Your God Talks a Big Game. And Delivers.
It was promoted as “The Money Fight.”
Two world famous heavy hitters would go head-to-head in the boxing ring.
In one corner, you had mixed martial artist, boxer, and UFC former featherweight and lightweight champion, Connor McGregor; in the other corner, you had boxing world champion, 1996 Olympian, winner of three Golden Gloves championships, a boxer who had retired with an undefeated record – and is said to be one of the greatest boxers of all time, Floyd Mayweather.
Not surprising, then, this fight was billed as “The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports History.”
But what really got audiences excited for this super-fight was the trash-talking – the trash-talking between Mayweather and McGregor. You know what I’m talking about, right? Where they line up these two fighters – face to face – and they’re looking all menacing and intimidating at each other, and then they start trash-talking.
McGregor bragged that he’d take Mayweather out in just four rounds. Mayweather called McGregor “easy work”. They get up in each other’s face, to the point where their respective entourage have to separate them.
But the trash-talking between Mayweather and McGregor wasn’t just on camera: it was all over Twitter. And the media and the masses ate that up. But that’s how it is with every fight: the more savage the trash-talking, the better. It intensifies the tension. It gets the crowd rowdy. It generates interest - and loads of revenue. It’s all part of billing the epic showdown.
And then the time finally came for them both to put their money where their mouth was.
McGregor started strong in the first few rounds, landing several impressive hits on Mayweather. But as the fight went on, McGregor’s fatigue began to show. And that’s when Floyd Mayweather really went on the offensive. Blow by blow, Mayweather landed several devastating punches to McGregor’s face – to the point where McGregor was so dazed, he struggled to defend himself. The ref called the match by technical knockout – declaring Floyd Mayweather the winner.
McGregor trash-talked a big game, but he didn’t knock out Mayweather in four rounds like he said. In fact, he didn’t knock him out at all.
But “The Money Fight” doesn’t come close to the cosmic significance of the showdown painted for us in Isaiah 45:20-25. And like any good showdown, there’s some serious trash-talking, too.
But the trash-talking recorded for us here in Isaiah 45 is coming only from one direction - from someone you wouldn’t expect talk trash to come from:
It’s coming from God!
“Gather together and come;
assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
who pray to gods that cannot save.
Declare what is to be, present it—
let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none but me.”
God is calling for an epic showdown, and he doesn’t just talk a big game: he says and delivers.
So, who is God calling to go toe-to-toe with him in the ring?
Before we answer that, we need to look at the beginning of Isaiah 45.
Pursued and Subdued
God, through Isaiah, is speaking of a time yet to come – a time when the nation of Babylon would no longer be the reigning champion. As hard as that might have been for Isaiah’s audience to believe, God would, on his timeline, raise up a new nation who would not only be God’s chosen instrument to bring judgment upon the wickedness and unbelief of Babylon, but also would be God’s chosen instrument for bringing his children out of exile. That nation would be Persia, led by Cyrus the Great.
That this historic detail is recorded in Isaiah 45 is – at face value – amazing for two reasons:
God would move the heart of Cyrus to decree not only the release of the nation of Israel from captivity, but would ensure their safe-passage home AND bankroll the rebuilding of their temple, and – get this – God reveals this detail over a hundred years before any of that would even happen; Isaiah’s years of ministry were roughly 740-680 B.C. Cyrus the Great wouldn’t overthrow Babylon until 539 B.C.! With exact, prophetic accuracy, God reveals to Isaiah not only how God would deliver the captives from exile, but who he would use to get it done. And that’s exactly what happened – just as God had promised.
But these words of prophetic promise weren’t just intended for the people living in the Southern Kingdom of Judah (Isaiah’s immediate audience). After all, by the time Cyrus would rise to power in 539 B.C., the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah would already be divided and dispersed across the recently knocked-out Babylonian Empire. Other nations would feel the chokehold as Persia rose to power. Isaiah 45:20-25 are words of conviction and comfort for all of them – every person of every nation that would be pursued or subdued by the nation of Persia.
A ‘Champion’ Made from Wood and Stone
But the common thread isn’t just the fact that they were oppressed by Persia: the common thread that tied this audience together is unbelief – a lack of faith in the one true God – the LORD. This specific audience is tied together by their misplaced trust in idols – manmade ‘gods’ of wood and stone – gods made from their own imaginations.
But God isn’t just talking to these people, either – and here’s where it get’s interesting!
God humors these unbelieving people and ‘speaks’ to these ‘gods’ of wood and stone and invites these idols to square off with him.
And the words that God has for these idols is nothing but straight up trash talk.
“Go ahead! Give me your best shot! Make your case! Show me what you’ve done! Tell me what will happen! You idol worshippers: show me what your idols have done for you! In fact, go ahead and let ALL of your idols take counsel together! I’ll take them ALL on! Do you really want to throw your hat in with gods made by your own imagination? How can you, the created creature, create your Creator? How can creation become creation’s god? How can a god that you need to carry then carry you? How can what is deaf hear your prayers? How can what is blind and dumb give you wisdom and show you the way? How can what is dead possibly give you true, everlasting life?”
And on the day of the big fight, these ‘gods’ never show.
Not because God’s trash-talking scared them away – but because they were never there to begin with.
God’s been telling us why all throughout Isaiah Chapter 45: “There is no God beside me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. There is no other Savior. There is none but me. I AM WHO I AM…and they are not, because they are not!”
