Isaiah 40:21-31 (Epiphany 5B)
St. John, Galveston 2/4/2024
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Isaiah was called by God to warn the people of Judah about the chastening that God was going to bring upon them. At the end of chapter 39, the section that precedes the reading for today, Isaiah addressed Hezekiah, the king of Judah, warning him about the things that were to come. “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts (he said): Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord.” Though Hezekiah was a godly king, who sought to purge Judah, and the Temple, of idols, and who also saw to the destruction of the High Places, sites of pagan worship, Isaiah warned him of the trials that his ancestors would suffer because of their unfaithfulness and their hard heartedness.

The Prophet’s warning prompted two questions in the minds of the people of Judah. The first question was “will God save us?” Essentially, they wanted know what God’s heart was toward them? Is He inclined to save us from the destruction that the prophets have warned us about, or will He continue to strike us with the rod of discipline?

It is that question that God answers through Isaiah in verses 1-11 of chapter 40. While the people of Judah wouldn’t be saved from the Babylonian destruction and captivity, still God would never forsake them. In fact, He would ultimately send a Savior to deliver them from far greater enemies, even from sin and death. “O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”

Such is the heart of God toward His people. He did indeed desire to save the people of Judah, even as He desires to save all people today. God had answered His people’s question with a resounding ‘yes.’ They had a second question though, namely, “can God save us?” It may seem like an odd question for them to ask, but it is, after all, one thing for God to have the will or the heart to save His people. It’s quite another thing for Him to have the ability to do so. It is the question of “can God save us” that is answered in the reading from Isaiah that is before us this morning. “Does God have the power to save us?

And so, the Prophet speaks for God reminding the people of Judah of His might and His power. “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.” “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.”

And so, I ask you, is there a power on earth to challenge the Almighty? St. Paul late dealt with that same question when he asked “If God is for us, then who can be against us?”

What Isaiah wrote about the power and might of God, would later come back to the people of Judah to provide them comfort, as they struggled through their exile in Babylon. And the central message for them, as well as, for us, is this, even though it may sometimes appear otherwise, the LORD has power over all things, Heaven and Earth, and He has and will use that power to save His people. In the case of the people of Judah, God returned them from exile by using Cyrus the Great as His instrument. So great is the power of the LORD that He can and does use even foreign and pagan rulers to accomplish His purposes. None can stand against Him. None can overcome the transcendence of Yahweh!

And yet, Luther reminds us to not contemplate God solely in His majesty, but through His Son, Jesus Christ. He says, as to God’s relationship with sinners, “we shall know of absolutely no God outside of this man, Jesus Christ. Him you should embrace, to Him you should cling with all your heart, stopping your speculation about His majesty. For he who would pry into the majesty of God is overcome by His glory.”

God’s raw power and might ought to terrify us and leave us crying out for mercy and grace. Nonetheless, we are drawn to Him because of His love and His will to save us. In Christ Jesus, the loving heart of God and His unbridled power come together. We are drawn to God through the most tender and gentle sign that has been given to us, none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, who has manifested the love and the will of God toward us.  

Ultimately, God used His power to bring His people back home to Israel. And then, as we move into chapter 53, and beyond, of the Book of Isaiah, we hear more about God’s saving power, even a salvation that transcends this world, as Isaiah speaks about of the Suffering Servant, the One whom God would ultimately send to save His people.

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; 
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Even though it may sometimes appear otherwise, the LORD has power over all things, Heaven and Earth, and He has and will use that power to save His people. Nothing about the death of Jesus appeared powerful or mighty to the naked eye. And yet, in that moment of Jesus’ sorrow and suffering, God reconciled the whole world to Himself. “He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin, that you might be the righteousness of God in Him.”

In the economy of God, things aren’t always what they appear to be. But God is always at work, calling, leading and guiding, bringing us through this vale for tears that we will, in time, stand before Him with all the saints in glory. And so, in the midst of adversity and even of seemingly unbearable strife, when questions like “will God save me, and can He save me,” trouble your heart and mind, know that God’s answer, in Christ Jesus, is a resounding YES.

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; 
they shall walk and not faint.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +