Isaiah 51:9-23
It’s Time To Wake Up

Introduction
1. Are you measuring God by your circumstances? Your life is hurt. Things aren’t going as you planned or expected. God seems to be asleep.
1. Do you feel that God is asleep while your life crashes and burns?
2. Isaiah 51:9-23 Israel is saying to God, “Wake up and do something!”
I. “AWAKE” “AWAKE” A GOD WHO IS ABLE 51:9-16
II. “AWAKE” “AWAKE” A GOD WHO IS AWARE 51:17-23

Do you feel that God is asleep while your life crashes and burns?
I. “AWAKE” “AWAKE” A GOD WHO IS ABLE 51:9-16
Israel is saying to God, “Awake” “Awake”…Do Something!
A. What He Has Done 9-10
As in ancient days
1.The Exodus…Rahab is not the harlot, but a mythical monstrosity, a sea monster that sat in the Nile. All hope lies in the Hero-God of the exodus.
2.Was it not you who has dried the sea…who has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Do it again! 10 Do it for me!
3.God can, but He doesn’t always choose to deliver the same way!
B. What He Will Do 11
This is yet future! We want everything right now!
1.The Redeemed Therefore the redeemed of the Lord You have been set free from the slavery of sin. Israel was His redeemed. You are redeemed.
2. The Returned Shall return…It is going to take 70 years, not tomorrow!
3. The Rejoicing Come with singing unto Zion…everlasting joy shall be upon their
heard…they shall obtain gladness and joy. This is more than the return to Israel.
God has a plan and that plan will take time to unfold. REST…God knows what
He is doing and it may not be for our immediate comfort!
4.The Removal Sorrow and mourning shall flee away. All sadness is gone! God
knows the future and God is in control!
C. What He Desires 12-16
1. The Problems 12-13
a. We Fear 12, 13b Who are you that you should be afraid of a man…we fear
man, frail man! Peer pressure is a killer. It is easy to get our eyes on people
and run to people for approval. You fear continually everyday…
b. We Forget 13 You forget the Lord, your maker…who stretched forth the
heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. Again, Isaiah brings forth an
illustration that is familiar to all…the heavens and the earth. These are there
to remind us of just how big and powerful God is!! I either have a BIG God
and a little problem or a BIG problem and a little God. Creation is a
reminder.
2. The Promises 14-16
I am He who comforts you…I am the Lord your God…You are my people. I will do
what you can’t! IT’S ALL OF GRACE!!
*You are a captive for a reason…that he may be loosed…You cannot free yourself!
*He Can…I am the Lord, thy God, who divided the sea, whose waves roared. The
Lord of hosts is His name. The Lord has a whole heavenly army at His
disposal!

Do you feel that God is asleep while your life crashes and burns?
II. “AWAKE” “AWAKE” A GOD WHO IS AWARE 51:17-23
Now God is speaking to Israel…Wake up…You can’t do it on your own!
A. Our Frailty 17
1. Isaiah sees Israel lying in a drunken stupor, having been force fed a bitter cup of the
Babylonian Captivity. This ‘liquor’ was more than their faith could handle. They
reeled and collapsed in despair.
2.God is aware of just how weak you are and your present condition. He also knows why you are in the condition that you are in.
B. Our Failure 18-20
1. No Help 18 There was no one to help them. No one to guide her…none to take
her by the hand. Man makes wrong choices. Each choice has consequences. There
is no one to help. Wake Up! It is hard to admit that I am my own worse enemy.
We want someone to bail us out!
2. No Hope 19-20
a) Two things come unto thee: *Who shall feel sorry for you! No One.
Desolation and Destruction…*By whom shall I comfort you? There is No
One!
b) It would be one thing if you destroyed yourself. Your sons have fainted. They
lie at the head of all streets…caught in a net…the rebuke of thy God.
c) It would be sad enough if he were merely talking about the damage of drugs
and alcoholism. It is a nation or individual who has forgotten God and the
results of that departure. Helpless and Hopeless!
C. Our Future 21-23
1. God Directs 21-22
*Hear This…those afflicted and drunken but not with wine. God is permitting this
reversal to shake them up and wake them up. Whatever is happening is God’s
will for me.
*Thus says they Lord, the Lord, and they God who pleads the cause of his people…
It is God’s timing, not ours. ‘Cup of trembling…The cup of my fury…” God has
permitted mankind to have a free will and suffer the consequences of those
choices.
2. God Delivers 23
*God is the deliverer. A drowning man cannot save himself.
*Bow down…that we may go over, and you have laid your body down to be run
over. There is no freedom in serving sin, self or Satan. Only God can set you free!

God will take care of “Babylon” in His time and in His way!
You can’t take care of “Babylon” it’s too BIG!!