Isaiah 40:1-5, 31

“On Eagle’s Wings”

Today, we move to the second sermon in our series on Isaiah. During this Season of Lent, just as the Early Christians did before they had the New Testament Gospels, we are turning to the Book of Isaiah to better understand the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection. But before we can really hear what Isaiah teaches us about the significance of Jesus death and resurrection for our lives today, we need to understand the context of what was going on in Isaiah’s day as he was prophesying.

Last week, we focused on chapters 1-39 of Isaiah and we learned about the historical context of that period. We learned that Isaiah prophesied from 742 B.C. to 681 B.C. in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And he was warning the people of Judah that unless they repented of their sins and were willing to turn away from the evil that they were doing, judgment would come upon them. He warned them that God would withhold his protection and the City of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah would be destroyed.

During this Season of Lent, we’ve been encouraging you to read the Book of Isaiah. And if you’ve been reading it, you recognize that this is what you hear in those first 39 chapters … words warning about God’s condemnation, wrath, and judgment. There’s a lot of doom and gloom in these first 39 chapters and yet, somewhere in the midst of all this, we hear the promise and the hope of God’s grace.

We learned last week, that the Empire of Assyria was the instrument of God’s judgment for the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Assyrians were the dominant force in the known world during that time and they controlled the entire region. The Northern Kingdoms of Israel and Syria tried to get Judah to join them in a rebellion against the oppression of the Assyrians, but Isaiah warned the King of Judah not to join them. When Judah refused to join with them, Israel attacked Judah and there was war. But, as you see in your timeline, in 722 B.C. the Assyrians attack Israel and completely destroy it.

This is the historical context for chapters 1-39 of Isaiah. But beginning with chapter 40, the time frame changes. Every Biblical scholar who has studied the Book of Isaiah agrees, that the events in chapters 40 – 66 are no longer dealing with the events of 700 B.C. Rather, they are dealing with the events of 550 B.C. This is 150 years into the future. There is a different enemy at this time. It is not Assyria … now it is Babylon, and things have changed significantly.

Now, some scholars look at this and say that the first 39 chapters were written by Isaiah and chapters 40 – 66 were the “sequel” to the Book of Isaiah. In other words, chapters 1-39 promised the judgment and chapters 40-66 focus on what happened after the judgment came in 586 B.C. Some scholars believe that Isaiah wrote both sections anticipating the comfort that would be needed in exile. Some scholars believe that Isaiah was somehow transported into the future to prophesy and comfort the people while they were in Exile. Others believe that chapters 40-66 were written by someone who lived around 550 B.C. and was writing in the tradition of Isaiah and giving the sequel to the first part of Isaiah. In either case, we need to realize that chapters 1-39 and chapters 40-66 have very different historical contexts.

Between the time when Assyria destroyed Israel in 722 B.C. and the rise of Babylon in 612 B.C. a lot of things were happening. While Assyria was the dominate power in the world for several hundred years, by mid 600 B.C. their power began to wane. Nations on their borders began to attack them and they found it increasingly difficult to control such a large span of territory. (375,000 square miles). Then, there was a civil war in Assyria that further weakened their empire.

And while Assyria was becoming weaker, the Kingdoms that were a part of its empire were becoming stronger. Judah became stronger and they found more freedom during this period of time. In fact, it was during this period that Josiah, the King of Judah, was able to institute great reform and he led the people in a renewed dedication to God. So, wonderful things happened in Judah during this period of time. But as Assyria was loosing power, the Babylonians were gaining power. And finally, in 612 B.C. the Babylonians attacked the Assyrians and destroyed their capital city. The King of Assyria was burned to death in his own castle and the Assyrians were never to be heard from again.

The Babylonians then took control of all of this territory. And it wasn’t long before the Jewish people began to revolt against the Babylonians. And so, in 597 B.C. the Babylonians attacked Judah and took control. They exiled some of the people and took them off into slavery at this time, but finally, in 586 B.C. the Jewish people revolted for the last time. The Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, attacked Judah and utterly destroyed her. They carried away all of the people into slavery and exile.

Let me read to you what happened as it appears in 2 Chronicles 36. But before I read it to you, I want you to try to remember where you were on September 11, 2001 when the Twin Towers came down and how you felt at that moment. I was at the church office in the church I was serving in Hammond when we received a phone call telling us of the news. Quickly, we gathered around a television set there at the church and watched in disbelief. After the second tower crumbled down, we moved to the sanctuary to pray. By that time, others had come to the church. I got up to lead everyone in a time of prayer, but I couldn’t pray. All any of us could do at that point was weep. There simply were no words to say.

