Pastor Darren: Well, friends, uh, we are taking a journey in November here.
Pastor Darren: Uh our journey is uh uh going through just three of our Old Testament prophets.
Pastor Darren: We had Haggai last week, and uh today we're talking about Isaiah.
Pastor Darren: Next week it'll be Jeremiah.
Pastor Darren: Uh and it again is uh the idea that these are some of the prophets that started pointing towards what we are grateful for when we think about Christmas and what it means to us as Christians and the birth of Christ.
Pastor Darren: Uh and so I'll remind you as we dip into these prophets again, as we dip into Isaiah, some of the history is helpful to remember.
Pastor Darren: Took me four and a half minutes last week, but now that I already did it, I tried to shoe away a charger score, and I almost lost my whole lost the message.
Pastor Darren: You were about to get a sermon on a on a ball game here in a second.
Pastor Darren: No, but uh remind you it took me a little while to say it.
Pastor Darren: I think we can do it really, really quickly this week since we laid it out last week.
Pastor Darren: But you'll remember the Israelites were a people that had a high time with a couple of kings, especially David and Solomon, who were really effective, but after they passed away, the kingdoms split.
Pastor Darren: You know, the Israelite kingdoms split, and eventually uh in their splitting even became conquered.
Pastor Darren: And in the conquering, all their good people and all the resources were just taken away for a couple of generations, even more.
Pastor Darren: Uh eventually uh the conquerors were conquered themselves, and the new conquerors let the Israelites go back home.
Pastor Darren: And so there's this uh uh um energy uh around the coming back home that is filled with some hope uh but also some challenge.
Pastor Darren: Isaiah is a prophet who was preaching through uh a length of that time.
Pastor Darren: So he you can understand uh the different times where parts of Isaiah were written down.
Pastor Darren: We're at the very end of Isaiah, so he's preaching about this being able to go back home.
Pastor Darren: So there's this hopefulness, this this new uh future that is on its way.
Pastor Darren: Uh um, and interestingly, in this new future, what we're learning, what's being implied here, is that the oppression that they faced when they had been conquered and and all of the resources and people have been taken away, that oppression now sort of changed.
Pastor Darren: But what's interesting is there's this new oppression that has found its way, this new disappointment.
Pastor Darren: You'll see it in verse 24, and it points to the crux of the pain.
Pastor Darren: Before they call, I will answer.
Pastor Darren: While they are yet speaking, I will hear.
Pastor Darren: This is something that the the Israelites were were really craving.
Pastor Darren: Being able to be listened to was so important.
Pastor Darren: And Isaiah is naming it here, and he's saying, in this new future, that will no longer be true.
Pastor Darren: You will be listened to.
Pastor Darren: Think what we're what we're hearing, what's implied in all of this, is there's this lack of empathy in the world, in this oppressive existence that the Israelites were feeling, this sense of nobody really cares about us, not even enough to listen to us.
Pastor Darren: Clearly, this would be felt after you've been conquered.
Pastor Darren: There's not necessarily a lot of uh good feelings and a lot of good heart over the people that you have conquered.
Pastor Darren: But what is um interesting in this rebuild now as the generations, and it's been a few, the generations of people who are now returning back to the homeland are now creating kind of their own world of oppression, their own world of not listening to who was there, and that remnant that weren't taken away, that basically had to kind of survive without the drive, without the leadership, without the resources, but managed to survive, now has what might feel like older brothers, older sisters coming back and saying, All right, here, we're gonna do this and do that.
Pastor Darren: You can probably imagine how that might have felt.
Pastor Darren: There's this joy that they're back, but now they're telling you all what needs to happen, all that you're gonna need to do.
Pastor Darren: In the midst of that, Isaiah is pointing to a new future in which some of that feeling that came off apparently, like some heartlessness, even from those who were coming back, from their own compatriots that were coming back.
Pastor Darren: There's a feeling that even some of that heartlessness there would be a new hope away from that.
Pastor Darren: Another verse, verse 25, talks about the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the oak, but like the ox.
Pastor Darren: Right?
Pastor Darren: We see that and we think, oh, those conquerors, they're the wolves, we are the lambs, and in this new future we're all gonna live together.
Pastor Darren: But as you read Isaiah, you start to realize, well, not all the wolves were the conquerors.
Pastor Darren: Sometimes they were the people who were coming back and not treating each other super, super well.
Pastor Darren: In the midst of that, this is the message that Isaiah is trying to get across, this sense of hope for a future.
Pastor Darren: It's grounded in this reality that they've been allowed to go back home, but it's a picture that he is painting that is more full than just being able to go back home.
Pastor Darren: And you can hear the heart of the Israelites in the future that he paints, the prophecy of hope that he wants to deliver to these people.
Pastor Darren: No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it or the cry of distress.
Pastor Darren: Can you hear the heart of the Israelites in just that prophecy?
Pastor Darren: It's implied that that's what they're going through now.
Pastor Darren: And you can guess why they would be so hopeful for this new future.
Pastor Darren: No more shall there'll be in it an infant that lives but just a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime.
Pastor Darren: We can fill the story in there a little bit.
Pastor Darren: The Israelites were probably a people who lost infants.
Pastor Darren: They were probably a people who uh for whom didn't get to live out their full lives through hardship or even something worse.
Pastor Darren: You can hear Isaiah's prophecy and how much it probably meant to them.
Pastor Darren: They shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Pastor Darren: Sometimes you look at that and you think, well, yeah, I mean, isn't that kind of how the world works?
Pastor Darren: Well, not when you've been conquered, not when you're being oppressed.
Pastor Darren: Often all your work is going towards somebody else.
Pastor Darren: So this prophecy of hope from Isaiah really is is one would guess, really speaking into the hearts of the Israelites.
Pastor Darren: They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant, and another eat.
Pastor Darren: For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Pastor Darren: Again, you can hear the pain that the Israelites have been going through when it talks about all their work going to help other people and not them.
Pastor Darren: We can imagine how frustrating that would be for us, how heartbreaking that would be for us, and how hope-filled the message might come to the Israelite people as Isaiah preaches it.
Pastor Darren: The crux of this painting that Isaiah is is creating is that at least for us Christians, the crux of the picture, the crux of the message to us foretells Christ.
Pastor Darren: This is what Christ is looking to bring for us.
Pastor Darren: This reality is what Christ wants us to know.
Pastor Darren: It's the hope that he brings that that is literally embodied in Christ and in his life, his very presence amongst us.
Pastor Darren: We understand as Christians that his presence is evidence of the love that we have from the creator of the world.
Pastor Darren: Our world may be imperfect, it may be broken, but the creator, the one who created it, loves us.
Pastor Darren: Listen to us, wants for us to flourish, wants for us to be able to thrive in this world that God created.
Pastor Darren: God wants us to know a love so deep that it is evident in God's being willing to send Jesus to be here amongst us.
Pastor Darren: Jesus who comes with this message of love, and he in his own existence among us is evidence of that love.
Pastor Darren: People are still awakening to this reality of the presence of love in our world, and they're seeking to be part of that in whatever complicated way that might come to them.
Pastor Darren: We know we're not perfect as Christians.
Pastor Darren: We know our churches, our institutions aren't perfect, but we're here doing our best to rest and live out the reality of our belief that God is here and God is love, and that love is real, and that love matters.
Pastor Darren: We want this to be a place where all God's children live together peacefully, dare I say, even in appreciation for each other, a place where all of God's children are heard, listened to, and respected as God would have them be respected.
Pastor Darren: I was able to celebrate that today with the baptisms.
Pastor Darren: I hope that you were able to celebrate that too.
Pastor Darren: Amen.