God prophesized that Israel who was captive to Babylon would be set free and the Jerusalem would be rebuilt.

I. I will not forget you (Vs. 21,22)
First of all, please look at verses 21 and 22. “Remember these things, Jacob,
For you, Israel, are my servant.
I have made you, you are my servant;
Israel, I will not forget you.
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
Your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
For I have redeemed you.”
Here the Lord says to Jacob, “Remember these things.” (21) “These things” (21) are more than all the things that he had said up until now. They are the things that follow. The last part of verse 21 and verse 22 say, “Israel, I will not forget you.
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
Your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
For I have redeemed you.” (21, 22)
These are moving words, aren’t they? The Lord said to Israel, “Israel, I will not forget you.” (21) If you look at what is just before this you will see what Israel was like at that time. Even though they were redeemed by the Lord, they made idols and worshipped them. They selfishly deceived God. Toward them who were like that He says, “Israel, I will not forget you.” (21) This is really amazing grace! Also this morning God is saying the same thing to you. “I will not forget you.” (21) Even if by yourself you make an image of god and worship it, even if you forget god and lives selfishly, God is saying, “I will not forget you.” (21) These are great words!
Here it says, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.” (22) This is in the perfect tense. God has completely “swept away your offenses.” (22)　He completely redeemed you. To sweep away your sins is to forgive your sins. To redeem is to pay the price and buy you back. God through Jesus Christ paid the price for your sins and redeemed you. Jesus was put on the cross and paid the price for your sins that you had to pay so you don’t need to worry about your sins. All of your sins have been forgiven. All the sin you have committed, all the sin you are committing now, all the sin you will commit in the future, all your sin is forgiven.　When Jesus was on the cross he said, “It’s finished”. Jesus in your place with his life made the payment for your redemption. Therefore, it is not necessary to have a guilty conscience or worry about wrong doings. What you must do is “return to” (22) God. Repent of your sin and depend upon Jesus. If you believe in Jesus your Savior who died for you and saved you from your sins, then all your sins will be forgiven. Please look at I John 1:7 to 9.
I John 1:7-9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9) That is because “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (I John 1:7) You can’t atone for your own sin. You can’t save yourself. It is only by the blood of Jesus that we can be cleansed of all sin. God did this. God has “swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.” (22) God has “redeemed you.” (22) He has finished the work of salvation and has forgiven your sins. The only other thing that is left to do is for you to return to God. God said, “Return to me.” (22) If you return to God, God will sweep “away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.” (22)
Now on T.V. they are doing a drama entitled, “The cloud’s staircase”. The hero that appears in the drama, Sanro Aikawa, was originally a secretary at a medical clinic on a sparsely populated island. He was asked by the head of the clinic to assist with surgery. As the result of doing so, even though he didn’t have a doctor’s license he began doing medical practice. Then he operated and saved the life of the daughter of the assistant head of a large hospital in Tokyo. As a result he marries her and rose up the ladder to the assistant head of the hospital, but he always has anxieties. He always is worrying about what happens if people find out he doesn’t have a doctor’s license. However, he thought that he can’t go backwards, so he continues to climb the cloud’s staircase. When I look at this drama, I always think, man can always start over again. Now is not too late. Now if you return to God, any person can start over again. God will forgive you. That’s because God paid the price by Jesus’ cross and redeemed you. God “will not forget you.” (21) You must not forget that God redeemed you from your sin and made you his child.

II. Sing for joy (Vs. 23)
Please look at verse 23. Here it says, “Sing for joy, you heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, you earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.”

