Tag: Isaiah

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Wait and Be Shaped – Isaiah 64:1-9

This poem is a prayer of lament. The Prophet is feeling a desperate desire for the presence of God, for God to make Himself known.

This comes in the third part of Isaiah. The second part is actually more hopeful than the third, as the people of Israel look forward to returning from exile and being restored. The third part, though, comes as the restoration has happened and has not gone as well as they would have liked. There was conflict between the exiles returning and those who had stayed in the land. The people feel much like the Israelites coming out of exile in Egypt, resenting their very deliverance because it was not playing out as they expected.

The desire for something that isn’t happening is intensely frustrating. We see it in the tantrums of a toddler, but we also see it in ourselves when we see injustice or suffering, when we feel like our own goals or health are slipping away.

That is what the Prophet is experiencing, a deep desire that God would just come down and fix things. He understands the immense power of God and just wants so badly for it to be unleashed on the broken world he sees around him.

This is the longing of Advent. This is the time when we wait actively for “He who began a good work in you” to “be faithful to complete it.” We seek to be intentional in our waiting, to be purposefully engaged in the “already but not yet” of Christ’s work.

Ironically, this time of waiting is itself a time when the world hates waiting. There is so much to do and so many places to be and people to see, all these demands on our time and all of them immediate.

But the alternative to this active waiting is outlined in this passage – we wither and are carried away on the wind. When we wait badly, we move outside of what we should do because we grab for security even when what we grab is ephemeral. “No one calls on your name; No one bothers to hold on to you.” When our hearts are sick, we turn from holding onto the creator and instead grasp at straws and withered leaves.

So as the passage asks, how then can we be saved? We’re called here to remember and to praise as we wait, to act righteously and do so gladly, in anticipation of Jesus’ ultimate victory. We actively live into the hope that we have, living out the way we want the world to be.

How is not contingent in cumstance – the circumstances might change or might not change, but that should not change our posture because it’s a gift.

The changing itself comes from God – He is the potter and we are the clay. We are being shaped by Him, even in the waiting.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, December 3, 2023

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Pause and Recount – Isaiah 63:7-9

Today is the day when we’re supposed to make New Year’s Resolutions. But more often than not, these don’t work out. We try to will ourselves into new habits and new ways of living. Hopefully this comes from reflecting on the year and wanting to make things better. As Christians, though, we believe in transformation and not just willful habit change. We believe in the grace-filled power of God, while recognizing our own depravity and inability to simply will ourselves into righteousness. This only comes in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is what we are supposed to be reflecting on during the time of Advent, but it can easily become subsumed in the business and consumerism of the season, and even the forced joy of Christmas itself.

But our passage today speaks into the fullness of the human experience, and how God enters into that experience. “In all their distress he too was distressed.” God in His mercy lifts and carries His people, treating them “compassionately and with deep affection.” Is a memory of the blessings God has brought in the past.

But this passage comes in the midst of a song of lament, possibly sung by the exiles in the midst of the ruins of the temple. Sadness and lament is entirely appropriate because it is an honest recounting of what has happened. God has been good in the past and continues to be good today, but let us not ignore the trauma and tragedy that nonetheless is real. He seeks honest worship.

We can’t force ourselves into this, but God will bring it to us, just as He has in the past both on a cosmic scale and on a personal one. God is good, all the time.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, January 1, 2023

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Hope – Isaiah 2:1-6

Christianity is sometimes accused of being naive, the hope offered dismissed as a false hope or crutch in the midst of a hurting world. But in reality, life in Christ is lived in the tension of “now but not yet.” Christ has come, but will come again.

We see this in the Old Testament prophets at well, as they proclaim the coming kingdom and the promise of ultimate peace, but also prophesy judgement and captivity. In this passage, Isaiah proclaims the hope of the mountain of God in the midst of the Assyrian Empire conquering the kingdom of Israel and going into exile.

The mountain of God is identified with the Temple Mount, even though it is not the highest in the region. The imagery is of the mountain rising above all others, and of the peoples of the world’s streaming towards it like rivers. The law of God, the life-giving teachings of God, go out from the mountain, and God Himself judges between the nations and settles disputes.

This justice brought by God is itself a prerequisite for the peace promised in the second half of verse four – you cannot have peace without justice.

That’s the vision we seek to live out as a church, a diverse group of people, like all the nations streaming to the temple to receive life. It is easier to work as a homogeneous group, but we seek out brothers and sisters different than ourselves because that is the picture of God’s kingdom we are promised here.

