Title: Comfortably Numb

Elder Host: Chris Comeaux

Elder Host Readings:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”CS Lewis

Hosea 2:19"I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Call To Worship:

Heidelberg Catechism Question #1

Leader:Q.What is your only comfort in life and death?

All:A.

That I am not my own, 1but belong with body and soul,both in life and in death, 2to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. 3He has fully paid for all my sinswith his precious blood, 4and has set me freefrom all the power of the devil. 5He also preserves me in such a way 6that without the will of my heavenly Fathernot a hair can fall from my head; 7indeed, all things must work togetherfor my salvation. 8Therefore, by his Holy Spirithe also assures meof eternal life 9and makes me heartily willing and readyfrom now on to live for him. 10

Central Text: Read by Chas

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to herthat her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned,that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries:“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?”All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good newslift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not;say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him;behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms;he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,“My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles;they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Benediction: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Notable Quotes:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself”CS Lewis

““If you look for truth, you will find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair….I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” ― C.S. Lewis

“The church thus appears to be God’s pilot scheme for the reconciled universe of the future, the mystery of God’s will to be administered in the fullness of the times, when the things in heaven and the things on Earth are to be brought together in Christ” FF Bruce

“Secular history concentrates its attention on kings, queens and presidents, on politicians and generals, in fact on VIP’s. The bible concentrates rather on a group it calls the saints, often little people, insignificant people, unimportant people, who are however at the same time God’s people- and for that reason are both unknown to the world and yet well known to God” John Stott

Questions:

Pastoral Notes: Commentaries used: Mackay, John L. “A Study Commentary on Isaiah” Webster: Evangelical Press, 2008

Moyter, J. Alec. “The Prophecy of Isaiah: Downers Grove: IVP Academic 193

Ortlund, Raymond C. “Isaiah: God Saves Sinners”Wheaton: Crossway 2005

Webb, Barry G. “The Message of Isaiah” Downers Grove: IVP Academic 1996

Context:

After King Uzziah died, his eventual successor, Ahaz (not immediate, but after Jotham who followed Uzziah) not only was dealing with his own economic crisis, but an international policy mess. The Assyrian empire continued its campaign of global takeover Tiglath Pileser III. By 734 BC, the leaders of nations north of Judah began to feel the weight and pressure of Assyria. This

led to them forming an alliance (the Northern Kingdom: Israel and the Damascus). They tried to convince King Ahaz (Judah, the southern kingdom, the place where Isaiah ministered in) to join them. Becuase of a sort of sibling rivalry between the southern and northern kingdoms, Ahaz refused to join them. This led the alliance to seek to invade Judah to form replace him with a king that would want to join their alliance. Ahaz was not up to the task to fight off this alliance. Isaiah told Ahaz to trust the Lord to protect him and Judah, instead, Ahaz sought the help of Assyria. Huge mistake. This was the equivalent of asking the Mafia for a favor. There were strings attached! This led them to essentially be in a slavorish relationship with Assyria.

Eventually, the Northern Alliance crumbled. In 732, Assyria destroyed Damascus (the kingdom of Aram Damascus) and in 722 they destroyed Samaria (the northern Kingdom: Israel). Meanwhile, Judah (under Ahaz) feel deeper into economic despair as Assyrian tributes (taxes essentially) drained their economy and made Assyria more powerful, even under Tiglath Pileser III’s successor Sargon II . Ahaz eventually died and his successor, Hezekiah decided he and Judha have had enough! He stoped paying tributes to Assyria which started a cold war with them. However, following the death of Sargon II, Assyria began to show fractures under their new leader Sennacherib (705 BC- 681 BC). Babylon refused to pay tributes, Egypt offered their support and eventually the Philistines stopped paying tributes as well. Babylon saw Judah as a potential ally. Sennacherib response to all of these nations was force and might and in 701 BC, Israel is almost wiped off the face of the map. Yet, in a lone moment of faithfulness, Hezekiah prayed to God as Assyria stood outside the gates of Jerusalem. God gave a miraculous victory to Judah and spared the city. Most of chapters 1-39 deal with this history and the threat of Assyria. Yet, this is still not the end of these challenging times. Immediately after this brief moment of faithfulness on the part of Hezekiah, he hosts his ‘buddies from Babylon’. During their visit he shows them literally where all of the storehouses of their riches are. Essentially, he hands over to them the gameplan on how to destroy Jerusalem if they were so inclined to do so. Well, one day, 100 years later, they will be so inclined to do so. Babylon, who was once under the subjection of Assyria, rises to be the latest and greatest super power 100 years later. They become even more powerful and ruthless than Assyria. Isaiah tells Hezekiah this 100 years before it happens. He rebukes Hezekiah for being so foolish to show Babylon the gameplan and tells them they will, unlike Assyria, attack and destroy Jerusalem. But not only that, this will lead to the unthinkable. They will take over the land and exile out the Israelites into captivity. God’s people living in the promised land will be overthrown by their enemy. This happened in 586 BC. Why would God allow that? How is he good when he allowed their enemies to do this?

