Easter 5
Isa
12:1-6
5/7/23
A day was
coming. It would be a day of judgment. In chapter two Isaiah has said, “For the
Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that
is lifted up – and it shall be brought low.”
Isaiah’s words were written in the eighth
century B.C. He wrote in the southern
kingdom of Judah. The prophet lived at a
time when the southern kingdom was unfaithful to Yahweh. The very first words of his prophecy state:
“Hear O heavens, and give ear O earth; for the Lord has spoken. ‘Children have
I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its
owner, and the donkey it master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do
not understand.”
On the surface, everything looked
fine. The sacrifices at the temple in
Jerusalem continued as God had commanded them.
But while the people were doing them, Yahweh made it clear that all was
not well. He said, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the
Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed
beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.”
God still wanted sacrifices to be offered
by which he blessed his people with his favor, removed their impurity, and
forgave their sins. But it wasn’t enough
to just go through the motions. The
sacrifices needed to be offered by people who showed faith in Yahweh in other
areas of life.
The truth of the matter was that the
people were also worshipping false gods. They had their idols of silver and
gold. Their hearts were not turned in
faith to Yahweh. Instead, they were
living large, and God was not a priority in their lives. In chapter five Isaiah
accused: “They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their
feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the works of his
hands.”
Not surprisingly, as they went through the
motions at the temple, their lives did not reflect God’s word. Isaiah said, “Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put
bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
God was bringing judgment because as Isaiah put it, “they have rejected
the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the Holy One of Israel.”
You are here at the Divine Service this
morning, and that is great. But Judah’s
example reminds us that simply going through the motions is not enough. His words earlier in this book lead us to
consider the First Commandment. By their
actions, the people of Judah showed that God was not their true God. What are the things that threaten to play
this role in our lives?
Undoubtedly, money and wealth act in this
way. What gives us our real sense of
security? Is it the Lord, or the fact
that we have money and investments to maintain our lifestyle? What is the focus of our attention, our life
of faith in God, or the desire to acquire those money and investments so that
we can feel secure?
The people of Judah had their
entertainment but did not regard the deeds of the Lord. We live in a world where we are being
entertained to death. How much time do
you spend looking at your phone checking out the latest posts on Facebook,
Instagram, and Snapchat? How much time
do you spend watching YouTube videos? By
contrast, how much time do you spend reading God’s word each day? How much time
does you spend in prayer? What does your use of time say about the priorities
in your life?
Yahweh did bring judgment upon Judah. He brought judgment upon the northern kingdom
of Israel as well. All could see that
the Near Eastern superpower of Assyria – which was located in what it today
northern Iraq – was a looming threat.
Israel and the nation of Syria demanded that Judah join them in an
alliance against Assyria. When Judah
refused, the two more powerful nations prepared to attack Judah. Yahweh sent Isaiah to King Ahaz to tell him
to trust in God. He said, “If you are
not firm in faith, you will be not be firm at all.”
Ahaz was not
firm in faith. Instead, he asked the
Assyrians to help him! They invaded and
in 722 B.C. conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. But they didn’t stop
there. They captured all the fortified cities of Judah, and eventually laid
siege to Jerusalem. The nation suffered terribly at the hands of the Assyrians.
Yahweh
confronted Judah’s sin. But he did so to
call them to repentance. He said through
Isaiah, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds
from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct
oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
God called
Judah to repentance because he wanted to forgive. In the first chapter he said, “Come now, let
us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they
shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become
like wool.”
God wanted
to forgive, and he wanted to deliver Judah.
In our text he promises another day – a very different day. Isaiah says, “You will say in that day: ‘I
will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger
turned away that you might comfort me.”
God promised a day in which Judah would say, “Behold, God is my
salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid: for the Lord God is my
strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
Yahweh acted
in a dramatic way to provide salvation. The Assyrian army of King Sennacherib
was laying siege to Jerusalem. There appeared to be no hope. But God sent the
angel of the Lord out at night and he killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. The
crushing loss forced the Assyrians to withdraw, and Jerusalem was saved.
This was a mighty
deliverance. But the chapters that lead
up to our text tell us that this act of salvation pointed forward to something
even bigger. In chapter seven, when
Isaiah told King Ahaz to trust Yahweh, he said, “Therefore the Lord himself
will give you a sign. Behold the virgin
will conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Two chapters
later, Isaiah spoke of the restoration God would bring. He again spoke of a child, as he promised
that David’s descendant would reign forever.
He said, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the
government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah spoke mysterious words that went
beyond the description of any human being. Then he added, “Of the increase of
his government there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his
kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this
time forth and forevermore.”
Finally, in
the chapter just before our text, Isaiah says about the Messiah, “There shall
come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall
bear fruit. And the Spirit of to the Lord will rest upon him.” God promised that this One would bring the
day when the wolf would dwell with the lamb.
The virgin
did conceive and bear a son as Mary conceived through the work of the Holy
Spirit. She gave birth to the descendant
of David who is indeed Mighty God.
Conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary, Jesus Christ
was true God and true man. He was
anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism as the Spirit came to rest on him.
God sent
forth his Son into the world so that his anger could turn away from us. Our sins are like scarlet. We do fail to give God the place in our life
that he deserves as our Creator and Sustainer. This sin against the holy God
deserves his eternal judgement.
The just God
had to be true to his nature in punishing sin. Because of our sinful
fallenness, the doing of the law was never going to bring us anything except
wrath. But in his love, God wanted to
forgive. And so he sent forth his Son to receive the judgment against our sin. The apostle Paul told the Romans, “For God
has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”
When Jesus
died on the cross, God judged and punished our every sin. Because of Jesus’ crucifixion we are now as
white as snow in God’s eyes. We are
holy. He has acted in Christ to turn
away his anger from us. He has acted to
comfort us.
This comfort
goes beyond forgiveness to include the defeat of death. Jesus died as the sacrifice for our
sins. But on the third day God raised
him up. In Jesus’ resurrection we find
salvation that promises life beyond death.
Because Jesus lives, we will live.
This life continues beyond death.
It does, first, because death cannot stop our life with Christ the
living Lord. Paul told the Philippians that he desired to depart and be with
Christ. And second, it does because the risen Lord will return on the Last Day
to raise our bodies and transform them to be like his.
Isaiah says
in our text, “You will say in that day.”
Because of the death and resurrection of Christ we already live in that
day. Paul told the Corinthians, “Behold,
now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Today we say with Isaiah, “Behold, God is my
salvation; I will trust and will not be afraid; for the Lord is my strength and
my song, and he has become my salvation.”
Indeed, with
joy we draw water from the wells of salvation.
We have been baptized into Christ. As Paul told the Galatians, “For as
many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” When God looks at
us he does not see our sin. Instead, he
sees Christ’s righteousness that covers us.
God has done
this for us. So what is our
response? Isaiah tells us: “And you will
say in that day: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his
deeds among the peoples.” We give thanks
to God and tells others about what Jesus Christ had done for us. As Isaiah
adds, “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be
made known in all the earth.”
Isaiah ends
our text, and this first portion of his prophecy by stating: “Shout, and sing
for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of
Israel.” In a few moments we will sing
for joy because the Holy One of Israel will come into our midst as he gives us
his true body and blood. He will give us
forgiveness and food to strengthen us in faith so that we can continue to say
each day: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
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