Isaiah 12

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0:00 We're working our way through the electionary for May. I put the cards back out there if you are following the bomb. And we're going to use a couple of detectors this morning, a couple of the textbooks morning, the Old Testament one in Isaiah and the New Testament official in James. And it's already the fifth Sunday after Easter. It's the week to keep coming. Remember that the Easter season has seven Sundays in it,

0:31 this season of completeness that celebrates the resurrection. And they number the Sundays after, and then we'll get ourselves to Pentecost and then through into the summer. But this morning I want to look at the Old Testament reading first in Isaiah chapter 12. They have for us Isaiah chapter 12 verse one through six. Old middle schoolers, you can go to these confirmations.

1:06 Very revealing the compromise then. We're getting close to some burning kids. This is pretty exciting for us, first group of confirmation kids. They've been working through Luther's small catechism, which covers the Lord's prayer to 10th of May, to the apostles' creed and understanding of the sacraments. And they're about done with those things and Luther's small catechism and then they'll go into the story of Scripture. Then they'll have an opportunity to profess their faith to the church and say this is now my faith, not just the faith that it came down to me.

1:39 So that's what they've been going through there together. Isaiah chapter 12. Isaiah is like a key prophet for us, right? And he's in this time period, a Holy Spirit, pre-Pentatost, as we told the kids about this now, where God's Spirit comes on specific people for specific purposes.

2:09 That's why we have the larger than life's office in the Old Testament because we don't all have communication with God in the same way that we do that. In the Old Testament, God comes down when He's got to get a word, He figures out how to get it to a singular person who then proclaims it out to everyone. Right? Clickering or am I blinking? I'm going to fix it because it's going to bother me. It's going to be one second.

2:48 Now you won't see me as brightly, but I won't go crazy. Prophet Old Testament, I like to think about, because it's fascinating to me, the expansive, powerful mind and will of the creating force of the universe, squeezes, thoughts and intents down into concepts small enough to be contained

3:23 in emotions and pictures in the hearts and minds of Isaiah that then can be interpreted into words and spoken with the mouth of a little person and carry still the thoughts, the intent, the force of the creator of the universe. This is what's happening. No wonder these words of Isaiah and Geremaia and Ezekiel have been preserved over the centuries. No wonder people's pain of death have preserved the stories of the prophet.

3:59 It's not for their own benefit or the imputation of their own will, but it is out of the past and the power of the great spirit of God that the scriptures have been preserved. So prophets like Isaiah are a little bit confounding and disheartening, but upsetting. Sometimes they're a little bit less than. Because you read Isaiah and God comes off a little bit like a joke sometimes.

4:31 And you're like, what is going on here? Much of Isaiah, he's talking about judgment coming from God. Like God not only judging any country, but judging his own people. Brutally, right? God judging brutally. Look at where Isaiah chapter 12 verse 1 starts.

5:03 You will say on that day, Isaiah is referring to today, he talked about in previous chapter, but we'll get to them. This is second. You will say in that day, I will be thanks to you, O Lord. For though you were angry with me, your anger turned away. And God said much of Isaiah the will, intent, thought strategy of the great and forth for the universe

5:35 that compresses itself down to come out of the mouth of Isaiah is coming out in terms of judgment, brutal judgment. I'm ripping you out of land and destroying groups of people. And God, if we are safely reading the story of Tryptor, doesn't it the thing that the God does? Judgment is a thing that the God does consistently.

6:06 Because Israel severely and harshly. Remember when they go and look at the promised land and they say there's no way we can get it. And he's so frustrated with his true people. They say none of this generation will enter my wrath. Y'all just going to wander around in the desert while we wait for a whole generation to die. Right? And then it speeds it up sometimes and it makes down among them. Right? And then when Israel is in the period of Isaiah and many of the prophets, God is bringing Assyria,

6:42 or he's bringing Peres out, bringing Babylon to come and take them. And Isaiah is talking about this day is coming where you, the judgment of God will come and he will decimate your people and carry you off to four lands. If you read the Tryptor facelies, God with anger and judgment comes to executed will. Even on his own people, God judges his own people. Brutally.

7:12 And if I read the New Testament facelies, I find that God with force on will and intention judges me. Brutally. There is a movement often in the period of Israel in the time of Jesus. In the time of Paul and in our time today to the Nagle away where God is not a God of judgment.

7:48 This is not consistent with the story that the spirit of God has preserved for generations. If we would receive the story of the scriptures as the forethought will intend and strategy of the creating force of the universe communicated through people and asking them we would receive that God is a God of judgment. God will judge some folks. God does Israel. God does the church. And God does me.

8:21 Yes, straight will. Now, uh, wow. Well, Israel in this course is for Israel at the time of Isaiah is real severely dropped the ball. I mean, just like God was like, Hey, you guys, the whole earth is mine.

