The Heritage of the Servants of the Lord

Story is told of two Scottish men during World War II that had to bail out of an airplane behind German lines. And they were captured and they were placed in a prison camp, but this prison camp had two different sections. One was the Americans, and they separated the British from the Americans. They didn't want them to get their heads together.

And so by some way, one Scottish man was put in the American side and the other one was put into the British side. And they tried to make it very difficult for the two sides to communicate with one with another. But these two Scottish men were able to because they knew Gaelic. It was sort of an archaic language. They managed to be able to shout some words across the fence and communicate somewhat, find out what was going on between the different sides of the camp.

One thing that the Germans didn't know, the guards didn't know, was that the Americans had a little homemade radio in which they were able to listen for news, little tidbits of news they were able to get from outside. And so that was part of what happened every day. These two Scottish men would share just a little tidbit of news.

And one day, the news came over the little radio that the German high command had actually surrendered and that the war was over. And so he took the ones, the fellow that heard that, took the news and he spread that news to the British.

And he stood there and watched his friend disappear into the barracks. And a moment later, there was this huge roar of celebration. And it says from that day forward, life in that camp was transformed. Men walked around singing and shouting and waving at the guards and even laughing at the dogs.

When the German guards finally heard the news three days later, they walked out, left the doors unlocked, and they were able to go to their freedom.

I was thinking we talked this morning about vision and perspective.

These men, even though they were still behind prison barracks, when they found the news that the war was over, the battle's been won, it changed their whole way of life. It changed their whole way of thinking. You can turn this morning to Isaiah chapter 54. And that's a little bit the scenario we have here this morning.

I'm going to read verse 1. "Sing, O barren, you who have not born! Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman," says the Lord.

And this passage comes right on the heels of what we talked about the last time we were in Isaiah, in chapter 53, where we had the picture of this servant king who took upon himself our suffering. "He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. And we all like sheep have gone astray and have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as the sheep before its hearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." The victory was won. And in our passage today, we have the roar of triumph, the roar of victory going out and saying, "We're no longer barren.

We no longer have to be unfruitful." This thing has opened up to everyone, the Gentiles included. All the families of the earth are going to be blessed. And to do that, to get a little perspective here, I'd like to just sort of step back away and just look at the picture a little bit of Israel. And for this, I have to give some credit to N.T. Wright. I was reading for some other reason a passage in one of the books he's written, and he brought up this whole idea of Israel and the sort of the journey, the saga of Israel and the Jewish people. And I think it's good for us just to look back and say, "Well, how does that all fit into the picture?"

And where Isaiah found himself prophesying to the children of Israel here in our passage today. So it's kind of ironic that they find themselves in Babylon under captivity. So in Genesis chapter 3, we have rebellion. We have the whole story of the garden and mankind rebelling against God, partaking of the forbidden fruit, hiding from, trying to hide from the presence of God. Then in chapter 4, we have the first murder. We have Cain killing Abel.

And by Genesis chapter 6, it said, "The whole earth was filled with violence." It says, "The intent of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually." That's how bad it had gotten by Genesis chapter 6. And then in Genesis chapter and so God used the flood. He destroyed mankind. And in a sense, there was this little starting over. But by chapter 11, we have the tower of Babel.

It says and the attitude, it's sort of like God comes on the picture and He says, "So you built a tower, did you? What will you think up next?" And He was like, "If I let this continue, these people are whatever's in their minds to do, they're going to do it." And so we see Him separating the people, confusing the languages. And from that point on, it says all the families of the earth were confused. They were living in confusion.

And then Abraham comes along. And I would like to turn to Genesis chapter 12. Just read a few verses there.

This is the promise that God made to Abraham. He says, "Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed.'" So God makes this covenant, this promise to Abraham, and says, "In you, Abraham, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed." And so we just come out of the tower of Babel where all the families of the earth were put in disarray and in confusion.