And so we walk together in the light and hope of God. When people are fighting, we walk as ambassadors of peace. When people are selfish, we walk in generosity. When people are in conflict, we walk as reconcilers. Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, November 27, 2022

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Absolute Justice – Isaiah 32:1-8

One of the main themes of Isaiah is that God is a just God, one of a series of superlatives Isaiah ascribes to God. What is absolute justice?

We can learn some of this from the well known verse in Micah, to “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” Justice is a combination of action, attitude and right relationships with others and God. God’s mercy invites us to act justly to make relationships right. If we are out of right relationship with God, then we are going to be falling down on the other two.

In order to make that relationship right, we must understand our own brokenness and dependence on God – and that brokenness itself impacts the world around us. We are to be poor in spirit, not, as Tim Keller puts it, “middle-class in spirit.” Being middle-class in spirit means we feel like we have earned or are owed our relationship with God and resulting blessings. We are more likely to look down on those in poverty, whether spiritual or material poverty.

But God sees and cares for the impoverished. Isaiah uses terms like “poor,” “needy,” “widows,” “fatherless.” Today, we may think of “homeless,” “refugees,” “victims of sex trafficking,” “victims of domestic violence,” “victims of racism and sexism.”

There are so many opportunities to work justice in the world around us, so if we are poor in spirit and open our eyes to the world, we will see those around us who need the presence of God in the Body of His Church – which is to say, us.

— Sermon Notes, Phil Assink, First V Reformed Church of Oak Harbor, WA, October 9, 2022

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The Messenger of Love in the Wilderness

We’ve walked through Christ as Hope, Peace and Joy, through the lens of the prophecies foretelling His birth. Today, we look to “the greatest of these,” – the Messiah as Love, the presence of the God who is Himself love, incarnate.

In Matthew 3, we meet John the Baptist in the context of the prophecy in Isaiah of a “voice crying in the wilderness” – a mirror of the story of God bringing the Israelites out of the wilderness and into the promised land. John’s story from the beginning was the same as it is for us – repentance and forgiveness of sins.

There are three key prophecies about this messenger that we will cover in the Old Testament. Isaiah 40 is cited specifically by Matthew.

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Isaiah 40:3-5

This return of the presence of God is necessary because the presence of God departed, moving on from the connect point that was the temple as described by Ezekiel in the era of exile. Even though the temple is eventually rebuilt, God’s presence never returns as described in the historical books.

So in Malachi we see another prophecy about a messenger and the return of God to the temple:

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

Malachi 3:1-4

We see this in Matthew as well, this difficult teaching and the warning of refining fire from John the Baptist to the Pharisees and Saducees:

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Matthew 3:10-12

But Malachi has more to say about the messenger who will come before the Messiah:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.

Malachi 4:5-6

Elijah was a key figure in Jewish history, and was taken up into heaven by a chariot of fire, leading naturally into this notion that he would return. A seat is still set for Elijah at every Passover meal. He and Moses both saw the face of God, and Elijah was seen as the one who restores the Law, as counterpart to Moses who gave the Law. And of course Moses and Elijah are the two who again see God in the person of Jesus Christ during the Transfiguration.

Jesus clearly points to John the Baptist as this return of Elijah – like Elijah, living in the wilderness, like Elijah wracked at times with doubt, like Elijah preaching repentance to those who do not want to hear it.

Immediately after the Transfiguration, Jesus said, “I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”

God fulfilled these prophecies in ways no one could have expected. Elijah returns as a crazy guy in the desert. The glory returns affixed to one man, voices speaking at Baptism and Transfiguration. And the Lord returns to the temple – first as an infant, dedicated by his earthly parents. Then as a child, speaking with the teachers. Finally, as a “king, riding on a donkey,” before the once for all sacrifice that would reconnect all of lost humanity with the presence of the God who is Love.

What is our response to this? Do we sit around in complacency, or do we center our lives around the presence of God in the person of Christ as John the Baptist did? Do we respond to the message of repentance that John held out? Do we serve as messengers as John did? Do we hold out the difficult truths like he did? Do we prepare the way for Christ like he did?

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, December 20, 2020

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Mighty God, Prince of Peace – Isaiah 9:1-7

Last week we discussed Christ as our hope. Today we are looking at Christ as our peace. We looked at the “virgin will be with child” prophecy in Isaiah, both its original fulfillment in the destruction of Samaria and Aram by Assyria promised to Ahaz, but also its ultimate fulfillment in the birth of Christ.

