If God promises deliverance, why be afraid?

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 10

Isaiah 51:12-23

We heard pure comfort from Isaiah, from the LORD!, in last week’s reading from the first part of Isaiah 51—comfort regarding all three kinds of oppression: The literal oppression of captive Israel in Babylon, the spiritual oppression of sinners by the devil, and the literal and spiritual oppression of the New Testament Church by the devil and the world. In all three kinds of oppression, God had promised deliverance to His people. God Himself was comforting them with these promises!

But He foresees the captives doubting. “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy?

The Lord foresees the captives doubting His comfort, still fearing the Babylonians, still fearing what powerful men might do to them, doubtful that they would ever be rescued. But that’s senseless! It’s foolish! God is stronger than every enemy, stronger than any man. Man is mortal. But God…God stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. If God comforts, if God promises deliverance, then why still be afraid that man might, what?, overpower God? Thwart God’s plans? Stand in God’s way? Foolishness! Fear may be appropriate at times, but when God says, “I’m holding onto you,” it’s absolutely foolish to keep being afraid that you’re going to fall.

God promised to literally deliver the captive Israelites from the Babylonian Captivity. He also promised to save them spiritually from that other oppressor, from that other captivity—the one in which Satan would keep them, or us, out of God’s kingdom. The Lord comforts Israel with promise after promise of the Messiah who would come, and suffer and die, so that, by His death, He might conquer the devil and take away His power to accuse sinners. He comforts the penitent, those who feel the weight of their sin, with words of forgiveness and acceptance through Christ.

And God has also promised to deliver His Church from all our enemies. He comforts us with promises that Jesus will not abandon us or leave us as orphans, but that He’ll give us His Holy Spirit now to strengthen us, and that He’ll return at the right time to deliver us from this wicked world.

So why be afraid of man? Why be afraid of the tyrants and the wicked rulers of this world? They may threaten us for a time. They may take our life, goods, fame, child, and wife—Let these all be gone. They yet have nothing won. The kingdom ours remaineth!

And where is the wrath of the oppressor? He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking. I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ ”

Where is the wrath of the oppressor? Would Babylon continue to threaten the captives? Does the devil or the world threaten you? God laughs at them. He says, there is no one standing in your way. I am going to help you and provide for you and protect you. The same power that established heaven and earth and set them in place will now accomplish Your deliverance. You are My people, He says to the believers in Zion, which also includes the baptized believers in the New Testament Church. If God has claimed you as His people, why would you still be afraid?

Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.

The Lord pictures His wrath in a bowl (not unlike the book of Revelation) in John’s vision of the seven bowls of God’s wrath that He was about to pour out on the earth. Here He pictures Israel as having drunk so deeply from that bowl, having received so much of His wrath, that they were drunk and sprawled out on the floor. But now, He says, it’s time to wake up! Time to sober up! Because the days of wrath are over. No more punishment in Babylon for the people of Israel. No more condemnation for those who believe in Christ Jesus. No more oppression by the devil or the world in the new heavens and the new earth.

This doesn’t mean the Jews would never again fall under God’s wrath. We heard about that just this past Sunday as Jesus foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and we heard it again in the First Lesson this evening, where Jesus assures the Jews of His day that their judgment will be some of the worst the world has ever seen, because when their Deliverer finally came, as promised, they wanted nothing to do with Him.

There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. These two things have happened to you— who will console you?— devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you? Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.

There can be no human savior, no human deliverer. No Israelite would step forward to rescue captive Israel from Babylon. No mere man would step forward to deliver men from the devil, either. And no man will deliver the Church from the world that seeks to destroy us. Only God Himself could do it, through His Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine: Drunk, again, with the wrath of God, which caused them to suffer in captivity.

Thus says your Lord, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people: “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.”

I will remove My wrath from you and take your well-deserved suffering away from you. Once again, God Himself promises to rescue Israel from captivity. God Himself promises to rescue sinners from the devil’s kingdom. And God Himself promises to deliver His Church from the death, and from the devil, and from the world that sets itself up for battle against us.

And He also promises the turning of the tables, judgment against those who oppressed God’s people. Judgment against Babylon brought by the Medes and Persians. Judgment against the devil now, through Christ’s resurrection from the dead, and the final judgment against the devil and all unbelievers in the end. It’s just as St. John pictured the day of Judgment in the book of Revelation: I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Deliverance for God’s people. Vengeance against the Lord’s enemies. These are comforting promises that God made to Israel and that still apply to you, who believe in the Lord Jesus. So why would you still be afraid? The message of tonight’s prophecy is, don’t be! Because, if God promises deliverance, you have nothing at all to fear. Amen.