Sexagesima
Isa
55:10-13
2/23/25
The
prophet Isaiah wrote in the eight century B.C. Yet in is prophecy, God uses him
to address events that were going to occur in the sixth century B.C. In
Isaiah’s time, you didn’t need divine foreknowledge to perceive what was most
likely going to happen. The southern
kingdom of Judah had been unfaithful to Yahweh.
This had been the case for a long time, and there was nothing to lead a
person to believe that anything was going to change.
Judah
worshipped false god’s. Oh, they still
went through the motions of worship and sacrifice at the temple, but their
hearts were not truly directed towards the Lord. Isaiah wrote in the first chapter, “Ah,
sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they
have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are
utterly estranged.”
Judah
did not have faith in Yahweh. And so,
not surprisingly, they were not living in the ways that were part of his
covenant with them. They were not living in the ways that his Torah described.
Isaiah wrote, “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.”
Isaiah
told Judah that God’s judgment would come upon them. They would be taken into
exile. The experience of exile would be
a call to repentance. Yahweh described
the nation as his wife. In the previous chapter Isaiah said, “For the LORD has
called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth
when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but
with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I
hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on
you," says the LORD, your Redeemer.”
The
nation would experience the punishment of exile. But in love and compassion, God would not
abandon the people. It was in Yahweh
alone that they could have hope. He
begins this chapter by saying, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is
not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to
me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”
Only
God could provide them with what they really needed. And he gave it freely and without cost – he
gave it by grace. What the people needed
to do was to turn to Yahweh in repentance.
He says, “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul
may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my
steadfast, sure love for David.”
God
called upon the people and said: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call
upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on
him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” God promised that those who repented would
meet the God who had compassion and who abundantly pardoned. As Yahweh had said
in the first chapter, “Come now, let us reason together, says the
LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
God
called the wicked to forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. He called them to repentance because God
would have compassion on them, and would abundantly pardon. The way and thoughts of man were wicked and
sinful. But the way and thoughts of God
were compassionate and forgiving. So
immediately before our text, Isaiah says, “For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts.”
Now
we often take this verse to mean that God’s thoughts and ways are beyond our
comprehension. This is certainly true,
and there is much in Holy Scripture that teaches this fact. But the immediate context of this statement
leads us to recognize that it has one particular aspect of God in mind. This is the fact that God has compassion
and pardons the wicked and unrighteous who repent.
This
is not how by nature we operate. When
wronged, we want get payback. This is
not how the world works. You need only
look briefly on social media to see how people are eager to accuse and attack
when they believe they have been wronged.
But
God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God is the compassionate One who pardons
sins. Again and again - like a kind of
creedal statement - the Old Testament tells us that God is gracious and
merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents
over disaster.
God
is the One who acts in compassion to forgive. God does not keep this to
himself. Instead in our text we learn that God speaks it through his word. He says, “For as the rain and the snow come
down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring
forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so
shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the
thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah
uses the metaphor of water, which was so crucial for life in Israel which
existed just inside the zone where there was enough moisture to raise
crops. The rain and the snow came down
from heaven and watered the earth. This water produced crops from which bread could
be made. Along with this, additional seed was produced that would be sown to
produce the next harvest. In the same
way the word that goes forth from God’s mouth does not return empty, but
accomplishes what God intends. And of
course, here, the intention is to deliver compassion and pardon.
Yahweh’s
words to Judah are expressed in language that point beyond just return from
exile. He says in our text, “Incline
your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will
make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love
for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and
commander for the peoples.”
God’s
promise of David’s descendant, the Messiah, stood sure. Because Joseph took Jesus to be his own,
Jesus was the son of David. He was the
fulfillment of Isaiah’s words that we heard at Christmas, “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. Of the increase of his government and of peace there
will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it
and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth
and forevermore.”
Yet
as we learned at Jesus’ baptism – and were reminded again at his
transfiguration – Jesus is also the Servant of the Lord. Sin is sin committed against God, and the
just and holy God punishes sin. That is
why the Lord laid the iniquity of us all on Jesus, as he was wounded for
our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Jesus Christ received this as he died on the
cross in our place.
Sin
brings death. It has since Adam and
Eve. Jesus died as he received the
judgment against our sin. But sin and
death did not get the final word. God
raised Jesus from the dead on the third day.
He began in Christ the resurrection life that will be ours as well.
In
our text we learn that God has compassion and pardons those who repent and turn
to him for forgiveness. He says that
this forgiving word goes out of his mouth and does not return to him empty.
Instead, it accomplishes what he purposed and succeeds in the thing for which
he sent it.
This
is word is the word of the Gospel. It is
the good news that through faith in the crucified and risen Lord we have
forgiveness before God. God has already
acted to give us pardon and forgiveness.
He has already revealed his love through Jesus Christ. This is a word that calls forth faith. Paul told the Romans, “So faith comes
from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
God
gives you this word through the reading and preaching of Scripture. And he also gives you the “visible word.” He
adds his Gospel word to water, and to bread and wind, and these become means by
which God gives forgiveness to us. He
gives us his word in ways that embrace us in a physical, bodily manner. For it
is not only our soul that he has redeemed.
The incarnate Lord lived a human bodily existence and he rose from the
dead with a resurrection body that can never die again. This is what he will give us on the Last Day
when he raises us from the dead.
In our text, God says that his word
of forgiveness will not fail to accomplish his purpose. It delivers what Jesus Christ has won for us
by his death and resurrection. The result of this is joy – joy that will
encompass all creation. We hear at the
end of our text: “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in
peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the
thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be
cut off.” Because of God’s forgiving word in Christ, we look forward to live
with him in the new creation.
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