No one can keep God from delivering His people

Sermon for Midweek of Advent 2

Isaiah 40:15-31

It’s as if the prophet Isaiah were standing in Babylon, in the midst of Israel’s captivity there, preaching to the Jews who were sitting in exile in that foreign land after Jerusalem and her temple had been destroyed. Many of the captives are still impenitent idolaters. Others are penitent believers, but believers who are weak, who are tempted, who are barely hanging onto faith. God knows exactly the message that they will need to hear at that time. He knows exactly what they’ll be thinking, where they’ll need correcting, where they’ll need comforting. And so He gives Isaiah the words to write.

Isaiah makes four main points in his address to the captive Israelites in the verses you heard this evening, four truths about Yahweh—the LORD—that they needed to remember and take to heart.

The first point is God’s supremacy over all the nations of the earth.

Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. To whom then will you liken God?

The nations of the world that appear so powerful to us are not powerful at all before God. The wisdom of the wise is not wise before Him. The strength of the strong is too weak for God to even notice. There is no competition between man and God, no comparison at all. So, why worry about Babylon, or Persia, or any other nation or what any man can do? As you sit there in exile, worrying about how Babylon will treat you or what will happen next, think about how foolish that worry and fear is. God has promised deliverance. Which world power can stand in His way?

Isaiah’s second point is God’s supremacy over everything that is called god in the world.

First, His supremacy over idols: Or what likeness will you compare to God? The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman To prepare a carved image that will not totter. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is God who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

See how God mocks the practice of idolatry. This isn’t the last time we’ll encounter such mockery in the Book of Isaiah. The Babylonians were famous for their idol statues and idol worship. You recall the great statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up in Babylon, which all people were supposed to worship when the music started playing. And everyone did bow down and worship, except for faithful Jews like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The statues and idols had to be crafted and cared for by men. Meanwhile, God sits above the circle of the earth as the Creator and Sustainer of all. So why worship manmade idols? And, even more applicable in this case, why be afraid of them? The believers in Israel were being tempted to think that the idols had some kind of power, had some ability to stand against God’s plans to deliver them from captivity. I mean, the Babylonians who worshiped those idols were prospering, were successful, while God’s people sat there as captives. But their captivity was not the idols’ victory. It was God’s design, for His purposes. And when He was ready to end their captivity, no idol would be able to stop Him.

Then Isaiah asserts God’s supremacy over princes and rulers: He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. “To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.

The princes of the earth, and that includes presidents and senators and congressmen and judges and mayors and councilmen, are nothing before God, and He brings them to nothing, no matter how powerful they may seem, no matter how unjustly they rule. They aren’t competition for God in any way. So why be afraid of them? And why trust in them? Captive Israel was afraid of the princes of the earth. They thought their future depended on the decisions or the actions of the kings around them, when, in reality, the decisions and actions of the kings depended on God’s purpose and design.

Those are the first three main points Isaiah makes in these verses: God is supreme over the nations, God is supreme over the idols, and God is supreme over the princes of this world. He then makes a fourth main point.

Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.

It’s nighttime for the captive Israelites, and God calls upon them to look up. There are no electric lights to brighten the sky. Just light of thousands of stars. Think about where they came from—they were all created by God! And now consider this, that God still preserves them. He knows each star individually. He calls each one by name, and He makes them all appear in the sky. They don’t obey “laws of nature.” They obey Him, because God has supremacy over the entire universe. Based on that fact, on all four truths Isaiah has spoken, what conclusion should the Israelites draw?

Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on 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.

These words were exactly what the people of Israel in captivity needed to hear. They’re also exactly what New Testament Israel needs to hear, what we Christians need to hear in our time. We live in trying times in general. And each one personally may be going through a difficult time—not all with the same troubles, not all to the same degree, but each one being attacked by the same enemies—the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh,—and each one tempted to think, “My way is hidden from the LORD. Things in my life aren’t fair, and God doesn’t care.” Now, things may not be fair, may not be just. But to conclude that God doesn’t know about it, or that He doesn’t care, to conclude that God won’t eventually come to your aid and give you justice—that’s just plain wrong. If the stars of the universe are each known and controlled individually by God, if He has supremacy over all rulers and all gods and all nations, then you have no reason to think that you’re an exception to all that. You have no reason to think He doesn’t see, or that He won’t provide the help He has promised.

God came to Israel’s aid in Babylon. He came to the aid of all of us in Christ’s first coming to atone for our sins. He came to our aid in bringing us to Baptism and faith. He will come to our aid soon, to put an end to this “exile” away from our heavenly home. And, until then, He will come to our aid at the present time, too, in every trial, in every struggle, to give us new strength, if we look to Him for it, if we ask Him for it. No one can keep God from delivering His people. So look to Him and ask for a renewed faith and for daily strength until He comes! And trust in the help He will undoubtedly give! Amen.