The “heavens”, the “earth beneath”, the “mountains”, the “forests”, and the “trees” that are mentioned here in verse 23 are all creations that God made. God is commanding such creations to “Sing for joy…shout aloud…Burst into song.” (23) That is because “the LORD has done this…for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.” (23) “This” (23) is the amazing work of salvation that He does through Israel. That exceeds Israel’s salvation, and influenced the entire natural world too. That God redeemed Israel was such a huge work. It was such a huge event that human history is divided into two parts, B.C. and A.D. with that event as the dividing point.
How do you respond to your redemption and to God’s work of salvation? Are you taking it seriously, or do you feel like you just happened to come to church and believed in Christ?
Before I had 2 turtles. One day one of the turtles wouldn’t eat anything at all and wasn’t moving. The other lively turtle was climbing on top of his back. He was pushing him so I was afraid for him. I wanted to find the reason so I opened the lid of the aquarium and looked at the weak turtle. Then I realized that his eyes were diseased. He had white spots on his eyes and he couldn’t see. He was unstable hitting things as he moved. I felt sorry for him and took the strong turtle off of him and gave the weak turtle food so it could at least eat a little.
I think that is what we are like. Our eyes are covered by scales, but when the Lord redeems us and the scales fall off we can see well.
The Lord redeemed Israel and the Lord redeemed you is such a great work that the heavens and the mountains sing. Let’s in response to this great salvation of God join in the singing with the heavens, mountains, and trees and sing from our hearts.

III. God’s plan that will be accomplished (Vs. 24-28)
Lastly let’s look at verses 24 to 28. First look at verses 24 and 25. It says, “This is what the LORD says-your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense.”
The Lord is the creator God who made the made the whole creation, everything in heaven and earth. God all by himself made the heavens and the earth. God “foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense.” (25) The “false prophets…diviners…the wise” (25) refer to the priests, diviners, and wise men in Babylon. They were proud that they inherited the traditions of the Sumerians who built the Mesopotamian civilization which is the oldest human civilization. They believe in their religion and divining, and especially in astrology. However, God “foils the signs of” their “false prophets and fools” their diviners, and “overthrows the learning of” their wise men “and turns it into nonsense.” (25)
However, towards Israel God is not like this. Please look at verse 26. It says, “who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem ‘It shall be inhabited’, of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be built,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them.’
God will carry “out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers.” (26) God “overthrows the learning of the wise” (25) and the diviners of Babylon, but God “carries out the words of his servants.” (26) The contents are “who says of Jerusalem ‘It shall be inhabited’, of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be built,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them.’” (26) God “will restore” (26) Jerusalem and the town of Judah who are in ruins. People will live there once more.
At that time Israel was captured by Babylon. The town of Babylon was surrounded by a wall that was 90 meters high and 24 meters wide. Its circumference actually extended to 65km. There were 100 gates and 250 towers. Therefore, if the enemy came and tried to attack by going over the wall, from the watch towers they will be stopped in a moment. Even if they dug a hole under it to invade, the wall was built 11 meters under the ground so it can’t be invaded from under the wall. It was called an Impenetrable wall and it was thought that it was impossible for it to fall. It was the strongest town in history. Not only that, but there were 20 years of food stocked there for all of citizens in Babylon. No matter how much the enemy surrounded the city, they wouldn’t be moved at all. They thought that no one would be able to take the city. Therefore, the Babylon King Belshazzar invited every night thousands of VIPs to drinking parties. They thought that no one could attack and took their enemies too lightly.
How God destroyed Babylon is written in verse 27 and 28. “who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’ who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt.’ And of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.’”
Here the name “Cyrus” (27) appears. It means “sun” or “King’s throne”. Cyrus was the King of the Medo-Persian Empire that rose up after the Babylonian empire. Originally he was nothing more than a king of a small country, Anshan, that was under the kingdom of Media. In 550 B.C. a coup d’état occurred in the Median Kingdom. He used the coup d’état and overthrew Media and became king. He made an army of 10,000 Immortal Soldiers, in which every killed, seriously wounded or sick member was immediately replaced with a new one, maintaining the numbers and cohesion of the unit. In the course of time exclusive of Ancient Egypt he united all of the countries of Ancient Orient and founded the Medo-Persian Empire. In world history Cyrus is famous, but present day Iranians say that Cyrus was the founder of Iran. Here it says, “Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd’” (28) He was a shepherd. Just like David was king and shepherd, he too was also while being a King was a shepherd. He became the Great King Cyrus. Then God used King Cyrus to destroy Babylon.
The Impenetrable Babylon was destroyed in a really novel way. Here it says that God will say “to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams’.” (27) “Watery deep” is the Euphrates which is a symbol of Babylon. Cyrus and his army dried up the Euphrates. They diverted the Euphrates into a canal so that the water level dropped, which allowed them to march directly through the river bed to enter the city at night and struck and destroyed the Babylon King that was drunk at a party. Who would of thought of that! The present King Belshazzar too didn’t think that by such a method they would be attacked either. Even though the Medo-Persian’s huge army was surrounding the wall, King Belshazzar in high spirits invited thousands of VIPs and was enjoying drinking together. What it was like is written in detail in Daniel 5 so later please look at that. By this method they were able to in one day to take Babylon which was said to be Impenetrable. Not only that but they succeeded without shedding a drop of blood. Verse 26 says that God “carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers.” Just as these words say, God fulfilled “the predictions of his messengers.” (26)
Moreover what is surprising is this event was spoken about 150 years before it happened. At that time Cyrus had not even been born and the country of Babylon hadn’t risen up either. At that time it was the age when Assyria was still the ruling country in the world. At that time Isaiah prophesized this. He spoke concretely in advance about how Babylon will be captured and how Israel will be set free. This is so concrete in detail that there are some people that think that man could never write such a thing. Therefore, they rationalized that there must have been a second Isaiah and a third Isaiah that added on to the original Isaiah’s work. However, this was really a prophecy that Isaiah, the prophet, who spoke what God said 150 years before it occurred. Such a thing man can’t do, but the God of the Bible who we believe in is Almighty and omnipotent God and proclaims and foretells what will come.
However, this prophecy of Isaiah doesn’t end with Babylon being destroyed by Cyrus. If you look at the end of verse 28, it says, “he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.’”

