The Most Important Thing :: Isaiah 45:1-7

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I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God.

With everything going on in the world around us and in our personal lives,  sometimes we need a reminder of ...

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. 

Sometimes, we need God to remind us that he is God above all else ... that he deserves and desires our fear, love, and trust above all things. 

Sometimes, we just need God to remind us that he is not a distant God, that he is not an uninvolved God, that he cares for us, and that he is always with us, knows us, has named us, and continues to call us. 

Sometimes, we just need God to remind us that he came to us in the flesh, and that he paid the debt we couldn’t repay, and gave to God what is God’s. 

Sometimes, we just need God to remind us that he is Yahweh, he is the God who saves. God’s people of every time and place have always needed this reminder.


As God’s people we have needed these reminders almost constantly since our fall into sin in the Garden of Eden. And we most certainly needed it way back in the 6th and 7th centuries BC — when God spoke through his prophet Isaiah about what would happen first to the kingdom of Israel, then to the kingdom of Judah, and the city of Jerusalem before we were exiled into Babylon.

That’s the setting for our Old Testament reading from Isaiah chapter 45 today. God is reminding his people that he alone is the Lord and that he alone deserves our fear, love, and trust above all things. 

7 Concerning the fall of Jerusalem ... the exile into Babylon ... and the eventual return to Judea ... God told Isaiah to preach these words about His people and about Cyrus who would conquer Babylon and allow them to return home.

He said to Isaiah ... tell them this, that it is I, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name. I name you, though you do not know me. I am Yahweh, and there is no other; besides me, there is no God (vv.3-5).


Many years before Cyrus was ever born, God spoke these words about this future king of Persia, who would sack the great kingdom of Babylon, practically without a fight.

God also spoke these words to the southern kingdom of Judah — many years before those Israelites were sent into exile — and many more years before they returned home. And today ... God speaks these words to you and me ... when we so badly need to be reminded of THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ... that he is our God and there is no other.

6 So what is the most important thing in YOUR LIFE right now?

Is anything keeping you from embracing the first commandment? How many gods do you really have in your life? How many gods do you bow to?

I know you are all good Lutherans, whatever that means, but that doesn’t mean you don’t bow to other gods. If you are honest with yourselves ... as you confessed at the beginning of this worship service ... you will immediately recognize the many gods in your lives ... and you will repent and be healed. 


All of our sins stem from this one sin. And these sins are killing you.

So which gods do you bow to? Family, possessions, government? Experts, science, organizations? How about your church, employer, or even your bills? What about all those things that grant you escape and enjoyment, or health, wealth and happiness? 

There may, in fact, be many more gods in your lives. As Luther put it, whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god.


Brothers and sisters in Christ, what do you fear, love, and trust above everything else? God says if you fear something more than him ... if you love something or even yourself more than him ... if you trust anything more than him ... if you reject his Word and his service to you ... then today is the day to turn away from yourselves and to hear again what God says.

I am the Lord, and there is no other. Besides me there is no God. ... You shall have no other gods before me (Exo 20:2). 

5 He is the one who calls YOU by your name.

Whether he calls you to conquer kingdoms in far-away lands like he called Cyrus, King of Persia — or whether he calls you to maintain your faith and faithfulness in dire circumstances like he did with Judah when they were in exile ... or whether he calls you to struggle mightily against the idolatry of me, myself, and I in the face of sickness and disease and injury and death ... he still calls you.


Have you been listening to his voice in your devotions at home? 

Have you been listening to his voice while you sing? 

Have you been hearing him in his word of absolution?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through his word, he is calling to YOU ... and he says I am the God of Israel. I am the God of my Church. I am the God of YOUR life. There is only one True God. There is no other. 

Turn away from your idols, from your reliance on only yourselves to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Th 1:9-10).

4 No matter how hard the devil tries to convince you — Vitality and Health and Youth are not god — they are fleeting blessings poured upon us while we travel on our way from this place to the Promised Land.

A healthy mind and clear thinking are not gods either ... they too are earthly blessings given to guide our thoughts and words and deeds under the light of the Word of God. And no matter how hard your flesh tries to tell you otherwise ... family and friends and others who help you in this life are not worthy of the praise and adoration that is fit for the divine ... they are but helpers sent by God to accompany you on the way to eternal life. The LORD is God. And there is no other.


His hand makes the light and his hand makes the darkness (v.7).

By His will, which he alone reveals, peace prevails among us. And by his will, which he conceals, calamity strikes when and where it will. God does all these things for our good and his glory. 

Of course we struggle to see the good in tragedy. But when it leads us back to God, we realize how He actually is The Most Important Thing — in YOUR life and in mine.

3 More than anything else — God wants you to know the One for whom he has subdued nations.

God our Father wants you to know Christ is the one for whom He has opened the bronze doors of your heart so that the gates will not be shut. 

Our heavenly Father wants you to know that he has sent a Prophet to go before his Anointed One to call us to repentance and to make straight the way of the Lord. 

And God wants you to know and to trust and to believe in the name of the One whose name is above every name — at whose name every knee will 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. (Phil 2.10-11)

2 God has called you by this name, your name ... to put the name of Jesus on your forehead and your heart by his word and the water of Holy Baptism.

God has called you to forgive you of your sins.

God has called you by name so that he may wrap you up in his loving arms and lift your eyes to see the sun as it rises and as it sets ... so that you may see Christ, the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings (Mal 4.2) when he comes again in glory on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead and to raise you up to everlasting life.

1 And now, thus says the LORD, who created you ... Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; YOU ARE MINE. (v.1)

I am the LORD, and there is no other (v.5)

AND THAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

He has redeemed you in the person and through the work of Jesus, the living Son of God. Jesus wasn’t simply a good man with a good word about good living. Jesus was manifested in the flesh for you and did what you couldn’t do, fulfilling the law completely for you. He who knew no sin became sin for you and then carried your sin to his cross so that your sin could receive the full wrath of God that it deserves ... death. 

That’s the most important thing. 

Your sin died with Jesus.


Then standing in your place, Christ gave you his righteousness ... the righteousness that only God possesses. You couldn’t gain this for yourself. You couldn’t work out your own salvation. Instead, Christ gave it to you in the baptism he poured out upon you. 

And now he is preparing to unite himself with you today in his feast of forgiveness, where he delivers to you his life-giving body and blood. 


Brothers and sisters in Christ, rejoice in these gifts always. Again, I say, rejoice. Don’t let the world steal your joy. The One and Only True God comes to you in these sacraments, giving you peace, giving you the forgiveness of your sins that was won for you on the cross through the work of Christ. Receive them as often as you can.

And give thanks to God always, remembering what he has done for you, how he continues to work for your good and his glory giving you life and salvation. 

Thanks be to God alone. To our good and his glory.

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