The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Isaiah 63:7 “I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His compassion And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses. 8 For He said, ‘Surely, they are My people, Sons who will not deal falsely.’ So He became their Savior. 9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old. 10 But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them. 11 Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them, 12 Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name, 13 Who led them through the depths? Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble; 14 As the cattle which go down into the valley, The Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So You led Your people, To make for Yourself a glorious name. (NASB)
Here we are, December 29th. It’s the first Sunday in Christmas and in a couple of days we will be ushering in another new year. Some people will look back and be glad that they are exiting a bad year. Some will look forward and see only death and doom, fear and trembling. Many will look to the new year and see a future full of bright possibilities. All these various approaches to the past and the future miss one very important aspect of our lives. They over look the fact that God has had and will have His will fulfilled.
On this the first Sunday of Christmas and the last three days of the calendar year, we consider what Isaiah the prophet says about our past and about our future.
The immediate context of course is the captivity of the Israelites in Babylon. The assigned Old Testament lesson this morning began with Isaiah 63:7, which is a comforting verse to hear. But 63:7, the “loving kindness part,” was immediately preceded by 63:6. “I trod down the peoples in My anger And made them drunk in My wrath, And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.” That’s all law.
In 63:6 Isaiah laments Israel’s rebellion against God, then speaks of God’s loving kindness and praises for His work of salvation in the exodus of Israel from Egypt. Isaiah takes us from Yahweh’s anger, wrath, and vengeance because of the apostasy of the Israelites (63:1–6) to mentioning the “steadfast love”/”loving kindness” (khesed) of the Lord.” 7 “I shall make mention of the loving kindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His compassion And according to the abundance of His loving kindnesses.”
What is true of us was true of the Israelites. They were pron to unfaithfulness, to seeking after gods and the approval of men, rather than holding steadfastly to the words of God. Isaiah shows that God, though angry over sin is also filled with a particular kind of loving kindness.
God’s steadfast love consists first of God’s gracious choice of His people to be His people! Isaiah was not been sent to the Babylonians. He was not a prophet to the Assyria. He was of the house of Abraham. He was sent to the circumcised children of God, the people who had been set apart by the promise and delivered from bondage in Egypt and likely extinction.
Isaiah says, 8 “For He said, ‘Surely, they are My people, sons who will not deal falsely.’ So He became their Savior.’” V 8 is translated in the past tense. It was intended to remind the Israelites of the God’s action of delivering them out of Egypt. They needed rescue and God rescued them as His children. At the same time, the verse points to the coming of the Messiah, the promise Savior.
God’s loving kindness also moves God to share in our lives here on earth. Verse 9, “In all their affliction He was afflicted.” “He was afflicted.” An Old Testament commentator named Lessing wrote; “When Israel suffers, Yahweh suffers. He is not detached from the pain of His people. Whoever strikes Israel strikes the apple of Yahweh’s eye.”
It’s the same spiritual truth expressed by Jesus in Luke 10:16 “The one who rejects you rejects Me.” That’s the same idea when Jesus said to Saul on the road to Damascus “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4).
When Isaiah said and wrote, “In all their affliction He was afflicted” he was reminding the Israelites that God is not a heartless, distant, disengaged God. He is a God that shares their sufferings.
“And the angel of His presence saved them.” The “angel of His presence” (mal’ak panayv) more literally means “the Messenger of His face,” or even “a Messenger who is [Yahweh’s] face” (Lessing, 345). Exodus 23:20 “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.” The idea here is that the angel that led God’s children, the angel that went before them out of Egypt was the pre-incarnate form of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
“In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.” “He lifted them up and carried them” is a statement about both what the Lord God did for His people in the past in Egypt and what He will do (and in fact now has done) when God’s Lamb, Jesus Christ, would carry the sin of the whole world to the cross (Jn 1:29; 1 Pt 2:24).
Verse 9 contains one Gospel statement after another. He was afflicted. “He was pierced for our transgressions” (Is 53:5). He redeemed. He lifted and lifts. He carried and carries.
These are all descriptions of what the Lord God did for the Israelites. It is a description of what He does still today in Christ through the Church. All this saving and redeeming activity is motivated by His love, His mercy, His kindness, His compassion, which began even before the foundation of the world was made. “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” (Gal. 4:4-5)
The loving kindness of God showed itself chiefly in His gracious choice of His people, the Hebrews, which He made to be the Old Testament visible church. God always took their side, even though He had to discipline them time and again to get them to repent and start acting like His children.
