Down a New Path
Aug 28, 2012 Is 42:13-16
Intro:
Last Sunday we began a look at a little section in the middle of the book of Isaiah, chapters 40-44. We took a closer look at some of the promises of God, and this morning we are going to look at a few more. But before diving in, I wanted to invite us to wrestle for a moment with a particular question or two about the promises of God. Are they for us? Are they conditional or unconditional? How do we know?
Conditional or Unconditional?
Let’s start with the question about whether God’s promises are conditional or unconditional. Any initial thoughts anyone would like to share, what do you think about the promises of God?
The problem comes with our role. If we see promises of God as conditional, then we in fact have power over God in response to His promises. If God’s promise depends on a response or action of ours, even if that is only believing in them or accepting them, then we continue to set ourselves up as the ones in power. And we like that… we like to believe that we have a choice, that we are in control, and that we can have God and His goodness on our terms. We even take a bit of pride in that sometimes, embracing our disobedience, thinking “I know I am not supposed to (insert favorite sin here), but it is ok because when I decide to change I can then choose to accept the promises of God”. Or thinking, “I am doing ok in life at the moment on my terms, but when I get desperate I know I can turn to God.” Do you see? Thinking along those lines causes us to reduce God’s promises to a spiritual automatic teller machine at the bank, that we can go and make withdrawals from whenever we choose.
We can get to the same place if we see the promises of God as unconditional. Here we see the promises not depending on anything from us, so then determine it doesn’t matter how we live or whether or not we obey, because God’s promises are unconditional. We can always return and just ask forgiveness and God has to forgive. And if we run right out and do the same thing again, well God just has to forgive us again because He promised. Or we believe that God will always “work everything out for the good”, so again it doesn’t matter how we live because God will take care of it all.
I think there is one deeper issue at play, and it relates to our emotional need for security. The idea of conditional promises produces insecurity in us, rather than responsibility. It makes us feel we are not good enough to receive the promises of God. It grabs our insecurities and says “you don’t deserve that…”. Here the root issue is our confusion between the love of God and the promises of God, and our worth and role in each of them. It gets all warped and twisted in our minds and hearts and experiences of life, and we end up throwing our hands up in the air and feeling like garbage.
See, we’ve got the order of it all really wrong. We start with ourselves, and that really messes it all up. Many of the promises of God are conditional – “I will lead you” is conditional upon us following; “I will forgive you” is conditional upon our repentance and confession; “I will hear you” is conditional upon us speaking. But if we start with us, then suddenly we are evaluating if we are following enough or repenting properly or praying with the right words. And then we think “I’m not good enough to receive the promises of God” and that leads quickly to “I guess God doesn’t really love me because I’m not good enough”, and so then we either give up or we try harder to be good enough to be loved and to be worthy of God’s promises. It comes from starting at the wrong end.
Instead, we must start at God’s end. More specifically, at who God is, then at His unfailing and unconditional and all-powerful love for us, and then allow our behavior and lifestyle to flow out of a natural response to who God is and how He loves us. And then we can accept and enjoy all God’s good gifts, all His amazing promises, because our genuine response to God’s love – with all of ourselves – fulfills every condition for any promise. Our obedience is a response, not an attempt to win favor and be good enough to get some promises fulfilled.
And that really is how Is 40-44 orders it.
Review:
For those of you who were not here last week (or forgot!), here is my really simple outline:
40:1-11 Comfort and response
40:12-31 God is BIG
41:1-7 Invitation to conversation
41:8-20 God’s Promises
42:1-9 Promise of a Savior
42:10-17 Worship response to promise
42:18-25 Our failure to listen and see
43:1-21 More promises in spite of disobedience
43:22-24 More disobedience
43:25-44:5 More promises anyway
Is 42:
This morning through worship we’ve already experienced part of chapter 42, we’ve tried to create opportunities for us to be reminded of who God is, and to know again that He loves us deeply. We do that each week, hoping and trusting that then the way we live will be as a gracious response to who God is and how He loves us. We read the first part of the chapter during worship, seeing the incredible promise of a Savior (which by the way was an unconditional promise), and we read the invitation to response in vs. 10-13.
Who is this God?
I want to pull a few things out for us to consider. First, who is this God? I don’t know how you generally picture God, but here is how He describes Himself in Is 42:13-14: “13 The Lord will march forth like a mighty hero; he will come out like a warrior, full of fury. He will shout his battle cry and crush all his enemies. 14 He will say, “I have long been silent; yes, I have restrained myself. But now, like a woman in labor, I will cry and groan and pant.”
There are two images there of God, pivoting around the beginning of vs. 14 where God says He has, in the past, been silent. God is now breaking that silence, and there are two noisy, graphic images He uses to describe Himself.
