Great and amazing
There’s a book about the World's Worst Predictions and it lists some of history's all-time prophetic disasters, such as the fact that King George II said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution, or an official of the White Star Line, famously speaking of the firm's newly built flagship, the Titanic, launched in 1912, declared that the ship was unsinkable. Or, in 1939 The New York Times said that the problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn't have time for it…
Many people have come up with great prophecies and looked very silly when the moment passed and the prophecy was not fulfilled.
The Book of Isaiah is one of the best known of the Old Testament books – and it’s not surprising as the book contains 121 prophecies which all came true in the life of Jesus. Added to that it is, apart from the Book of Psalms, the most quoted Old Testament Book in the New Testament. And when we think of Isaiah we often think of the wonderful prophecies about the birth of Jesus, or about the compassion and service of Jesus, or perhaps about the prophecies concerning his death – or his role as the provider of salvation.
But also contained within the writings of Isaiah are some fairly blunt passages which talk about judgement and about the need for salvation. Some of these don’t contain language that we like very much and this evening’s reading (1:24-end) is one such passage. The faithful city of God has turned against him and we are told God will pour out his wrath on his enemies, he will turn his hand against them, and rebels and sinners will be destroyed together…
It is the perfect language for the fiery preachers of years gone by… today we rightly place the emphasis more on a God whose message is one of love and compassion and forgiveness. But we would be foolish to ignore these words altogether.
People like a gospel full of good news, which is good because that’s what the word means – for all who accept the message of Jesus there will be an abundance of good news, good news which is there for all people to hear and accept. But there are others who will hear the good news of Jesus, and will choose to reject it, and Isaiah speaks to those people today, just as Jesus did, and St Paul did and the early followers of Jesus did, and perhaps not in the most tactful way, so have generations of fiery preachers…
Many people suggest that the God portrayed in the Old Testament is a God of vengeance, a God of violence even, but ultimately God is a God of justice, and a God who seeks to offer people chance after chance to accept his offer of salvation.
As Isaiah writes of the condemnation of the sin that is overtaking God’s people, he writes also of the ultimate victory of justice and righteousness. Amidst the rejection of God, the work of salvation is beginning, and it is Isaiah, with all those prophecies about Jesus, who points us towards the Messiah. It is he who writes of the suffering servant, who would be despised and rejected, and yet would pay the price for our wrongdoing.
There’s a powerful story about a group of pioneers who were making their way across one of the central states of the United States to a distant place that had been opened up for farming. They travelled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and progress was slow. One day they were horrified to note a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie, and soon it was evident that the dried grass was burning fiercely and coming towards them rapidly.
They had crossed a river the day before but it would be impossible to go back to that before the flames would be upon them. One man only seemed to have understanding as to what could be done. He gave the command to set fire to the grass behind them, and then when a space was cleared, the whole company moved back upon it.
As the flames roared on towards them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror, "Are you sure we shall not all be burned up?" The leader replied, "My child, the flames cannot reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!"
What a picture of the believer, who is safe in Christ! And ultimately that is what God wants for his people – to move to safe ground, to accept Jesus as Saviour and to know that whatever dangers we may face, we will be safe in his arms.
Isaiah uses blunt language because he was speaking a message that needed to be heard, and needed to get attention – he couldn’t just sit down and tell the people he had a nice little fairy story to tell – the truth is a God of justice is a God who will have to fight injustice. A God of justice is a God who will need to defend righteousness. A God of justice is a God whose love will be offered equally…
None of us know how God will judge any of us at the appointed time, but we can trust his promises because He is loving and merciful and ready to do anything for us, as he has already proved by sending Jesus to die for us. It isn’t for us to speculate who the enemies may be who he will destroy – his judgements and his mercy are way above our understanding…
What we are called to do is to repeat and live out in our lives the reality of the words in the Book of Revelation that we also heard earlier (Rev. 15:3), ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty ! Just and true are your ways, King of the nations !’ AMEN
Many people have come up with great prophecies and looked very silly when the moment passed and the prophecy was not fulfilled.
The Book of Isaiah is one of the best known of the Old Testament books – and it’s not surprising as the book contains 121 prophecies which all came true in the life of Jesus. Added to that it is, apart from the Book of Psalms, the most quoted Old Testament Book in the New Testament. And when we think of Isaiah we often think of the wonderful prophecies about the birth of Jesus, or about the compassion and service of Jesus, or perhaps about the prophecies concerning his death – or his role as the provider of salvation.
But also contained within the writings of Isaiah are some fairly blunt passages which talk about judgement and about the need for salvation. Some of these don’t contain language that we like very much and this evening’s reading (1:24-end) is one such passage. The faithful city of God has turned against him and we are told God will pour out his wrath on his enemies, he will turn his hand against them, and rebels and sinners will be destroyed together…
It is the perfect language for the fiery preachers of years gone by… today we rightly place the emphasis more on a God whose message is one of love and compassion and forgiveness. But we would be foolish to ignore these words altogether.
People like a gospel full of good news, which is good because that’s what the word means – for all who accept the message of Jesus there will be an abundance of good news, good news which is there for all people to hear and accept. But there are others who will hear the good news of Jesus, and will choose to reject it, and Isaiah speaks to those people today, just as Jesus did, and St Paul did and the early followers of Jesus did, and perhaps not in the most tactful way, so have generations of fiery preachers…
Many people suggest that the God portrayed in the Old Testament is a God of vengeance, a God of violence even, but ultimately God is a God of justice, and a God who seeks to offer people chance after chance to accept his offer of salvation.
As Isaiah writes of the condemnation of the sin that is overtaking God’s people, he writes also of the ultimate victory of justice and righteousness. Amidst the rejection of God, the work of salvation is beginning, and it is Isaiah, with all those prophecies about Jesus, who points us towards the Messiah. It is he who writes of the suffering servant, who would be despised and rejected, and yet would pay the price for our wrongdoing.
There’s a powerful story about a group of pioneers who were making their way across one of the central states of the United States to a distant place that had been opened up for farming. They travelled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and progress was slow. One day they were horrified to note a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie, and soon it was evident that the dried grass was burning fiercely and coming towards them rapidly.
They had crossed a river the day before but it would be impossible to go back to that before the flames would be upon them. One man only seemed to have understanding as to what could be done. He gave the command to set fire to the grass behind them, and then when a space was cleared, the whole company moved back upon it.
As the flames roared on towards them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror, "Are you sure we shall not all be burned up?" The leader replied, "My child, the flames cannot reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!"
What a picture of the believer, who is safe in Christ! And ultimately that is what God wants for his people – to move to safe ground, to accept Jesus as Saviour and to know that whatever dangers we may face, we will be safe in his arms.
Isaiah uses blunt language because he was speaking a message that needed to be heard, and needed to get attention – he couldn’t just sit down and tell the people he had a nice little fairy story to tell – the truth is a God of justice is a God who will have to fight injustice. A God of justice is a God who will need to defend righteousness. A God of justice is a God whose love will be offered equally…
None of us know how God will judge any of us at the appointed time, but we can trust his promises because He is loving and merciful and ready to do anything for us, as he has already proved by sending Jesus to die for us. It isn’t for us to speculate who the enemies may be who he will destroy – his judgements and his mercy are way above our understanding…
What we are called to do is to repeat and live out in our lives the reality of the words in the Book of Revelation that we also heard earlier (Rev. 15:3), ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty ! Just and true are your ways, King of the nations !’ AMEN
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