That was a trauma that we all experienced. If you can remember what that felt like, then you can begin to understand what the people of Judah were experiencing on July 10, 586 B.C. Hear how 2 Chronicles 36 describes it:

“The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar. He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord's temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God's temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there. He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword.” – 2 Chronicles 36:15-20

If you can imagine, the Temple was everything to the Jewish people. It had been built 400 years before and it was the dwelling place of God on earth. They watched as the palace was destroyed, and their city walls were destroyed, and people all around them were slaughtered. And the last image they would have of their Holy Land was watching the Temple being burned to the ground. This event shaped everything else in the Old Testament. Some of the books that were written before this were re-edited in light of that experience. It was the greatest traumatic experience for the Jewish people.

The last thing that happened was that Zedekiah, who was then King of Judah, and had done evil in the sight of the Lord, he tried to flee. But Nebuchadnezzar caught him and brought him back, along with his sons. Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah stand there and watch as he tortured and then killed all of his sons in front of him. And the very last thing he did was to gouge out the eyes of Zedekiah, so that the last thing he would ever see would be the death of his own sons. He then chained Zedekiah and made him lead the procession of the remaining Jews into exile. This was how humiliated the people were. The line of heirs to the King of David had now been destroyed. There was absolutely no hope for these people. This was the judgment that was promised in Isaiah 1-39.

On the screen, you can see a map that depicts the journey of the Jewish people into exile. They marched all the way across the Fertile Crescent and into Babylon and this is where they remained for the next 50 years.

Psalm 137 is only one of hundreds of examples of how this event shaped the life of the Jewish people. This Psalmist was living in exile when he wrote these words:

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?” - Psalm 137:1-4

Isaiah chapters 40-66 are written while the people are living in exile. And the words of the prophet are that, “There is still hope for you. God is not finished with you. Even though everything seems hopeless and God seems to have disappeared … there is still hope. God has not forgotten you.” This is the dominate theme of these chapters in 40-66.

Now, I mentioned to you last week that you have to read the Book of Isaiah at three different levels. We have to read Isaiah in light of the historical context. And now you know the historical context of chapters 40-66. When we read these chapters, we read them in light of that experience. In the midst of their pain and hopelessness, this was the word of the Lord to them: “Trust in me. There is still hope. I have not forsaken you.” And we find in this God’s Word to us, as well.

But, we also remember that the Earliest Christians were living under the oppression of the Romans. And when they read the Book of Isaiah, they said, “God isn’t finished with us either. What God did for the Jews while under the Babylonians, God will do for us who are under the Romans. God will send a Messiah.” And so, when the Early Christians read the Book of Isaiah, they recognized that Jesus was that Messiah … the “Immanuel” who would come.

And finally, when we read the Book of Isaiah, we do so in light of our own experience. When do we feel hopeless? What are our life situations where we feel like there are no opportunities for salvation? It is at these moments when we remember the words of Isaiah for our lives today.

This three-fold way of reading the Book of Isaiah is captured in a hymn that many of you know. It is a hymn we sing during the season of Advent in December. The words come straight from the Book of Isaiah and in them, we can hear the historical context of the people in Isaiah’s day. We hear the promise of Jesus’ coming. And we hear God’s word for our lives today:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel,

that morns in lowly exile here,

until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Do you hear the three levels being expressed here? The experience of the people in exile. The hope and the promise of deliverance through a Messiah. And then the “rejoicing” because of how we believe that this is about us and God’s coming to us through Jesus. This is how we read the Book of Isaiah.

Now with this in mind, let’s take a look at the passage of Scripture that is before us today. Isaiah 40 begins with these powerful words: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.” – Isaiah 40:1-2

So, Isaiah 1-39 is promising judgment because of the people’s sins. The judgment has come and now God is saying “Comfort my people. Care for them and encourage them.”

Last week, I told you about how punishment was experienced in my home growing up. When I willfully disobeyed and rebelled against my parents, my dad would often say, “Go get the belt” and I would be spanked for that. They didn’t have “time-out” when I was growing up. But when my children were growing up, spanking was being taught as a bad thing to do and that we should use more humane methods, such as time-out. And so, when my kids were small and they did something wrong, they were sent to time-out. And that worked most of the time, but not all of the time. In fact, one of my sons decided that he liked time-out. When he was punished with time-out, he would say, “Good!” And so, we had to find out other ways to punish him.

