05-09-04
Strength for the Journey Isaiah 40 September 4, 2005
In the mid-nineteen nineties, I was driving with my brother from Montreal to Southern California (I was on my way to Southern California to get involved in a church planting ministry and he came along for the ride).
When we drove through Colorado, we decided to climb one of the 14ers, one of the mountains over 14,000 feet, in San Juan range. We’re amateur, recreational hikers and we ending up taking a wrong turn en route to the peak, adding probably a couple of hours to our climb, but we end up making it to the peak.
The following day we drove to walked in and around parts of the Grand Canyon…
That evening, we were dead tired, but we decided to drive as far as we could…
Really late somewhere between Arizona and Southern California we came to a Wendy’s drive through:
When we drove up to the counter to order, a young woman through the intercom said “Welcome to Wendy’s, can I help you?” My brother woke up and said, “I’d like a Big Mac, this is Wendy’s, ok how about a Whopper? this is Wendy’s, I’ll have a soft Taco, this is Wendy’s… Whatever you have, I’ll take it…
I remember we felt tanked out, but had we still had a long way to drive that night…
Have you been really tired, but realized you still a long way to go, “miles to go before you sleep?”
This is exactly how the people of Judah felt as their decades of captivity as prisoners of war in Babylon was coming to an end. They were tired and discouraged and had trouble believing that they would ever return to their homeland.
Many of the people of New Orleans are “exiled” in Houston and they are weary and disheartened and many likely have trouble envisioning how they’ll return
The people of Judah had been guilty of corruption, greed, violence, social injustice, and idolatry. God had allowed to be invaded by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. and they had been carried of as exiles in Babylon (members of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been invade and exiled in the year 722 b.c.).
Psalm 137 describes how the Israelites wept by the rivers of Babylon. They speak of how their captors wanted them to sing them some of their native songs, but how they had no song in them.
And on the banks on the rivers of Babylon the Israelites began to question whether God was greater than the gods of the superpower Babylon… they began to question whether God cared about their plight as POWs and was willing to save them…
God responds the complaints of his despairing and weary people and demonstrates how he stakes up the gods of Babylonia through a majestic text…
If you have your Bibles please turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 40…
Listen to what God says…
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service (in Babylon) has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
Yes, God judged his people for their sins, but judgment would not be his last word for his them…after years of exile in Babylon and he now brings his people a message of comfort.
3 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD [a; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. [b]
4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
God, in this well known passage, tells the Israelites he is building a highway for Himself and his people. Every valley shall be raised up and every mountain made low, the rough ground shall be made level.
Why is God building a highway? He’s building a pathway of deliverance for his people from their land of exile Babylon to Jerusalem.
The people of Israel would have seen the highways the Babylonians built for their gods to parade them before the people. But they would witness are far more glorious highway built by the Lord, Yahweh to deliver them.
In vs. 8
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
God says, I am promise to deliver you and you can count on my word.
The grass withers and the flowers fade, but my word last forever.
Then God gives us series of pictures that reveal His character to us:
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
This text speaks of God’s wisdom.
No god in Babylon or anywhere, knows how many liters the oceans of the world carry, or the cubic feet of the heavens, or the weight of the hills and the mountains, but the Lord Yahweh knows.
The text also suggests God’s breathtaking capabilities:
What’s your favorite beach in the area?
Think of the fact that God holds that body of water, along with the Pacific, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian all the great bodies of water in the world in the palm of his hand (globe).
Notice vs. 15
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.
23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
Yahweh had power over of the king of Babylon and over all the rulers of the world?
Who are the most powerful figures in the world? President Bush? Tony Blair. Secretary General Koffi Annan? Prime Minister Koizumi? Pope Benedict? Bill Gates?
Compared to God they are but a drop in the bucket…
25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
As we said, the Israel were comparing God to the gods” of Babylon.
The Lord says…
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
According the research done at the Australian National University there about 70 sextillion stars in the known universe, that’s 70 with 22 zeros (new slide). That means about 10 times as many stars in the known universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches and all the deserts of our planet.
God calls each of the stars 70 sextillion stars in our universe and the others we don’t know about, by name.
Some of us can barely remember the names of people in our extended family, but God knows the stars of the universe.
The next time your out So out of city… maybe in countryside or on some remote island, if clear out, stare up that star spangled sky…
The starry host eloquently declares the creative power and glory of God, God holds the waters of the world in the palm of his hands, the nations are but a drop in the bucket compared to him….
