Greater Grace

“Greater Grace”
 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, April 3, 2016
Text: Isaiah 40 // Series: Isaiah: New Day Dawning

When two world powers collide, sometimes the little guy gets caught in the middle.  The certainly occurred to the people of Judah in the 6^th century BC at the time of the writing of the Old Testament book of Isaiah.  As we move toward the end of the book, the Babylonian empire rises up and overthrows the reigning world power, the nation of Assyria.  Fresh off that victory, the armies of Babylon then begin a two year long war against Pharaoh Necho of Egypt.  Pharaoh’s mighty armies were eventually brought to their knees at the battle of Carchemish.   So the Babylonian army poised at the southern edge of the land of Judah and fresh off two huge wins, look around and think “who do we attack next!!!”

We read in Isaiah 39, that Hezekiah, the king of Judah had made a critical spiritual and tactical error several years earlier.  There’s a short narrative interlude from chapters 36-39 which talks about how Hezekiah was deathly ill but the Lord healed him.  So the king of Babylon sends messengers to establish political and diplomatic relationship with Judah with a “glad you’re feeling better” gift.  But King Hezekiah got over-excited to impress these envoys so showed them everything he owned.  He opened the royal treasuries and bragged a bit.  Look at all my gold!  Kind of like Scrooge McDuck in Duck Tales.  Well, word gets back to the King Babylon: “hey, if you’re looking to fund your next war, don’t look too far.  The city of Jerusalem has a pretty darn good stockpile of gold. And since you’re there anyway, you might as well attack.  And attack Babylon did.  You can read about the siege in 2 Kings 25….

It was a horrible scene… after a two year battle, there was no food left in the city, the wall was breached and the city was ransacked and burned.  Historians recount this invasion as the most cataclysmic event in the history of ancient Judah.  It is known as the exile.  The armies of Assyrian who had earlier carried of the people of the neighbouring nation of Israel into captivity, and now the armies of Babylon knock down the wall, every prominent house in Jerusalem and march off the people to Babylon as captives. 

This all happens in the chapter break between the end of chapter 39 and the start of chapter 40 of Isaiah!  This is important to understand because as we enter into chapters 40-66, this is all written after the fall of Jerusalem.  All of the warnings and dire predictions of Isaiah’s early ministry had all come to fruition.  So if I was Isaiah, I would have written with a bit of a smug tone of “I told you this was going to happen unless you repented and changed your ways”.  But as we’ll see, the tone of this whole section is far more pastoral than prophetic critique.  One of the things I have been struck by reading Isaiah is how helpful and instructive it is for us to learn to be with people in times of crisis and hardship.      

You see, the last 26 chapters of the book are written to people asking the most basic question we ask as humans ask when bad things happen to us.  WHY is this happening to me, God?  Why now?  Why me?    

You ask these questions when you walk through deep waters.  Some of you may not be in those spaces today and so we rejoice with you.  But all of us will walk through them at some point and so it’s important to have a richly formed understanding of how Scripture answers the deep questions of life.  Many of you today know someone walking through hard times, asking questions about why life has turned out the way it has.  Turn with me to Isaiah 40 & let’s pray.  

What was creating dissonance or chaos in the lives of the people of Isaiah’s day was that their deepest , darkest most horrible fears had actually happened. 

They were convinced that since they were the people chosen and loved by God, that their nation could not, would not fall to the invading armies.  But fall it did. 

People were convinced that the great temple that Solomon had built, the one place on the earth in their day and time where God had commanded His presence to dwell would be spared.  “Surely nothing could happen to God’s holy temple!!”  And yet it was burned to the ground.  Stone after massive stone ripped from their foundations by the army of Babylon never to rise again. 

The people Isaiah’s day were convinced that God had given them the land of Judah.  He had promised it to their ancestors many generations ago.  Through all the wars and rumours of wars, it had largely remained their land.  They have been invaded, yes, ever ruled over but it was till theirs.  Until now.   

So as we enter into Isaiah chapters 40-66, the prophet writes to the people who are living in captivity in Babylon.  These chapters contain some of the most powerful poetry and some of the most rich theology in the Old Testament because he is writing to answer the question they are asking: “Why, God?”  Why did this happen to us?” 

He writes because people have stared saying things in Babylon like “God must not care about us.  He’s forgotten us… Perhaps God is not as powerful or as good or loving as we thought He was.  After all, doesn’t the presence of bad things in my life negate the presence and power of God in my life?” The answer is no.  All of us wrestle with the notion of ‘how can God be good when the world around us is so, well, bad’  And our text today, Isaiah 40, reminds us that things are not as simple as that. 

