The big announcement of redemption

Sermon for the week of Easter 1

Isaiah 44:21-28

Now that we have finished our review of those key Holy Week and Easter chapters of Isaiah, chapters 52, 53, and 54, we can go back to looking at Isaiah’s prophecy in order again, and we’ll stay in order through the rest of the church year. Before Holy Week began, we covered the first 20 verses of Isaiah 44, where, above all, God excoriated and mocked the idolaters and revealed just how foolish it is to worship something that you’ve made with your own hands, to worship anyone or anything besides the only true God, the Lord, the actual Creator of the heavens and the earth, the who has revealed Himself in the Bible and who pledged Himself to the people of Israel, in order that He might accomplish His eternal purpose of bringing His Son into the world to save sinners.

We’re reminded again in these verses that the phrase “My servant” in Isaiah’s prophecy sometimes refers to Israel as a nation. Sometimes it refers to the ideal Israel, to the Christ, the perfect Servant of the Lord, who would rescue Israel, the imperfect servant of the Lord. It clearly refers to Israel here in these verses.

“Remember these, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me! I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

God speaks here to the people that He has formed, whom He has been cultivating since the time of Jacob. They seem to have been forgotten by God, as He has allowed them to be held captive in Babylon for 70 years, although He has explained them many times the reason for their punishment. But now, God says that He has blotted out their transgressions. That is, He will no longer hold them against Israel, would not keep punishing Israel in captivity. He is ready to show mercy to them and rescue them from their captivity.

Of course, this blotting out of transgressions points ahead to the great rescue that God would accomplish through the Christ, the blotting out of transgressions that takes place, not just for Israel, but for all baptized believers in Christ Jesus. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you. Return to me in repentance and faith, God says to all people, because I have sent My Son to die for your sins. “Return to Me,” or, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, “Be reconciled to God!”

Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, And glorified Himself in Israel.

Why should the whole heaven and earth rejoice at God’s redemption of Israel from slavery in Babylon? Why should the whole universe’s happiness revolve around Israel’s rescue from Babylon? For two reasons: First, because it brings glory to the God of the universe, who prophesied this rescue and who would surely be able to carry it out, no matter who opposed Him. And just as importantly, God’s saving act of returning Israel to the land of Israel means that the Christ can come to Israel, as promised! And the Christ would be a blessing to all mankind, because He bore the sins of all and invites all to return to God through faith in Him. That’s why all the earth should rejoice at the birth of Christ and at the resurrection of Christ, not just on the holidays we’ve chosen to commemorate those events, but throughout the year and throughout our lives.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

The Lord is getting His people ready for a big announcement. To do that, He reminds them who He is. He is the LORD, the great I AM. He is “your Redeemer,” the One who has always looked out for you and rescued you, even from your own sins. He’s the one who formed you, who knew you as a people and as individuals from the beginning of time. He’s the Maker of all things—the sole maker of heaven and earth. So what’s the big announcement from Israel’s Maker and Redeemer?

Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ And I will raise up her waste places; Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’;

God always confirms the word of His prophets and messengers whom He has sent. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah were such messengers. And they both prophesied, by God’s Holy Spirit, that Israel would be taken into captivity in Babylon and eventually released. Well, the prophecy of captivity had certainly been fulfilled. And now the other part will be also. He goes on,

Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’

Here it is. Here we come to it. The big announcement: The very name of the future King of Persia, Cyrus, who actually would say that very thing to Jerusalem, “You shall be built.” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” Cyrus II of Persia issued that very decree in 539 BC, after conquering the Babylonians, who had been holding Israel in captivity for 70 years. We’ll see Cyrus’ name repeated in the next chapter. And, understand, Isaiah wrote these words 100 years or so before Cyrus was even born.

As you can imagine, that’s a huge problem for those who don’t believe in God, who deny the inspiration of Scripture. Such a detailed, accurate prophecy of future events is impossible. In fact, this is the main reason why unbelieving scholars simply deny that Isaiah was the author of these chapters of Isaiah. Since detailed prophecy is impossible, they say, therefore, this prophecy must be fake.

But did you catch that other description God gave to Himself? Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness.

All the “wise men,” all the “knowledgeable men” of the world who refuse to believe God’s Word are turned backward; their knowledge is made foolishness by God. On the other hand, for us who believe that the God of the Bible is the true God and that the prophets were inspired by God the Holy Spirit, this isn’t a problem at all. In fact, it’s one of the many things that cause us to stand in awe of our great God, who holds past, present, and future in His hand and does as He pleases with them, who knows all things and guides all things to conform to His good plan for those whom He has chosen.

And as we’ll see next week, Cyrus himself, God’s “shepherd,” was a type, a pattern, of the coming Christ, whom God would send, not to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, but to build a Church throughout the world, a Church made of up sinners who have believed the Lord’s promise of redemption and forgiveness through faith in Christ Jesus, the Lord’s true Shepherd, who will guide His people out of the captivity of this corrupt and crooked world into the New Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God. That’s God’s biggest announcement. And it can’t happen too quickly! Amen.