With bold strokes Isaiah, has portrayed God as powerful beyond our imagination.
Although, Isaiah has portrayed God as all-powerful, the Israelites are still not sure that God is able and willing to redeem them…
They wonder, “Has God abandoned us?”
Notice vs. 23
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
Many of us in theory at least believe that God is all powerful, what theologians describe as omnipotent. Many of us believe that God created the stars, the oceans, the mountains, but sometimes perhaps we wonder if God is able to help us…
And so God says…
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
God is the everlasting God. He has no beginning. No end. He does not grow old, forgetful, or senile.
My grandmother is 92 years old. She still plays tennis. At one point she was the 2 number in the nation of Japan in her age category, but I said only 3 or 4 people in your age category.
She’s proud of athletic ability, but she’ll be the first to say I am not quick as I used to be…
Isaiah 40 tells us God is everlasting and does not grow tired or weary.
Psalm 121 tells us that God never slumbers nor sleeps.
Isaiah 40 tells us that God is aware of the situation of the Israelites and he is aware of our plight as a man or a woman.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40 shows us that God is great And gracious,
Mighty and merciful…
The Creator of all things and compassionate…
He is willing and able to renew us…
I need his renewal in my life… how about you?
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
Even lithe athletes like Marcus Nasland, Venus Williams, A-Rod, and Lance Armstrong grow tired and weary…
If God is able and willing to renew us, why are so many of his followers tired and weary?
The reason: renewal isn’t automatic. It’s conditional on our waiting on God.
Notice vs.
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength . They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
The word renew strength… literally means to exchange strength, and it is used to describe changing clothes.
In order to exchange our weariness for God’s strength, we must wait hopefully in His presence…
We must come to God in prayerful silence confident that God is God, not applying for the job, that Gd will fulfill his promises and purposes for us in His time.
The Hebrew word translated hope in our text is translated by King James as wait and the Hebrew word may be rendered hopeful waiting or waiting hope.
Through the writings of some Catholic monks, I’ve received some new insight into what it means to be a posture of hopeful waiting or waiting hope before Lord
I’ve been seeking to about 20 minutes each morning, in what’s been described as “Centering prayer.”
Each morning I seek to sit (not in the Lotus position, which I can do), but sit silently before God.
Whenever my mind wanders as it always does, I use a simple, sacred word to return to God.
My word is wait, for others that simple sacred word the enables us to return to God may be Jesus or trust.
If my mind wanders 1000 times, I just have 1000 opportunities to return to God.
Richard Rohr points out that prayer is awareness of God… we can express that awareness through words, but also in silence. He says we can express our dependence on God in words, but experience that dependence in silence.
As come before God in prayerful silence, it may seem like an extravagant waste of time, but we are expressing our dependence on God… and we are exchanging our weariness for His Strength.
If this kind of centering prayer appeals you might consider getting the book Centering Prayer by M. Basil Pennington (recommended in the sermon outline).
There something about becoming aware of God’s presence in nature, in the Word or in prayer whether spoken or in silence that lifts us up…
As we come into contact with God, with the God who made us, we receive supernatural strength… and instead of stumbling and falling…. And as Isaiah says, we mount up on wings like eagles, as we know eagles soar effortlessly not with the strengths or its wings, but on the power of the winder as the wind lifts the eagles higher and higher….
As we wait in God’s presence, we will find ourselves mounting up on wings like Eagles, running and not being weary, walking and not fainting…
Our text began today…
With a promise that God would make a highway for his people to come home and ends with a promise that God would exchange their weariness for his strength.
And as we come to the table, let us remember that God has also created a highway to Himself through the bridge of his son, Jesus Christ…
As he gave the Israelites the strength for their journey by exchanging their weariness for his strength…
God prepares for our journey to Him to holy God by exchanging our sins for his purity.
Jesus lived the perfect life that we were called to live, but didn’t.
Instead of being rewarded for that perfect life, on the cross He took upon himself the punishment that we deserved for our sins…
He got what we deserved.
When we come to Christ, Jesus perfect record is transferred to us. On the cross he got what we deserved for our sins and when we come to Jesus Christ, we get that perfect record of Christ, transferred to us—so in far as God is concerned he see as though we were sinful.
The great exchange.
God gave us the gleaming clothes of righteousness for our filthy rags, so that we walk the highway to a holy God.
