“Transformed”
[Isaiah 29:15-24]
June 9, 2019, Second Reformed Church
In the first half of the chapter, Isaiah brings the Word of God against Jerusalem, calling her, Ariel. God tells Jerusalem that He keeps His threats and His promises, and, if she doesn’t want God, He will come against her. We remember, Jerusalem thought she was above discipline, because she is the City of God – but nothing could be further from the truth.
Isaiah continues to speak against Ariel – Jerusalem – and then, He reminds her of what He will do on the last day – for the Creation, and for Jacob.
First, the world twists the truth.
Have you ever noticed that CNN and Fox News report on the same stories, but they are totally different? And, of course, that is because “they” are twisting the truth. Very often, we might rightly suppose, the truth is different from what any news agency is saying.
So the world twists the truth about God:
“Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, ‘Who sees us? Who knows us?’”
Isaiah says that Jerusalem believes she can hide what she is doing from God. “If I do things in the dark, God can’t see me. If I cover my eyes, I become invisible, and God can’t see me. God doesn’t see what I’m are doing – God does not know what I’m are doing. God is not everywhere at once – God does not have all knowledge.”
And we understand this type of thinking – even if we don’t say it out loud, because, even as Christians, we sin when we are alone – when “nobody” is watching – when no one knows – when no one can accuse us – when no one sees what we are doing – as Mark Heard sings, “Don’t worry, ain’t nobody watching but God.”
Even though our confession is different – even though our heart-belief is different – at times we act like Ariel and do things thinking that God doesn’t see or know what we are up to.
We understand how the unbelieving world can act like this, don’t we?
Paul writes:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” (Romans 1:18-25, ESV).
Everyone knows there is a God, and everyone knows “his eternal power and divine nature” simply by looking around at the Creation. But the world doesn’t want the real God to be God. They don’t want to follow Him, because obedience means love and unbelievers can’t love God, so they purposely suppress what they know about God and makes other gods that they like better. They worship animals and blocks of wood and stone – things that can be controlled by humans – things that aren’t everywhere at once – things that don’t have all knowledge. And God responds by saying, “If that’s what you want, have at it. See how that goes for you.”
But the truth is that God is omnipresent – He is everywhere at once – and He is omniscient – He knows everything – and we above all people know that as those who have been saved by God the Holy Spirit through Jesus. We know God is here. We know God knows what you don’t want anyone else in this sanctuary to know.
As Isaiah says:
“You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?”
Can you imagine Carol going to a pottery class and making a pot, only to find on the bottom written, “not made by Carol”?
We humans – and all that exists – are creations of the Almighty God – and we shake our fists at God and say, “You didn’t create us, we created You. You didn’t exist, but we made You up to explain storms and death and other scary things, but now we have science, and we know that You have just been an excuse to us. You are not here. You do not know anything. You did not create us. We now know that everything is a colossal accident.”
The Psalmist writes:
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you” (Psalm 139:7-12, ESV).
Later, Isaiah asks, “Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” (Isaiah 40:13-14, ESV).
The questions are rhetorical – the answer to all of them is “no one” – God knows everything from before the beginning. There is nothing that He does not know.
God is Spirit. God is everywhere. God knows everything always.
The world twists the truth.
Second, the Lord renews the Creation.
“Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?”
At this time in history, Lebanon was a land of mountains, wilderness, and trees – it was not a “Garden of Eden.” It was a land hard to be worked, but God says that soon – on that day – the entire topography of Lebanon will be changed, and it will become a delightful garden – a fruitful field. Lebanon is cited here as an example of the utter overhaul the entire Creation will experience on the final day – when Jesus returns.
Paul writes, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:19-22, ESV).
We will remember that all of Creation was punished due to our first parents’ sin, and so all of Creation now – the animals, the plants, perhaps even the inanimate objects somehow – feel as though they are going through the pains of childbirth until Jesus returns and restores the planet to its Edenic state – how it was before we brought sin into the world..
“In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.”
Remember, we saw earlier that the Word of God was handed to the literate – to those who can read, and they said that the book was sealed, and the Word of God was handed to the illiterate – those who cannot read, and they said they could not read. In that day, this will all change – the deaf will hear the Word of God and the blind will see the word of God – even now, as men and women are changed by God the Holy Spirit and brought to heart-belief in the Gospel there is the transference of us from darkness to light.
Paul writes, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8, ESV).
“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober” (I Thessalonians 5:4-6, ESV).
Another thing to keep in mind is that the deaf and blind would have been excluded from worship in the Temple. Anyone with any deformity or injury was not allowed in the Temple. So going from being blind and deaf to seeing and hearing is not just a matter of regaining their senses – it is a matter of gaining the right to come before God in worship.
What does this renewal – this moving from darkness to light look like?
“The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.”
