"Comfort for the Despondent" Sermon: Isaiah 49:14-26 (manuscript)

 

“Comfort for the Despondent”

[Isaiah 49:14-26]

February 21, 2021 YouTube

            The past two weeks that we looked at Isaiah, we saw God tell Israel about the coming of the Servant Savior – Who will come some seven hundred years in the future.  God tells them about the work that He will do and how He will successfully complete His work and the whole world will rejoice at the salvation He brings.

            However, the other message that Isaiah has recently brought to them is that they will be conquered and exiled to Babylon for some seventy years.  And that is what is immediately on their minds.

            And we see, first, God has compassion on His people.

            “But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.’”

            Jerusalem responds to the word that God will allow them to be conquered and taken into captivity, during which time many will die of old age – if nothing else.  And the people respond by crying out to God that He has forsaken them – He has forgotten them.  To leave them so long in exile is to throw them away and not think twice about it.

            The wording indicates both an inward and an outward forgetting and forsaking of the people.  They are utterly gone from the mind and heart of God.

            But God tells them that they have misunderstood the discipline of a parent:

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”

God tells them it is more likely for a mother to forget that she has a son than it is that God would forget any one of His people.  God tells them, “no matter how you feel at any moment, I have not forsaken or forgotten you.  You are my people forever.  You are engraved on My hands – every time I use My hands or look at them, I am reminded of you, and I see the walls of Jerusalem constantly before Me. I cannot possibly forget you.”

God cannot forget His people without forgetting Himself.  God cares about His people – the Church – unceasingly.  God cares about you and me who believe unceasingly.

God continues by telling them about what will happen once they return to Jerusalem after their captivity:

“Your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you. Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the LORD, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does.”

God explains that at their return, the builders will work quickly to rebuild the wall and the Temple.  Those who destroyed Jerusalem will run away and not return.  People from all the nations will come to be part of Israel – Jews and Gentiles – believers in the God of Israel. And Israel will be the bride of God and she shall wear all those who believe both from the Jews and the Gentiles as ornaments on her.  They shall not only return, but Jerusalem will be restored, and she will prepare for the marriage feast.

When we are disciplined by God, we should not think that God has deserted us or cut us off.  Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11, ESV).  God does what is best for us, and He causes all things to come together for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

God has compassion for His people.  He has more compassion for us than our own mothers do.

Second, God restores His Church.

“Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land—surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.’ Then you will say in your heart: ‘Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?’”

When Jerusalem returns from captivity, she will return believing that she is much diminished – that she has far fewer people returning with her than those who left.  But once she returns, she sees there are more people than had left, and the numbers of people are continuing to grow.  She thought her children were dead.  She thought that she was bereaved and barren.  She thought her return to the land was merely for her to die.  She did not believe there was any way that she would reproduce and grow into a vibrant family again.

She forgot where the people of God come from – she forgot where her children come from.  We in the Church in twenty-first century American forget where the people of God come from.

John writes, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13, ESV).

Luke writes, “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47b, ESV).

And Peter writes, “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;” (I Peter 1:23, ESV).

God tells Jerusalem and us that death and barrenness are no barrier to God growing His people.  God calls the dead to life and opens the womb.  God restores His Church.  God gives salvation and grows the number of His people through the Word of God.

So, the explosion of believers upon the return of Jerusalem is due to God working among His people – just as the restoration of the Church – the revival of the Church – the growth of the Church in America – and around the world – is the work of God.  Methods and programs will not grow the people of God – they may fill the pews, but they will not bring in believers who desire to hear the Word of God preached.

Certain people in my denomination have recently suggested that the Covid pandemic would be a good opportunity to shut down the small churches and transfer their resources to larger, “healthier” churches where they preach about “the best places to vacation in the United States” and “Jesus’ seven rules for financial wealth” and other such things.

