December 31, 2004 Isaiah 51:1-6
1 "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; 2 look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many. 3 The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. 4 "Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. 5 My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail. (NIV)
Dear friends in Christ awaiting the New Year,
For Christmas I bought my children two walkie talkies. When we returned to Norton this past weekend, we had all the cousins split up into two groups. Within about a quarter mile range, we hid two objects. The object of the game was for one team with the walkie talkie to find the two objects without being caught - at the direction of a person in the middle with the other walkie talkie. It was a glorified game of hide and seek to a point - but a lot more fun. Sometimes the teams found the objectives, sometimes they were caught before they could complete their tasks.
In today’s text, Isaiah addresses those who are seeking something that is impossible for man to find. They are seeking the LORD and pursuing righteousness. This is no easy task - for he can’t be purchased on isle six of Wal-mart - nor can righteousness be achieved by pledging to perform a new fitness plan at Wynmor. As a matter of fact - just seeking the LORD is no normal thing that is commonly found on this earth - for who would seek someone who can’t be seen, and who would pursue something that can’t be felt? Yet that is the kind of person that Isaiah is addressing this evening. He is talking to you who are seeking and pursuing righteousness from the LORD - to have what the Baptists would probably call a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” How is such a thing achieved? Can it be? We’ll address that today as we see that -
The LORD Offers Sight for the Seekers of 2005
I. Rocks can’t see
If you came to this worship service “seeking the LORD,” Isaiah says, Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; 2 look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many. The first place Isaiah directs your eyesight is to the rock from which you were hewn. A friend of mine used to tease our fellow classmate. He would say, “where’s the painting?” Our classmate would ask, “what painting?” He would then say, “the Norman Rockwell painting you climbed out of.” Our classmate (and friend, I might add), then laughed heartily, for he looked exactly as if he had climbed out of a Norman Rockwell painting. It wasn’t exactly a compliment, but it was all in jest. In today’s text Isaiah says - “look to the rock from which you were cut.” Is that a compliment or a cut? At first glance, it doesn’t seem much like a compliment. If our core base is rock - what is so attractive about a rock? Kids with pet rocks aren’t exactly the most spoiled children in the world. Rocks are cheap. They don’t do anything. They have no life. They just sit there. They don’t talk. They’re usually just grey. For the most part, they’re just dead and heavy objects.
Therefore, when God says, “look to the rock from which you were hewn,” in comparison with Abraham, what’s his point? From a negative point of view, like Abraham, we were all just like dead rocks. Paul put it this way, Ephesians 2:1, 12 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins . . . 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. It kind of reminds me of a movie my kids recently watched. It contained a father who used to be a frog - but who was turned into a king by a fairy godmother. The fairy godmother kept on threatening to turn him back into a frog if he wasn’t careful. So this king and father continued to live in fear of the godmother lest she turn him back. He lived with the constant reminder that he only had a frog’s beginning. God reminds us - remember where you came from - a rock - like Abraham and Sarah who were well beyond child bearing years - you were like a dead and lifeless ugly piece of stone.
What’s the purpose of this? As Christians who are now ALIVE and WELL - full of LIFE - might it be a temptation to FORGET our past? There are some Christians who think it is wrong to look at our past in such a way - to dwell on the fact that we were dead and lifeless. They would rather have us tell ourselves that we are worthy of God - valuable and priceless creatures that God could not live without. They say that such a “negative attitude” toward the self brings about low self-esteem and a lack of confidence in living. They say it discourages people from seeking God? Why do we talk such ways then, saying that we were nothing but rocks? Doesn’t it make us realize that we NEED life then? When we find Life, it then keeps us humble, does it not? I mean, if I was at one time nothing but a spiritually dead and lifeless piece of rock, I can’t help but realize anything I DO have now had to come from God. I can’t help but appreciate ANYTHING I have, because as a rock I certainly couldn’t have made myself beautiful. I couldn’t think anything or perform anything for myself, because I was just a rock! Its not a very lively picture - but it is true and humbling. Think about it, you can tell a rock it’s not a rock all day long - but that won’t change it from what it is. It will still remain a rock, even if it somehow could think it was alive! Maybe then we won’t get so discouraged when we don’t seem to “accomplish” much in this life when we remember that we were only rocks in the first place. Maybe then, also, as we realize this and know the truth, it will encourage us to seek One who can make rocks live.
