YOU HAVE TASTED THAT THE LORD IS GOOD
ISAIAH 66:10—14 JULY 27, 2003
ISAIAH 66:10-14
10"Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her.
11For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance."
12For this is what the LORD says: "I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.
13As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem."
14When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass;
the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + +
Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
What is your favorite food? Each one of us might have different kinds of food that we like more than others because they taste better to us. Each one of us has different and individual tastes. We cannot and do not know what our favorite food is until we at least taste it. The Lord reminds us today in 1 Peter(and in our text) that we have tasted that the Lord is good. Peter writes in his letter, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good"(1 PETER 2:2,3). No matter what our favorite food on earth might be, the Lord reminds us that in the scriptures we have the Bread of Life. In the scriptures, you and I have tasted that the Lord is good and we are to taste it day after day so we can grow up in our salvation. That’s really why we are here today – to once again grow in the knowledge of the mystery of our salvation. We want to consider what the Lord has placed before us through the prophet Isaiah with that thought from 1 Peter.
YOU HAVE TASTED THAT THE LORD IS GOOD
I. Drink deeply of God’s Word
II. Rejoice in God’s blessings
I. Drink deeply of God’s Word
As you heard our text this morning, you probably noticed the feeling that Isaiah had as he wrote this to the people. It was one of joy and excitement. The reason this was full of joy and excitement was because of many of the chapters before chapter 60. In those first chapters of Isaiah you would be reading a lot about judgement. Isaiah had to come to the people and tell them, ‘you are rebels, you’re wicked. You’ve turned away from God so God is going to cause your enemies to rise up and destroy you.’ Not only was Isaiah proclaiming God’s judgement against God’s people but also in some of the chapters he proclaimed it against the rest of the world. This goes on chapter after chapter. When Isaiah comes to these portions where he’s able to pronounce to them, not only God’s judgement but also His forgiveness, we easily hear the joy that is there.
Our text begins, 10"Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her.” Certainly, Jerusalem was the center of their worship. They looked at it as the focus of their faith. Isaiah says they can rejoice because Jerusalem would be protected. It was true that Jerusalem would face judgement, so Isaiah says, ‘all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her.’ Yes, there would be times when the children of Israel would see Jerusalem under attack. There would be times when Jerusalem would even be destroyed – more than once! Yet, Isaiah says, ‘You who care for her so much that you mourn over her, rejoice!’ Rejoice because the Lord is not going to entirely forsake her (Jerusalem) and the Lord is not going to forsake His people.
Our text goes on: 11For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; this gives us the picture of the ‘mother church’ and her children. What a beautiful picture he presents of a nursing child – the care and the love that a mother has for that infant. He says the Lord is going to take care of His church in the very same way. The Lord will not just provide for His church and believers in a very meager fashion but very abundantly. “You will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance." The believers would come time and again to the church and drink deeply of God’s spiritual bread. They would taste of His goodness and have a great abundance – blessing upon blessing upon blessing.
Let’s look at us drinking deeply at God’s Word. We have tasted that the Lord is good. In our text today when Isaiah mentions Jerusalem, he is talking about the New Testament Church. That is why our hymns today talk about the church’s one foundation. Isaiah is looking way ahead into the future when the church would be established and God’s people would be comforted by God’s word. When the early apostles went out preaching about Jesus being put to death, it struck terror and remorse in the hearts of the people. They realized they were the ones who put Jesus to death. Then the apostles proclaimed God’s forgiveness to them. They preached of the resurrection of Jesus.
Listen to this example from the New Testament church. "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true"(ACTS 17:11). They give us an example for ourselves – to drink deeply of the Word of God. It tells us that they examined the Scriptures every day. That was hard for them to do because they didn’t all have portions of the scripture – they would have to go to the temple to read or to someone else’s house to read the scriptures. Yet, how hard it seems for us to do that in our daily life – to set aside time when we drink deeply at the Word of God. The world around us tells us that we are just too busy – we have many, many things to occupy our time. Satan says to us, ‘It’s not that important.’ Our own sinful nature says we can do that tomorrow and we know that tomorrow never comes.
It’s good for us to drink deeply at the Word of God. Just as we grow in age and in wisdom, so our tastes change. We move on from the very basic teachings of scripture into the mysteries of salvation (as God calls them). We cannot do that if we do not drink deeply at His Word. From HEBREWS 5:13,14 we’re told, "Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil”. This passage and the previous passage refer to a constant use, a daily use of drinking deeply at God’s Word. You and I are blessed today to know the difference between good and evil – what is good, what is evil, what is right, what is wrong – God points out what sin is and what sin isn’t. That is something that is lacking in the world around us. Sometimes the world around us tells us what is evil is good and what is good is evil (at least according to God’s standards--which are also our standards). Sometimes the world even dismisses evil saying it’s just another sickness or disease or saying everybody is doing it. By constant use, by drinking deeply at God’s Word you and I can still tell what is right and wrong, what is good and evil. By drinking deeply, we taste that the Lord is good.
As we are born into this world we are born with a sinful nature. As we arrive in this world so seemingly innocent, cute and cuddly, our sinful nature stands as an enemy of God, opposed to everything that He has declared is good. It’s a constant battle that you and I struggle with against our sinful nature. The Lord tells us in scripture, “Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults"(1 CORINTHIANS 14:20). He tells us that we know enough about evil because of our sinful nature we don’t have to go out of our way to discover what evil is. Instead, concerning evil he says to be naive – to be like children, to be like infants, not wanting to know what evil is and not knowing what evil is. In your thinking of spiritual matters be like adults. We do that in our life as we see that the Lord is good to us.