And He says, He makes a promise to Abraham. He said, "Through you, Abraham, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed. I'm going to make out of you a great nation." And so He made a covenant with Abraham. And basically, that covenant was, "You're going to spearhead my rescue operation that I have in mind for this world that has taken a major detour from what God intended." And in Romans, Paul says that what do the Jews have? Well, they have a lot because to them, we're delivered the oracles of God.

And so they were intended to spearhead this operation. But what happens if the lifeboat, which is sent out to rescue the wrecked ship, becomes endangered itself? What if the people through whom God intends to rescue the world themselves need rescuing? And that's the sort of the situation they found themselves in.

And so we continue to look at Israel and their history, and there's this pattern emerges. There's a motif. And that pattern is exile and homecoming.

And in our thing today, in our lesson today in Isaiah, the children of Israel are in exile. They're living in Babylon.

And this was not unfamiliar territory for the children of Israel. They'd been in exile numerous times before. And it sort of happened with Abraham. No sooner had God made a covenant with Abraham than Abraham finds himself in Egypt. And what's he do? He tells a lie and says that Sarah, his wife, was his sister and almost gets stuck in Egypt before the thing hardly even got off the ground.

Jacob cheats Esau. What's he do? He runs away and he takes off. And then we see the homecoming. He comes back to meet Esau and to wrestle with God. Then, of course, the highlight of this exile is Joseph comes along and he becomes he's sold into Egypt. And so he goes to Egypt. And of course, the fortunes change there. They become under bondage there. And Moses

leads the children out. We see this homecoming again.

I'm going to read Exodus chapter 3, verses 14 to 17.

And this was God's message to Moses.

"And God said to Moses, 'I am who I am.' And he said, 'Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I Am has sent me to you. Moreover, God said to Moses, 'Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, 'The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob appeared to me saying, 'I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt, and I have said, 'I will bring you up out of the land of affliction to Egypt, out of affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.'" So there we see the faithfulness on God's part.

He told Moses. He said, "You go and tell them that I am who I am. I'm going to perform this."

And so it happened again, a homecoming, not exactly a smooth homecoming. We see the children of Israel leaving Egypt and spent 40 years dibbling and dabbling around in the wilderness until they finally made it to that land of milk and honey.

Two generations later well, no. First of all, then we see David come along. And now we have a king. David, a man's after God's own heart. But you know, David actually went into exile for a while. Remember what happened with his son Absalom? Absalom comes along. David followed his own heart, and he got himself into trouble. And so we see David being exiled and then coming back sort of in a kind of a little bit with his tail between his legs.

Two generations later, we see the kingdom of Israel divided. We have now we have Israel and we have Judah. Two centuries later, Israel was swallowed up by the Syrians, and they pretty much march out of history. We don't see much or hear much of them before. So we have little Judah there hanging on. And then the Babylonian exile comes along, and the people again get carried into exile.

And it happened again that there was a homecoming. And while they were in exile, this gives you a little bit of the flavor of how they were feeling. Psalms 137. This is how the people were feeling in the passage in Isaiah. This is during the time of the Babylonian exile. "By the rivers of Babylon where we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it, for there are those who carried us away captive, ask of us a song. And those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.'" They're saying, "How can we sing in the midst of this terrible exile that we're in?"

And then it happened again, a homecoming, back to Israel. And yet it wasn't quite the same. The glory that had been there during David's reign and where people come from all around the earth to see the glory, it just wasn't there. In fact, people that were familiar with the Old Temple and after it had been destroyed and come back, what was put in its place was just a shadow of its former glory.

And then Daniel prophesied about a rock, "Yoon out of the mountain that's going to come and control all the kingdoms of the world." And in the midst of all this exile and homecoming, there's four themes that give shape and body to the story we've been just looking at. And the first one is the idea of king.

Samuel had warned about earthly kings. He said, "If you choose a king, they're going to" you remember the list he gave. "They're going to conscript your young men to the military. They're going to take your taxes. They're going to take your maidens to be cooks." And he gave them a whole list of things and said, "That's what's going to happen." And he was pretty much right about that. We had David. But the kings that came after him, very few of them most of them were just horrible kings.