II. Rocks can be shaped
Rocks may be dead and lifeless - yet there are some people who have done some pretty amazing things with rocks. David amazingly threw a tiny rock through Goliaths forehead - crushing a giant man with a single stone. An angel rolled a stone from the tomb of a grace, he was also declaring to the world that the world’s sins had been atoned for and Jesus’ sacrament was accepted by God. In the middle of a desert God had water come out of a rock. Jesus declared that if the disciples had not sung to him on His triumphal entry that God would make the rocks SING. Now that would have been quite a sight! A certain artist was able to use rock chisels to carve Mount Rushmore into a beautiful mountain side. Rocks can be used to build things and protect people. One of the most famous fortresses in the world was carved out of rock just south of Israel called Petra. It’s quite a sight indeed. These are just a few things that can be done with rock. Even though it’s lifeless in and of itself, with a lot of chiseling and shaping it can become a very important and beautiful tool - even tell a story!
Abraham was considered a rock - in the sense that he and his wife were dead when it came to their bodies. At 100 and 90 they had no ability to have children. Yet God did more than just put some painting on these rocks and dress them up to LOOK alive - He actually gave them LIFE within their very dead flesh. The birth of their son, Isaac, was more than just physical life. His birth confirmed a much deeper life that God had created in their hearts and souls - that of faith. God had promised Abraham back in Genesis 12 that,
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
It was this promise that not only breathed physical life and hope into Abraham - but more importantly spiritual hope. When he believed God, the Scriptures say that “it was credited to Him as righteousness.” With this one promise God turned Abraham from a hopeless heathen into a hopeful Christian - one who looked forward to the Savior of the world to come. He turned Abraham from a piece of rock into a living Rock - through the Solid Rock - our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As Peter told the believers in his second letter -
1 Peter 2:4-6 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
Through this promise Abraham was changed into the father of faith. With this promise Abraham was able to fight armies and even sacrifice his own son - knowing that God could raise him from the dead. The faith that God gave Abraham changed him into a man with a solid Rock like faith - one that couldn’t be moved even as he was asked to sacrifice his only hope of salvation. So also God calls Jesus our Living Stone - our Rock of Salvation.
God was saying to these Israelites - look to that rock you were hewn from. Consider what I did with Abraham. The audience of Isaiah contained people who were going through a terrible time. They had lost their homeland to a bunch of heathen Babylonians. They had lost their place of worship - their one main place to come and communicate and offer sacrifices to God. Their future looked terrible. Yet God said to them, “remember what I did with Abraham! He had no hope. He had no future. Yet I turned him and Sarah into the forerunners of a chosen nation that would give birth to the Savior. You are a part of that nation! I am the same God! So don’t lose hope! If I could do that with that Rock - think of what I can do with you!”
There are some people who seem to think they are too far gone - too lost - for God to ever want them back. They look back at their past and wonder how a Holy God could ever have use of them? If you are one of those people who thinks it is hopeless - and yet have come here seeking some glimmer of hope - some glance of a future - Isaiah’s message to you is - LOOK AT ABRAHAM! If God could give HIM hope - if God this rock into a living forefather of faith - then He can do the same with you. No matter who you are or what you’ve done in your past, we all can look back 2,000 years and find a solid Rock to base our hope on. When Jesus said, “it is finished” on the cross, He was declaring that the whole world’s sins were paid for. This is not open for debate. There is no taking it back. There is no changing it. It is finished. It is done. This is a solid rock fact. No matter what sins you committed in 2004, they didn’t change the fact that Jesus paid for the sins of the WORLD. Nothing you have done can change the fact that He raised Jesus from the dead and accepted that sacrifice. No sin you commit can take that away. That’s the Rock that Isaiah wants you to go back to.