Author and theologian Karl Barth, who was arguably one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the mid-20^th Century had a term that he liked to use to describe something that we come up against in our lives all the time: that place where two things can be totally polar opposite but they can also be true at the same time.  The term was dialectics.  Dialectical tensions exist all around us, in the world of physics, in our own relationships (we can deeply love someone but be deeply frustrated by them at the same time).  Dialectics is where we experience two realities at the end of a tug of war rope that are completing for our attention.  In many situations in our lives, two things can’t both be true so one has to give.  But when it comes to our finite human attempts at understanding God and growing in relationship with Him, two seemingly opposite things about His character can both be true and so we have learn to hold the rope in tension over time.  Confused?  I think you’ll see what I mean as we get into our text.  This morning we’ll be looking at 4 dialectical tensions in this chapter.  So let’s dive in!     

I’ll be reading from Isaiah 40:1-2

Right away we are introduced to two seemingly opposite ideas: that God has punished the people for their sins but that God also desires to speak comfort to them.  Her sad days are gone, but yet they are still in captivity.  Can you feel the first dialectical tension here?  On the one end of the tug of war rope we have God’s judgement and on the other end His love.  How do we think about what’s happened to these people & our own lives?  We might express it this way…     

1. God’s JUDGEMENT doesn’t contradict His LOVE

The image here is the language of parenting.  As a parent, any discipline that my child receives must be rooted in love and a concern for their best interest.  Now, it doesn’t always feel that way to the child, but the complete absence of discipline is NOT a loving way to raise your children.  The same thing is true of God:

• The Lord’s correction of us is rooted in His care for us
  • “My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. 12 For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.” (Prov. 3:11-12)

Isaiah says to the people in captivity: just because you experienced this horrible event does NOT mean that God does not love you.  You have experienced divine discipline for your inappropriate behaviour but this correction is rooted in God’s incredible care for you.  Dialectical tension #1 – God’s judgement does not contradict His love.  Let’s keep reading and we’ll see tension #2…

Isaiah 40:3-5

Here we brush up against perhaps one of the most common questions that we ask ourselves as people attempting to follow God.  When it comes to any given situation, what part of it is God’s responsibility and what part is my responsibility?  What should I be doing to reach my neighbours? To care for creation? To seek justice and to make the world a better place versus what of that is just God doing what God is going to do?  It’s a big, big question but one aspect of this tension that the people of Isaiah’s day were experiencing was that they have locked into God’s promises to them (land and temple and God’s people) so much so that they began to ignore or minimize the consequences of their own behaviour.  Here’s how we might express this dialectical tension:  That   

2. God’s PROMISES don’t override Human ACTIONS

If you read through the promises or covenants that God makes with people in the Bible, we love to emphasise the positive aspects.  God will protect and God will bless and God will do x and y. Yet sometimes we neglect the aspects that describe what we are to do.  God will often say things like “if you walk in faithful obedience to me in these areas, I will be faithful to my promises in these areas”. 

Look at the sequencing described here in these verses: God declares what He wants to have happen – that all peoples of the earth would see and experience His glory (verse 5).  But God then says “OK, if people are going to see and experience my glory and my love, then I need you as my people to begin to act in such a way that this is possible. I need you to speak out an invitation for people to experience me.  I need you to live in such a way that barriers to people knowing me are removed like clearing brush land or filling in valleys people can see clearly “oh that’s what God is like.”  The sequence here is important: First God speaks, then we act in responsive obedience to that desire that God has expressed.  Then God uses our participation to make good His promises.

Just because God has promises something doesn’t mean that we can’t by our inaction or disobedience and the choice of our free will, mess that up.  Now, don’t hear what I am not saying!  This is not process theology where God doesn’t know what’s going to happen next and our actions surprise or catch Him off guard.  I cannot by my actions and choices force God to do something that God has no intention of doing.  But just because God wants something to happen and for you and I to be the recipients or instruments of it, doesn’t make that thing atomically true.  Let me give you an example: God has a deep desire to have people in your neighbourhood, your condo, your complex to experience His love and goodness.  But you can sit on your duff and watch TV all day this summer and miss out on the privilege of partnering with God to see His kingdom coming and His will being done here on the earth.  The dialectical tension we live with is that just because God promises something doesn’t atomically over-ride our participation or non-participation in nurturing that to fruition.  This one’s a tricky one!  Another example

• A word on Prophetic Words: you have to walk them out!

Someone might be praying for you and say “I sense that the Lord wants to use you to reach the people  of Outer Mongolia”.  And that could be the mission that God is calling you into.  BUT if you know that this is God’s heart for you and yet you still choose to never get on a plane and go to Ulaanbaatar (that’s the capital),

• You can negate or short-circuit something that God wants to bring to fruition in your life by your inaction (laziness).

God may have promised the people of Mongolia that someone is coming to give them good news, but you may not get to have the privilege or participation that God so deeply wanted for you to enjoy because you are lazy or worse, you are out and out rebellious and disobedient to the invitation that was spoken over you. 

This can happen not only individually, but also corporately.  At Jericho,

• We can also fail to become what God wants us to become as a community if we choose not to act (disobedience).

