November 13, 2005 Isaiah 52:1-6
Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again. Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion. For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “At first my people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them. “And now what do I have here?” declares the LORD. “For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock,” declares the LORD. “And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed. Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.”
Remember the LORD’S Reputation
I. The LORD cares about His reputation
Ever since I was in college a familiar phrase has taken over our American society. What is that phrase? “Whatever.” It more or less means, “I don’t really care.” I remember the first time somebody said that to me, I was rather angry because I felt I was being blown off. Yet now I hear the term used on a regular basis, and it doesn’t bother me. What has changed? Perhaps it is the fact that a majority of us live with that attitude - “whatever.” This is the easy way to go through life - “who cares?” If I want to eat my dinner with my left hand, that’s my business - I don’t care what you think. If I don’t feel like letting you into traffic because I’m in a hurry, I don’t care if you are going to get angry with me about it. I don’t care what you think of me. I’m going to do what I’m going to do because I want to do it. Period.
Many of us like to imagine that we don’t care what people think of us - but most of us - we don’t really live that way. As much as Terrell Owens - the unpopular wide former wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles - makes off like he doesn’t care what people think, I can almost guarantee you that deep inside it bothers him to have such a bad reputation. Even if he likes his bad reputation - he still is concerned about what people think of him because he wants people to think he doesn’t care. If you hear your child say, “I don’t love you!”, that will bother you. If you overhear your student telling another student, “he’s a lousy teacher,” it bothers you. If a good friend of yours never calls anymore, you naturally are concerned that if you said something or did something to anger him or her.
What about God? Does He care what you think of Him? Why should He? Honestly? Why should He? We don’t care about what the ants think of us. Whether we like God or hate Him has no affect on His power or His position. It’s not as if we can vote Him out of His position if we don’t like the way He rules the universe. We in America can’t say, “God, we have decided that since you are allowing terrorism and bringing hurricanes you can no longer be in charge.” No. It doesn’t work that way. Yet the interesting thing is that even though God doesn’t make decisions in order to be popular with people, God DOES care. The Almighty God who lives in the heavens and tells angels where to go, who commands the sun to come up and the storms to crash, cares about what we think about Him.
The proof of this is seen in today’s text. The Israelites were IGNORING God. You have to understand that God in His omnipresence did not create the world apart from Himself. He didn’t make us to live in a separate reality. The very first commandment that God gives us is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. (Deut 6:5) Think about when you wake up in the morning and put your makeup on, take your shower, get ready for school - you’ve already slapped God in the face. How? You never thought about God - how you’re going to please HIM today - you didn’t THANK Him for giving you life this day. That’s how God wants us to live - with our eyes constantly on HIM. He lives in us and EXPECTS us to keep our eyes focused on Him. The Israelites were not just somewhat ignoring God. They were completely rejecting Him - worshiping Baals and Ashteroths - completely rejecting His Lordship. SO - God decided, THAT’S ENOUGH. He sent the Assyrians - first of all - to come in and take the Northern Israelites captive. When that didn’t work to bring the Southern Kingdom to repentance - He sent Isaiah to warn them of the Babylonian Captivity to come as well. He HATES it when people ignore Him - especially His CHOSEN people.
God’s desire for respect and honor doesn’t just apply to HIS people however. When the Assyrians took the Israelites captive, they became even more arrogant than they already were. When Sennacherib came roaring through the Northern Kingdom and was knocking on Jerusalem’s door, he said in Isaiah 36:18-20, “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” Oh my. This was not a good idea. In today’s text, God said. “And now what do I have here?” declares the LORD. “For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock,” declares the LORD. “And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed.” God DID NOT like this - not one bit. Whether it comes from His children or His enemies - God cannot stand it when His name is either ignored or blasphemed.
There’s a message here for our world and for us. It isn’t good enough for us to say simple “come, Lord Jesus” at dinner time. It isn’t satisfactory to God when our universities put the true God on the same plain as Buddha, Allah, or any other god for that matter. His name cannot be lowered and equated with any other god. He demands more - much more than that.