In our second-go-round, with our 5 year old daughter, we are trying the same thing. And most of the time, time-out works,.. but not always. The other day, I put her in time-out for something and forgot about her. Thirty minutes later, she said, “Daddy, can I get out of time-out, I’m tired of playing here?”

There was one destructive habit that she was doing that we had put her in time-out several times for, but it clearly was not making a difference. We then tried other measures … such as taking away her toys; withholding after-school treats; grounding her from cartoons; and the computer. But nothing seemed to work. And so finally, I said, “I’m going to have to spank you. I don’t want to have to do this, but I’m going to have to spank you.” So, I spanked her. Now, I didn’t have any trouble spanking my two boys. I grew up in a house of boys, so I was used to that. But it truly did hurt me a whole lot more than it did her when I spanked my little girl.

I didn’t spank her very hard, but when I did, she looked at me with utter disbelief. She was so shocked that her daddy would spank her. Immediately, she ran away in tears and I began to feel so guilty. “What a terrible father I am, that I spanked my daughter!” And so, after that spanking and she began to cry, I took her in my arms and held her. And I said to her, “I want you to know that I still love you so very much. After all my attempts to get you to stop doing this thing, I didn’t know what else to do, but to spank you to get you to stop. But that doesn’t change how much I love you.”

You see, there is something important about that picture … the picture of the judgment coming and then the grace. That picture captures Isaiah 40-66 for me. God sent the prophets and he sent the law-givers. Over hundreds of years … over and over again, he told the people, “Please stop serving these other gods. Don’t hurt and neglect the innocent, the poor, and the needy. Stop doing these evil things and follow me.” But they refused to listen. And so, judgment came. God withheld his protection and the City of Jerusalem was destroyed

But now, God is grieving the hurt that has been inflicted upon his people. And so he takes them in his arms and he says, “Comfort, O comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and say to her that her sins have been paid for … and now, she will be set free.”

And from here, we move to verses 3-5 in chapter 40 and we find a word of hope being spoken: “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’” – Isaiah 40:3-5

What is this about? In the historical context, there is a desert wilderness between Babylon and Judah, and God is saying to the people, “Prepare a highway, because the glory of God is about to lead the people out of exile, all the way back to the Promised Land.”

And you have to understand how absurd this sounded to the people. Nobody cared that the Jews didn’t have the land of Judah or had ceased to exist as a people. The Jews had no army, they had no power, and they had no wealth. They could not organize themselves. They were living in the heart of the Babylonian empire. Their situation was utterly hopeless. There was no possible way that they could ever hope to return to the promised land. Yet, in 550 B.C. they hear the words of the Lord from Isaiah, “Don’t worry about how things look now. A highway will be constructed, so that thousands of Jews can return back through the wilderness to the Promised Land. The voice of the Lord has said this, so trust and believe in it.” That was an absurd promise. There was no way that it could come to pass … unless God did this thing.

But in 539 B.C. Cyrus, the Persian, invaded Babylon and destroyed it. And in 538 B.C. the Persians announced that all those exiled could go back to their homelands. And they gave them money to rebuild their cities and to rebuild their holy places. And so, the Jews marched back across the wilderness to their Promised Land. And they knew that God had done this thing.

You know, sometimes all we have is this promise from God to hold on to. The people in Isaiah’s day had nothing that gave them any reason to believe that this deliverance would take place, aside from God’s promise. And that’s how it is with us sometimes. There are times when our circumstances are so dark, that all we have to hang on to is the promise that God he has not abandoned us … that he will not leave us … and that God is at work, even though we can’t see it.

We want God to fix things just like this and so did the Jewish people. In 550 B.C. Isaiah gave this prophecy and the people said, “Great Isaiah! If the Lord is going to deliver us, let’s see the Lord deliver us tomorrow.” But it took 11 years. We pray for things today and if it doesn’t happen in the next day or week, then we feel as though God didn’t answer our prayers or that God doesn’t exist.

And yet, in many cases God is saying, “You can’t see what I see. I see what is going to happen 12 years from now. All this fits together … and you just have to trust me.” Sometimes, this is all we have … just a promise, and we have to trust and wait upon the Lord. Even when it doesn’t seem likely, we hold on tight and we realize that God may not deliver us today or tomorrow, but my life belongs God and he knows what the future holds, so, I will trust in God’s care.

