Kept In Perfect Peace: A Sermon For The Second Sunday In Advent

Kept in Perfect Peace

Isaiah 26:1–3 NKJV

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.

Open the gates,

That the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.

You will keep him in perfect peace,

Whose mind is stayed on You,

Because he trusts in You.

We now come to the Second Sunday in Advent in which we emphasize the theme of peace as we prepare for the return of the Prince of Peace which was prophesied in Isaiah 9:6-7. This ancient prophecy was partially fulfilled at the first Christmas. A Son was indeed born and given unto us. Israel and the world waited a long day for this day to come. We see in Luke 2 that both Simeon the Priest and Anna the Widow spent their entire lives in the hope of seeing the LORD’s Christ. And their hopes were fulfilled.

But the government was not placed upon His shoulders at this point as this prophecy also stated. We still wait for the never ending kingdom to come to us in its fullness. So during Advent, we remember that the rest of this promise is to be fulfilled. There is war everywhere on earth today. Earthly Jerusalem has hardly ever seen a moment of peace, even though “peace” is part of its name. We hope in this promise which is sure to be fulfilled. Hope was last week’s theme. So let us not look at “peace.”

The text we read came from the Book of Isaiah which is a long book containing numerous prophecies. Some of these prophecies were fulfilled in Isaiah’s day, some were fulfilled at Jesus’ birth, some in the earthly ministry of our Lord, and yet others in the suffering and death of our LORD Jesus Christ as the sacrificial lamb for our sins. The Book contains numerous prophecies of the establishment of the eternal kingdom and the restoration of all things. There are also many pronouncements of judgment. Overall, the Book of Isaiah is a very complex book.

In Chapter 26 which we read this morning, Isaiah makes a prophecy whose ultimate fulfillment will come at the end of this age and the introduction of the earthly kingdom. This does not mean that it may also have referred in part to events in Isaiah’s day. For example, the end of Chapter 25 talks about the judgment upon Moab. There is no Moab today. But we should emphasize the universal implications of what it means for today and for ever. The chapter begins with the words “in that day.” We might ask what day the prophet is talking about. The use of the demonstrative pronoun “that” has the idea of something remote in time or else the pronoun “this” would be used. Isaiah says that in that day a new song will be sung in Judah. When Isaiah lived, the spiritual condition of Judah was deplorable. Isaiah brings out the desperate. Even though the beginning of his ministry began in the reign of Uzziah who is recorded as being a good king for the most part, excepting the disobedience for which he became a leper. Jotham, his son also seems to have been a good king. But even in these times, Judah was complacent, and the Kingdom of Israel was wicked. Hezekiah was a good king for the most part, and Isaiah records the faith of Hezekiah and the deliverance of Judah from the Assyrians. But the rich were exploiting the poor and the hearts of Judah were lukewarm to God. We see in the blistering commission of Isaiah in the sixth chapter in which the LORD said that Judah would hear and not understand and see and not perceive the message of Isaiah. Even Isaiah had to have his lips purged with coals from God’s holy altar. There simply wasn’t much to rejoice about in song.

But the day will indeed come in which the swords will be beaten into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks. We will learn war no more. (Isaiah 2:4) (Micah 4:3) This will be the day in which the prophecy we read this morning from Isaiah will be fulfilled. In that day a new song will be sung in the new Judah and Jerusalem. The righteous shall enter in a strong city. The earthly Jerusalem was built on a hill. Later in Isaiah we read of the mighty Assyrian army coming up to Jerusalem to lay siege to it. It was on the verge of starvation. It would not have survived except by the LORD’s intervention in response to the prayer of Hezekiah. But it would not be long before the Babylonians would come, the very Babylonians that Hezekiah showed the entire city to including its treasures. The bulwarks would fail in that day, and the Judaeans carried away captive to Babylon. Even though that city would be restored, it never became the city of peace. Poor earthly Jerusalem of which the “salem” means peace. How many wars have come to it even to this day!