A Sermon based on Isaiah 43:14-44:4 preached on Sunday 5th September at St. Columba's Evening Prayer service
Let Us pray
Living God, we pray that these ancient words would be for us, words of truth, words of hope and words of sustenience for us this day. In Jesus name we pray Amen.
One of the challenges of preaching through the Lectionary, the set readings of the day is that sometimes we pick up the story in the Middle of what is happening - It would not make sense to pick up any novel, pick a page at random and start from there - we would not know the back story, the plot line and the characters.
This evening’s Old Testament reading is from the Middle of the Book of Isaiah - it comes at a time for the Israelite nation which was so unbelievably sad, when they were down cast- Psalm 137 (made famous of course by Boney M) describes this
“By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion” -
They had been in the promised land but that was all taken away from them
It is at a time of change, a time of uncertainty, a time when the nations Identity is lost because they have been taken into exile by Babylon.
During the last week of the Summer Holidays, Bishop Harold held a Bible week and invited Dr Christian Baxter over to speak about another prophet - Habakuk. She explained the political situation of the day very well.
Two big empires wanted to get the land which Israel inhabitted. Egypt from the south and Babylon from the north - causing a squeeze. Eventually babylon succeeded and they were very brutal - they captured all the leaders, officials and carted them off to what is now Iraq - this was the exile.
In this vision which is part of the over all vision of Isaiah -Babylon as an empire will be broken, and Israel will be restored. Take a look at what the passage says:
At the beginning we are reminded who God actually is:
I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King.
This is written in the midst of hopeless despair - the fact that these people are in service to another king - the Babylonian empire but they are reminded that their citizenship is with teh Creator God, their King.
We see in this how full of Grace God is - he is not going to treat them according to their sins, nor according to the acceptability of their sacrafices but rather he is going to look upon them in his multitude of love and care.
The vision in this passage is one of this passage is one of reminding the israelites of who God is, giving Isaiah’s hearers a Glimpse of what God is doing in the background and giving them a future vision of what God will be doing.
The prophet’s role was one of speaking hope into despair, speaking God’s word, God’s perspective into situations where it was recieved.
Let us look at these verses under 3 headings
- Remembering who God is
- Catching a glimpse of what is happening at the present
- Looking forward to a hopeful future
Remembering who God is
Within this passage we see God doing what he has done time after time
Lord who made you,
who formed you in the womb
I, I am He
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.
Catching a glimpse of what he is doing
In this passage we hear Echoes of the exodus when God led moses out of captivity - Pharaoh’s army defeated - He did it once he can do it again.
Looking forward to a bright future
Something new is happening in line with the way God has acted in the past but new for this generation, they are new circumstances, new problems but similar to what has happened in the past.
19 I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21 the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.
This captivity which they are in is going to be destroyed - it is promised, God will eventually work his plans out for the salvation of his people.
In history this will be in terms of Cyrus from Persia who will overthrow Babylon and who will bring the exile to and end and restore the fortunes of the people of Israel. However as we look at this passage we also know that this is pointing forward towards God releasing his people from captivity of sin into the freedom of Christ.
Application
As we attempt to apply this passage to our lives we need to remember who God is, catch a glimpse of what he is doing in this generation and looking forward to a future rooted with him.
Firstly Remembering who God is, and remembering we have a much clearer vision of God compared to Isaiah as we have the full revelation of God in Jesus and also we are living in the age of the Holy Spirit which has indeed been poured out.
What is God doing in this generation? - we are living at an amazing time, a generation which has seen unprecendented change, communication and technical development, development of new drugs which cure more diseases than we could have imagined, knowledge of the human dna makes all sorts of things possible, transport links right across the globe, reaching further and futher into space.Great things happening here. On the flip side we still have those living on the streets, we have famine, war, persecution like never before, families are being enslaved into debt, into working harder and harder in a 24 hour economy. Family break-up is at an all time high. Lots of people today are struggling to find out who they are, searching for their identity and purpose to life.
Perhaps this is where this prophecy comes into its own, perhaps we have a memory of what life should be like, perhaps we should be listening to the things which God is saying to us.
Very Very briefly, God is saying to us
Remember Me - I haven’t left you, I haven’t forsaken you
You are looking for purpose - well I have plans for you, plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans for a hope and a future
Jesus says to you ... you can have life in all its fullness.
There are a huge number of promises in the Bible which God has promised us. In our day, in our generation we may look round on dark days and think - God where are you, we may think in the circumstance I witness where are you ... I wish I was somewhere else.
It is in those dark days, in those difficult days when we need to grab hold, to cling to the promises in Scripture. Which is one of the benefits of the age old learning verses of the bible by rote - so that they are ingrained in the memory.
Let us take Scripture, the word of God and let us remember that the God of creation, the God who led the israelite people, who stepped down as a babe in the bethlehem stable is the same God who lived, who died and who will return again, who sustains us.
Remembering who God is
Catching a glimpse of what is happening at the present
Looking forward to a hopeful future
We have a God of Hope ... there is never any situation too hopeless
ahhh.... for those who remember this in college!...:-)
No comments:
Post a Comment