And while it’s been 2,700 years since Isaiah wrote these words, the reality and exclusivity of this message hasn’t changed.
A ‘Champion’ Made within Human Hearts
Sure, false ‘gods’, through their many, many prophets, will certainly talk a big game – but time and time again they are exposed for what they truly are: nothing more than deaf, dumb, dead pieces of wood and stone – whose prophets work them like a master ventriloquist – a ventriloquist who’s gotten so good at his craft, he’s convinced the entire audience it’s no longer him doing the talking, but the puppet.
The LORD, however, marries his plan of salvation to real time, real space, real events, in real history. He’s a God who invites you to fact check him. And why wouldn’t he? “I, the LORD, speak truth; I declare what is right,” he says.
Have you seen Google’s “Year in Search 2020” video? It starts this way: “The most human trait is to want to know why – and in year that tested everyone around the world, why was searched more than ever.” I don’t know if I’d agree that the most human trait is wanting to know why – but that is a trait that clearly distinguishes human beings massively from the rest of the created world – and yet people still insist we are nothing more than highly evolved primates as a result of time, plus energy, plus chance.
Evidence matters when it favors our preferred narrative, but what about when the evidence doesn’t?
We say that life is more than money, cars, and clothes, but the people we idolize, the shows we watch, and our credit card statements would say otherwise.
Objective truth matters when counting election ballots, but does objective truth matter when counting X and Y chromosomes?
We want others to treat us with respect but justify the disrespect we show others.
We’re all about silencing the dissenters, until that voice is ours.
A ‘Champion’ Made in Our Image
Sure, it is human nature asks why – but our sinful nature won’t leave the vacuum of ‘why’ alone or empty for long. Because – believe it or not – our hearts are an idol factory – and if we’re not manufacturing gods outside of ourselves to worship, then we worship ourselves as ‘god’.
We have a sinful nature that is all about what I want, what I feel, what I think is right. Our sinful nature turns a blind eye to the fact that God has written eternity on our hearts – or that he’s written his Law on our hearts, and our consciences bearing witness to that fact; and where our sinful hearts fail to bear witness, God gives us a more clear, reliable, trustworthy testimony – his divinely inspired Word, a Word whose promises have been proven to be true.
But then it sits on a shelf collecting dust.
It’s rarely read together by a husband and wife.
It’s neglected when we’re impressing values on our children.
We would roll our eyes during the commute from our homes to church; now we roll our eyes now during our commute from our beds to our living room couch for church.
Our sinful nature doesn’t see God’s law as a guide to a life of thankfulness to God – but some arbitrary, joy-robbing list of prohibitions.
In fact, our sinful nature would idolize ourselves and demand God bend a knee to us – not the other way around. And to set ourselves up as god against God is a fight we won’t win. God says so right here in Isaiah. God says and he delivers.
And yet, when our world was ensnared and enraptured by idols – when our God had every reason to clean our clocks and knock us out – our God responds with truth and grace.
A Champion Begotten, Not Made
When you and I couldn’t save nor deliver ourselves from this sin-filled, dark, dying world, our God took on humanity. Our God didn’t give us a self-help book to ascend to him and get at his level. He, instead, made his dwelling among us, to live a totally perfect life as our substitute because we couldn’t.
He, to save the world from their idolatrous hearts, became a sin-offering and died on a cross to give us his righteousness and forever reconcile us to a holy, righteous God. The same Almighty God who died is the same God who was born that first Christmas. There, in the manger of Bethlehem, there on the cross on Calvary is our God: Jesus.
But that the Savior would be born, that he would die, that he would rise from the dead, that he would be God was no surprise.
That’s what God had been saying for centuries!
“Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone
are deliverance and strength.’”
All who have raged against him
will come to him and be put to shame.
But all the descendants of Israel
will find deliverance in the Lord
and will make their boast in him.”
With the same exact, prophetic accuracy, God revealed to Isaiah not only how God would deliver the captives from exile, but who he would use to get it done. From exile in Babylon, that someone was Cyrus. From greater exile in a dark and dying world, that someone was Jesus. And in him alone is our righteousness and strength.
Your God doesn’t just talk a big game: he puts his money where his mouth is.
The false gods of this world will never show up to square off with God. And that’s not the only fight they’ll never show. The fight against sin, death, and hell demanded a champion, too – a Savior. And when no other religion, no other deity, no other worldview could possibly meet the challenge – Christ, our Divine Champion, stepped into the ring for us.
There is No Other Champion
True, this is a radically exclusive message. There is one God and Savior – and that’s the LORD.
But this is a radically comforting message, too – because the LORD your God defines himself to be who he has always demonstrated himself to be for you: a God of grace who saves.
He’s not like idols of wood and stone that need you to carry them: he carries you.
He’s not a God who needs you to shape and mold him: he’s a God who desires to renew and reshape you in his image.
He’s not a God who speaks in hidden secrecy but speaks to you through his Word with transparent integrity.
Your God isn’t some aloof, distant, divine observer, passively foretelling what will or won’t happen: he’s a God who actively speaks to our world through his Word – calling all to himself – for he truly came to seek and save all who are lost – including you and me.
He came to win for you and me a joy, hope, and peace that the worst of this world can never knock out.
In Christ Jesus, your life has been redeemed. You, in Christ, are heaven-bound. Believe it! Because your Savior has already won the title!
He’s earned the right to talk a big game. He delivers.
Every time.