We have tasted that the Lord is good. We have discovered that by drinking deep at God’s Word we
II. Rejoice in God’s blessing
Remember the children of Israel were hearing God’s judgement against them chapter after chapter in Isaiah. They had been hearing God’s judgement against the world and had maybe almost given up hope. Now the Lord says through His prophet Isaiah that there still is hope – and tells them of the greatest blessing that they would have -- 13As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem." They would have comfort. They would see the destruction of Jerusalem but they would have comfort. The church would not be destroyed. Isaiah was not making these words up. He says, ‘This is what the Lord says.’ He reminded them that this is what the Lord says to you. This is what I say to you as the Lord’s prophet.
What did the Lord say? 12For this is what the LORD says: "I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;” In the midst of trouble, in the midst of war they would find peace because the Lord would give it to them. Then he goes back to that picture of the mother ‘church’ -- you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. What a beautiful picture of how the Lord cares for His church. After the setting of this, it almost seems as if the church had been forsaken but it had not. The Lord still cared for it as a parent cares for his/her child.
In the end he says, 14when you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass;
the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes. In the end they would see that the Lord’s had was with them, with His church. The Lord’s hand was against His enemies. Isaiah was having them focus on the present. When Jerusalem was destroyed the church would not be destroyed. He’s having them look way into the future and reminding them (just as you and I look back) that the Lord did destroy the enemies of the church. He destroyed the power of sin, the power of the devil and power of death itself. We see these words of fulfillment in our New Testament church times.
We rejoice in God’s blessings when we drink deeply at God’s Word. No matter how we might consider our life, we can always find blessing upon blessing. We could spend all day just looking at the earthly blessings. Certainly the Lord reminds us of His spiritual blessings. Sometimes we may not always first consider which are the most important. One of those Isaiah mentioned. He says, "I will extend peace to her (to my church) like a river.” We find that fulfillment when Jesus came and spoke to His disciples in the gospel of John. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid"(JOHN 14:27).
You and I can rejoice that we have peace that comes from God – peace that the world cannot give us. In fact, the world gives us just the opposite. It always seems as if there is no peace on earth. It always seems that there is something else to fear or be troubled about. Jesus tells us He gives us peace that the world cannot give so that we do not have to be troubled, so that we do not have to be afraid of what the future holds. You and I understand that that peace is a peace that surpasses understanding because it’s that peace which comes from the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins – Christ died for us even though we did not deserve it. He paid the price even though we did not ask Him to. That is God’s peace for us.
Of course if we have peace, we have a lot more in this world, don’t we? We’re able to be content in this life. We’re able to face the future without fear, without being troubled and worried about what tomorrow might bring. We have joy and happiness and contentment – that list goes on and on. Those are all the blessings you and I rejoice in. They are all spiritual blessings. They are not the blessings on earth that the world says you have to go out in order to be happy in this life – go to the store and buy what you want; get a better car and bigger house and be happy with all those things. All the truly blessed things – peace, joy and contentment – the Lord gives to us. We don’t buy them. The Lord gives them to us by His grace. We rejoice in God’s blessings. We are to be happy in this world, which is unhappy. We are to be full of joy in a world, which is sad. We are to be content in a world, which is very discontent. We are to be filled with excitement for the future in a world that is filled with fear. Paul says in EPHESIANS 1:3, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ". Again, we come. We drink deeply at the Word of God. He doesn’t just give us a little bit. He gives us abundance. He gives us every spiritual blessing so that we can rejoice in our life.
Why does the Lord do that? We get back to that comparison that Isaiah used with the church – he calls it the ‘mother church’ in a sense, and we are His children. Sometimes the importance and relevance of children (not among us but in the world) is missed. People have their children, have the day-care raise them and then wonder why society is the way it is today. You and I value the fact that God has blessed us with the gift of children. The importance of children is the fact that it’s a legacy. It’s a legacy from our parents to us, to our children and to the next generation. That is what the Lord says to us. We are His children! We’re the legacy of the church. We’re the children of Abraham – the legacy that began thousands of years ago and will continue if the Lord permits, for thousands of more years. The importance here is the inheritance that He has given each one of us. From ROMANS 8:17 we read, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” You and I know we will also share in His glory.
Isaiah says here, ‘You have tasted that the Lord is good.’ We’d be hard pressed to say that we had not tasted that the Lord is good. As we look back in our life – maybe even from this morning – we’ve already tasted that the Lord is good. He’s already given us another day of His grace to live, to praise Him, to enjoy one another’s company. Indeed, the Lord is good! Through the years our tastes have changed. When we were growing up, we maybe wanted lots of sweet things like candy and thought that was all there was to eat. As we grew older, we realized that vegetables were good for us and found that other foods became our favorites. In the midst of that, the Lord said that we craved His spiritual milk because we had tasted that the Lord is good. It’s not an easy task because we have to battle our sinful flesh. We have to battle against the world and we have to battle against Satan, himself. Everything else looks so appealing and the Word of God not so appealing. The Lord says as we read and study it, we taste that the Lord is good. We’re anxious and excited to drink deeply at the Word of God. As we do that, we begin to rejoice at God’s blessings – blessings that the world cannot give us.
The prophets of the Old Testament were not always well received because they had to preach judgement – at times, more often than forgiveness. Their strength and comfort came from God’s Word. "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty"(JEREMIAH 15:16). May we be like the prophet Jeremiah – that the Word of God is our joy and our heart’s delight because indeed we have tasted that the Lord is good. Every time we drink deeply at the Word of God we taste again the goodness of God. As we taste that goodness of God we can do no less than the children of Israel and rejoice in and with God’s abundant blessings. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