First is the “mighty hero… warrior”. For anyone whose default picture of God is the grandfatherly, gentle, nice guy, this one is a bit of a shock. This picture is violent. It is loud. The phrase “full of fury” is from an image of the warrior deliberately remembering all of the injustices and evils committed against his people, psyching himself up by tapping into the anger at the injustice and nurturing it and fueling it and then letting it erupt. Imagine the young, powerful, muscled warrior full of that fury and then unleashing his battle cry and crushing His enemies. That is our God. And following Him – where does that lead? It leads into battle… not to lie down in green pastures beside the quiet waters. That is the promise for after the battle, let’s not skip ahead… Will you follow the mighty warrior into battle? Against the enemy – sin, discouragement, lives wasted because they are trapped in devastating chains that keep people from knowing love and forgiveness and freedom. Will you fight with Him for His Kingdom?
There is a second image: “like a woman in labor”. Bet you haven’t often pictured God like that, have you? Again, the focus is on breaking the silence. I don’t know if you have been on the delivery ward of a hospital. It is raw, it is real, the “cries and groans and pants” are impossible to miss. And God says that is the noise He is going to make to break the silence. And the thing about this noise, though it is a cry of pain, we know something really amazing is happening through it.
The point about both these images is this: though God may have been silent, that is not going to last. The cry is coming, the noisy loud powerful God is coming, and it will be impossible to ignore.
Both of those images are illustrative of the love of God. The warrior goes to battle out of love for His people who have suffered injustice. The image of labor and birth is one of great love as well. We do not fear the warrior, because He fights for us, in fact the warrior that goes and fights and defeats injustice is welcomed home as a deeply loved hero.
The Promises:
So what is the outcome of this noisy arrival of God?
15 I will level the mountains and hills
and blight all their greenery.
I will turn the rivers into dry land
and will dry up all the pools.
16 I will lead blind Israel down a new path,
guiding them along an unfamiliar way.
I will brighten the darkness before them
and smooth out the road ahead of them.
Yes, I will indeed do these things;
I will not forsake them.
It is the promise that God is taking His people in a new direction. It is interesting to me that He describes them as “blind Israel”. It is an image He returns to in the verses that follow, which we will look at next week. But for now, let’s notice what it says about dependence. There is a new path, an unfamiliar way ahead, and if God’s people are blind, then we are going to need to depend on God, not on ourselves.
God makes three specific promises. First, for guidance. We don’t know the path ahead, but God does, and He has promised to guide. This is an incredible encouragement. I remember landing in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2006. We landed at a time of unrest and strife, in a country none of us had been to with a completely foreign culture and a language none of us spoke. We arrived exhausted and with some anxiety. And then our guide showed up. He perfectly embodied this image to me – he guided us safely, arranged for our needs to be met, and treated us with warm hospitality so that we could accomplish the purposes of our trip. And here in Isaiah, God promises to do the same for us: “I will lead blind Israel down a new path, guiding them along an unfamiliar way.”
Second, God promises to brighten the darkness. Have you ever walked outside in an unfamiliar place in pitch blackness? Like maybe headed to the washroom in a campground before bed? There is a reason God invented flashlights! Here’s a question: if God is leading “blind Israel”, what good is this? Unless it is a reference back to verse 7, where the promise is that the “servant” will “open the eyes of the blind”… I think there is a promise of healing here as well.
The last promise is that He will “smooth out the road ahead”. Again, the point is that God is taking His people down a new path, and He will remove the obstacles. He will deal with the ruts and the boulders and He will make it passable.
Are the promises for us?
At the very beginning I suggested some questions to wrestle with about the promises of God, including “are they for us?” and “how do we know?” These promises I have just read were relayed by Isaiah to God’s people more than 2500 years ago. Are they for us? For our church today? Can we boldly stand up and say “God has promised to lead us down a new path, guiding and brightening and smoothing out the road ahead”, when this was such a different time and context and circumstance? Can we claim these promises for our church today?
I’m going to suggest a strong “yes”. But not on the basis of Biblical authority. It is true, those promises were made to a different people at a different time. It is true, they reflect the true image of God and are an authoritative record of His character and interaction with His people. Instead, I suggest a strong “yes” based on the witness of the Holy Spirit among us. See, Scripture is brought to life, applied directly to us, and infused with power through the moving of the Holy Spirit of God among His people today.
And I have felt the Holy Spirit breathing life into these texts for us. It is being affirmed by our church Elders. And we are asking for your discernment as well.
And then comes the decisions on our part. If God is leading, will we follow? Will we follow the warrior into battle? Will we follow “down a new path”? Will we allow God to guide, to brighten, and to smooth?
I want to put that question to each of us quite directly. The summer is winding to a close, September is a time of new beginnings and new rhythms. Will you follow Jesus wholeheartedly? No matter where He leads? No matter if it requires change, discomfort, noise, or even sacrifice?
If that is challenging, then go back and put it all in the correct order: who is God (and in comparison, who are you)?; does He love you (and what more than sending Christ to die on the cross in your place can He do to prove it to you)?; and now live and obey as a response.
And let’s together find out what God has in store for us “down a new path”…
