God Sends A Preacher Series

And if you looked out onto the hills and saw a bloodied gang of survivors, barely holding on until they reached safety, then you’d know the battle was lost. But if you saw a man running, and he’s got a spring in his step, and energy to keep going, even to speed up as he gets closer—that’d be the most beautiful sight, heartening and encouraging.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.” This messenger is coming to announce God’s great victory. And for the people who are waiting, this messenger has beautiful feet—not because his ankles are especially attractive, or his toes so tantalizing, but because it’s his feet that have carried him to bring the amazing news of the Lord’s work. The people are so glad to receive him!

And the news quickly spreads. For men are standing ready on the city walls. In that time, watchmen were always patrolling: morning, noon and night. Scanning the horizon, they’d warn against approaching enemies, or welcome any allies. They were the front line of response.

The watchmen see God’s messenger, and what’s their response? The “watchmen…lift up their voices” (v 8). There’s a hopeful shout as the messenger draws closer. The people waiting down below know that something good is happening. There’s a definite buzz in the air, and it grows into a loud chorus: God has done something amazing! There is deliverance from evil and a new hope for tomorrow.

When he paints this picture, Isaiah wants us to think big. He tells Judah, ‘This is bigger than when God wiped out the Assyrian army at Libnah—this is a greater salvation.’ He tells us, ‘This is bigger than God helping you overcome your personal fears or family troubles—this is a greater salvation.’ It’s the salvation accomplished by the Servant of the LORD, the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. He has come to pull us out of our deepest misery, to lift the heaviest load from our backs: our sin, and the punishment that it deserves.

It’s the message God sends us in his Word, the good news of our salvation. We get to read this Word every day, and we get to listen to this Word every Sunday. For that solitary runner, moving with joy across the hills with good news to announce, is just like the preachers whom God sends today. This is what the Lord’s servants will do: they will bring glad tidings to God’s waiting people, to the church and to the world.

Think of how Paul portrays this ministry in Romans 10. He is speaking about how the Jews in his time needed to hear the true gospel of Christ. If they didn’t, they would never come faith, and they’d remain in their condemnation forever. Thinking about that need for preaching, Paul asks those tightly connected questions, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” (vv 14-15). ‘So I need to preach,’ you hear Paul saying, ‘If I don’t tell the Jews about Christ, who will?’