Well, what we must see is the goal Isaiah has had from the beginning. His goal was to call out the Israelites for their own wickedness and unjust ways. He was telling them judgement will come in the form of God handing you over to the things you trust so much in. Yet, his message was also one of Hope. That God will use this judgement (which could have been avoided had they repented) to purify the nation and send them back home as a holy and humble nation. Chapter 40 marks the pivot in the book where the message of hope and comfort is offered about a return back to the land.

Wait a second? How long did Isaiah live? He likely died around 690ish BC. What we have to understand is the multilayered meanings of prophesy. Isaiah prophesied about things that had not happened yet. During Uzziah’s reign, nobody would listen. Yet, things he prophesied about starting coming true in his lifetime (the rise of Assyria). Yet, they still would not listen to him (his message of repentance) even as Assyria grew. He also prophesied about Babylon (happened almost 150 years after his death). He prophesied about their return from exile (539 BC). He prophesied about the great king to come to destroy their enemies, but that he would be rejected by his own people and killed (obviously this is Jesus and it speaks volumes why the Jews rejected him, They wanted a geo-political leader. They failed to see the enemy lived inside them, their sin). He prophesied about the second return of this king and the establishment of Zion (the new Jerusalem in the new earth where all creation is made right). Amidst all this history, we also need to understand God is dealing with a people group, not a specific time period. From Genesis 12, where a promise is made to Abraham, he is still dealing with a people. When he speaks to his people it extends beyond chronology. The specific people here he is speaking to are those who would be living in Babylonian captivity during the exile. He is comforting people who aren't even born yet. His teachings were preserved by his disciples and then used to comfort the exiles with the hope of returning home.

40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Isaiah is instructed by God what now to say to the people (see above when that will happen). The repetition of the word comfort was to emphasize emotional intensity. It is also written in the imperfect tense which meant “keep saying it”. In other words, the imperative Isaiah was to heed was to constantly comfort the people.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to herthat her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned,that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

Isaiah was to not only speak kindly to the people, but to their heart. In other words, to persuade them, invite them to respond to God. The message is that their time of punishment (exile) is over. God in his grace is going to provide a double portion of his grace for them upon their return. Even though they are in Babylon, he calls them Jerusalem.

3 A voice cries:“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

The image is that a road, prepared by God for his people, will lead them back home from exile. God himself will prepare the road. He will make it a road prepared for dignitaries. This road home is like the response of the father to the Prodigal son. The road will be free of obstacles. Nothing will stand in their way to get home.

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”The Word of God Stands Forever

God is not just bringing them home with grace, he is restoring them to their calling. Israel will be a light to the nations. It will fulfill the Abrahamic promise. Through Israel (the church is now the new Israel) will be a city on a hill. He will show his glory to the world by showing he keeps his promises.

6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?”All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

We as human beings are divine image bearers. We do have beauty and glory. Yet, we are temporal, fragile and morally bankrupt. No matter what we have trusted in, what we think we are, we are mortal. We will fade. We will die. However, even when things seems at their worst, God’s promises have not become void. His word stands forever becuase he lives forever. A righteous man will be remembered forever. Nobody names their child Uzziah, but plenty of people name their child Isaiah. Nobody has met a Babylonia or Assyrian. They have long since faded. But God’s people remain becuase his promises remain.

9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good newslift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him;behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms;he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

The message Isaiah is to cry to the people is one of hope and return even in the most unbelievable of times. The image here is that of personalizing the place where the Israelites return home. That Zion itself is like a herald itself ‘rushing to assemble a welcoming party to meet the shepherd and his flock. This is incredible similar to the prodigal son story in Luke 15. The difference is the father isnt waiting at home for their prodigal son, he brings the son himself home. Its Zion and Jerusalem that is the welcoming party and witness to the greatness of God. His mighty power to save and his tender mercy to save.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,“My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

The response the Israelites will have however will not be like the prodigal son who “came to himself,” and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”” Instead we see an entitled and even self righteous response. They just are not willing to take any ownership. They are blaming God for being too slow to respond. His power and might are causes for them to grumble further “if your so powerful and mighty, they why havent you saved us yet? Why did you let this happen?” While God does not treat us as our sins deserve, these were his covenant people living in his land. This was not payback, it was a consequence. They just didn't see it that way. They just wanted a stepford God. One who blessed them but not one who was in relationship with them.

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.29 He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Isaiah’s response is first taking them back to their theology. They both agreed in God’s power, but they saw him as a deist who created and then stepped away. He reminds them his power has not changed. He has not gotten tired or forgotten them. Which should have told them, this is not about fatigue, its about you. You trusted in these nations to save you and refused God. He, as a consequence, removed his hand from you and let you have what you want.

30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles;they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

The key here is repentance and humility. Even at their worst, the Israelites still were hardening their hearts. God was not punishing them becuase he was sick of them, he was sick about who they had become. This is his invitation to cease, to yield, to just come home. The image of an Eagle carrying them home in their brokeness.