Happy Watangi Day! For those of you who don’t know, that was this past week. Watangi Day is a New Zealand holiday. If you would like to learn more about it, ask the Hintens, they used to live there. I think I know why they left there now… There’s a hill in New Zealand called: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu
This Maori mouthful, translated, means "the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as ’landeater,’ played his flute to his loved one." How fitting for Valentine’s Day this week! Now, this reads more like a short story than a name of some place, but, believe it or not, I learned there’s a longer one.
Guinness Book of Records, says the name of Bangkok in Thai, is longer:
Krungthepmahanakonbowornratanakosinmahintarayudyayamahadiloponoparatanarajthaniburiromudomrajniwesmahasatarnamornpimarnavatarsatitsakattiyavisanukamphrasit
This name is more like the history of the whole city rather than a name:
The land of angels, the great city of immortality, various of divine gems, the great angelic land unconquerable, land of nine noble gems, the royal city, the pleasant capital, place of the grand royal palace, forever land of angels and reincarnated spirits, predestined and created by the highest devas.
I also read that there’s an island in the Carolinas named “U.” Imagine it. If there was a university there, it could be called “U U” or “U of U” …and their mascot could be a female sheep!
Lot of interesting names out there. I’ll save some more for the rest of this series. Today, I’d like you to turn to Isaiah 62 and see some names, some that were changed, and then figure out with me why on earth that has anything to do with us right here now this morning.
Let’s start with this one:
Reject. Ignored. Unwanted. Those are names for the kid who’s always chosen last for the kickball team; it’s the only one from your graduating class not to marry; it’s the one person they failed to invite to the party; it’s the name of the person who was left off of the list of acknowledgements; it’s the girl who no one invited to the dance; it’s the job applicant who never even heard back from any place where he applied; it’s the student whose parents moved after he went to college…and didn’t tell him; it’s the person who sees someone in the mall that he knows, but when he waves, they act like they didn’t see him; it’s Charlie Brown, going trick or treating, and while everyone else is getting great treats, all Charlie Brown got was a rock.
Reject. Ignored. Not wanted.
There’s a word in the OT for this. It was even the name of 2 women, if you can imagine! Azubah. Why would anyone give their daughter that name? I’m not sure. And now that I’ve found it out, I wonder why my great, great, great, great, great, great, grandparents named their daughter Tryphosa Azuba Call. Time for a name change, if you ask me! Unwanted. That word, that name, gets applied to a whole nation of Jews in Isaiah 62:4.
There’s another name – Shemamah - this one applies to a whole land, not just the people. It’s a word that means “devastation, waste, desolation.”
Picture Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped; picture the Serengeti during the dry season. Imagine for a moment someone selling great farming opportunities in the Arctic North. There’s a goldmine to jump at. Desolation. Having all the fertile charm and warmth of the surface of the moon.
Understand, for a moment, that these were names God was positing for the nation of Israel, or rather, the 2 tribes that were left by the end of Isaiah’s life. They weren’t entirely there yet, but God was making it clear that those names would fit real well for them in the future. When God starts saying your name is Rejected or Devastated, you need to listen.
This passage takes us back a few chapters for us to really appreciate it. The short version can be read in just one verse:
Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
The longer version is in the verses that follow: (3-8)
They had the sins of murder, lying, speaking wicked things, they had no integrity, no care about justice, they were full of violence, and crooked in all they did.
Your iniquities have separated you from God.
Now, if you’re living like you don’t care about God, you probably don’t want to have Him around real close anyway, right? The problem is that God’s involvement in our world doesn’t stop with that.
God is a just and holy God. He doesn’t tolerate sin. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are especially about God’s judgment on people because of their sins. What’s coming isn’t a pretty picture…
Isaiah 1:7 Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
Isaiah 3:24 Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.