Some time back, I had a conversation with a man whose wife was going through treatments for ovarian cancer. As with anyone who encounters the battle with cancer, they were suddenly faced with nothing to hold on to, but God’s promises of his providential care. They were trying to stay positive in the midst of it all, but some days it was hard to find much joy in the present. During a particularly difficult time, when the treatments were making his wife quite sick, he came across a passage in a book that he was reading, in which he felt God was speaking to him. He shared it with me and this is what it said:

“Ruthless trust is an unerring sense way deep down, that beneath the surface agitation, boredom and insecurity of life, its going to be alright. Ill winds may blow, more character defects may surface, sickness may visit, and friends will surely die, but a stubborn, irrefutable certainty persists, that God is with us and loves us in our struggle to be faithful. A non-rational, absolutely intuition endures that there is something unfathomably big in the universe … something that points to someone who is filled with peace and power, love and undreamed of creativity … someone who will inevitably reconcile all things to Himself.” - Ruthless Trust, by Brennan Manning

This is the message of the Book of Isaiah in chapters 40-66. This is this kind of hope that God is calling for from the people of Judah and from us. That God has a plan … that God is in control … and that God will deliver us. So, we hold on tight. We refuse to let go. We repent before the Lord and we make ourselves radically available to God …knowing that God will deliver us. One way or another, God will make that “highway for us in the wilderness.”

You remember, that when the Early Christians read that passage about “making a highway in the wilderness” they were being oppressed by the Romans and couldn’t see a way out of that. The Romans were too strong. But that wasn’t their greatest problem. You see, they were oppressed by their sins and didn’t understand it.

And then, you remember how John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness, “Prepare ye, the way of the Lord! Make straight a highway to the Lord!” And people began to say, “That sounds like Isaiah. That is what Isaiah was talking about.” And all four Gospels talk about how because of John the Baptist’s message, the people began to prepare the way of the Lord by repenting and being baptized.

Today, we find ourselves in the Season of Lent. This is a time of preparation. It is a time for deepening our faith and readying ourselves to celebrate anew the death and resurrection of Jesus. During this time, we seek to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord and to celebrate the Second Coming of Christ … by repenting of our sins and yielding our lives to God by saying, “Lord, here I am … use me for your purposes.” This is the journey of Lent.

Because, unless we hear these words of Isaiah … the words of John the Baptist and the words of Jesus … warning us to “repent … to clear the road and to make straight the highway that leads to the Lord”. Until we recognize our state of sin and yield our lives to God, we will not understand the significance … we cannot experience the absolute joy of what the Cross on Good Friday and the Empty Tomb on Easter means for us.

So, the Word of the Lord to us in Isaiah is “to prepare the way for the Lord. Prepare our lives for his coming” And when we examine our lives, that is sometimes a difficult and painful thing to do. But there is also a word of promise for us here. In fact, there are many words of comfort and hope given to us in Isaiah … I just want to lift up two of them.

One of my favorite passages in Isaiah is found in 43:1-3, where it says:

“But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” – Isaiah 43:1-3

And then, in Isaiah 40: 27-31 we have some of the most beloved words in all of Scripture. In the midst of living in exile, where there seemed to be no hope, Isaiah speaks these words. These are words that may be speaking to you today, if you are feeling as though God has abandoned you.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40:27-31

What does it mean to wait on the Lord? It means to know that God loves us more than anything we can imagine. It means that things might not happen on our time table, but we wait to see what God is doing. It means to put our trust in God, who has a plan for our lives that we can’t see right now. We hold on to the Lord and trust in him. And when we do … our strength will be renewed, so that we can mount up with wings like eagles. We can run and not be weary. We can walk and not faint.

Prayer:

I don’t know where you are in life today. You may be at the mountaintop of life and things are going so well. But I promise you that the day will come when you will need this message from Isaiah. The day will come to us all, when we will struggle and need to hold on tight and not let go. There may be others of us here today who are facing anxiety and fears, and God is saying to you today, “Trust me.”

So, I invite you to pray this prayer with me silently today. O God, I trust you with my whole life. Here I am. Use me. Help me to know that you are by my side. Help me to remember that you have a plan for my life … and help me to wait upon you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.