This means that the temple that was destroyed by Babylon will be rebuilt. Just as this prophecy says, Cyrus who destroyed Babylon, allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and by the governor Zerubbabel the rebuilding of the temple was allowed. Then in 516 B.C. the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt. 70 years had passed since Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon. It was so much smaller than the temple that Solomon had built so it couldn’t be compared at all with it, but even so it was a symbol of God’s presence and the fact that it was rebuilt was for them certainly a deeply moving experience. When this temple was finished, either because they were so happy that the temple was finished, or because compared to the earlier temple it was so much smaller, according to the Bible records that they all cried. Whatever the reason, what is declared here was carried out.
This means that what God says will definitely be fulfilled. God “fulfills the predictions of his messengers.” (26) If that is the case then we must stand firmly on God’s work. We must wait expectantly for the promise. Recently on the T.V. and internet there is abundant information. We must not be shaken by that information, but listen to the Word of God, follow the word of God, and wait expectantly praying for the fulfillment of the Word of God.
Recently personally a passage of Scripture that the Lord spoke to me about was Acts chapter 1. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He commanded the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.” (Acts 1:4) Then “they went upstairs to the room where they were staying…They all joined together constantly in prayer.” (Acts 1:13&14 ) Then you know what happened. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they went out into the whole world to be witnesses for Christ. There were 120 people meeting there. At that time the population in Palestine was 4,000.000 people. Among 4,000.000 people there were 120 people, but just as the Lord commanded they met together and prayed. Among 4,000.000 people, 120 people is really a small number. However, God placed all his expectations upon these 120 people.
The kingdom of God is really like a mustard seed. When it is planted the seed is very small. “Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” (Matt. 13:32) That is because God’s life is there. What God desires isn’t numbers. It is whether there are Christians that have Christ’s life in them or not. If there is even just 1 person there who is 100% dedicate to the Lord, the Lord will work through that person.

Let’s be that person. Then let’s plant seeds. Believe in the Word of God obediently. Then depending on the Word of God, the Lord will do a huge work through each one of us. This is what we must remember.