Isaiah 29:1-24
“The Strange Ways of God”

Introduction
1. Are you faced with the ‘strange work’ of God? This is when God doesn’t make sense.
2. Has God surprised you? You can’t see what God is doing. You are seeing that God is God and you are not! You are discovering what it means to trust God and surrender to God rather than control Him. If God never shocked you, you would never really know Him.
3. Are you facing the ‘strange ways of God? Remember: If you are ‘in Christ’, God never gives you what you deserve. In grace, He gives you what you need. You need encouragement? He gives it. You need confrontation? He gives it. You need cleansed? He gives it. You don’t
know what you need to fulfill His will…He does! STOP RESISTING. STOP
RESENTING. START RESTING. Surrender to what God wants to accomplish in you.
4. Isaiah 29:1-24 The Strange Work of God:

Are you faced with the ‘strange work’ of God? This is when God doesn’t make sense.
I. THE WAYS OF GOD 29:1-8
A. The Distress of Jerusalem 1-4 God’s Means
God can use whatever He wants to fulfill His purpose.
1. The Sorrow 1,2
*Ariel means, ‘lion of God’ or ‘hearth of God’ Jerusalem with all of it past
strength would become a place where the dire of divine judgment would
burn.
*Jesus said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem how often I would have gathered you as a
mother hen would gather her chicks, but you would not.
*I will…strange…God was going to use a pagan, wicked, vile Assyria to
accomplish His purpose! Assyria didn’t even know it! Heaviness, Sorrow
God’s ways may hurt…cause pain, and tears may flow!
2. The Siege 3
God uses human instruments to accomplish His purposes.
*I will…He uses people.
*I will encamp…I will lay siege…I will raise forts…Assyria was being used.
They thought it was their ideas, their efforts, their ingenuity. Outnumbered,
Overwhelmed and Hemmed In. God permitted the enemy to have the upper
hand in order to accomplish His purpose.
3. The Surrender 4
Humiliated…Brought Low…Talking out of the dirt…God breaks us in order
to make us!
B. The Deliverance of Jerusalem 5-8 God’s Movement
God can remove the tormentor when it has fulfilled His purpose. No one really
fulfills the description given…multitude of nations 7. It speaks of a future time in
Israel with utter defeat of the invader!
1.It Will Make A Mockery of Military Strength 5a
2.It Will Be Sudden and Unexpected 5b
3.It Will Be Attended by Tremendous Power 6 It pictures the end times and the Tribulation.
4.It Will End All of the Enemy’s Aspirations 7 The enemy will gain nothing. Dreams give way to reality.


Are you faced with the ‘strange work’ of God? This is when God doesn’t make sense:
II. THE WITNESS OF GOD 29:9-16
God sees what we don’t. The action may not be for us, but we are touched. We
hurt, we cry because we are close. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel all went
through it because Israel had sinned.
A. How They Refused God 9-12
1. Closed Eyes 9-10
*They were blind and drunk (insensible to instruction) Not from strong drink.
*You blind yourself. Close your eyes. They couldn’t see because they
didn’t want to see! There was no desire to understand!! Spiritual blindness
is described in (Revelation 3:17).
2. Sealed Book 11 They can read, but they don’t exert themselves to break
the seal and open the book.
3. Closed Book 12 They can’t read, but they don’t want to read.
B. How They Related to God 13-16
1. They Go Through the Motions 13
The precepts of man has taken the place of the precept of God. Man’s opinion is
valued more than God’s.
2. God Is At Work, but They Do Not See God At Work 14
Wise…Prudent…Hidden…They don’t see God at work!
3. They Think God Doesn’t See What They Are Doing 15-16
Surely you are turning things upside down…You turn things around.
4.When You Question God ask:
*Shall the Potter be considered an equal with the clay?
*Shall the thing made say, “You didn’t make me”?
*Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, “You don’t understand.”

Are you faced with the ‘strange work’ of God? This is when God doesn’t make sense:
III. THE WINNING OF GOD 29:17-24
The spiritual blindness will not continue forever. God wants to do a real work in us.
Reversal…Removal leads to Renewal. Yet a little while…whatever you are going
through will come to an end. GOD DETERMINES HOW LONG…HE IS
WAITING FOR YOU TO SURRENDER!! The fruitful field will be established. God
wants a fruitful life…doing His will!
A. Reversal 17-19
1. The Deaf…Hear
2. The Blind…See
3. The Meek…Shall Increase
4. The Poor…Shall Rejoice.
B. Removal 20-21
The negative won’t always rule. The Antichrist and False Prophet will be brought
to nothing…consumed. As long as Satan is alive and well on planet earth, pain
and heartache will abound.
C. Renewal 22-24
It’s not over until it is over!
1. Reality Is Practiced 22-23
Don’t make a judgment call based on a present situation. Rejoice…Christ is
the Holy One of Jacob.
2. Reality Is Promoted 24
All Thy children shall be taught in the Lord. That day is yet future.
God does something in us before our children. We pass it on…more is
caught than taught!


Surrender to the deep renewal God wants to accomplish in you!