A whole nation of people was being warned about the punishment that God was going to bring on them, because, as a people, they were turning their backs on God. Your iniquities have separated you from your God. We’re condensing a lot here, but get the general picture so far: God’s people were turning their backs on God, and the result was going to be misery and destruction for them.
Time for a name change. That’s what our text is about…
Isaiah 62:1-5
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow. You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
Those people, once called “Rejected” were going to be called Hephzibah – My joy is in her.
Itmeans precious, delightful, pleasing.
Ill - I’ll never forget my brother Ken’s 1971 Pontiac Safari station wagon. Besides being dark brown colored and handling like a boat, it had an exhaust leak so it made some very interesting sounds. It just wasn’t a “chick magnet” kind of car. Well, when you’re a freshman in college, you’re happy just to have a car that doesn’t require a tetanus shot to be safe to drive it! So, Ken was good-hearted about it. He was studying Greek at OCC, so he gave his car a Gk name: Nekkredda – He said it meant “chariot of the dead.” It seemed to fit. So, he drove Nekkredda around a few years until a better car opportunity came along: a nice, clean 1980 Chevy Caprice. It was quite a change from Nekkredda, so his new car got a new name – he was studying Hebrew by this time, so he called this one Hephzibah: My joy is in her.
So, Hephzibah, has been around in my thinking for some years – I’ve just never met anyone named Hephzibah.
Then there’s this other name – the one that God said He would call their land. No longer Devastation or Destruction. The new name was Beulah. Yeah, that’s what you were singing about today. That’s what some of you have been singing for years without thinking about what it means! Beulah means Married.
Marriage for a woman in that society was more than just the norm – it was a necessity. Fail to marry, and you had no children, no income, no protection, no honor. In a figurative sense, being married corrected the problem of being devastated or destroyed. But, who’d want to marry a girl like that?
Picture it, there’s a family with 7 daughters. 6 of them are beautiful looking and there’s no eligible guy in their community who wouldn’t line up to marry any one of them, but then there’s that one – the ugly one. She’s shy. She doesn’t carry herself with confidence. She doesn’t smile much. She doesn’t spend much time on her appearance. No one has ever expected her to amount to much, and they all knew she’d be the last to marry, if she ever did.
One day, a young man from a prominent family comes to their home to ask the Father’s permission to court one of his daughters. He’s a bright young man, with a promising future, and the father tries to cover up his excitement that one of his daughters will likely do well because of him. So, he brings out his 6 daughters, in the order he thinks is the most promising. The man isn’t impressed. “Where’s the 7th? Where’s your other daughter?” Everyone is shocked, including the ugly duckling of the family. She comes out to meet the young man, dressed sloppy, hair covered up, shoulders slouched, staring at her feet. Her? They all say at the same time. Yes, I want to court her. So, he does, and it’s only a short time that he comes to visit that father again, this time to ask permission to marry the gawky girl. So, in the middle of such a story, the one who was rejected, alone, unwanted, without the prospects of that changing, becomes the daughter who is married. Imagine the free advice all around him that young man was receiving: “You fool! You could have any beautiful young lady you wanted to be your wife, and you pick the black sheep of the family. How inappropriate that a man of your family and standing would lower himself like this!” And as you imagine that, imagine also the change that went through that young lady’s being when such a wonderful young man said to her, “You! I choose you to be my wife!” Married.
When you get married, you typically change your name, if you’re the bride. The change that God was going to make for His people was going to be radical enough that it means a new name for them.
Now, before we leave just seeing what this chapter says, I want you to see when these prophetic words of Isaiah are fulfilled.
1. It doesn’t all happen just then. In fact, Isaiah dies sometime before these 2 remaining tribes of Israel are conquered. The worst times haven’t even happened by the time Isaiah is gone. So, it’s not just about what’s going on right then.