This is why on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it and said this is my body… broken for you… this is my blood shed for you…
Whether you’re a member, if you decided to follow Christ…
In the mid-nineteen nineties, I was driving with my brother from Montreal to Southern California (I was on my way to Southern California to get involved in a church planting ministry and he came along for the ride).
When we drove through Colorado, we decided to climb one of the 14ers, one of the mountains over 14,000 feet, in San Juan range. We’re amateur, recreational hikers and we ending up taking a wrong turn en route to the peak, adding probably a couple of hours to our climb, but we end up making it to the peak.
The following day we drove to walked in and around parts of the Grand Canyon…
That evening, we were dead tired, but we decided to drive as far as we could…
Really late somewhere between Arizona and Southern California we came to a Wendy’s drive through:
When we drove up to the counter to order, a young woman through the intercom said “Welcome to Wendy’s, can I help you?” My brother woke up and said, “I’d like a Big Mac, this is Wendy’s, ok how about a Whopper? this is Wendy’s, I’ll have a soft Taco, this is Wendy’s… Whatever you have, I’ll take it…
I remember we felt tanked out, but had we still had a long way to drive that night…
Have you been really tired, but realized you still a long way to go, “miles to go before you sleep?”
This is exactly how the people of Judah felt as their decades of captivity as prisoners of war in Babylon was coming to an end. They were tired and discouraged and had trouble believing that they would ever return to their homeland.
Many of the people of New Orleans are “exiled” in Houston and they are weary and disheartened and many likely have trouble envisioning how they’ll return
The people of Judah had been guilty of corruption, greed, violence, social injustice, and idolatry. God had allowed to be invaded by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. and they had been carried of as exiles in Babylon (members of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been invade and exiled in the year 722 b.c.).
Psalm 137 describes how the Israelites wept by the rivers of Babylon. They speak of how their captors wanted them to sing them some of their native songs, but how they had no song in them.
And on the banks on the rivers of Babylon the Israelites began to question whether God was greater than the gods of the superpower Babylon… they began to question whether God cared about their plight as POWs and was willing to save them…
God responds the complaints of his despairing and weary people and demonstrates how he stakes up the gods of Babylonia through a majestic text…
If you have your Bibles please turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 40…
Listen to what God says…
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service (in Babylon) has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
Yes, God judged his people for their sins, but judgment would not be his last word for his them…after years of exile in Babylon and he now brings his people a message of comfort.
3 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD [a; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. [b]
4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
God, in this well known passage, tells the Israelites he is building a highway for Himself and his people. Every valley shall be raised up and every mountain made low, the rough ground shall be made level.
Why is God building a highway? He’s building a pathway of deliverance for his people from their land of exile Babylon to Jerusalem.
The people of Israel would have seen the highways the Babylonians built for their gods to parade them before the people. But they would witness are far more glorious highway built by the Lord, Yahweh to deliver them.
In vs. 8
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
God says, I am promise to deliver you and you can count on my word.
The grass withers and the flowers fade, but my word last forever.
Then God gives us series of pictures that reveal His character to us:
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
This text speaks of God’s wisdom.
No god in Babylon or anywhere, knows how many liters the oceans of the world carry, or the cubic feet of the heavens, or the weight of the hills and the mountains, but the Lord Yahweh knows.
The text also suggests God’s breathtaking capabilities:
What’s your favorite beach in the area?
Think of the fact that God holds that body of water, along with the Pacific, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian all the great bodies of water in the world in the palm of his hand (globe).
Notice vs. 15
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.
23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
Yahweh had power over of the king of Babylon and over all the rulers of the world?
Who are the most powerful figures in the world? President Bush? Tony Blair. Secretary General Koffi Annan? Prime Minister Koizumi? Pope Benedict? Bill Gates?
Compared to God they are but a drop in the bucket…
25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
As we said, the Israel were comparing God to the gods” of Babylon.
The Lord says…
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
According the research done at the Australian National University there about 70 sextillion stars in the known universe, that’s 70 with 22 zeros (new slide). That means about 10 times as many stars in the known universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches and all the deserts of our planet.
God calls each of the stars 70 sextillion stars in our universe and the others we don’t know about, by name.
Some of us can barely remember the names of people in our extended family, but God knows the stars of the universe.
The next time your out So out of city… maybe in countryside or on some remote island, if clear out, stare up that star spangled sky…
The starry host eloquently declares the creative power and glory of God, God holds the waters of the world in the palm of his hands, the nations are but a drop in the bucket compared to him….
With bold strokes Isaiah, has portrayed God as powerful beyond our imagination.
