Back in August, many people were glued to their televisions as the tragic events of hurricane Katrina’s onslaught unfolded in New Orleans.
With mandatory evacuations ordered, over a million people left the area successfully, traveling to Houston, Dallas, and other cities. This was the biggest migration in U.S. history. But many people were unwilling or unable to leave, ending up in the superdome. And over 1000 lost their lives. The hurricane took a huge toll on every conceivable aspect of life in New Orleans: work, housing, health, education, and churches.
Through news reports we have followed the stories of some people who were displaced. Separated from family, they had to find ways to start their lives over in other places, some even here in Lima.
In recent weeks, Mayor Nagin has been urging people to come home. Many have and many will. But some aren’t so sure. One college student I read about would like to stay at the University of Virginia where she was taken in as a student. A man who did return said he was so disgusted with what he found, he decided to leave permanently.
The impact of this hurricane gives us some idea of what it must have been like about 2500 years ago when the Jews were deported from their country, not because of a powerful hurricane, but because of a powerful nation. Babylonia came in and forcibly removed thousands of people, transplanting them in a foreign country. They didn’t want to be there any more than people from New Orleans wanted to be in Houston. Psalm 137 says, “By the rivers of Babylon - there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.”
Yet Isaiah said that is where they would be. The Bible says this exile was the result of their sin and disobedience. And if you look back to chapter 1 of Isaiah where God calls them a “sinful nation,” you will see a description of their situation. (v3) They had rebelled against God. They were unwilling to follow his commands and receive the blessings he had for them. They were under his judgment. And Isaiah wrote these words 100 years before the exile took place.
But, after 70 years in captivity, it would be time for them to return. And the tone of God’s message has changed. His words are not judgment and punishment and disappointment. Instead, they are words of grace, providence, truth, and love.
You probably don’t know what it is like to be in exile. Some of you know what a prison or a jail looks like from the inside. Some of you know what it is like to be separated from your family because of bad relationships. And some of you know what it is like to be imprisoned by addictions. Last Wednesday night when we studied the story of the prodigal sons in three different homes, one person said, “It’s amazing that his story is so much like our story.” It was the son who put himself in the pig pen. But when he went home, he found his father ready to welcome him. And the Bible says the angels in heaven rejoiced.
I don’t know what all goes on in heaven, but three times in the book of Isaiah we are treated to an inside look at heavenly dynamics.
• The first of Isaiah’s visions is recorded beginning in Chapter 1. This was a vision of what would happen to God’s people because of their wickedness and sin.
• The second vision is recorded in Chapter 6. This is the vision which gives Isaiah his call to be God’s messenger and Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me.”
• And today, in Chapter 40, in these first 11 verses we hear four different voices as God speaks words of comfort, instead of judgment, to his wounded children, and releases them, and us, from those things that hold us captive.
And these are voices we all need to hear.
The first is the voice of Grace. You have already heard these words from vv 1,2. God has good news for his people. The word comfort is said not just once, but twice. The voice of God speaks tenderly of “my people” and isn’t afraid to refer to himself as “your God.” This is the language of relationship. There is nothing worse than feeling abandoned and alone. Remember the description of people in New Orleans who felt abandoned in the superdome for several days. We can imagine the joy of the Jews in Babylon who heard these words, who felt as though they had been abandoned. They were hostages in a strange place. But now, freedom was on the way.
But there is more. Vs 2 says “she has served her term and her penalty is paid.” Last week in our nation we were reminded of the power of clemency, when one person’s sentence was changed from death to life imprisonment. A president has the power to grant total release. It is one thing to serve a sentence for a crime; it is quite another to be pardoned. I’ve heard people say that they have served their time, and they have, but serving time does not take away their guilt. That can only happen with forgiveness.
Last week as we sat at the Thanksgiving dinner table in Iowa with my mother and father, whose health is failing, we went around the table mentioning things we are thankful for. I said I was thankful for forgiveness. I recounted the story of the time I threw a ball through the kitchen window of our old farmhouse, where my mother had my birthday table set for me and my buddies from school. I was 99% sure that my mother had forgiven me. And you know what I discovered? She not only had forgiven me; she had forgotten the entire thing! She couldn’t even recall that it had happened. That, my friends, is grace. And God’s grace is like that. When John wrote in 1:16 about the coming of Christ, he wrote, “And of his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Grace comes rolling in like waves of the sea. We can serve our time, but we can’t take away the guilt. Only God can do that. And that is the first word we need to hear. It is a word of healing, a word of hope.
The second voice is that of Providence. And if this word is hard to wrap your brain around, take off the last three letters and think about the way God provides. Providence has to do with the care or guidance of God. Look at the images here. (vv.4,5). One time when we lived in Japan, preparations were made for the emperor to enter our city. Guard rails were painted. Buildings were spruced up. Everything was put in tip-top shape for him. In Isaiah’s day, they did even more. They straightened the road to take out the hills and the curves.
This voice says that God is going to unleash his divine bulldozer to make a path so that God’s people can see who God is. The roadblocks that keep people away from God will be taken away. God cleared the way so Jesus could come. Re-read the Christmas story sometime, keeping in mind all the roadblocks God took away. God cleared them all.