8:53 And because I want all the earth to come back to the life I intended for them, I'm going to establish a unique relationship just with you. I'll bring my manifest presence down to live right in the middle of you. I'll create a system where not only is the presence amongst you, you can come and stand in the presence when you follow the system. This proximity to the God will give you the capacity to allow me to be God. You'll be people. I'll be God. Everything will work as it's intended to work from the garden out to today.

9:23 Your life will look like these 10 words. You only have one God that you're with. You won't make you feel, feel, and destroy. You won't public or live in India's lives. Your lives will make sense. All the world, the right, the two deeply located. All the world, the look to Israel and see their life makes sense. I'd like a lot of life like that. And you welcome them into the temple and the tabernacle. Into the proximity with the gods, daily people, I'll be God. All the world will make sense. Here, take the ball, Israel, and Rome with it.

9:57 Israel said, this sounds very cool. Actually, so cool as that. We're going to keep it to ourselves. Instead of being of service to the world, we'll turn it into one of the exclusivity. So good, in fact, that we'll make systems out of the system to make ourselves feel better. We'll live outside of reality. We'll pretend that our systems control you instead of you giving us systems to invite you in. Pride, arrogance, a hoolah here.

10:31 Such a point, two such a point in the case of Israel, that nobody found the Creator God by looking at Israel and it's just like everyone. And so God's judgment comes because, in fact, not only was the world missing him, but Israel themselves. A here of hold in the temple, lost the story of Scripture. Israel themselves were losing the government.

11:02 This is important. The God of creation and life, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Christ from the church, the God of Peter and your part is one of judgment. And his judgment always and every time comes from love and leads to life. The judgment of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Christ, and the church, come from love and leads to life.

11:36 He intervened in the people of Israel not for fun, but because for heaven's sake they're completely gone. Why let them wander forever? It's a seed that hopefully they might find their way back to the life they were made for, and for you. The judgment of God will come for you. Not for nothing, but for love that you might find life.

12:11 The great tragedy of the world today is it's very easy to fix all of heaven in the sand. Israel didn't have the luxury. You and I, they put a lot of things in front of our eyes and miss the judgment of God. Isaiah tells the people of Israel who are on the brink of traumatic, dramatic judgment of God.

12:49 You will say in that day, the day you prefer to, in chapter 11, these people coming to be destroyed by enemy countries. Just so you know, there's a day coming when I'll draw all the diaspora bombs. All who have wandered and been lost. All who have intermarried and intermingled. All who look just like the world, but in their heart belongs to the Lord. He says they're coming today where I'll draw all of them back and, and Jerusalem and Israel will be able to be tended to be again a city on a hill, a beacon to the world.

13:30 A walled city, he says with clear roads coming back to me. He says, don't do not lose part, but in the day of judgment, hope and pay attention and belief in the day of salvation. Because we go through judgment, all of love and in order that we might find life. And the Creator God through the prophet Isaiah, whispers out any to the people of Israel, walking up to judgment, say, judgment will not have the last word, the anger of God's last but for a moment.

14:01 And salvation comes on the other side. Isaiah chapter 12, verse 1, you will say in that day, I will give a thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Judgment from love for life. Behold, there's a quote, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord God is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation.

14:35 Every time I hear this, this is another little phrase, the Lord God is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation. That the more familiar you get with the Old Testament, you realize it grew up in the same group of people. This phrase appears very first in chapter 15 around verse 2. If you were to go there, you would see, I said chapter 15 is just after they crossed the Red Sea and a song, for example. And the song is in the original language, three dates Hebrew.

15:13 It's a rudimentary form of Arabic, sometimes in a trouble translate in it, near as God could tell, it's an oldest piece of language in the picture. We think it may be the first thing they wrote down. The song appraised to God after they crossed the Red Sea. Think about it, it would be it's before Moses started penning the Torah, visiting themselves for 40 years, waiting for a generation to die in conversation with God in the 10th of beating.

15:47 It's as they realize their identity as a protected and provided people of God getting ready to chart a new nation in the promised land. The song appraised. Behold, God is my salvation and I will cross and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation. Every time I read that it pops up in the songs a couple of places and in Exodus, like I said, chapter 15, I think of my grandma, my dad's mom.

16:26 The song goes, I will sing to the Lord for he is trying to gloriously the horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song here to become my salvation. This is my dad and I will praise him, my father's God and I will insult him. I think about my dad's mom because my dad's mom was arguably the sweetest lady that ever lived. So you go make a soup out of anything in your cupboard. She always had homemade cinnamon rolls in the freezer when you got there to reheat the breakfast and she had cookies in the freezer to eat afterwards.

17:06 My dad's mom grew up in Arkansas and she made my grandpa while they were in seminary. They worked at one of the restaurants where you skate out to the car. They met in seminary and wanted to get married. My grandpa had started seminary singing. At the time the seminary went to, he couldn't marry while you were in the midst of the program. So he quit seminary and then looked at any on me. So he could marry my grandma.

