Dan Herold | Isaiah 49:1-6 | 1/15/2017
(Sermon begins at 12:27)
Last week when we gathered here together we heard God tell us about his servant—one who would deliver justice to the nations. God made it clear as he revealed himself that his Son Jesus is that servant spoken of in Isaiah chapter 42. God the Father described his son in that chapter. He told us what his son would do and how he would go about doing it.
Today, we are again going to look at verses recorded by the prophet Isaiah. Today we are going to advance a couple of chapters and look at Isaiah 49:1-6. In those verses we hear God speak to us and reveal himself to us once again. This time, however, we don’t hear the voice of God the Father telling us about his servant. This time we hear from the Servant himself. We hear Jesus tell us who he is, and what his mission is. The message Jesus shares has three main points: He tells us how he is equipped for his mission, he tells us what the mission is, and he tells us the scope of his mission (or who all is involved).
In verse one the speaker, who is Jesus, says, “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.” Before Jesus was ever born, even before the time when Isaiah wrote these words down, God knew what his Son would do for us. Before Jesus ever became a man God knew that he would die on a cross to save us. In this verse Jesus says that even in his mother’s womb God had spoken his name, and we have proof of that all through Scripture.
The name Jesus means Savior. Since Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3 through the rest of the Old Testament, God was promising to send a Savior. God spoke Jesus’ name thousands of times before Jesus was ever born. God knew both Jesus’ purpose (to lead his people to salvation) and his name long before Jesus walked on this earth. Jesus didn’t come to win popularity contests or to rescue people from an oppressive government, but he came for the specific purpose of saving souls. And even before he was born God knew that and had that plan set in place…that he would rescue your soul and mine from Satan’s clutches by the work of his Son whose very name means Savior!
There’s more though…In verse 2 Jesus describes how he was equipped to be our Savior. He says that his mouth was like a sharpened sword and that he was like a polished arrow. The imagery of a sword is used often in Scripture. Perhaps the author of the letter to the Hebrews penned the best known comparison when he said in Hebrews 4:12 that,
“The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword.”
Comparing Jesus’ words to a sharpened sword is both powerful and very fitting.
A sword is often thought of as a weapon, something that destroys your enemy… A fitting description of the power of God’s word. Also, a sharpened sword was a tool of precision. It wasn’t a scattergun that you let loose and hope it hits something. God’s word is a precise tool made up of Law and Gospel. Jesus goes on to tell us that this figurative sword is
“hidden in the shadow of God’s hand.”
It was a tool used by God, not hidden away out of sight, but always in his hand ready to be used.
Now, the second part of Jesus comparison sounds a little strange though, doesn’t it? What does it mean when Jesus says that God,
“made me into a polished arrow”?
In this instance the word polished doesn’t mean shiny like if you polish metal. In this comparison polished means, perfect or without blemish.
If any of you have ever shot an arrow from a bow before, you know what a difference a small imperfection in an arrow can make. A small dent in the shaft of an arrow will make it fly crooked. A small imperfection in the fletching will make an arrow spiral out of control and miss the target completely. Jesus was like a perfect arrow that flew true and hit the bullseye dead on every single time.
But the thing that makes that image even more vivid is that the Greek word in the New Testament used for sin, literally means “to miss the mark.” The New Testament word for sin is the same word a person speaking Greek would use to describe an archer who used a bad arrow and missed his target. Not only did Jesus always hit the bullseye and accomplish what he aimed to do; he never “missed the mark”, he never sinned. He was equipped with holiness and the ability to resist temptation so that he could be our Savior. And just like the sword was in God’s hand, Jesus says that this arrow was always in God’s quiver. It was always at hand and ready to be used.
An adequate amount of blood is supplied to buy viagra for cheap the penile organs of his particular body. To get generic for cialis rid of sexual weakness is, therefore, the most important for man to increase sexual stamina and performance in bed. Caution before taking the drug One should not consume the drug without any difficulty. cialis generico uk loved that Save Money It is important to consider the cost benefits of selling a motorcycle https://unica-web.com/archive/search_for_films_with_queen_eliz.htm sildenafil online pharmacy through various avenues. God had some pretty amazing foresight and planning abilities to equip Jesus with all that he needed to be our Savior, but he also has some pretty amazing things he has done to equip us to fulfill our calling as well. God doesn’t hang us out to dry, but he provides everything we need to be what he has called us to be.
God blesses each and every one of us through the Holy Spirit with the knowledge and abilities necessary for us to live up to our calling. Whether you are a nurse, a mechanic, a farmer, or any other career you can think of, God has prepared you and continually equips you to be what he has called you to be.
After all that training and equipping we sometimes feel like we can take on the world! But so often we eagerly set out to fulfill the calling God has given us and if we don’t see immediate results, we begin to lose faith. We see that pattern throughout scripture. Elijah thought he was the only one left, Peter took one bold step and then began to doubt and sink into the water, Isaiah even once asked God if there was anyone who had believed his message.
In verse 4 of our text we are given the perfect phrase to quiet that doubtful voice in our mind, a phrase that Jesus must have held close to his heart while he walked this earth,
“What is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with God.”
God knows what he’s doing even when it seems like our work is in vain and we are failing in our calling. It might be an uphill struggle at times, but it is never worthless. And our work is never in vain because Jesus’ work wasn’t in vain! He perfectly accomplished his task and gave us new lives to live for him which we can use to spread the message of salvation and forgiveness to all people.
Many of the Jews in Jesus’ day thought the Messiah was only for them, but that would have been far too small a task for all of Jesus’ power. In verse 6 God says to Jesus,
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
God said it was too small of a task for Jesus to only save a small group of people. Jesus wasn’t just the Savior for a few people, but he was the savior for all people. God blessed Jesus with a task worthy of the power with which Jesus had been equipped, and likewise God calls us into roles which require the use of the gifts he has given us.
It’s true that we each have different ways in which we are blessed, and not all of us are leaders, but as Christians we all have one job in common. God has given us the task of spreading his word to the ends of the earth. It would be a waste of our abilities and talents which God has given us if we were to keep his word to ourselves. That is why we have been blessed with the sizable task of spreading the gospel to all people.
Since we all have been given such a wide variety of abilities there are just about an infinite number of ways that we can fulfill that calling. Some will be pastors, some will be teachers. But also, some will be doctors, some will hold down a blue collar job at a factory. No matter what your vocation in life may be there is always a way for you to use your abilities to the glory of God. No one is more important than another, but all the parts of the body of Christ are necessary for it to function properly, even if it sometimes seems like you are just a little toe. It’s often the things that seem the smallest to us that God uses as he leads us. We have an example of that in our own synod’s history.
In 1837 a small German missionary society sent out one man to come to the United States and spread the gospel message. That one man made his way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin around 1850 and began what is today the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Over the last 160+ years our church has grown immensely. We can take pride in our heritage and in the work we do as a church, but don’t let that pride overshadow our leader and the one who holds us together, God’s servant Jesus.
As a synod, or even as Christians in general, we should never grow complacent with where we are at. There is always work to do. So if you ever find yourself wondering, “What am I going to do today?” Remember the words of the prophet Isaiah. Remember your calling, remember that you have been equipped to fulfill that calling, and that you have been given a task in proportion to all the abilities you have been given. Most importantly though, remember that wherever we walk we follow in the footsteps of our Lord who has gone before us. Our Lord who fulfilled his calling as our Savior, who was equipped for that task, and who was blessed with the monumental task of being the world’s savior from sin. To him be all praise and thanks and honor and glory this day and always!
Amen.