Some of you have seen God clear away barriers in your own lives. Maybe out of the blue, God spoke to you. Kyle and I have found it interesting to take the ministry of blessing homes to this neighborhood. Some people express real surprise when we tell them what we want, as though God may be the last thing on their minds. But others have said, “God must have sent you.”
Members of this congregation have seen the providence of God as we tackled projects that looked humanly impossible. We have sent kids to camp, helped people with expenses, and even put on a new roof, without knowing where all the money would come from, and we can only say “God provides.”
God is in the business of bulldozing barriers out of the way. And I know some of you are facing barriers you can’t move by yourselves- like the need for work, finances through the winter, or difficult relationships. Make that barrier known to someone who can pray for you and with you for God’s provisions to see you through. And if we are true to the vision he has given us for this congregation’s future, he will remove the roadblocks for that to happen, too. We are urging you to pray toward that end. V. 5 says “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and ALL PEOPLE shall see it together,” not just those gathered here this morning, but people who live close around us and those far away. And during this season he may be asking you to help with that.
The third voice in heaven we hear is the voice of Truth. Sometimes this voice is the hardest to hear, but the most necessary.
Last week I received an e-mail from a Christian who rode in a taxi in LA. (The Purpose Driven Life Devotional by John Fischer) The driver was a Nigerian. Their conversation started when the man asked him about the rap song on the radio. He couldn’t get all the words, but it was enough to make him wonder if it was a Christian group. So he asked the driver.
“I don’t know,” he said, “but in my country all our popular singing groups are Christian. That’s your problem in America; you have left God out of everything. Everything is ’Me,’ ’Me,’ ’Me.’ No one has any fear of God. There’s no respect for anyone but the almighty ’Me.’” The man said, Truth hurts sometimes.
Read v. 8 with me. This voice is telling us two things: 1) the truth about ourselves and 2) the truth about God. Flowers don’t last long. When it gets too hot or too cold, they are gone. Human life doesn’t last long. I was reminded of this last week when I heard a short news item about people who had won the lottery. Some of them mysteriously died or disappeared. Others ended up in poverty. Even for those who live long, earthly prosperity is short-lived; it is not permanent.
In contrast, though, God’s word stands forever. The Bible distinguishes clearly the difference between God, the divine being, and ourselves as humans in an imperfect, temporary world. And as we saw in Isaiah 6, we are sinners before a holy, righteous God, whether we want to admit it or not.
As some of you know, it is often difficult to convince an alcoholic that he or she has a problem. Usually it takes some event, some pig pen experience like the Prodigal son who couldn’t go any lower, to make that truth clear.
Those of you who are familiar with the 12-step program used in Alcoholics Anonymous, know that the very first step is one of admission. It says, “We admit we are powerless over our problem, that our lives have become unmanageable.” That is the truth about the situation. And the second step says “We come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.”
I remember a little motto I often saw at my aunt’s house that said, “Jesus never fails.” Human efforts may be fickle. We make promises we don’t keep. We wander off on paths where we don’t belong. But God is not like that. What he says stands. His promises hold. The voice of truth helps us see who God is and who we are.
Finally, we come to the voice of love. And there is a sense of climax here. We don’t have a clear idea where the first three voices came from. They may have in the valley or on a mountain, or even down in the grassy field. But now, this herald of good tidings is to shout from a high mountain. “Go tell it on the mountain.” Not only that, he is to use a strong voice. Why? Because his message is important and God wants everyone to hear it. “Lift up your voice,” he says. And the message is, “Behold your God.” “Here is your God.”
This theme of letting others know who God is begins here in chapter 40 and continues through the rest of Isaiah and, of course, in the New Testament. Again and again we are reminded to let others know who God is and what he has done. Christmas is a wonderful time to do that. That is why we put so much effort into getting the message out. This morning some of you went to other places while the rest made preparations here. On the 17th we will take the doorknob bags we stuffed this morning into the neighborhood. Together we are praying for opportunities for every person of the congregation to share the good news this season.
“Behold your God,” this voice says. And amid the description of God as mighty and powerful and holy and righteous, he paints a picture of God in the most tender, caring terms possible –a shepherd. Most of us have probably not been with sheep much. But if we lived in the middle east we would see flock after flock of sheep with one or maybe two shepherds caring for them. (v.11.)
Do you get the picture? Here is God, not growling like a lion, or raging at our wrongdoings, but God who is tender, caring, and loving. Again and again in the Bible we come back to this image of God as shepherd. Psalm 23. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep.”
As I said, I don’t know exactly what goes on in heaven when divine voices take the stage, but each of these voices has something to say to us, especially at Christmas time as we focus on the mystery of Jesus’ coming into the world. It may be that you hear one of these voices more clearly than the rest. All of them are for us to hear. May these voices help you to prepare your heart for receiving the fullness of Christ in your heart this season. Commercialism wants you to concentrate on buying bargains, consuming, and partying, but God wants us to concentrate on his GRACE, PROVIDENCE, TRUTH AND LOVE.