17:38 She loved to sing even still when I was a grand kid, she would sing. And she would sing in barbed trunks or tats. She would sing tenor or bass. Usually my grandma. And so the reason we knew that is one of you would see little videos. She would tell us the stringy singers of sweet adelides. But also in her purse, he would carry a pitch pipe. I don't know if you have to sing it. It's a round thing and you just pick the pitch so that the barbershop all knows what note they're supposed to sing on.

18:08 And it would come every January. My grandpa and my dad's friends would come every January to stay after grandpa had preached through Christmas and tired of living in Nebraska. Cold he would come down for a week and stay and try and go back with the sunburns. But grandma would always suck us in. Little kids, you know. She would do different little games. But she would always, when she would talk to sing, sing songs with them. She'd line us up on the bag and try and get a singed songs in grounds and homies to go on her little pitch pipe.

18:44 And one of the songs he would sing is this song from X's chapter 15. I will sing into the Lord for here, child, gloriously, his course and writer from into the scene. And then she would sing us, the Lord, my God, my strength, my song. Now he is my victory. She would sing this song. She would sing this song. Grandma to kids. One generation to the next. The people of God are a people who on the other side of judgment, prays down.

19:23 For generations, it's what we have done. Because we know when you move through judgment, judgment comes from love. We endure judgment, painful, hard-sits. Even our own leader on the cross, judgment. But we go through judgment from love in order that on the other side we find life. We are not afraid of judgment, though it hurts. We submit to judgment because we know it comes from love.

19:53 And on the other side of judgment, we find life. And so when Isaiah, I imagine that the prophecy that Isaiah gets is not like auto-writing. He's not disembodied and disconnected. That's not how the God of Abraham is, it can take up work. I imagine that when God wants to communicate through a prophet like Isaiah, he gives him thoughts and images in conversation that Isaiah has to understand and comes in his own language

20:28 so that when he tries to describe to Israel what the day will look like on the other side of judgment, he uses that ancient song to remind them of who the people of God are, people who prays, even on the other side of judgment because his anger comes, but it lasts for a moment. I will give thanks to you, my Lord. Go your anger when you turn your anger away. Behold, God of my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord, my God, my strength, my songs.

21:03 He has become my salvation, my victory. And so then he says, with joys, you will draw water from the wealth of salvation. And you will say in that day, he says to the Lord, call upon his name. Make known as deeds among the people. Proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord for he has done gloriously, let the king made known in all the earth's chalps

21:37 and sing for joys, oh, inhabitant, and Zion. For grace in your midst is the holy one of Israel. In case you forgot, the name of God is exalted. He has done glorious things for you. Not only did he preserve Israel through the sea and the judgment, he embodied in the person of the Christ, endured the cross, defeated death,

22:10 ascended into heaven, discocks the Holy Spirit in order that right now you might live for a moment. And in your living, set yourself on a court for eternity with him. It comes in to our James Paulate. Look with me there if you want, or take my word for it. James chapter one is a little bit tricky, but it's fine towards the end. James, you know, the brother of Jesus, we think.

22:42 James chapter one, verse 16. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from a bond. Coming down from the father of life with whom there is no variation or change in the variation or shadow to change.

23:13 I would encourage you, this is maybe a more famous verse. Every good and perfect gift comes from a bond from the father of life. I would encourage you to put this sometimes. I have to talk about this in terms of, let me point out to myself the things that I think are good and try and make them perfect and from God. I like my three car, it's perfect. I like my house, I like my wife, those things are perfect.

23:44 No, they're not perfect. Every good and perfect gift thing comes from God. He has given you good things, it's worth telling the blessing. But remember the things he has promised you, these are good and perfect. God has promised you underlensing and unending forgiveness. A new beginning, every time, all the time, whenever you need it, this is good and perfect. God has promised you new creation in you, new life.

24:16 God has promised you a new start every time. This is good and perfect, God has promised you and eternity forever. This is good and perfect. Everything that is good and absolutely perfect, coming down from the father of life just for you. This first check out for me this time, verse 18, of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth. We should be a kind of first person in creation.

24:49 Every good and perfect thing comes down from you. Of his own will he brought us forth. You exist. I mean you, your cell and blood, your hair and personalities came together at the forethought and discretion according to the prerogative of the creating force of the world. According to his will, down you exist and are here, good and perfect and determined.

25:28 Praise God that we will be a kind of first group of his creation. I think on this fifth Sunday of Easter, it would be great if we humbly endured the judgment of God.

26:01 In order that we might gratefully receive life from God, both are true for you as they were for the Christ, the cross and the resurrection, both of them. For Israel, exile, and return for us, death, and life, repentance and forgiveness.

26:36 Over and over and over and over until it calls us home. Let me pray that we can be people of that. Hey Lord, thank you for the gift of your son. His work on the cross is victory in the tomb. Thank you for your prophet Isaiah and for your people Israel throughout time.

27:07 Thank you for the ones that taught us the songs of faith. Thank you that you have not abandoned us now. Do not abandon us now, Lord. Come here with judgment and life as only you can. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.