Notice: The audio for the sermon, the video for the service, and the streaming for the service are not available today due to technical problems. You can access last year’s service for Lent 3 Vespers by clicking this link.
Sermon for Midweek of Lent 3
Isaiah 43:16-28
Back and forth, back and forth goes Isaiah’s prophecy. Speaking comfort to future Israel in captivity, speaking judgment and condemnation against the Israel of Isaiah’s day for the sins that would lead to their captivity. Back and forth, back and forth. Law, Gospel, Sin, Grace, Judgment, Deliverance, Comfort, Condemnation.
That pattern runs through the whole Bible. It has to, because, as sinful human beings, we can’t just be warned about sin and its consequences one time, and then we’re good to go; we’ll never turn back to sin again. No, the Law works fear and sorrow over our sins, the Gospel lifts up the penitent and comforts us and strengthens us. But until we reach heaven, we will still need the guidance, and the warnings, and, when necessary, the condemnations of the Law, because our sinful flesh will never allow us to maintain true contrition and repentance without that continuous back and forth of God’s Word.
Our text this evening begins with some comforting verses for penitent Israel, sitting in future captivity in Babylon—and also for penitent Christians today as we wrestle with the evil of this world, still plagued by afflictions and persecutions and the devil’s temptations, still separated from our heavenly home: Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
What quality or what fact about Himself does the Lord want us to focus on? He wants us to remember His miraculous deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt, how He opened up a way for them through the Red Sea, how He lured Pharaoh’s army to follow the Israelites into the sea with their horses and chariots, and then sent the waters crashing down on Israel’s enemies, leaving their bodies to be swept away by the sea and buried. For as great as that deliverance was, God wants them to focus on the deliverance He is about to accomplish:
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.
The captive Israelites in Babylon would be separated from Jerusalem by a vast desert. But God didn’t have to part the sand dunes of the desert for Israel in a literal way. What He’s promising here is that He will make a way for captive Israel to return to Jerusalem from their captivity in Babylon. In the same way, even though the condition of the Christian Church looks hopeless today as we’re surrounded by a vast desert of depravity, unbelief, violence, and lies, God will make a way for His beloved Church to be brought safely into His heavenly kingdom. That’s the deliverance He’ll accomplish for us on the Last Day, and it should give us much hope.
There’s the word of comfort. But then it’s back to the Law: “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.
Here God isn’t so much talking to the future captives but to the present people of Israel whose sins would lead to the future captivity. God accuses the people of failing to bring Him the sacrifices that their covenant with Him required. But the captives in Babylon weren’t able to offer sacrifices to the Lord or burn incense. Those things had to happen in Jerusalem’s temple—a temple that no longer existed by the time of the captivity. So God levels this charge against them as a cause of their captivity. Now, the number of sacrifices Israel was bringing before the captivity may have decreased, but as far as we know, the sacrifices in the temple didn’t cease prior to its destruction. But it had become just an outward show, going through the motions. They were “weary” of the Lord. They didn’t bring the sacrifices to honor Him, but out of what had become resentment toward this demanding God whom they no longer loved. They hadn’t “burdened” God with their offerings. Instead, they had burdened Him with their sins.
We always have to watch out for the same thing. Outward acts of worship are worthless if not accompanied by inner repentance and faith. And we should never think that we can make up for our offenses against God by turning around and doing something nice for Him. On the contrary: “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
There it’s back to Gospel again, back to a word of comfort, a word of promise, a word of hope in the fact that our God is a God who forgives sins, and who forgives them, not for the sake of our works, not for the sake of the sacrifices we may bring, but for His own sake, for Jesus’ sake, who made atonement on the cross for all the sins and transgressions of men. It’s a word of hope for us sinners when God promises not to remember our sins any longer, because it means that God’s forgiveness is real, not just an outward act on His part, but a genuine cleaning of the slate, so that He looks at the forgiven with no trace of resentment or bitterness or anger.
But then, once more, it’s back to the Law. Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.
For the sins of Adam, the first father of mankind, for the sins of the mediators—the priests—of Israel, for all their sins and transgressions, for which they refused to repent, God announces the coming destruction and captivity once again. Even the faithful in captivity, who had been brought to repentance, who had received God’s mercy and forgiveness, needed to remember, over and over, the reason for their captivity, to keep them clinging to the Lord God in faith.
Back and forth, back and forth. The Lord continues to nourish His Church with the Law and the Gospel, followed by more Law and more Gospel. For those who refuse to repent, they should look at the final destruction God brought to Israel after they rejected Jesus, the Christ, and the reviling and antipathy toward Israel that exists even to this day. They sinned against God and then, even worse, they refused to repent of it so that they might be forgiven through faith in Christ Jesus. Learn from their tragic example. Keep listening both to the Law and to the Gospel. And give thanks to the Lord for continuing to provide you with both messages. It’s His way of keeping you going forth in faith so that you don’t fall back into sin and into the condemnation of the impenitent. Amen.