On top of that, most of us, if not all of us, have been baptized. At that time God promised us that Jesus blood was applied to us. We were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our sins were washed away. That is God’s promise to you. It can’t be taken away. It can’t be wiped out. If you forget it or don’t believe it, it won’t do you any good. But that won’t mean it’s not there. It’s kind of like finding a fifty dollar bill in your coat pocket. It was there the whole time. It was yours the whole time. But if you forgot about it or didn’t spend it, it wouldn’t do you any good. Before you head into 2005, Isaiah wants you to go to your past - remember that you were baptized. Isaiah wants you to consider yourself as having been hewn from the same Rock as Abraham. Paul said as much to the Romans when he wrote, “the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” (Ro 4:16-17)
III. Use the Rock as your Foundation to 2005
Using Abraham for His track record, Isaiah was then encouraging the Israelites to look forward to their future. He said, The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. 4 "Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. 5 My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm. In very picturesque and physical language God promised to them what would spiritually happen to them! Their ruins would end up like Eden! There would be joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. More importantly than that, their righteousness would be restored! His salvation was on the way! God’s law and justice would be a major attraction for the other nations. It would come soon. So with these promises - no matter where they were or what happened to them - they should wait in hope for God’s arm - His strength - to accomplish these things.
We now live two thousand years after the fulfillment of these promises. We’ve seen the salvation of Jesus Christ and read of his death and resurrection. God made true on His promises. But we have even more promises about our future. God promises that He will work all out for our good. Before Jesus left He promised to be with us always - to the very end of the age. He promised that Jesus will come again in the clouds to take us to heaven. He promised that on that Day we will be saved - not damned - through faith in Jesus. On that Day, God promises that we will have no more mourning, no more crying, only joy and peace as we stand face to face with our Savior Jesus Christ. We have much to look forward to. All of this could happen in 2005.
However, like the Israelites, we live in a world of sin and decay. We may not live in physical slavery to another kingdom, yet there is slavery and decay all around us. With the recent death of probably a hundred thousand people in Asia and Africa by the tsunami tidal wave, we are ever reminded that the world is under decay. 2005 may bring about more tidal waves. It may bring about plagues and terrorism like we’ve never seen it before. We may have more deaths this year than ever before. On a personal level you or your own loved ones may also be facing death. This shouldn’t surprise us. Isaiah said, Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies.
In the midst of this, Isaiah’s words encourage us not to live scared or timid lives, but to be bold and hopeful. Why? But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail. In the midst of decay there is something that will last forever - well beyond 2005 - and that is His salvation and righteousness. If God could turn Abram the dead rock into Abraham the rock of faith and save the world through a hundred year old man and a ninety year old woman - nothing is impossible with God. We have a foundation - a rock solid foundation in Jesus Christ. God’s promises never fail. We may fail to believe them. We may fail to take comfort in them. But God won’t fail to fulfill them. Therefore, Isaiah says, have hope. Look forward to the future - to what 2005 has to bring. A tsunami cannot take away God’s salvation. A terrorist cannot harm our souls. The government may be able to take our goods, our fame, or our houses away, but they cannot take our faith from us. Even if the heavens and the earth vanish like smoke, that matters not - for they do not contain the Gospel. The Word of God contains the Gospel - and that will never perish.
When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land, they took twelve large stones out and set them up as a reminder to them as to where the Lord had helped them cross. This landmark remained there for years to come. Stonehenge has existed in the same place for ages, yet noone knows how it got there or what it is for. Often times in the past people set up stones as landmarks and memorials of days gone by. Over the years those stones often end up being broken and destroyed. I remember looking for an old gravestone of my grandfather’s brother back in Norfolk, NE. I had to dig through an inch and a half of soil, but I found it.
The Stone that God has set up - through Abraham - is not a gravestone - and it is not hard to find. We don’t just put flowers on it and remember a life that has come and gone. It is a Living Stone - Jesus Christ. When we look to Abraham - we look back to a basically dead man God did miracles with and continued the salvation of the world through. Let Abraham be your stone as you head into 2005. If you came here seeking hope, seek Abraham’s story and find in it a wonderful promise of God - that He will never forsake you - no matter how old you are, or no matter what kind of a dead end situation you are in. Let that story give you a vision and hope for the new year - knowing that no matter what happens - you have the promise of eternal heaven through faith in the salvation of Christ. Amen.
