Winter Grace 2020: A Service of Comfort and Hope


Sermon by Ed Hartman on December 27, 2020 Isaiah 30:18-21

I invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 30. It’s printed there for you in your bulletin if you’d like simply to read it from there.

Before we read that passage, I want to tell you about one of our church planters. My role as Minister of Mission and Outreach is to have first line, front line contact with almost 100 church planters, missionaries, campus ministers that we support financially and in prayer as a congregation. One of those church planters has been doing a profoundly stellar job. He’s planted multiple churches in some really, really difficult places. Not only has he planted churches himself, but he’s also trained and coached other church planters who have gone in other difficult places. But as our whole world was plunged into this pandemic and all the complexities it’s brought, something happened with this church planter. He went dark. Not just in communication where we stopped hearing from him, but when we did hear from him, what we heard was not good. He went into a really, really dark place. While there was no real diagnosis, he went into something of an emotional, mental, even spiritual collapse where he was no longer able to minister, was no longer able to preach, do the work of shepherding his congregation, couldn’t share the Gospel; got to the point where he couldn’t even read the Bible or even pray. It got really dark for him. We were concerned deeply, prayed for him, followed up with him when we were able to connect with him. We really weren’t sure how long it would last or where it would go or if he would even come out of the dark place and where he’d land if he did.

But it was a really pleasant surprise just over a week ago to find in my inbox an email from him. It was very short. It was just a photograph of him, his wife, and his children – all smiling, no masks! And beneath the photo were the words, “Merry Christmas” and these words written in your bulletin from Isaiah 30. After that long season of dark as he’s beginning to come out, here’s what he quoted:

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”

I want to reflect on the question, “Why this passage?” Why would he print out these words as the first real communication in probably eight or nine months? What did these verses speak to his heart? And maybe more personally, what do they speak to our hearts in this season?

The context of Isaiah 30 is very straightforward. This was written roughly 700 years before the birth of Jesus. It was a season where the superpower of that world was Assyria. King Sennacherib and his massive army were wiping out all the neighboring kingdoms and powers. He had already taken out the northern kingdom of Israel 20 years earlier, had taken them into captivity, and his sights were set on Jerusalem and he was on the march and God’s people were terrified. They were feeling not just fear; they were feeling abandonment, they were feeling uncertainty, vulnerability, loneliness, inadequacy, ambiguity. “What’s this going to look like? How will this affect us?” And suddenly you realize these are some of the same things you and I are feeling today.

The best Old Testament scholarship will look at this passage, particularly verse 18, and will show us that this is the central theme of the entire book of Isaiah, and maybe even of the entire Bible. “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” Do you hear the themes of mercy and grace and justice and the waiting that pulls them all, holds them all together? That’s at the core of this passage. And as God promises His mercy and grace because of His justice, the question remains, “What does that look like for us? How does that mercy and grace hit us today? What do we need and how does He answer? How is He already answering?” That’s the question.

And I’ll give you five very quick answers. I’ve touched on this in a sermon several years ago but I just felt this hits so closely to where we are wrestling. The writer addresses our own isolation and loneliness in this passage. He does so in verse 19 where he says, “For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem.” He’s promising a belonging, a sense of permanence, a sense of resolving our isolation and our loneliness. That’s seen in the word, “dwell.” “A people shall dwell in Jerusalem.” That’s a settled, occupied, belonging and permanence.

This struck me as I read a blogger that my wife actually pointed out to me where she said:

“One of the saddest scenes in life is an event where no one shows up. All the preparation and all the planning now is just a still life of uneaten crudités. A pile of hopeful napkins. The quiet phone. The lonely balloons. That’s how 2020 has felt – an event where no one showed up. I look around at objects that have no purpose – a board game, a set of wine glasses, a seating chart. What was once full is now empty – bar stools, the guest list, a kitchen that should have been filled with laughter. Rooms in my house feel like events where no one shows up. Even prayer, even prayer feels like an event where no one shows up.”

It’s in this kind of place where God meets us and says, “I see your loneliness. I see your isolation. But you will dwell in My presence. It’s coming. Trust Me with this.”

And then in response to our grieving He promises that our weeping will come to an end. Verse 19, “You shall weep no more,” meaning that God measures our tears, He’s set a boundary for our grief, and He promises that this will not overwhelm you. It has limits. It is not endless, the grieving.

Third, in response to our sense of abandonment, He promises that He will answer us. Verse 19, “He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.” The obvious question is, “When?” It’s been the question from biblical writers throughout the millennia. “How long, Lord? I’ve been asking, I’ve been crying out to You. Why am I not hearing You answer?” And yet here in Isaiah you say, “As soon as you cry, I will answer you.” You know it was Lazarus who helped us see that answer as his sisters send a message to Jesus saying, “The one you love is sick. Come quickly!” And Jesus stays where He is several days longer. And when His disciples press Him and say, “Why don’t You go?” And Jesus says, “It’s for your good that I wait, that I don’t immediately do what I’m being asked to do. Because in My waiting, God will be glorified and your faith will be built up and deepened and you will be matured.”

