12-6-20 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Isaiah 40:1-11 (Advent 2 CW-B)

Pastor Ron Koehler

Grace—Tucson, AZ

December 6, 2020

The Promise: Comfort, Comfort “I’ve got some bad news and some good news. Which do you want to hear first?”

We’ve all said that or heard that or both. Well, Isaiah was a bad news/good news prophet. Although he didn’t announce it in the way we sometimes do, he shared some bad news promises with the LORD’s people and some good news promises.

Last week we heard his promise that the Lord is our Father and Redeemer because he has forgiven us and adopted us as his children. That is certainly a comforting message and one we want to hear often!

God’s people have always needed promises of comfort from the Lord. Take, for instance, the situation into which Isaiah related a promise of comfort to the Lord’s people in Judah back in about 700 BC. In order to appreciate the words before us from Isaiah chapter 40—and the comforting promises he makes—we have to know what he had told them just before this. And I can tell you, it wasn’t good. In fact, it was terrible.

What’s worse is that the bad news he had to tell the people was their own fault. You can read the details of that in the chapters that precede our lesson. What you’ll find there is a lot of rebuke and judgment and condemnation and “woes” pronounced on the nation of God’s people because they had been unfaithful to the LORD. How bad was it? The LORD told them that he had had enough of their worthless offerings, that he couldn’t stand their evil gatherings, that their meeting to celebrate the religious festivals was a burden to him, and he was tired of them! Then in chapter 39, Isaiah gives the bad news bombshell: The Babylonians would conquer them, haul off all the treasures of their nation, and as they took them off into captivity, King Hezekiah’s own descendants would be hauled off and become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon! Isaiah was allowed to see forward in time to the Babylonian Captivity of God’s people, when people like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were indeed hauled off and the temple in Jerusalem destroyed.

This is what Isaiah had just explained. But now you can hear that the tone of the prophecy changes. After that terrible news comes the good news from Isaiah. It might be a little confusing and hard to understand this good news prophecy unless we realize that this is a completely different vision from God. Think of the break from the bad news of chapter 39 and the good news of chapter 40 as a “hard break,” as if God is saying, “Now for the good news…”

This good news is truly amazing because God allows Isaiah to see almost to the end of the Babylonian Captivity. Realize that he is looking so far forward that the Babylonians are not a superpower yet! Judah had not yet been taken captive. Cyrus, the leader of Persia, who would conquer the Babylonians and permit God’s people to leave captivity and return to their land, wasn’t even born yet! What an amazing thing to be a prophet of God and to see such things! What an amazing thing to be one of God’s people and have the certainty that the promise would be fulfilled! In fact, it was so certain, that Isaiah sees it as something already accomplished—which explains why he writes in the past tense! So with all that explanation, here is that good news promise from God: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her. Her warfare really is over. Her guilt is fully paid for. Yes, she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. A voice is calling out: In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD. In the wasteland make a level highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The rugged ground will become level, and the rough places will become a plain. Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh together will see it.

God intends for his people to be comforted with this promise. He even repeats his intention: Comfort, comfort my people, he says. Though they have not been living for the LORD, though their hearts had not been in their worship, though they had resisted and rebelled against him, God still calls them my people! This is pure grace, isn’t it?— love from God that is completely undeserved. What a loving promise from God to give them comfort and hope!

The struggle of the upcoming captivity (the “warfare”) would come to an end. Their guilt would be paid for—not by their captivity, as if they had somehow worked off their debt—but God himself would pay for their sins. Isaiah would have the privilege of telling them how as he would later speak in specifics about Jesus’ innocent suffering and death (chapter 53). The “double” they would receive from the LORD was not punishment, but a multitude of blessings in spite of their sin! This is grace again!

And do you see why this lesson falls into the Advent season when we are preparing to celebrate Jesus coming into the world as its Savior from sin? A voice is calling out: In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD. In the wasteland make a level highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The rugged ground will become level, and the rough places will become a plain. Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh together will see it. Yes, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

We know from the gospel for today that these words talk about John the Baptist. God allowed Isaiah to see him as the one who would be that voice calling out, preparing the way for Jesus. John’s call was for people to repent, to remove obstacles from the Lord’s path. Just as if a king was coming through a rough and rocky desert wilderness, we would want to clear the path for him (as was the ancient custom), so sinners want to repent of their sins and look for the King of their salvation to come with his forgiveness. When Jesus would come, he would be the embodiment of the LORD’s glory—in the flesh to be seen by all.

