The Prospects of the Church From Isaiah 25

Today I am commenting on Isaiah 25:1-9 which says:

Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will honor you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you. You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled. On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

INTRODUCTION:

One thing that parents guard jealously for their children are their prospects for the future. This is particularly true in the case of their future spouse; classically a father would quiz a suitor for his daughter to make sure that the boyfriend had good prospects for the future. A favorite humorous story centers on this type of concern for a daughter's prospects. 

A father invited his future son-in-law to dinner to quiz him about how he was going to care for his daughter and future grandchildren. He asked the young man how he was going to provide financially for his daughter, and he replied, “God will provide.” The man asked the groom how he was going to pay for a house, and he replied, “God will provide.” Finally, the man inquired about plans for paying for his grandchildren's education and the man replied, yet again, “God will provide.” 

Later, the man’s wife asked about how things went with the future son-in-law and he replied, “Well, he doesn’t have a clue about how the world works, but at least he thinks that I’m god!”

Obviously, this man was skeptical of the young man’s prospects in life. With the Year 2020 being what it has been, some of us may be wondering about the prospects for the church, and for God’s people. In His wisdom and foresight, God addressed that issue long ago through the ministry of Isaiah. In short, our prospects are good. Very good in fact.

THE PROSPECT OF PRAISE:

One fact that we have forgotten is that people were made to praise God. Verse 1, reminds us that we were made to fellowship with Him and love Him. We were made to worship Him and exalt Him. He should be the true object of all of our bragging. After all, this is what we will be doing in Heaven! Those who don’t enjoy worship here on Earth might find themselves in an unfamiliar situation when they get there!  

To be real, and to be honest, we know that sometimes our circumstances don’t favor worship. As we can see simply by reading, all through the Bible God’s people have had hard times. One thing that is common to all people is trouble. Sometimes it is our fault, sometimes it is not. Some Biblical examples of this might include:

Abraham and Sarah not being able to have a child.

Job losing all of his family, and all of his property, and all of his health.

David mourning the death of his baby son.

Isaiah proclaiming judgment on Israel. 

Paul and Silas being cast into prison in Philippi.

The truth is that our circumstances should not hinder our worship, because God is the object of worship and He deserves it! Their circumstances did not prevent any of these above from worshipping God. Each of these and others, too, were justly proud of God and they loved Him.

Even though Isaiah was troubled by Israel’s sin, and he was sent to warn Israel because of it, Isaiah found he was able to worship God. Why?  Why can we worship God despite trouble? How?  How can we worship God despite loss and grief? Isaiah tells us as we continue to investigate our prospects.

THE PROSPECT OF POWER: 

Verses 2-5 tell us that the first reason we can worship God is His power.  God is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and ever present. These factors mean that His power is active in our lives.

Isaiah reminds us that His power is greater than any stronghold. Fortified cities were virtually impervious to attack in ancient Israel. Israel had no artillery, siege engines, or airplanes but this was no problem for God, however as He demonstrated by the fall of Jericho.

The city referred to in this passage probably wasn’t Jericho because the city that Isaiah referred to would be so destroyed it would never be rebuilt. The power Isaiah was speaking of was more in the line of the conversion of the pagan Roman Empire. Christ overcame a culture that had defeated all who had challenged it in the past. In the same way there is no stronghold in our lives that God can’t defeat.

It is also vital to see that God’s power is not only for battle, but also for building. Armored vehicles and tanks are great for battle, but not for reconstruction. Likewise, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines can control the sea, but they can’t carry the goods that build an economy and a way of life. God, however, can do more than defeat our enemies. 

God can bring to us peace and refuge. Modern Israel has never lost a war, but it also has never been at peace, either. God, in contrast, completes His tasks in a way that brings everlasting peace. As John 14:27says, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

War is hideously expensive, and it destroys prosperity, but peace is fertile soil for it.

THE PROSPECT OF PROSPERITY: 

We live in the richest country on earth and, in truth, we are getting richer by the day! But as hard as we try, we can’t take our wealth with us when we die. He who dies with the most toys is still dead and regardless of how many toys we have, they will not last! That’s why we have yard sales and flea markets!

God, however, wants to give us good things that last! In His spiritual economy we will live on the mountain top, not in the “Valley of the Shadow of Death”. We will feast at His table burdened with food. We will drink of His cup, not of punishment like Jesus, but of blessing! As we used to say in the south, “We’ll be living in high cotton!”

God can also take away the threats to our prosperity that possessions cannot. Possessions can’t comfort us in our loss. They can’t remove the grief or depression that settles on us like a blanket after we lose a loved one. Possessions can’t remove the sting of defeat, neither can they remove the regret over our sin and mistakes either. God can remove that pall, however. When He does, He will dry our eyes and give us the peace we need.

THE PROSPECT OF PEACE: 

Power and prosperity are good, but what we really want is peace!

We want to have peace with God.

We want to have peace with people.

We want to have peace with creation.

We want to have peace with ourselves.

e are just not able to achieve any of this in our own power. We can’t please God on our own because of our sin. If we appease others, we hurt ourselves. If we appease ourselves, we irritate our neighbors. Finding peace is so hard that we often just adopt the philosophy of the song lyrics that say: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

However, nothing is impossible with God.  He has given us the power to be at peace. He has given us the prosperity to be at peace. And, because we are at peace, we can focus on God instead of these other things and we can praise and worship Him!

CONCLUSION:

As one who was alive during the social upheaval that took place in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s I certainly have never encountered any period of time like 2020, and I pray that I never do again. That being said, I would like to put current events into a different perspective.

What we must realize is that the church has lived through turbulent times before, and indeed it was born both during a turbulent time and during a violent situation. Just hours after Jesus had celebrated Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper, something He and no doubt the Disciples had looked forward to with great anticipation, Jesus was arrested, beaten, scourged, and hung on a cross between two common thieves. The crowd in Jerusalem had chosen to free a radical terrorist murderer over the One whom the Disciples considered their Lord and Teacher. Less than a day after their intimate and richly meaningful celebration, Jesus had died on that cross and had been buried in a borrowed tomb. Besides all of this, they had personally abandoned and betrayed their Lord. With all the pain, suffering, and turmoil of current events, nothing we have yet seen could be as soul-shattering and disillusioning as what the Disciples experienced that first Easter weekend. Their entire world and everything they had believed in was turned upside-down.

Had that been the end of the story it would have been overwhelmingly sad, but, as we know, it wasn’t the end of the story. Not by a long shot! Jesus rose from the dead, sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and God has used His church since that time to minister hope in His Name. We who are alive today and who are members of His Kingdom are living proof of the power of God to overcome all obstacles and all the efforts of evil to defeat Him and His ministry of grace, mercy, peace, and reconciliation.

The church not only began in a time of turmoil, but it has grown during all manner of difficulties, almost like these are the fertilizer which makes it grow and flourish. Not for nothing did Tertullian say, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” While 2020 has been a challenge to us, we certainly have not had the experience of martyrdom, and so we need to adjust our mindset some.

In truth, our disobedience is the only thing that can hold back the ministry of God’s church. I am more and more convinced that discipleship is far more a matter of commitment than it is knowledge. Peter and Paul had vastly different levels of education, but both were completely committed to the Lord and the Gospel ministry. So, let us dig a little deeper into our lives and find our first love again for Our Lord and Savior. A new year is approaching, one with its own challenges and with its own blessings, but if the Lord tarries, it will also be a new year in which to minister the Gospel in His Name. Let us not waste a minute more fretting over 2020, but instead, as Paul urged the Ephesians, 

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” 

Our best is yet to come!

Every blessing, 

Dr. Otis H. Corbitt, III