We know God’s heart is for people here in Willoughby and Clayton…  but we could to stay in a holy huddle and act in such a way that God’s promises are not true.  OK, there’s lots more that could be said here but we gotta keep going! 

Isaiah 40:6-8

Last week we planted seeds in the ground – how many of you had some seed sprouting by this morning?  You guys must have planted too deep or maybe I misread the package.  But I am struck by the reminder that even though right now these seeds are sprouting and they are verdant and green and full of life and promise and possibility, by the end of the summer, they will have faded [flower photo], and withered and will be dead.  There’s a fragility and a temporal dimension that gardening reminds us of.  But in these verses, it is contrasted with something – people might be as frail and fickle as grass or flowers that die off BUT the word or the character of God stands forever.  God is consistently consistent.  The third contrast or tension is related a bit to #2 – we might say that

3. God’s FAITHFULNESS isn’t negated by HUMAN FRAILTY
   • But it is impacted by it

 (in that the way people experience God is most often and clearly through other people)! 

Example – “the church hurt me.” The church is an inanimate Specific people in a specific church hurt you.

The Bible can declare God is love all day long but if God’s people run around and are jerks all the time, the world will have a hard time believing that to be true!

Perhaps the best way to express this dialectical tension is in the words of the esteemed contemporary theologian and country music super-star Billy Currington who says simply “God is Great, beer is good, and people are crazy”. 

People are crazy.  In the name of God, people can say and do crazy and stupid things and then God’s faithfulness and His character get dragged through the mud!  But thankfully, my stupidity might impact and tarnish God’s reputation but it does not negate God’s faithfulness [character – who He is].  My lack of consistency is like a fading flower but God is unchanging. He never fades or fails.

People might be crazy but God is still good.  Look with me at Isaiah 40:9-11 for our fourth and final dialectical tension…  We see here that

4. God’s GENTLENESS doesn’t contradict His MIGHT

• He is a gentle Shepherd BUT God is also a…
  • Incomparably wise ruler
  • Majestic Warrior
  • Just Judge
  • All-powerful Creator

The whole rest of the chapter speaks to this.  You think God is not powerful enough to rescue and save you from your captivity in Babylon? Look up at the heavens – how cold the God who created the stars be incapable or rescuing you?  Think about the might and power of the nations – the US, China, the power they exercise. And then look at verse 17 – if you put together all of the nations of the world, they are like emptiness and froth when compared to the power of God. 

• Our challenge: we latch onto images and attributes that answer the questions we are asking and we minimize or negate other aspects of God’s character.

There’s a word for this – we call it cherry picking.   This poster, while irreverent, made me bust a gut so hard I just had to include it:

Vengeful God… skipping… more parts I don’t like skipping… Oh good, listen to this: And Jesus turned to they who gathered and bade them not to go swimming until at least a full hour had gone from when the finished the fish and leaves he brought forth unto them”

We love to explore aspects of God that emphasize his gentleness when we are hurt.  We love to know about God’s love when we are feeling lonely. But dialectics reminds us that we need more than just the parts of God we like and easily identify with.  We need to cling to and to embrace the whole of God’s character and his power, his gentleness, His faithfulness in the face of our fragility, his desire to keep His promises, despite our disobedience or inaction and His judgement that is rooted in no separate from His love.  That’s why the chapter ends with 1 of the more famous comforting images in the book of Isaiah:  

“How can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? 28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.  (Isaiah 40:27-28)

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Where do you need fresh strength today?  For me, its faith to believe for something that seems like it will never change.  A circumstance.  I grow tired and weary of it and I need God to demonstrate His unchanging faithfulness to me.  I need to be reminded that though I might give up, stop praying, God is faithful. 

Maybe there’s an aspect of God’s character that you are overlooking on purpose.  You need to embrace.  To learn more about.  Ask God to show that to you.   

Maybe there is an aspect of your life you feel God has overlooked or forgotten about.  Cling to the parts of His character and promise that you can see and that you do know in this season.  There are some promises of God that are true and He is faithful to even when we feel that they are not.

Hebrews says that all of God’s promises are yes and amen in Jesus, that because of His finished work on the cross, you and I can know God.  (invitation to salvation).  That’s the first promise that God wants you to embrace – His promise of eternal live.  Dialectical tension is that just because God is in your life, doesn’t mean that bad things are not.   Some of these tensions will continue until we die.  But The Lord is still the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  You and I might grow weary and tired and stumble and fall but He does not.  Place your trust in God today.  Find your strength in Him today. 

The worship team is coming, leading us in songs or response.  For some, you may need to spend time repenting.  Turning away from actions, attitudes behaviours this week that have not represented God well to those around you.  Your spouse, friends at school.  You might feel like you have messed it up beyond God’s ability to fix it.  But fear not, God doesn’t see it that way. 

Friends, God is in the business of taking the shattered and broken pieces of our lives and mending and making them whole.  That‘s what grace is all about.  I need to be reminded of that daily / weekly.  So join me in prayer as we respond.