Fourth, in response to our confusion and lostness, He promises to shepherd us in verse 21. “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” The NIV, the older NIV translates it in a different order and I love how it states it. It says, “So whether your turn to the right hand or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’” As you study the Old Testament, you find that phrase, “turning to the right hand or to the left,” it’s repeated rather often, all the way back to the giving of the Law. God gives the Law to Moses and He says, “Do not turn from it, to the right hand or to the left.” Again and again that phrase is used to talk either about childish foolishness or outright disobedience and rebellion. When God is calling us to go one way and we go another way or we find ourselves so uncertain which way to go we just make a decision. We say, “I don’t know what to do, but I’ve got to do something!” And His promise is that even in the confusion, the uncertainty that becomes overwhelming, I’ll make sure that your ears will hear My voice saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’ Even if you’re on the wrong path, I will make sure that because you belong to Me, I will put you on the right path.” That’s the promise in this passage.

And then finally, in response to our suffering, suffering that often feels like senseless suffering, He promises the intimacy of relationship with Himself. Verse 20, “Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.” Your eyes shall see Him. You’ll get to know Him in ways you never before have as you trust Him, even in the places of what you would call, what I would call senseless suffering. I’ve quoted this for you before, but it’s my friend Jim who had a daughter who died in infancy who, when he heard that my first wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer he sent me a simple card that said, “Ed, this is no time to be figuring out your theology. You do not doubt in the dark what was clear in the light.” And that has resonated with me for decades. “You do not doubt in the dark what was clear in the light.”

Elisabeth Elliot wrote about this in a way that is so colorful and so resonates with me. I’ve shared this story with you as well in a past sermon. But she tells of visiting friends in northern Wales who owned a sheep farm. And she shared about how the sheep are vulnerable to being devoured or even killed by insects and parasites. And so once every year the farmer has to take the sheep to a huge vat of some nasty, caustic chemical, antiseptic, and he has to dip every one of these sheep under this chemical. But because of their wool and because of how the wool keeps the chemical from getting to their skin, he has to hold them completely under the liquid, submerged, for seconds – back, neck, head, nose, mouth, eyes, everything, ears, completely under water until they’ve been entirely saturated. Listen to how Elisabeth Elliot writes about this:

“One by one, John sees the animals. They would struggle to climb out the side and Mac, the sheepdog, would snarl and snap at their faces to force them back under. And when they tried to climb up the ramp in a panicky way at the far end, John the farmer would catch them, spin them around, and force them under again, holding them – ears, eyes, nose – submerged for seconds at a time. And as their provider and protector was pushing their heads under, drowning them at least as far as they could tell, their panicky eyes would look up over the edge of the vat and it was easy to see what they were thinking – ‘Why on earth is he doing this to us? This makes no sense! I thought he loved us. I thought he cares for us.’”

And then reflecting on that experience, Elisabeth wrote, “I’ve had some experiences in my life which have made me feel very sympathetic to those poor sheep. There were times when I couldn’t figure out any reason for the treatment I was getting from my great Shepherd whom I trusted. And like these sheep, I didn’t have a hint of an explanation.”

You know the truth is, there are some experiences through which you and I will go, or have already gone, which, this side of eternity, have not made sense and will not make sense until we see them in the light of the presence of Jesus. Verse 20, “And though the Lord give you” – notice where it comes, from where it comes – “though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”

Last question, “How do we know for certain? How do we know we can trust Him with this? That He really will do what He’s promised in each of these declarations?” Well the answer is very clearly in who God is, because what God does is a direct outgrowth of who God is, which takes us back to verse 18, which says, “For the Lord is a God of justice, blessed are all those who wait for Him.” You think about it – How can justice work hand in hand with grace and mercy? We want the grace and mercy. I’m not sure I want the justice! But that’s why we celebrate Christmas. The Lord Jesus was born nearly two millennia ago to take our place in justice. He received the full outpouring of God’s justice in our place and on our behalf so that justice is now what reassures us. Why? Because our God is just. “He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins,” meaning that God will never demand a second payment for sins already paid for. There’s no double payment. Jesus has completely satisfied all the demands of God’s justice so that because He is just, He assures us that His wrath has been satisfied and we get grace and mercy. Grace for our inadequacy; mercy for our failure. That’s the assurance. For God, this God, is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

And so we end with an invitation, really which is in verse 15, a few verses earlier from what we read. “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’” That invitation still stands. The returning and rest, the quietness, the trust, the subtleness that says, “I’m not sure I understand any of this. I don’t know how long this is going to take.” It’s like Ralph Kelley said this morning, we all assume 2021 has got to be better than 2020, but you know, it’s distinctly possible that we may get partway into 2021 and say, “I long for 2020 because it was so much better back then.” You realize that’s possible. It may, as Dr. Fauci wrote today, it may get much worse before it gets any better. That doesn’t change the truth of this passage. “For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him. He will be gracious to us as the sound of our cry. The Lord longs to be gracious to us; blessed are all those who wait for Him.”

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