There is an idea that if a church is merely small it is a failure and should be shut down, because there is a misperception that the church is the work of people – yes, we are to preach and teach the Word of God and preach the Gospel, but the growth of the church is God’s work, not ours.  We should pray for growth and revival and be faithful, and, if God is willing, individual churches – and the Church universal – will burst forth with more believers than we could ever imagine.  Because God will not allow the Kingdom of Satan to triumph.

God restores His Church according to His plan and will.

Third, God calls the nations to believe.

“Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.”

One of the ways that God will grow Jerusalem is through bringing the Gentiles in.  God raises His hand – calling those of the near nations, and He raises His signal – calling the distant nations to repent and believe – and people from all nations will believe and bring their sons and daughters to Jerusalem to become the people of God.  With the tenderness of parents, the sons and daughters of the nations will come to believe in the Servant Savior and find their salvation in Him in Jerusalem.

One reason racism is so repugnant is that God saves people from every nation – so we are brothers and sisters with every people.  We are rejecting our family – and people created in the Image of God – when we speak and act in racist ways.  It was a problem n those days and it is a problem in ours, but in the Church – all believers – no matter what people they come from – are to be loved and embraced as brothers and sisters.

“Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”

God tells Jerusalem that the Gentile nations around her will provide for her – and we see this literally happen when Cyrus sends Jerusalem home to rebuild.  Cyrus commands the nations to provide Jerusalem with everything they need to rebuild the Temple and the wall of Jerusalem.

The nations – even the kings and queens of the world – will show obeisance – deferential respect to God and His people.  They will worship God and bow before Him.  Then Jerusalem will know – they will be assured that God is God – everything He ever said and promised will be understood as true, and those who wait on the Lord – not matter what they suffer in this life – no matter how abused and looked down on them the world was – they will not be put to shame.  God will raise all we who believe and receive us into His Kingdom of joy and peace eternally.

As Paul writes, “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).

As God calls the nations to believe, some will believe, and God will add them to the Church and restore her.

Finally, God is strong to save.

“Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

The question is raised, “God, can we be saved from a mighty nation who has conquered us like its prey.  Can You rescue us from a tyrant who keeps us captive?  Are You sure You’re up to it, God?”

Sometimes we view God as small, yet God is greater than all.  God can do whatever He intends to do.  God’s hand cannot be stayed from saving His people.  God can never be described as small.  There is no greater Being than God.

In case there is any question of God being strong enough to save His people:

“For thus says the LORD: ‘Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.’”

The language here is emphatic – it is forceful and clear:  The captives of Jerusalem will be saved from her captives.  The prey who is Jerusalem will be saved from the tyrants.  God will contend – and save – from those who contend with Jerusalem, and God will save her children – all those who believe throughout the generations.

“’I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.’”

God is not saying that Jerusalem’s captors become cannibals; He is saying that as God most assuredly saves His people from their captors, the tyrants reveal the evil of their hearts.  In saving His people, God shows how vile and violent and dismissive of the Image of God present in every person they are – their hearts betray their attitude as of someone who would eat human flesh and drink human blood.

Jesus speaks of the servants of Satan, “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops” (Matthew 10:26-27, ESV).

Although the tyrants (for the most part) are not eating human flesh and drinking human blood, who they are and what they have done will be exposed in the revealing of the saving of God’s people.

            In that day, everyone will know that the Servant Savior is the Savior, the Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

            This will come in its fullness as Jesus returns:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31, ESV).

This was a word of comfort to Jerusalem who thought God was forsaking her in the captivity and would forget her.  God has compassion on His people, God restores His Church, God calls the nations to believe, and God is strong to save.

As horrible as seventy years in exile will be – as horrible as your circumstances may be – if you are a believer, God will comfort you and bring you into His Kingdom.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we thank You for comforting Jerusalem and for the comfort You give all Your people throughout time and space.  Help us not to merely see with eyes of flesh, but to see with the eyes of faith that confess You as our eternal Savior.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.