Destined For Captivity But Freedom Awaits

When God looked upon His CAPTIVE people once more, he saw the makings of enlightened hearts and minds. God’s people were finally coming around to realizing the choice they made for themselves was what truly made placed them in CAPTIVITY. They indeed chose to be held captive by the weight of their own sin and that this weight was made manifest by the presence of the Babylonians that surrounded them every day. They were ready or at least were getting ready to listen to God once more.

What we read in Isaiah chapter 40 is what God says to us everyday and I encourage you to mark your Bibles, highlighting this chapter, so that the next time you wake up from CAPTIVITY to sin you can be readily prepared to listen to God guide you back to His Will once more. As I said, “God speaks these words to us everyday” for they are a direct result of the work of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we are ready and eager to listen thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit directing our heart and mind to God, yet at other times we are completely oblivious to His Words, when our will and this world hold us CAPTIVE. So thanks be to God that he has our attention today so that He can provide us with Comfort and Direction once more.

What is the first thing God says in Isaiah 40? “Comfort, O Comfort My people” Listening to God now makes it difficult for us to believe that we ever considered Him as the one placing us in Captivity. God desires mercy not sacrifice. Even when we feel like our lives are being sacrificed as a direct result of being His servant, our Lord’s Love and Mercy should convince us that He has our best in mind. Trust me, that is a very difficult truth to swallow but it is the truth.

God says in verse 2, “Speak Kindly to Jerusalem.” This translation is quite difficult but the best interpretation is, “Lay something Tenderly Close to the Heart of Another.” If there is anyone that knows the sorrow we endure it is the Lord God Almighty. He wants to lay something peaceful and kind at the heart of every person that knows sorrow. Like a gentle ointment, God’s Word’s sooth and moisten the troubled and hardened heart. I ask you, can you see any CAPTIVITY underlying God’s Words of Love and Mercy?

Our Lord also tells His Holy People that her term of service has ended and that her guilt is pardoned. To the question we ask time and time again, that being, “HOW LONG O LORD…” God shows us that there is an end to every imprisonment we are placed in or walk into. The harsh reality of battle with worldly CAPTIVITY has an end. We know the ultimate end is when we arrive in Paradise thanks to the shed blood of Jesus but even in life, God will remove the CAPTIVITY that surrounds us.

What we have listened to so far is the Word and Love that God offers to us in abundance day in and day out. But what God speaks of throughout the remaining nine verses of our text is what our Lord wants us to do in response to His kindness. We Lutherans are not always ready to listen to what we have to do as Christians because we know that by Grace we have been saved through Christ and this salvation is not of ourselves.” But God does not want us to simply be hearers of the Word. He wants doers. God wants responders! He wants His people to effectually see His Word rise up within them and manifest all sorts of Holy and Righteous responses to His Word. Responding to God in effect keeps us from falling into further CAPTIVITY to this world. Responding to God Joyfully reassures us that we really are not substituting just one CAPTIVITY for another once God’s Will takes over. When Our Lord rules our life, we sense no CAPTIVITY unless we again miss what the World offers.