He Will Come and Cause Your Salvation :: Isaiah 35:3-7
He will come and cause your salvation (v 4).
[Introduction]
As we prepare to enter the season of Lent ... it’s just four days away ... four as the Hebrews counted them in any case ... you need to hear this promise again ...
He will COME ... and cause YOUR salvation (v 4).
Now take a breath ... and actively listen to this word of promise. You can’t hear this too often. It’s a word that creates and sustains faith ... pure Gospel.
HE ... will come ... and CAUSE your salvation (v 4).
4. We always need to hear this promise, especially over the next 50 days.
The season of fasting ... as Lent is also called ... will be long and hard. It always is. We will face great tests of faith. The season is akin to being in the desert ... the wilderness ... just like the Israelites were for forty years ... just like Jesus was for forty days. As we try to deny our sinful selves, we will face temptations from the devil and trials from the Lord. You may find yourself asking, when can I nourish myself? How will I stay alive ... during just one day of fasting? Is this fast worth it? These nights in the Lenten wilderness can leave you shivering ... even after the noon sun turns up the heat of our desert wilderness above 115 degrees.
This is definitely what the Israelites discovered when the pillar of cloud and fire led them out of Egypt into the wilderness after the Passover. Though they certainly knew the promise of the Lord that He will be their God (Gen 17:7) ... that He will raise them up from affliction (Ex 3:17) ... they still questioned their faith. Despite surviving the plagues in Egypt, notably the Passover when the firstborn sons of unbelievers died ... despite being baptized in the cloud and in the sea ... the people doubted God was with them, even though they could literally see his presence. And God was not pleased (1 Cor 10:5).
But the Lord still keeps his promises. In fact, he reiterates them over and over, because faith comes through hearing. In every place that I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you, he said in Exodus 20[:24]. And again, I will walk among you, and be your God, and you will be my people (Lev 26:12). ... And again ... יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ ... the Lord your God, if you wish ... is with you wherever you go (Jos 1:9).
Still Israel doubted.
They repeatedly cried about their Lenten experience. They were thinking of themselves first. Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness, they moaned to Moses in Exodus 14[:11]. Our souls loathe this food, they complained in Numbers 21[:50]. We want to return to our old way of life, they were saying (Nm 5:5).
This constant complaining and disobedience ... this repeated fear and apprehension, anxiety and depression ... What did it say about their trust or faith in God? Could there really have been just one believer among them as they wrestled with questions?
This morning, our Old Testament reading helps to answer these questions among others.
3. First, we need to recognize they had the promise.
The promises of God do not come in a vacuum. Isaiah reminds us that even amid judgment and destruction, there is peace and restoration.
It’s Isaiah who proclaims ... Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name Immanuel (7:14). It’s Isaiah who reminds us that the people walking in darkness have seen a great light (9:2). It’s Isaiah who first teaches us to prepare the way of the LORD (40:3), and then describes his baptism (11:2; 42:1) and the unending feast he provides on the mountain of God, the place where the Lord wipes away all tears (25:6-8; 55:1-2). It’s Isaiah who then describes the crucifixion (52:13-53:12) and the resurrection (26:19) and exaltation of Christ (Isa 6, 52).
We always need to hear these promises. They prepare us for the call to repentance during our seasons of Lent.
A significant portion of Isaiah also speaks of God’s condemnation of faithlessness among the nations and a repudiation of meaningless ritual and the lack of justice. God uses the prophet to rebuke especially our love of the idol Me, Myself, and I ... our feelings that convince us to moan and grumble and complain just like the people of Israel during their Lenten walk.
Our reading today comes near the end of an extended call to repent. From chapters 13-24, God rebukes Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Israel, the nations, Cush, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia, Jerusalem, Sheva, Tyre, and all the earth. Then after giving us a promise of the feast (25), he announces woes to Samaria and Jerusalem, and condemnation of God’s enemies wherever they may be (26-34). Consider these verses just before our reading ... Come near, O Nations, to hear. And pay attention, O Peoples. Let the earth hear and the fullness of it, the world and all of its offspring, because the wrath of YHWH is against all nations, and his rage is against all their armies. He has devoted them to destruction. He has given them over to the slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out. The stench of their corpses will rise. And the mountains will be melted with their blood (34:1-3).
As bad as that is ...
2. God always reminds us of his promises that create and renew faith in him.
God has promised to make all things new. He speaks of gladness on the earth ... life out of death ... abundance of joy and song ... the restoration of man and nature ... the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God (35:1-2).
Isaiah writes ... Strengthen the weak hands, and steady the shaking knees. Say to those who have a fearful heart: Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold, your God! Vengeance will come, the recompense of God. He will come and cause your salvation.
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will skip like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy because waters will break forth in the wilderness and rivers in the plains. The scorched will become a pool, and the parched springs of water. In the pasture of jackals, a resting place, the grass will become reeds and rushes (vv 5-7).
1. And so the promise has come to pass.
JESUS HAS COME AND CAUSED YOUR SALVATION
He made this all possible in his work of redemption, as he said in our Gospel reading. Behold, he told the twelve, we are walking up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man through the prophets will be completed. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and insulted, and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will arise (Lk 18:31-33).
Through death, Jesus has borne divine vengeance and paid the price for your sin, my sin, the world’s sin for all sin of all time. He has given sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. He has raised the dead and will do so again. He who was crucified, died, and was buried is now risen. We can see this truth ... We can hear this truth ... We can receive his truth because we, the Baptized, are being saved. He is feeding and nourishing us and causing our salvation through his means, just as he promised.
[Conclusion]
So there is nothing left to fear, but everything to revere. We will find new life and restoration, even during our desert journey.
There is no reason to doubt or be anxious about the trials we face. In fact, we have every reason to rejoice and sing. So do that. We have every reason to receive his communion with us, and our communion with one another. So do that. We have every reason to forgive one another for no other reason than he has forgiven us. Yes, do that too. He is coming.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let your fearful hearts find rest in these promises. Listen for them again and again. Keep joining us in his Divine Service where we hear his promise that gives, sustains, and nurtures faith. He puts his promises to work for you. And even when you face the inevitable sorrow and hardship in life today, you will have his peace because he is still with us causing our salvation ... in Jesus’ name.