Although, Isaiah has portrayed God as all-powerful, the Israelites are still not sure that God is able and willing to redeem them…
They wonder, “Has God abandoned us?”
Notice vs. 23
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
Many of us in theory at least believe that God is all powerful, what theologians describe as omnipotent. Many of us believe that God created the stars, the oceans, the mountains, but sometimes perhaps we wonder if God is able to help us…
And so God says…
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
God is the everlasting God. He has no beginning. No end. He does not grow old, forgetful, or senile.
My grandmother is 92 years old. She still plays tennis. At one point she was the 2 number in the nation of Japan in her age category, but I said only 3 or 4 people in your age category.
She’s proud of athletic ability, but she’ll be the first to say I am not quick as I used to be…
Isaiah 40 tells us God is everlasting and does not grow tired or weary.
Psalm 121 tells us that God never slumbers nor sleeps.
Isaiah 40 tells us that God is aware of the situation of the Israelites and he is aware of our plight as a man or a woman.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40 shows us that God is great And gracious,
Mighty and merciful…
The Creator of all things and compassionate…
He is willing and able to renew us…
I need his renewal in my life… how about you?
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
Even lithe athletes like Marcus Nasland, Venus Williams, A-Rod, and Lance Armstrong grow tired and weary…
If God is able and willing to renew us, why are so many of his followers tired and weary?
The reason: renewal isn’t automatic. It’s conditional on our waiting on God.
Notice vs.
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength . They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
The word renew strength… literally means to exchange strength, and it is used to describe changing clothes.
In order to exchange our weariness for God’s strength, we must wait hopefully in His presence…
We must come to God in prayerful silence confident that God is God, not applying for the job, that Gd will fulfill his promises and purposes for us in His time.
The Hebrew word translated hope in our text is translated by King James as wait and the Hebrew word may be rendered hopeful waiting or waiting hope.
Through the writings of some Catholic monks, I’ve received some new insight into what it means to be a posture of hopeful waiting or waiting hope before Lord
I’ve been seeking to about 20 minutes each morning, in what’s been described as “Centering prayer.”
Each morning I seek to sit (not in the Lotus position, which I can do), but sit silently before God.
Whenever my mind wanders as it always does, I use a simple, sacred word to return to God.
My word is wait, for others that simple sacred word the enables us to return to God may be Jesus or trust.
If my mind wanders 1000 times, I just have 1000 opportunities to return to God.
Richard Rohr points out that prayer is awareness of God… we can express that awareness through words, but also in silence. He says we can express our dependence on God in words, but experience that dependence in silence.
As come before God in prayerful silence, it may seem like an extravagant waste of time, but we are expressing our dependence on God… and we are exchanging our weariness for His Strength.
If this kind of centering prayer appeals you might consider getting the book Centering Prayer by M. Basil Pennington (recommended in the sermon outline).
There something about becoming aware of God’s presence in nature, in the Word or in prayer whether spoken or in silence that lifts us up…
As we come into contact with God, with the God who made us, we receive supernatural strength… and instead of stumbling and falling…. And as Isaiah says, we mount up on wings like eagles, as we know eagles soar effortlessly not with the strengths or its wings, but on the power of the winder as the wind lifts the eagles higher and higher….
As we wait in God’s presence, we will find ourselves mounting up on wings like Eagles, running and not being weary, walking and not fainting…
Our text began today…
With a promise that God would make a highway for his people to come home and ends with a promise that God would exchange their weariness for his strength.
And as we come to the table, let us remember that God has also created a highway to Himself through the bridge of his son, Jesus Christ…
As he gave the Israelites the strength for their journey by exchanging their weariness for his strength…
God prepares for our journey to Him to holy God by exchanging our sins for his purity.
Jesus lived the perfect life that we were called to live, but didn’t.
Instead of being rewarded for that perfect life, on the cross He took upon himself the punishment that we deserved for our sins…
He got what we deserved.
When we come to Christ, Jesus perfect record is transferred to us. On the cross he got what we deserved for our sins and when we come to Jesus Christ, we get that perfect record of Christ, transferred to us—so in far as God is concerned he see as though we were sinful.
The great exchange.
God gave us the gleaming clothes of righteousness for our filthy rags, so that we walk the highway to a holy God.
This is why on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it and said this is my body… broken for you… this is my blood shed for you…
Whether you’re a member, if you decided to follow Christ…
posted by Shigematsu at 8:35 PM
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