Two things:
First, all those who have been transferred from darkness into light – all those who have been renewed by God the Holy Spirit – will have the joy of the Lord restored in them. Now, joy doesn’t mean that we’re always happy. It doesn’t mean that we’re always a laugh-riot. What it means is that we find in ourselves the desire – the pull – the need to be all about glorifying God because He alone fills us with meaning and purpose and salvation.
Second, the legal system will be perfected and finished. All those who remain in the darkness and follow after evil will be shut outside the gate. For in the Kingdom, there will be no evil or sin or suffering. Those who bear false witness will be silenced. Those who deceive people in court will be silenced. Those judges who rule falsely will be silenced.
What we see in the renewal of the Creation – which includes all we who believe – is that salvation – and the fullness of salvation on the last day – causes radical change for the entire Creation. And “radical” is the correct word – from the root “radix” meaning, “the root.” Everything will be changed down to the deepest fibers of the beings and non-beings of all of Creation. Sin and all its results will be eternally shut out of the Kingdom, the Creation will be restored to the way God created it, and we, in the fullness of joy, will be in the presence of our God and Savior forever and ever.
The Lord renews the Creation.
Third, the Lord transforms Jacob.
Isaiah gives a word from the Lord God:
“Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:”
Notice, Isaiah speaks to Jacob now – to Israel – to the people who have been taken into captivity by the Assyrians, and he points them to the father of the Jewish people – to Abraham – and specifically, to all those who believe in God as Abraham did – as Paul calls us – the Israel of God.
And Isaiah reminds them that it was God, the Sovereign Lord, who redeemed Abraham. God chose Abraham out of all the people of the earth to cause him to become the father of God’s people. Where would have Abraham and his descendants have been if God had not chosen Abraham and make him a people for God and the father of all those who will ever believe? Isaiah wants them to turn their eyes to God, the Sovereign Savior Who chose and saved Abraham for God’s own sake.
“’Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.’”
God tells Jacob – all the people of Israel – that he will no longer be ashamed of his people for their sin; he will no longer grow pale because of their actions against the God Who made them.
Have you ever been embarrassed by your children or grandchildren? Jacob is embarrassed by his descendants and their sin against God – but God says that something is going to happen to take away his shame – to take away his pale pallor.
“’For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.’”
Like the potter, God says that the children of Jacob are the work of His hands. We are the work of God’s hands. We are born spiritually dead – unable to do any good – the only hope we have is that God will choose to reach down and take our clay and mold it into something beautiful for God.
And so God transforms the people of Jacob – God sanctifies believers, and we respond by sanctifying God’s Name. The believer will treat God’s Name as holy and use it rightly. Believers will show God to be Who He is in perfection and holiness, and we will stand in awe – in fear – of the God of Israel. All true believers will be so amazed and humbled and changed – transformed – that we will seek to obey everything God has said out of love and thanksgiving.
Those who have gone astray will be made to understand the Word of God, and He will draw them back to the fold. Those who murmur against the Word of God will be made to understand, and they will cry out with joy about all that God has done.
God has transformed us. God is transforming us. God will transform us. We are not yet what we will become. We still have the remains of the sin nature in us – but not forever. We are being transformed. God the Holy Spirit is transforming us into the Image of Jesus that we would be fit for the Kingdom on the last day.
Paul commands us:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2, ESV).
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18, ESV).
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:20-21, ESV).
Just as God called Abraham out of idolatry and made him our spiritual father, and God transformed Jacob to be the head and the name of the people of God, so we are being transformed so we will rightly sanctify the Name and the God of Israel and stand in awe of Him as we follow after Him doing all the good works He has called us to – and this will be perfected on the last day when Jesus glorifies us and completes our transformation.
Our hearts will be transformed. Our minds will be transformed. Our souls will be transformed. Our bodies will be transformed. That’s good news! You and I will still be who we are – be we will be changed – glorified and perfected.
We will no longer have a divided heart that turns away from our God and Savior. We will no longer have a mind that thinks wrongly. We will no longer have a soul that turns to sin. We will no longer have a body that sins and has pain and falls part. No! We shall be changed.
And if you are a Christian – it is what you long for: I long for the Lord to transform me fully, so my heart will be set on Him and Him Alone, so my mind will only think rightly, so my soul will never again turn to sin, so my body will work without pain and disease – and the Holy Spirit has begun the transformation – and if you are a Christian, He has with you.
If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is God, the Lord and Savior, you shall be saved, and, as on that first day of Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit will come upon you and abide with you and transform you into a holy son or daughter of Abraham and Jacob.
The Lord will transform – all of – Jacob.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for the gift of God the Holy Spirit. We thank You that You are working in us by Him to transform us into the Image of Your Son. We long for the day when all is right – when there is no twisting of the truth, when the Creation is whole and well – when we are righteous and holy and glorified before Your Son. We ask that You would transform Your Church – revive Your Church here and throughout the world. Make us faithful stewards of Your manifold gifts. Let the world gape in awe at the works Christians do in Your Name and to Your glory. Keep us ever crying out to be drawn closer to You. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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