Having reminded the people of their unfaithfulness in the first six verses, then mentioning the loving kindness and compassion of God, Isaiah puts “flesh” on these divine qualities. He reminds the people, that 10 “they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them. 11 Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them, 12 Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name, 13 Who led them through the depths? Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble; 14 As the cattle which go down into the valley, The Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So You led Your people, To make for Yourself a glorious name.”
Isaiah concluded his lament by comparing Yahweh to a shepherd who guides his flock into a place of rest and safety. Yahweh gave His people rest (nwkh) when he brought them into the Promised Land. Jesus does the same for the sinner. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28) The Lord does this for Israel “to make for [Himself] a glorious [the Hebrew construct suggests ‘beautiful’] name.”
The God of the New Testament is the God of the Old Testament. That’s why we see so many similarities between the New Testament Church and the Old Testament Church Israel. We also see similarities between how God went about His business of saving the Israelites and how He goes about His business of saving the church.
In all their affliction, He was afflicted. And the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them. God was present among them in the tabernacle and temple and in the words of His prophets. He lived among them and came to them in the worship service. He suffered with them and for them. He redeemed them through the promise of the Messiah.
The reason that it sounds like the Gospel and the church is that it is the same God, the same people, the called, chosen, and forgiven people. God has always dealt with His people in love and mercy, protecting and guiding them throughout every generation.
We do not suffer anything alone. God is with us, and although we do not hear His groans of pain – just as He was silent on the way to the cross, He is still bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows. We do not endure the troubles of life without His presence, His sharing in them, and His help. And not only is He with us, He has given us brothers and sisters who are suppose to help bear our burdens. Admittedly, there aren’t many left in the visible church who don’t think they ought to be burdened with other people’s burdens. Admittedly, people with troubles are sometimes troublesome, but Galatians 6:4 instructs us to “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
We never have to worry that the troubles of life will become too much for us. God is with use. He knows how it is. Isaiah says that the angel of His presence is saving us. He will carry us through this coming year, just as He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.
The Seasons of Advent and Christmas reminds us every year of the steadfast love and mercy God showed us in sending His Only Begotten Son into our flesh to bear our sin and to be our Savior. As is witnessed by the Gospel lesson this morning, only a few respond to the good news of Christ’s birth with joy.
Most reject the good news. Most are apathetic towards the birth of the Christ Child. Others try to drive the words of God from the public squares. Others slaughter. 2019 was another record year in that regard. The president’s new commission on religious and Christian persecution both in the United States and around the world is not an over reaction or pandering to the Christian right.
In the days of Isaiah, God’s people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses. Today we look back upon the days when the Lord God called and equipped Moses to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt. We recall that God lived among His people and secure the bloodline of the Messiah.
Today we look back at all the sins we have in common with the people who fled Pharaoh and his army and the sins of the Israelites who failed again and again the in years gone by to be faithful. But we also look back over this past year and see that our heavenly Father’s loving kindnesses and compassion have saved and kept us, an undeserving people.
Where is He who sent His glorious arm to be at Moses’s right hand? He is in our midst, even in our own hands as we partake of his body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.
Where is He who divided the waters to gain for Himself everlasting renown? He is in heaven, at the right hand of God. He is also here, in His Word forgiving our sins and living among us.
Where is He who brought them through the sea under the shepherd of His flock? He was in the manger, quietly sleeping beside His mother. Where is He who brought them into captivity in Babylon for their own well being? He was there with Mary His mother, and Joseph His legal father fleeing to Egypt as God the Father was about the business of protecting the mission of His Son, while receiving the little boys of Bethlehem into His heaven.
Where is He who set His Holy Spirit among them? He is right here in the water and the Word of Holy Baptism. Where is he who led them through the depths? He is here, lifting us out of the depths of the waters of Holy Baptism, daily drowning the old sinner in us. He is here, cleansing every sinner in his midst by the power of his everlasting intercession before the Father in heaven.
Where is God? He is here in His Holy Word, leading us like horses in open country and holding us up so we do not stumble.
The Lord God has come in His loving kindness and compassion. He has come in flesh and blood, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem us who have been born under the law, so that we may receive the full rights of children of God.
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit did not abandon the Israelites of Isaiah’s day. He saved them and received them into heaven. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit did not forsake the little boys of Bethlehem. He saved them and received them into heaven. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit hasn’t forsaken you either. He has saved your loved ones who lived and died in faith. He is also saving you and will one day, receive you into His heaven.
Amen
May the Peace that surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.