II. The LORD acts on His reputation
So here we see the Israelites of Isaiah’s time - the object of God’s anger and affection - in a big problem. What does Isaiah say to them? “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” When the Israelites entered their captivities, it didn’t really cost their enemies anything. The Egyptians were given the Israelites without raising one sword - all of them lived in Egypt due to the famine. As Sennacherib took the Israelites captive in the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C., it was pretty much of a cakewalk for him until he reached Jerusalem. God predicted that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians would have an easy time of conquering the Southern Kingdom. They did that in 586 B.C. As long as these nations did what they were “commissioned” to do and didn’t get to arrogant about it, God allowed them to take the Israelites into captivity pretty much free of charge. The Israelites had so ignored God that He said to the Assyrians and Babylonians - “you can have these people free of charge. It’s on Me.” Even though the Israelites tried to use their money to buy their way out of it, there was no stopping their captivity. They were helpless to do anything about it.
Just earlier in chapter 51:9 the Israelites said to the Lord, “Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old.” When the LORD had brought the Assyrians in to punish the Israelites, they thought that God must have been asleep. “Where is God?”, they asked. This was, ironically, the same question that Elijah jeered the prophets of Baal with as they were dancing around their altar trying to get fire to fall from the sky. “Shout louder! He must be sleeping!” The Israelites actually thought the LORD was asleep. Psalm 121:3-4 says, “He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” What is that - to ask God to wake up - as if HE were sleeping? Yet isn’t that what God is still accused of today - by those who say things like, “God didn’t know the Tsunami would come,” or “God wasn’t in charge of Hurricane Katrina.” What was He doing? Was He sleeping? If the Almighty God wasn’t in charge, then who was? Satan? Do you mean to tell me that Satan can do things behind God’s back? While He’s sleeping? Why, that’s utter nonsense. That’s blasphemy. Yet how many of us don’t just carry those thoughts - those questions in our brains - wondering to ourselves, “God, are you REALLY in charge down here?” Oh my, we are walking on dangerous grounds with such accusations.
The problem was not with God. He hadn’t fallen asleep. He was wide awake. The problem was with the Israelites. Listen to what God says to them in the beginning of today’s text! Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. . . . Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion. Here these people - His own children - were sleepwalking - running around half naked - with chains around their necks. God returned their call to wake with His own. He was saying to them, “YOU need to wake up, not ME.” (This reminds me of a story - when I was in college I had a friend who stayed at my house one night. I heard him rummaging around and suddenly heard the sound of him urinating in the garbage can. I yelled to him, “WAKE UP!” He said to me rather angrily, “why don’t YOU wake up?!”) Isn’t that the same scene here. The Israelites were spiritually sleepwalking and causing themselves all kinds of problems, and they were telling God to wake up - when THEY were the ones making an embarrassment of themselves! God said to them, “YOU NEED to wake up - not me! Get your clothes on. Get back on your throne!”
It’s really an interesting picture, isn’t it? Here they had these wonderful and strong garments they could have been wearing - they should have been wearing. Here they were walking around in rags and chains. God didn’t design them and call them to live in slavery. But since they wanted to sleep walk through life, He had no choice. They deserved to be living in dust. Isn’t that the way we live as well? Here God calls us to be HIS OWN in baptism. He puts His name on you, gives you His Holy Spirit and says, “YOU ARE MINE.” He clothes us in His own robes of righteousness through faith - calls us ROYAL PRIESTHOOD and a HOLY NATION - and yet we walk around and act as if God were asleep! We see how the world is going to hell in a handbasket and we despair. We allow our own sinful nature to be like a chain around our neck and carry into a captivity of guilt and fear and despair. God calls to us, “WAKE UP! Get your clothes back on! Get back on your throne!” He doesn’t want us to constantly live with dust on our heads.