And in Psalm 89, if you want an interesting reading, go to Psalm 89. And there's this contrast there. He lays out before him and said, "This is the promise you made to David. You told David that out of his seed was going to come." And basically, look at what we have. It doesn't seem like where are you performing it? God promises made to David, but it looks as though they've come to nothing.

And so the psalmist there sort of lays out both sides before the Lord and says, "What's happening here?"

And out of that, it becomes clear that what God had in mind is a new king. A new king that's going to be anointed with oil and God's own Spirit, the Anointed One, the Messiah. That's sort of what comes out of that whole thing about the kings.

The second thing that was always on the mind of the Jewish people was temple, the temple. And in the Jewish mind, the temple was the place where heaven and earth came together. That was the place where God met God met man.

And so it was a very important thing to the Jewish people. And then we have Solomon's temple being repaired, and it was rebuilt. And again, it didn't compare. In fact, the people that worked there, they and it was the job of the king to restore that temple to its glory. And there were some attempts made at that.

Hezekiah and some of them went back, and they tried to somehow get this king to restore the former glory. So we have the idea that this temple, this dwelling place, this place where heaven and earth meet.

The other thing that was important to the Jewish people was the law, the Torah. And in that was a pattern for life at its heart. That's what it was. It was a pattern for life, how people would live together under God and in harmony.

And then the fourth thing is a new creation, the promises God made to Abraham. He said, "In you, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed."

I'm just going to turn back to some passages in Isaiah that we've already studied. But just to give you an idea here of what he's talking about, Isaiah chapter 2, verses 2 and 4. So in the book of Isaiah, we see all these themes sort of come out. And I don't know if you can see it or not, but they're culminating in a person. They're culminating in a person.

Isaiah 2:2-4, "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore.'" Isaiah 11:1-9.

This is the promise that he made to David. "There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes nor decide by the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins and faithfulness the belt of his waist. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion in the fatling together, and the little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. Their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like an ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand into the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people for the Gentiles who seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people who are left from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathos and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea."

There we see again there's something coming. The promise was there's someone coming. There's going to be a Messiah. There's going to be a king. There's going to be a person who is going to once and for all bring about that intersection between heaven and earth.

And then, of course, in Isaiah chapter 55, we have that wonderful invitation, which we'll study next time. "But O everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and ye who have no money, come by and eat. Yes, come by wine and milk without money and without price." So he's inviting us.

And then in Isaiah chapter 65, when we think about a new creation, Isaiah says in 65:17, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people a joy."

So what is Christianity all about?

Christianity is all about the belief that and this is a direct quote from N.T. Wright, "about the belief that the living God, in the fulfillment of his promises and as the climax of the story of Israel, has accomplished all this: the finding, the saving, the giving of new life in Jesus.

He has done it with Jesus. God's rescue operation has been put into effect once and for all. A great door has swung open in the cosmos which can never again be shut. It's the door to the prison where we've been kept chained up. We are offered freedom, freedom to experience God's rescue for ourselves, to go through the open door and explore the new world to which we now have access.

In particular, we are all invited, summoned actually, to discover through following Jesus that this new world is indeed a place of justice, spirituality, relationship, and beauty, and that we are not only to enjoy it as such, but to work at bringing it to birth on earth as it is in heaven.

In listening to Jesus, we discover whose voice it is that has echoed around the hearts and minds of the human race all along." And so I just thought it was amazing to look back at the history of Israel and to see God's hand at work, even in that motif or that pattern of exile and homecoming, exile and homecoming.

And it's leading up to the fulfillment. And so it's no wonder that in this chapter, after we find out that Jesus took upon himself our transgressions and our salvation, that we have this glorious song that breaks forth, "Rejoice, O barren one." I want to read Isaiah chapter 54, verses 1 through 5. "Sing, O barren, you who have not born! Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman," says the Lord. "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare! Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes, for you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited.

Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame. For you will forget the shame of your youth and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. For your maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name, and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He is called the God of the whole earth."

In this thing, we have three promises in these verses.

He says, "More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman." And I take from this that promise that he made to Abraham, that "In you, all nations of the earth are going to be blessed."

