless Lamb of God is He; Full atonement! Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! (Bliss)
• Celebrate and share the story of your Substitute!

• the identity of the “Servant”: the corporate/individual tension
• the Moses/Christ connection (Deut. 18:15, Ex. 32:7-10)
• “second” Exodus language

• command to listen (Mark 9:7)
• prepared and named (Gen. 35:10)
• summoned to show “splendor”

• antidote for despondency
• resting in the wisdom and power of God
• extension from Israel to the nations
• the deliverance/salvation the world needs

• despised yet exalted (Isa. 52:13-53:12)
• promise of a “second” Exodus
• provision and protection along the way
• comprehensive joy

• Knowing that the Lord comprehensively and compassionately delivers His people through Christ, set your sight on Him when nothing seems to make sense.
• “Despondency arises through listening to ourselves and our self-assessment instead of looking to God and recalling His purposes.” (Motyer)
• Keep looking to Christ, The sure and steady Anchor. (Heb. 6:19-20)

• fall of Babylon in Isaiah 46-48
• idolatry/collapse connection and the future security of God’s people

• carried as burdens on weary beasts
• carried with their worshipers into captivity

• command and commitment
• a striking contrast
• comprehensive coverage: from womb to tomb

• clarifying question
• made by human hands: immobile, inarticulate, incompetent

• confrontational command
• declarative rebuke (47:8-10)
• declaring…saying…calling…

• provision of righteousness for those far from it
• conformity to the will of God

• Because carried gods lead only to collapse, trust the God who carries you.
• “What we revere, we resemble; either for our ruin or restoration.” (Beale)
• “His love, in time past, forbids me to think He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink: Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.” (Newton)
• “When man carries his god, the end is destruction; when the true God carries man, the end is salvation.” (Young)
• connection to Christ: 2 Thess. 3:5

• impending Babylonian Captivity (Isa. 39:6)
• worse before it gets better
• comfort, word and greatness of God (40:1-26)

• God’s knowledge
• God’s care
• legal case of pessimistic pilgrims

• formula repetition
• everlasting
• unwearied
• unfathomable

• patient expectancy
• sovereign enablement
• as if people grow wings

• Proper thinking about God enables proper waiting on God.
• “…Understand that love, revealed on the cross, does not exclude but must always include suffering.” (Elliot)
• “Your thoughts of God are too human.” (Luther to Erasmus)
• NT connection: Matt. 11:28-30
• “He bids weary travelers rest in His house.” (Thomas)

• Assyrian threat to Judah
• Hezekiah: “Yahweh strengthens”

• taunts of Sennacherib 36:1-22
• responding to arrogance with humility
• acknowledgment of utter helplessness
• prophecy of Isaiah and “remnant” repetition
• Sennacherib takes a parting shot

• “…spread it before the LORD.”
• adoration
• petition
• concern for the glory of God

• contrast between Sennacherib (v.3) and the LORD (v. 5)
• steps sequenced by the LORD
• a hook for the nose and a bit for the mouth
• 185,000 struck down

• Because the LORD always acts in the best interest of those who abandon themselves to Him, keep on holding fast to Him.
• Weave what you know of the LORD’S character into your worship.
• Speak to the LORD and expect to hear from Him.
• “And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, and the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.” (Byron)
• “For my life He bled and died, Christ will hold me fast; Justice has been satisfied; He will hold me fast. Raised with Him to endless life, He will hold me fast, ‘till our faith is turned to sight, when He comes at last.’” (Getty)

• fifth in a series of woes
• consideration of the extent of God’s power and control
• Judah in the midst of its Assyrian Crisis

• warning against an existing dependence (Psa. 20:7)
• reliance rooted in settled attitudes
• the God who does not “take it back”
• the folly of trusting Egypt rather than the LORD (John 4:24)

• growling lion of conquering sovereignty
• hovering bird of gentle protection (1 Cor. 1:25)
• sufficient and surrounding help

• from revolt to repentance
• the ditching of idols
• the LORD “passes over” and the Assyrians “pass off” (2 Kings 19:35)

• Because only God can help you, look to Him.
• connection to Christ: A King will reign in righteousness (see Isa. 32!)
• “The blood of the lamb might have seemed ineffectual and irrelevant to a people under sentence of death but it was enough! So, against the unwisdom of Judah, the pretenses of Egypt and the threats of Assyria, the hovering God will prove His sovereign strength.” (Motyer)
• “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men…”