For enlightening the Gentiles and for glory to Israel

Sermon for Midweek of Easter 3

Isaiah 45:14-25

Every Sunday, after Communion, we sing the Nunc Dimittis, where Simeon praises God for revealing to him the Christ, who is the salvation which God had prepared before the face of all peoples, a light for enlightening the Gentiles and for glory to His people Israel. What we have in our verses this evening from the second half of Isaiah 45 is essentially saying the same thing as Simeon. It’s God’s promise to bring the Gentiles into His plan of salvation and to bring glory to Israel in the process.

Thus says the LORD: “The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush And of the Sabeans, men of stature, Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours; They shall walk behind you, They shall come over in chains; And they shall bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you, And there is no other; There is no other God.’ ”

God has just informed the captive Israelites in Babylon that He will surely be sending Cyrus to deliver them back to their homeland, back to Jerusalem and Judea. But with their return from captivity would come even greater blessings. He mentions Egypt and the surrounding nations here, coming over to Israel, yielding to Israel, humbling themselves before Israel, pleading to them for a place in Israel. Why? Because “surely God is among you, and there is no other God.”

The Egyptians here are symbolic of all Gentile nations. And the coming over to Israel is also symbolic. This is not God promising Israel an earthly kingdom to which all the secular governments of the world must submit. He’s promising that the Gentiles would come into God’s Church and seek salvation in the only place where it was to be found: among the people of Israel, from whom the Christ would come. And the Gentiles would acknowledge Israel’s God—including Jesus Christ, the Son of God—to be the true God.

Truly You are God, who hide Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior!

This is the confession of all of us who have come to Israel, to the people from whom Christ came. We Gentiles have recognized Israel—Old Testament Israel—to be God’s chosen people, who preserved His Word and His religion long enough for Jesus, the world’s Savior, to be born. We have rejected the pagan gods of our pagan ancestors and have come to know the true God as the One who revealed Himself to Israel. In that sense, He is a God who hides Himself. Yes, He reveals many things about Himself in nature, things that all the Gentiles could recognize: that He is all-powerful, wise, kind, righteous, and eternal. But the true God can’t truly be known except to the extent that He reveals Himself to us in His Word. Part of His governance of the world included hiding Himself from the Gentiles for a time, and even now He remains mostly hidden from all men. But He revealed enough of Himself to Israel that both they and we could know a small part of His greatness, and all we need to know about His plan to save us through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is a light for enlightening the Gentiles and for bringing glory to Israel.

Isaiah continues: They shall be ashamed and also disgraced, all of them; They shall go in confusion together, Who are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; You shall not be ashamed or disgraced forever and ever.

The Lord assures Israel that the Gentile idolaters, including all who had oppressed them in the past, would be put to shame, that the victory of the unbelievers would be temporary, while the salvation of Israel through the coming Christ would be eternal.

In the next set of verses, God assures the people of Israel that He means what He says about this plan of salvation, for enlightening the Gentiles and for bringing glory to Israel.

For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, In a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

The Lord did not create the heavens and the earth in vain, for no purpose. He made them so that the earth might be inhabited. In the same way, He hasn’t been telling Israel for the last thousand years to seek Him in vain, for no purpose, so that He can abandon them now. No, they’re about to find out that their trust in Him was well-placed when He carries out this plan of salvation, for enlightening the Gentiles and for bringing glory to Israel.

“Assemble yourselves and come; Draw near together, You who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, Who carry the wood of their carved image, And pray to a god that cannot save. Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.

The Lord’s words here to “you who have escaped from the nations” can be applied equally to Israel, who was about to escape from their captivity in Babylon, and to the Gentiles who have escaped from their captivity to idolatry and have found the true God among the people of Israel. God challenges them all to compare Him with the idols of the nations, and to recognize that He is the only true God, the true Governor of the world, and also a righteous God and a Savior God, who isn’t like the gods that the nations worship—gods that demand sacrifices for their own benefit and honor. No, our God instituted sacrifices among the people of Israel for their benefit, to make them aware of their sins, so that they might one day put their faith in God’s great sacrifice of His own Son on the cross. Truly there is no God or Savior besides Him.

Finally, God calls out to all the world with this saving invitation, “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, ‘Surely in the LORD I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, And all shall be ashamed Who are incensed against Him. In the LORD all the descendants of Israel Shall be justified, and shall glory.’ ”

This grand invitation goes out to all mankind: All are invited! All are welcome! Come, and acknowledge the Lord God of Israel as the true God! Acknowledge His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Savior from sin! Come and bow down before Him in faith, and you will be grafted into the believing descendants of Israel. In Christ you will be justified and glorified! But, if you will not, if you, whether Jew or Gentile, refuse to believe in this God and in His Son Jesus Christ, understand that whoever sets himself against the Lord will bow down before the Lord Christ, not in worship, but in shame.

The invitation was there already in the Book of Isaiah. But it wasn’t until the days of old Simeon that the Lord actually brought His salvation into the world, and by God’s grace, Simeon recognized it as he held the baby Jesus in his arms. Here it was, the salvation that God had promised so long ago through the prophet Isaiah, the One who would be a Light for enlightening the Gentiles and for bringing glory to the people of Israel, the One before whom every knee will bow, the One in whom all the spiritual descendants of Israel, both Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles, will be justified, and will glory! Amen.