III. Look at the Lord’s Promises
This wake up call doesn’t only come in the form of a stern scolding, but even more so from words of PROMISE and DELIVERANCE. For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” The LORD promised them, “without money you will be redeemed.” This came to play when Cyrus paid for the Israelites to return to the Promised Land and even financed the rebuilding of the temple. It didn’t cost the Israelites a DIME.
In the same way, it didn’t cost us a dime to have Jesus obey all of the commandments of God in our place and go to that cross. Peter didn’t slip Jesus a ten dollar drachma prior to going to Golgotha. Judas didn’t pay Him the 30 shekels. Jesus did it free of charge. Yet it was with much more than money that we were redeemed. It cost God much more. Peter wrote, 1 Peter 1:18-19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. Imagine that. Out of all the things you have that are precious in your life, your car, your house, your wife, your children - the most precious gift you can have is the gift of life. Without your blood, you can’t enjoy your house, car, children, wife, or anything. To give your LIFE for someone by shedding your blood - you can’t give any more. That’s what God has paid to REDEEM us from the empty way of life. Now we can live knowing that we don’t owe God a dime, because Jesus said on the cross, “it is FINISHED,” which means “paid in full.” We don’t have to obey one more law as a payment to God, because Christ obeyed them all. We don’t have to suffer one more second, because Christ suffered an eternity of hell on the cross.
Why did God do this? For HIS OWN NAME’S sake. God revealed Himself way back in Exodus as the LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, but also the PUNISHING God. He had a reputation to uphold. Here these Assyrians and Babylonians were claiming that God was WEAK. Here the Israelites were thinking that God didn’t care or He was asleep. God’s message through Isaiah was, “I DO CARE. I AM AWAKE. I WILL REDEEM YOU. So stop walking around with dust on your heads and acting as if I’m dead. Get your garments of splendor back on and start living again. Isaiah promised, “Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.”
Most of you have probably heard the story of when Katie, Luther’s wife, came down the stairs in a black funeral dress. She did this several days after Luther had been moping around in a deep depression. Luther was prone to get depressed on many occasions. He had a lot to deal with, bad health, threats, and false teachers all over the place. It was easy to be depressed in his situation. But Katy had had enough of it in this instance, so she came down the stairs in black, and when Luther asked her “what’s wrong, who died?”, she answered “God did.” Obviously, God did not die, and Luther told her as much. Jesus rose from the dead. So Katie answered, “I thought he had from the way you were acting.” From that point on Luther snapped out of it and remembered that Jesus was risen and he still had hope.
It’s so easy for us to be depressed and fall into a state of thinking that the whole world stinks. Why? Because it DOES stink. Let’s not try to fool ourselves into thinking that if we just think happy thoughts everything will be happy. We are surrounded by sin, and our own bodies are decaying as we speak. We live among people who may not be captive to the Babylonians - but they are captive to alcohol, anger, greed and every other vice in the world. We see on the nightly news evidence of murders, rapes, fraud, and disaster. We even find ourselves fighting against our own flesh on a daily basis. It’s easy to be depressed and feel like there’s a chain around our neck.
When you’re living in the middle of overdue bills, bad backs, angry co-workers, lazy children and impatient parents, don’t start thinking that God is asleep. Wake up, and remember the promise of God - YOU ARE REDEEMED. You have been clothed with Christ in your baptism. You have the promise of God in Mark 16:16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Isaiah promised the Israelites and he also says to us, “my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.” Some day you and I will know from experience that God’s promises are true. When are sinful bodies are changed into imperishable, when our bad backs are gone, when that big pile of bills is burned, when your ugly acne is changed into a beautiful complexion, and you stand face to face with the Lord Jesus, not just as sinners and saints, but as complete and Triumphant Saints, then you will know without a doubt that God never was sleeping - He was looking over you the whole time - because He is the LORD - the I AM - the ever constant God. He cannot change. He cannot sleep. He has redeemed you in Christ, and that blood cannot stop forgiving. Remember the reputation of the LORD. He lives and has conquered death - for YOU. Amen.