In the next Chapter, God warns the people of Judah that they will not be spared the wrath of Assyria. They need to not put their hope in the earthly kingdom, but put their hope in Him. “Do not call conspiracy what they call conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear.” He condemns them for seeking necromancers and mediums.

Then in Isaiah 9, we again hear whispers of the coming messiah. He specifically calls out the area of Zebulon and Naphtali – the first parts of Israel that would have been invaded by Aram. These regions – “Galilee of the gentiles” – are called out as having been in anguish, but God calls them out of their gloom, because a light will dawn.

Matthew calls out this light as the ministry of Jesus, which was centered on the region of Galilee, the area where he did more miracles than anywhere else.

Isaiah promises that this light would bring peace, “as in the day of Midian.” This is a callback to the story of Gideon and his defeat of the Midianites. As in the time of Isaiah, Israel had turned to idols, and as in the time of Isaiah, God used invaders to bring about judgement. But He used Gideon to overthrow those invaders, the Midianites. Gideon, unlike Ahaz, does ask for a sign, and when he gets one (and then another) he recruits an army – from the region of Zebulon & Naphtali. After his whittles down his army to a tiny size, he attacks and routs the Midianites and brings about a peace that Isaiah compares to what is coming, what will make the boots and garb of war fit only for the fire.

And how is that peace going to come about? A child, born. A son, given. The government will be on his shoulders. He will be referred to as Wonderful Counselor – an advisor who is a wonder, a marvel. And as “Mighty God” which is startling in the context of a monotheistic Jewish prophet. All that can be taken from this is that this child to be born is Himself, the creator God. If you were unclear, he follows up with “Father of Eternity” or eternal, everlasting father. Finally, the prince of peace – the peace with God’s and each other given to to us through the reconciliation given to us through the work of Christ.

The greatness and abundance of the kingdom He will bring about, the fulfillment of the promise to David, will never end, achieved by “the zeal of the Lord of hosts.”

This peace promised to Israel is promised to us as well. Charles Spurgeon described this peace:

Look upward, and you will perceive no seat of fiery wrath to shoot devouring flame. Look downward, and you discover no hell, for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Look back, and sin is blotted out. Look around, and all things work together for good to them that love God. Look beyond, and glory shineth through the veil of the future, like the sun through a morning’s mist. Look outward, and the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field, are at peace with us. Look inward, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeps our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus.

You can know this peace if you seek after the son who was given, the Mighty God and prince of peace.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, November 6, 2020

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The Alma Will Conceive – Isaiah 7

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus explained to two disciples, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets… what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

Those passages begin with Genesis 3, in which “the seed of the woman” would destroy the serpent but be injured in the process. Another of those key passages is Isaiah, foretelling the virgin birth – but obviously, today’s Jews do not believe that. Why not?

In fact there are many prophecies that the Jews do not think refer to Christ, and many others that they see Christ as having left unfulfilled.

Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 7 came in a specific moment, when the kings of Aram and Israel threatened to conquer Judah and set up their own puppet king, outside the line of David. Isaiah warns Ahaz, king of Judah, but tells him not to worry because the invasion will fail. Not only that, but soon both those kingdoms will be destroyed by Assyria. He tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Ahaz refuses – so God gives him one anyway.

That sign is that a particular alma or young woman – Isaiah’s wife, specifically – will bear a son, and while he is still young, the prophecy will be fulfilled. This then is fulfilled in chapter 8, when his wife bears a son who he gives a ridiculously long name.

This is the passage referred to in Matthew 1:23, in which the Greek word used is specifically about chaste/unmarried women. The Hebrew word, though, is generally used to mean any young woman, often but not exclusively a virgin per se. Many Jewish and other scholars see this as a mistranslation.

But prophecy is never as straightforward as it seems. Moses was promised the promised land, but not told about the 40 years in the desert. David was promised his family would hold the throne forever, but not told about the Babylonian Captivity or the hundreds of year gap between his kingly line and the birth of Christ, let alone the nature of Christ’s fulfillment of that prophecy.

The prophecies of the Old Testament are often fulfilled by what is called a “dual fulfillment” – a concrete, political fulfillment in the Old Testament, and a universal, spiritual fulfillment in the New.

And it is the latter that matters, because the deeper promise of the prophecy is not the part about the virgin, but the part about “Immanuel”. God with us, in the person of Christ, incarnate and so with us in the

Ultimately, Matthew got it right – the man who called him out of his life as a tax collector, into new life as a servant of God, the man who he desperately wanted to be seen and accepted by his Jewish brothers and sisters – he was born of a virgin, and himself was Immanuel.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, November 29, 2020