2. Some of it happens when Jesus comes.
Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
One day, hundreds of years later, in a Synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus is handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He turns to this passage and reads it to the people. Then, He rolls it back up, hands it to the attendant, sits down, and begins to speak with these words: "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." He was speaking about Himself. That means, some of the words we’re reading today about God coming and helping the oppressed people are about what Jesus was accomplishing as He came to earth.
3. Some of it still hasn’t happened.
There are many promises that God lays out here that just haven’t happened yet. For instance…
Isaiah 60:11-12 Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations-- their kings led in triumphal procession. For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined.
Isaiah 61:9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed."
If you’ve paid much attention to the news over the years, this just doesn’t describe Israel from that time to anytime up till now. In fact, much of what drives hatred for America in the Middle East is our friendliness with modern-day Israel. So, in some way, much of what God gave us through Isaiah is yet to be realized. This didn’t apply to just the people who heard him during his lifetime. We’re somehow involved in this story too.
God has a way of doing that. He tells us about Israel that…
1 Corinthians 10:11a
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us
Sure enough, the NT compares baptism to Israel crossing the Red Sea and to the water of the great Flood. The Exodus from Egypt is compared to our freedom from sin. Circumcision is compared to the change God works in our lives when we accept Jesus. So, I want to look into Isaiah 62 and ask of this story, “Where do we fit into this?”
Where does anyone fit into this who has violated God’s commands? Paul told the Ephesians…
Ephesians 2:1-2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you.
Somewhere along the way we’ve tried to soften what our sin does between ourselves and God. It separates us from Him. It makes us the people who are rejected, desolate, devastated. Just as surely as Israel was rejected by God because of their sin, anyone who’s following the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air is separate from Christ, without hope and without God in the world.
These last 2 tribes of Israel would suffer a devastating attack by the Babylonians that would finally result in the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. God warned them repeatedly that it would happen, and it did, because they didn’t turn to God with their whole hearts.
We may not undergo an attack on our country, but what does the Scripture say? “The payment for sin is death.” “But unless you repent, you too will all perish." “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.”
Whatever happens to our nation, the day is coming when each one of us is going to have to stand before God’s judgment throne individually. We need to have some name on ourselves besides rejected or devastated. As long as there’s time, it’s time for a change of name. That’s the way this passage written to the Jews applies to you and me. So, from here, I want to give some application of what to do about it this morning…
Application:
1. Embrace the change!
Some have been putting this off for a lifetime. Why would you rather be called rejected? Why would you rather be called devastated? It’s time to embrace the change. You need to accept that change today. You need to accept Jesus’ invitation to change your name.
Some of you have made the change, and you’re slipping the wrong direction. You need to remember the decision you made one day. Embrace the change. Speak of it in glowing terms. Explain it to someone else. Remember why you accepted it in the first place.
The first thing you need to do when you come to accept Jesus is repent. Embrace the change.
2. Thank God for the change!
When was the last time you just thanked God for the way He has any interest in you at all? Did you feel the power of those words this morning – to think that God would call you the one who is precious to Him?! The one in whom He delights! V5 said, “as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” What’s so special about you or me? Well, God cares enough to have given His very best for us. We ought to be thanking Him every day for the change He accomplished in our lives.
3. Live like a changed person.
There’s a story that comes out of the life of Alexander the Great concerning a soldier in his army. The soldier was continually misbehaving, and that’s a serious problem in the business of conquest. Even more serious, the soldier’s name was Alexander. He called the soldier to come speak to him in person. Alexander the Great asked him "What is your name?" The soldier replied, "Alexander, sir." The commander looked him straight in the eye and said, "Soldier, either change your behavior or change your name."
If you’re a person who has been changed by God, or someone who’s planning on it today, you need to plan on living like it. There are enough people with fish stickers on their bumpers who drive like maniacs, enough people with Christian T-shirts on who embarrass themselves yelling at the referees at games, enough people in our schools and workplaces who claim the name of Jesus but who don’t walk the walk. If God’s word is true and you’re really changed, let it show.
Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you. That could all change right now.
