“The Lord is My Strength”
[Isaiah 12:1-6]
September 9, 2018, Second Reformed
Church
After the promise of destruction and
only a remnant returning to Israel, Isaiah preaches the Word of God that after
Judah has been destroyed – even Jerusalem – by the Babylonians in 586 BC, a
shoot will grow up out of the stump of Jesse.
And we saw that this symbolizes the continuation of the line of David
and the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah to come from the line of
David – Who is Jesus.
Isaiah prophesies into the future,
seeing a vision of the Second Coming when Jesus will return and restore the
Creation, bringing His kingdom in all its fullness to the earth.
We ended last week remembering that
just as God delivered Israel from Egypt, He will deliver a remnant of Israel
from the Assyrians, and He will deliver a remnant of humanity – through Jesus –
to salvation.
Isaiah then poses this good news and
our response to it in the form of a call and response which shifts from the
masculine, to the inclusive plural, to the feminine to show that salvation ---
and the response to salvation – has nothing to do with gender.
Isaiah begins this song announcing
that God is our salvation.
Isaiah speaks, addressing the masculine
voice: “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.’
Our response to God is to be thanks.
Why?
Because God is rightly angry with us for
our sin. All sin is against God, and God
is the just God, so He must punish all sin to the fullest. That means, unless Someone Who is eligible
takes our place under God’s Wrath, we must suffer the fullness of God’s Wrath
against us for our sin.
The Only One Who is eligible to take our
place is Jesus, because He is at the same time and in the same person, fully
God and fully human. He is fully human
so He can live a perfect life under God’s Law and credit that to our accounts,
and He is fully God, so He can take on all of the sins of all of the people who
will ever believe in Him and survive the Wrath of God, thus meriting and securing
our salvation.
Peter writes, “He himself bore our sins in
his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By
his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now
returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (I Peter 2:24-25, ESV).
This is what God did in coming to earth in
the person of Jesus. God, though He was
rightly supremely enraged against us for our sin against Him, He chose to save
a remnant through His Son Jesus. He
chose to comfort us, even as we strive towards holiness now.
The gift that God gives us – the grace
that God gives us – in our salvation is completely His work, His decision, His
gift. We begin by understanding our sin
and how horrible it is and how we can never pay that debt we owe to God. If you don’t understand that one of your sins
makes you worthy to suffer eternal torment, then you don’t understand the
seriousness of sin.
Now, God doesn’t promise we will always be
happy, but God promises, “And we know that for those who love God all things
work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans
8:28, ESV).
Even when we are disciplined, our right
response is thanks, for God’s Fatherly discipline is for our good, “Let me hear
joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice” (Psalm 51:8,
ESV).
God doesn’t have to give His grace. He doesn’t have to be merciful. But He chose to be for a remnant. Are you thankful? Are you ready to give your thanks to God for
what He has done? If not, consider your
sins, and what the Just and Holy God would require as payment for those sins
against Him.
Isaiah tells this person, “God, Himself,
has given you salvation, so give Him thanks!”
And he responds: ‘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.’”
Just like Moses sings, “The LORD is my
strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I
will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him” (Exodus 15:2, ESV).
Because the salvation God gives is totally
and completely God’s work, and our sin merited unending suffering, we know that
God is our salvation – it is nothing we do – we have no merit – nothing to
bring to the table. And so, we will
trust in God and not be afraid, for God has secured our salvation through Jesus
– and no matter what might happen to us in this life – even if we are tortured
and have our friends desert us and die a horrible, painful death, God is our
strength – we can endure everything through Him and for Him – we will sing
praises to Him because He is worthy of all praise and we are ever worthy of
more suffering.
Paul encourages us, “For I consider that
the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that
is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18, ESV).
The worst we can possible suffer in this world will be as nothing to us
as we enter into the Glory of God.
That’s not to make light of
suffering. Suffering can be horrible – excruciating. We are to be there for each other – to help
each other – to pray for each other. But
in the greater scheme of things, the worst that my sarcoidosis can grow into in
my life will be nothing to me – no cause to give it a second thought, as I am
welcomed into glory. Amen?
Then Isaiah speaks in the inclusive
plural, as he says that the fullness, the sufficiency, and the blessings of
God’s salvation is given to everyone who believes. Everything necessary for spiritual life is a
gift from God.
“With joy you will draw water from the
wells of salvation.”
With joy – you – all of us – will draw
water – what does this mean?
When we talk about water, we often think
of baptism, but that is not specifically – or the only thing – being referred
to here.
When Israel was in the wilderness fleeing
from the Egyptians, they ran out of water, and we read that God says, “’Behold,
I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the
rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did
so, in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Exodus 17:6, ESV).
Paul explains what the ultimately means, “For
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the
cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the
cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the
same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed
them, and the Rock was Christ” (I Corinthians 10:1-4, ESV).
