Isaiah
40:1-11
Comfort, comfort my people!
says your God.
2 Speak compassionately to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended,
that her penalty has been paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins!
says your God.
2 Speak compassionately to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her that her compulsory service has ended,
that her penalty has been paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins!
3 A voice is crying out:
“Clear the Lord’s way in the desert!
Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!
“Clear the Lord’s way in the desert!
Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!
4 Every valley will be
raised up,
and every mountain and hill will be flattened.
Uneven ground will become level,
and rough terrain a valley plain.
and every mountain and hill will be flattened.
Uneven ground will become level,
and rough terrain a valley plain.
5 The Lord’s glory will
appear,
and all humanity will see it together;
the Lord’s mouth has commanded it.”
and all humanity will see it together;
the Lord’s mouth has commanded it.”
6 A voice was saying:
“Call out!”
And another[a] said,
“What should I call out?”
All flesh is grass;
all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.
“Call out!”
And another[a] said,
“What should I call out?”
All flesh is grass;
all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass dries up
and the flower withers
when the Lord’s breath blows on it.
Surely the people are grass.
and the flower withers
when the Lord’s breath blows on it.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass dries up;
the flower withers,
but our God’s word will exist forever.
the flower withers,
but our God’s word will exist forever.
9 Go up on a high mountain,
messenger Zion!
Raise your voice and shout,
messenger Jerusalem!
Raise it; don’t be afraid;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
messenger Zion!
Raise your voice and shout,
messenger Jerusalem!
Raise it; don’t be afraid;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 Here is the Lord God,
coming with strength,
with a triumphant arm,
bringing his reward with him
and his payment before him.
coming with strength,
with a triumphant arm,
bringing his reward with him
and his payment before him.
11 Like a shepherd, God will
tend the flock;
he will gather lambs in his arms
and lift them onto his lap.
He will gently guide the nursing ewes.
he will gather lambs in his arms
and lift them onto his lap.
He will gently guide the nursing ewes.
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Introduction
At the end of seven innings the score was tied
1-1. The young pitcher for the home team
had made an impressive performance: striking out batters while showing skill
and discipline. High School baseball
games were only seven innings long, so the game went into extra innings…whoever
lead at the end of an inning was the winner.
The visiting team was up to bat first and finally found a way to hit the
aforementioned player’s pitches. Through a combination of hitting and errors,
the visiting team scored three more runs at the top of the eighth: their
victory seemed inevitable. The young
pitcher was frustrated as he headed back to the bench. Once he sat down, he
began to unlace and take of his cleats…the game was over: there was no way that
his team could come back from this!
Fortunately the pitcher’s father saw what he was doing and hurried down
from the bleachers.
“Put those cleats back on! The game’s not over
yet!!” his dad told him. Still a bit disgruntled the pitcher jammed his feet
back in the cleats and laced them back up.
His team went to bat…
After hundreds of years of living in the
“Promised Land” the people of Israel were conquered and their kingdoms
destroyed. The Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E.
and its people were either forcibly relocated to other parts of the world or
they became refugees in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. In 586 B.C.E. the Kingdom of Judah fell to the
Babylonian Empire: Jerusalem was sacked, the Temple was destroyed and many of
its leading citizens were taken into exile.
This seemed to be the end of the people of Israel’s relationship with
God. Like so many other religions and
cultures, they would probably disappear on the scrapheap of history. The game
was over…
The
Technical Stuff
In the Ancient World just about every nation and
culture had their own deity, or their own particular “spin” on a widely known
god. That deity was usually connected to
the land in which you lived: blessing and protecting it. If two nations went
head-to-head in a war, it was as if the two nation’s deities were also “duking
it out” to see who was the most powerful. We see this earlier in Israel’s
history when David went toe-to-toe with Goliath: the Philistine giant “cursed
David by his gods” (1 Sam. 17:43) while David answered with, “You are coming
against me with sword, spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name
of the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel’s army who you’ve insulted…”
(1 Sam. 17:45)
I’m sure that while the Babylonians were
besieging Jerusalem they did quite a bit of “cursing Israel’s God” and yet they
still prevailed. If one nation defeated another nation, logic said that one god
had defeated another. Most observers
inferred that the Babylonian god, named Marduk, had triumphed and it was time
for the people of Judah to accept the inevitable: Marduk was more powerful than
the LORD. In other words, the game was over.
But instead, something truly amazing happened. Israel’s
God did not go away. The promise and relationship did not disappear with the
exile. God was still speaking, moving
and acting. The text from Isaiah 40 which we read today is an example of this.
It begins the section of Isaiah called “Second Isaiah” and almost certainly
comes from a different author than the first thirty-nine chapters of the
book. For centuries the prophets had
been telling the people that there needed to be a change; that they needed to
renew their relationship with God; not by going through the motions and “lip
service” but with their whole being. Instead,
there was defeat and exile. The people of Judah must have felt that either God
didn’t care or that God was too weak to do anything about it.
Now that the exile has come, Isaiah 40 gives a
word of hope and comfort: “Speak compassionately to Jerusalem, and proclaim to
her that her compulsory service has ended, that her penalty has been paid, that
she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins!” The people were
still in exile, but the prophet went on to say “All flesh is grass…The grass
dries up; the flower withers, but our God’s word will exist forever.” and then,
“Here is the Lord God, coming with strength, with a triumphant arm, bringing
his reward with him and his payment before him.” Far from being defeated by
Marduk, the LORD is in control and is mighty indeed. This is extraordinary in the history of the world:
Israel’s God certainly cares and certainly can do something about their
situation. If the conventional wisdom of
the time said that Marduk was the winner, God certainly doesn’t “follow the
rules” and doesn’t seem to care much for “conventional wisdom.”
What
Does this Say to Us?
The visiting team was up 4 to 1 in the bottom of
the eighth inning and the young pitcher’s team was up to bat. After a series of hits and errors the home
team had the bases loaded with the pitcher now up to bat, cleats firmly
tied. The pitch came and he made contact
with the ball…it went back…back…over the wall: a grand slam. Now the game was
over and the home team had one. Hard to believe? This high school was my
grandfather some 60-odd years ago. In a
delightful addition to the story, there was a small hole-like door in the
left-field wall because there were only a small number of baseballs at each
game and the players had to retrieve any that left the field. As my grandpa hit the ball and the
left-fielder ran to catch it, he inadvertently fell through the door, fell and
had to watch the grand slam fly over him.
Years later that left fielder saw my grandfather on many occasions and
said, jokingly, “I don’t like you! You made me look like an idiot!”
The game is not yet over. We might be in an “exile” situation: exiled
from a place or person that we love; exiled from health or safety; exiled even
from life itself, but the game is not yet over. “’Comfort, comfort my people!’
says your God.” Hundreds of years later the followers of Jesus had watched
their friend and leader die on a cross in the most painful and humiliating way
imaginable. It was over, as far as they
could tell…but God was still speaking, moving and working. On the third day
Jesus rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. When his followers
experienced the risen Jesus they knew that the story wasn’t over: it was just
getting started. Jesus’ resurrection shows us that even if we are “exiled” from
life itself, the game isn’t over yet.
The promise is still valid, a relationship with
God through Jesus Christ is there and life through these things is very much
present…beyond our circumstance, beyond exile, even beyond death. The game
isn’t over.