This vision contains multiple prophecies. It speaks of Babylon, and it foretells Jesus’ coming. It even transports us to the end of this world when all flesh truly will see Jesus in all his glory and when the LORD will shepherd his flock as he gathers all his lambs into his everlasting arms. The result of his works of power and grace will be the reward of his people being with him.

To help his people see past the difficult captivity that was forthcoming, the LORD wants it to be shouted for everyone to hear that all people, nations, and things in this world spring up and wither away, but God and his promises endure forever. The LORD would forgive them and come for them. What comfort this must have brought!

As we see, this doesn’t have only to do with Judah and the Babylonian Captivity. It’s bigger than that. This also has to do with God’s relationship with all people, with the sin that made necessary the sending of a Savior. We are as dependent on that Savior as they were, so this is for us too! We might not like to think of ourselves as rebellious people, people who claim to be God’s people but don’t live like it. But it is true, isn’t it?

Aren’t we a lot like them?

Just like them, aren’t our offerings sometimes (maybe even often) worthless in God’s eyes because they are not thoughtful and generous like he expects, not joyful like he expects, not regular like he expects? Don’t we act like God doesn’t see how we choose to spend the wealth he has given to us? We can even put all of this entirely out of our minds. And meanwhile the Lord’s anger burns against our sins of greed and selfishness and what is really a lack of love for the Lord who saved us.

Aren’t there also times when we meet together for worship, when God must look at us as evil and a burden to him because he is expecting rapt attention and focus on him as he comes to us in his Word and in the sacraments, but we’re just going through the routine of it all—turning the pages at the right time, standing and sitting when it says to, but our minds are elsewhere?

The same goes for us as we worship online these days—distraction and disappointment with not being in church detract from what ought to be laser-focused worship of our Lord and Savior.

And need we even mention the times we let our sinful nature rule Sunday morning, and we decide worship isn’t important that day? But we find a way to fit in extra sleep and hiking and football games and house repairs and shopping.

And how much worse when we allow this to happen Sunday after Sunday. The nation of Judah gave little thought to these sins and one day they received shockingly bad news from God. That can happen to us too.

We don’t have a prophet sent by God telling us that we are going to be hauled off to a foreign country where we’ll be made to miss the opportunity to worship the Lord and long for the days of entering his house. No, we don’t have that. But the prophet’s words give us a strong warning still, don’t they? Our similar sins still bring the wrath of God. If we remain in our sins, paying no attention to God’s Word of warning, then a worse captivity can overcome us! Could we not lose our faith entirely—and maybe not even realize that it’s happened? And that would lead to an eternal captivity in hell.

What great love God has for you and me, that he would come to us with these words today, that he would have Isaiah give us this promise that we know God fulfilled when he sent Jesus, born to fully pay for our guilt too! We have received abundant blessings in Jesus instead of punishment for our sins! Our sin-infected hearts that can’t even get our worship of God right, that don’t respond to the grace of God in the ways he is looking for, find total forgiveness in the Lamb of God, because his reverence for the Father was perfect and his life given on the cross a pure offering of love. In him, we have absolute assurance that the Lord, our Shepherd, will gather us in his arms for all eternity. What an undeserved and amazing promise!

Comfort, comfort my people, God says to you and me today. He still loves us. We are still his people. We will be for eternity. I pray that this promise of comfort from the Lord encourages you and allows you to endure life’s challenges, as it did for God’s people long ago, when Isaiah first gave it to them. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her. Her warfare really is over. Her guilt is fully paid for. Yes, she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice is calling out: In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD. In the wasteland make a level highway for our God. 4 Every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The rugged ground will become level, and the rough places will become a plain. 5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh together will see it. Yes, the mouth of the LORD has spoken. 6 A voice was saying, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry out?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like a wildflower in the countryside. 7 Grass withers, flowers fade, when the breath of the LORD blows on them. Yes, the people are grass. 8 Grass withers, flowers fade, but the Word of our God endures forever. 9 Get up on a high mountain, O Zion, you herald of good news. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, you herald of good news. Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 Look, God the LORD will come with strength, and his arm is ruling for him. Look, his reward is with him. The result of his work is in front of him.

11 Like a shepherd he will care for his flock. With his arm he will gather the lambs. He will lift them up on his lap. He will gently lead the nursing mothers.