Just as water gives us physical fullness, sufficiency,
blessings – everything that is necessary for life, so that water that Christ
gives us spiritually from Himself in saving us fills us spiritually,
sufficiently, with every blessing and everything that is necessary to live a
spiritual life that is pleasing to God and one that we will continue to live –
perfectly – in the Kingdom.
Paul
writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” (Ephesians
1:3, ESV).
In Christ, we have been blessed with water
– that is, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We have every blessing now – and we will have
them perfectly in their fullness in the Kingdom. The only reason we don’t have them so now is
due to the times we are thirsty and God tells us to live His way, and we say, “Thanks,
Lord, but this bowl of dust – this sin – looks like it will quench my thirst
better than You can.”
The water is there for us in Christ, if we
will receive it – if we will walk in holiness.
If we choose to sin, we shouldn’t complain that we are parched.
As the psalmist writes, “God settles the
solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the
rebellious dwell in a parched land” (Psalm 68:6, ESV).
Knowing that water of Christ – the
spiritual blessing and fulfillment that we find in Him should make us, with David,
cry out, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So
I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory” (Psalm
63:1-2, ESV).
This is the water Jesus speaks of: “but whoever drinks of the water that I will
give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will
become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14, ESV).
This is the water we will drink in the
Kingdom that causes all pain and sorrow to fly away: “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will
be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God
will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:17, ESV)
Our joy is found in knowing Christ, being
in Christ through His salvation of us, receiving all the blessings we need to
be exactly who He would have us be each day and forevermore.
In response to this, the crowd says they
will be thankful and live right – which is the correct response.
“And you will say in that day: ‘Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim
that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.’”
The people say they will give thanks to
the Lord and call on His Name – they will pray – and they will tell others what
Jesus has done to secure salvation for all those who will believe.
The people will use His Name rightly, and
sing praises to the Lord for the glorious things He has done – especially
salvation through Jesus – and they will tell others what Jesus has done to
secure salvation for all those who will believe.
In the Kingdom, we will talk with Jesus
and praise Him and use His Name rightly, and sing His Glory in the salvation of
His people – so it is the right thing for us to do now.
If we consider the third commandment – not
to take the Lord’s Name in vain – in the positive – it means to use the Lord’s
Name rightly.
That means we are to pray to God in Jesus’
Name. We are to tell people Who Jesus is
and what He has done to make us right with God. We are to praise Him and thank
Him and always be thinking about how He has told us to live.
Sometimes we can seem more excited about
another mere human saving someone’s life, or a football game, than in Jesus and
Who He is and what He did.
Remember what Paul writes, “Have this mind
among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the
form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and
bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians
2:5-11, ESV).
God chose to love us – even though we are
born sinners and enemies of God – God chose to save a remnant. And God chose to send God the Son into the
womb of Mary by the power of God the Holy Spirit that Jesus would be born fully
God and fully human. And God chose to
live under His own Law, and die the most horrific death humans and God can conceive
to pay the debt for our sins, and then rise in power and glory to sit back on
His throne at the right hand of the Father, having secured our salvation.
Is anything greater than this?
Call on Him. Sing His praises. Tell someone.
Tell someone. Tell someone.
Finally, Isaiah speaks in the feminine
singular, urging her to sing for joy, because God is in the midst of His people
now and forever.
“Shout, and sing for joy, O
inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
Isaiah tells her to sing and shout
continually. Our praise to God and His
salvation in Jesus is not a one-time thing, but something that should occur
again and again as we live and remember all that He has done.
She is an inhabitant of Zion – also
called Jerusalem – the city of the Kingdom of God – the place where all
believers will live when Jesus returns – and God, the Holy One of Israel –
lives in the midst of the city.
Just as God dwelled occasionally in
the Tabernacle and the Temple of Israel and now dwells in each believer, God
will be in the city – eternally before us for us to worship and praise and
learn from.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea
was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice
from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will
dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them
as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be
no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the
former things have passed away’” (Revelation 21:1-4, ESV).
Immanuel. The Holy One of Israel. God with us.
God is with us and will be with us.
This is joy in our salvation. This is how we can live and mature and wait
for the return of Jesus.
God is our salvation.
God fills us – as with water – with
all we need spiritually – to live each day.
Since our salvation is all of God,
we have every reason to give thanks.
God is with us now and will be with
us for all of eternity.
If this is our mindset, will we not
have joy in every circumstance?
So, Isaiah tells a man, the people,
and a woman, even though you will suffer discipline, if you believe in the
Savior – in the Messiah – what unspeakable joy – everlasting joy – in this life
and in the Kingdom of the Holy One!
Let us pray:
Almighty God, the Holy One of
Israel, Who tells us that only the holy will enter the Kingdom, we hear the
truth of Your accomplishing salvation through Your Son for us – what love! Send the Holy Spirit with power to help us to
come to You for strength for living this life.
Fills us, lead us, make us into the Image of Your Son. Amaze us again and again by Who You are and
what You have done, and help us to respond rightly, thankfully, full of praise
for You. Make us holy. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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