It's expanding. And he says, "You're going to have to enlarge. You're going to have to put an addition on. You're going to have to pull the stakes out and pull it further, because 'In you, all nations of the earth are going to be blessed.'" This salvation is no longer just for the Jews, but it's for all whosoever will.

He said, "You shall expand to the right and to the left. You shall. Enlarge the place of thy tent." And then he says, "You don't have to be afraid and ashamed, because God is your husband. Your maker, your creator is your husband." And remember in the passage before, he told the children of Israel, he said, "I've never left you. I've never divorced you. You've walked away from me." And here he says, "You don't have to be ashamed.

You can for your maker is your husband, and the Lord of Hosts is his name. Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." So it's cause this morning for great joy, great joy, because the battle's won. Satan's been defeated. And it's for whosoever will. Whosoever will may come. And then let's read verses 6 through 10. "For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused," says your God. "For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you," says the Lord your redeemer.

"For this is like the waters of Noah to me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so I have sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord who has mercy on you." Here we have three declarations about who God is.

First of all, he says, "I've chosen you."

"For the Lord has called you," in verse 6. He's chosen you. He's chosen us.

And because of that, it's sort of like a woman who was forsaken, who was left desolate, and then someone chooses her. And then the joy that that would bring. And he says, "I declare to you that I've chosen you. You're my chosen people."

He says, "I will have mercy on you. With everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you," says the Lord your redeemer. It's just like I had mercy on Noah and I made a promise through the rainbow that I'm never going to destroy the earth again.

He said the anger that I had was just anger for a time. It's sort of like when we correct our children.

"With a little wrath, for a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. For a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you." Isn't that amazing that we serve a God who's that merciful, who has that kind of love and compassion for us? And then he says, "My kindness will not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed."

So I'm never my kindness is never going to depart. I'm going to that promise that I made, clear back at the beginning, that promise, that covenant I made to Abraham, I'm never going to forget that. And then let's read the rest of the chapter, 11 to 17. "O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest and not comforted! Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established. You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

Indeed, they shall surely assemble, but not because of me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the spoiler to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me," says the Lord." So here we have three declarations or three observations. He says three times here, "Behold." Look. Behold.

"I will lay your stones with colorful gems, and lay your foundations with sapphires, and make your pinnacles of rubies, and gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stone." He promises us, he says, "I promise you prosperity and peace."

In verse 15, he says, he promises that, "Behold," take notice, "look, our adversaries are going to fall.

Indeed, they shall surely assemble, but not because of me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake." That's the kind of protection that he offers. "Our adversaries will fall." And I really like this one. "Behold," he says, "I own the armor, armory."

The weapons that he said, "I made the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fires and creates and forms all these weapons." And he says, "Don't you worry. The weapon that has formed against my children is not going to prosper."

And then he ends this by saying, "This is the kind of heritage that the servants of the Lord can claim." And that's the if you want a title for the message this morning, it's simply "The Heritage of the Servants of the Lord." What a great privilege and honor we have to be a part of that this morning, to part of that heritage.

The question is, are you a servant of the Lord? You know, there's one great homecoming that we're waiting. You know, the original ultimate exile was in the garden when man turned away. And God put him out of the garden, and he put a flaming sword there and says, "You can't enter anymore."

But we talked about the new heaven and the new earth, and we're told to watch because and wait, because Jesus is going to come again and receive his bride, and we're going to experience the ultimate homecoming. Never again to be never again to be marred by man's sinfulness and the problems of this earth, where a place where love and peace prevails forever.

And I guess I was just challenged, in the meantime, while we're waiting that ultimate homecoming, we can sing. We can praise, because that great shout can go up among God's people, because we've realized that Christ has won the victory.

And I guess my challenge to all is, let's be a part of his wonderful kingdom, that door that he has opened in the cosmos that will never again be shut. Let's make sure we walk through that door. Let's make sure we're a part of that so that we can be a part of that ultimate homecoming that he has prepared for us. Does anyone have any comments before we close?