Isaiah promises an unlikely, yet mighty Deliverer.
Isaiah promises an unlikely, yet mighty Deliverer.
Advent Day 16, The Prophecies.
The Old Testament consistently points out two facts.
One, people cannot meet God's holy standards.
Two, God will send the Messiah King, who will fulfill those standards and save people.
Every story from Abraham and Joseph to David and Naaman hints at this reality.
Every prophecy blares it, a little like an 8-bit image being enhanced by a 16 or 64-bit image.
Each prophet, a messenger sent by God with words from God, proclaims justice and mercy, repent, and receive God's mercy, refuse, and receive God's justice.
Some prophets, like Isaiah, give added definition and dimension to their proclamations.
These messages reiterate God's promise.
God will send the Messiah.
What is his name?
Jesus, son of God, and Emmanuel, God with us.
Isaiah, sent by God to speak to God's people, delivers words of judgment.
He also proclaims words of comfort and joy.
Isaiah promises God's Messiah will come and set people free.
The Messiah, though, will not look like a king or a warrior.
He will look like a servant.
If you were to see him, says Isaiah, you would turn away from him if you noticed him at all.
Isaiah 53:2-3 tells us, "For the servant grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not."
In another prophecy, Isaiah says, "The Messiah's servant will act mercifully and justly."
Isaiah 42:2-4 says, "My servant will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.
A bruised reed, he will not break.
In a faintly burning wick, he will not quench.
He will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be discouraged until he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law."
Isaiah's words offer hope and comfort to suffering people, but it is a hope and comfort for which they had to wait.
How do you think they kept waiting on God when they didn't see his promises being fulfilled in their lifetime?
We no longer wait on Isaiah's promise.
God sent his Son into the world, but we wait on God for other things.
What are you waiting on God for in this Advent and Christmas season?
Isaiah demands we recognize the Messiah as the complex person he is.
Jesus is just and merciful, honest and loving.
Jesus is the suffering servant and the victorious King, not one or the other, both.
Why is it important to remember Jesus is both just and merciful, honest and loving, suffering and triumphant?
Isaiah describes Jesus in his complexity in another prophecy in Isaiah 9.
He says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Which of these names or qualities do you need this Advent?
Jesus is all of them.
Ask him to provide what you need for this day. (gentle music) This Wonderful Counselor, though, will not come as a sage.
This Mighty God will not appear as a warrior.
He will come as a child and a son.
In what ways is this a strange yet perfect choice?
The prophets aren't shy about reality.
No one can meet God's holy standard.
No one really tries.
We are all of us like sheep that go astray and go astray again.
But God promises the Messiah servant, and he does what we can't.
The Messiah servant, unlikely and mighty, is the only one who not only meets God's holy standard, but also fills it to the full.
What good news?
The four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, attest to this reality.
They put it on surround sound at full resolution.
When we read their accounts, we behold the Messiah servant, Jesus, come to deliver his people and to set them free.
Matthew regularly shows how Jesus fulfills Old Testament promises.
Luke emphasizes Jesus' compassion for the poor and the brokenhearted.
Mark calls attention to Jesus, the man of action, and John prioritizes Jesus' divinity.
Why is it helpful to read all four Gospels?
Which one would you like to spend more time with this Advent and Christmas?
God is faithful.
He keeps all of his promises.
He sent Jesus the Messiah servant to be born as a baby.
Thank God for Jesus, the child and son we remember and celebrate this Advent. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, Jesus is our unlikely yet mighty Messiah servant.
Thank you for doing things in your strange, yet perfect way and not ours.
We would want a military leader or a powerful king, and yet we get a leader and a king, but he isn't a leader or king of our own making.
Jesus is the Messiah servant who shows mercy and establishes justice.
Teach us to follow his example.
Help us to pursue mercy and justice all the days of our lives.
Amen.