A Feast of Rich Food
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Dearly loved people of God,
Isaiah is a prophet. What does a prophet do?
A prophet brings God’s Word to God’s people. When?
The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
(NIV)
These were the days of the kings. Long, long after the days of King David and King Solomon, but before the days of the Assyrian Empire, before the Babylonian Empire, before the Alexander the Great and the Greek empire, before the Roman Empire. Isaiah was God’s spokesman for 40 years, working roughly 740-700 years before Jesus was born.
Bible scholars refer to this as The Gospel according to Isaiah because many of Isaiah’s comforting messages are fulfilled in Jesus. If every Bible story whispers Jesus’ name, Isaiah shouts!
This passage from is a song of praise. It’s a declaration of commitment. Isaiah waxes eloquent about the covenant relationship God’s people enjoy with the Lord.
Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done wonderful things,
things planned long ago.
(NIV)
Notice how Isaiah uses God’s covenant name as he commits to praising God’s name. What reason does he give?
“You have done wonderful things.”
What example does Isaiah give of God’s wonderful plans?
You have made the city a heap of rubble,
the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
(NIV)
Why is this so wonderful? God is true to his word.
Here’s what I mean: Back in Fredericton, twice a year we took YP on the retreats.
The policy was clear: if you break certain rules; you’ll be sent home at your family’s expense. And yet, when a guy pulled beer from his luggage, there was a discussion among the leaders: do we follow the policy?
Not a nice call to make, but would it be fair to anyone if we didn’t? Threats mean nothing if you don’t follow through . . . so, in the middle of the night, the call was made: Please drive 4 h to pick up your son.
Tough thing to do. It’s much better if people just follow the rules! But guess what? On the next retreat, NOBODY brought beer. Once things sank in, even his parents had respect for the youth leaders.
Isaiah praises God – and invites us to join him – praising God for carrying through on his threats. The Lord earns respect from everyone – in some cases grudging respect – but God earns respect for punishing disobedience. Even ruthless nations revere the Lord for his justice. And so do we.
Watching the news, we love the idea that people who are racist will be held accountable by God. We like it that presidents and leaders who seem more interested in power than justice, leaders who have trouble with truth-telling, humility, and kindness will be held accountable. We like it that God sees every hidden action and punishes every sin.
Bu we don’t need to look outside Canada’s borders. Sometimes we hear about the large number of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada. The details of each missing person’s experience are fully known to God. In the fullness of time, kidnappers and murderers, rapists and accomplices will face the consequences. It’s going to happen.
While it’s very satisfying to think of other wrongdoers being punished, it gets uncomfortable when you recognize that you’re the one doing wrong. It’s part of the gospel message – the message we focussed on last week, the gospel that makes the Lord’s Supper a celebration of God’s grace.
When we hear from the Bible what righteousness looks like, we see that we don’t measure up. Not coveting: not only refusing to wish I had the nice house, family, car, the nice fill-in-the-blank that someone else does, but being truly happy for them that God entrusted such nice stuff to them.
Contentment with our lot and happiness for God’s gifts to other people . . . some days it’s tough. I don’t measure up.
As we have seen and celebrated, God holds people accountable for our wrongdoing. The consequence for sin is death and damnation. Even our best efforts cannot make up for the failures. We need help
The gospel according to Isaiah, shows us the good news of God’s mercy and love. He has provided a substitute to bear the punishment for our sin. He made a way to redeem people from sin and death. Did you notice the reference to God swallowing up death forever, in the passage we read?
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away
the tears from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
(NIV)
This is cool! 700 years before Jesus came, Isaiah stood on Mt Zion – the hill where Jerusalem is built – and brought God’s promise that death will be destroyed and his people’s disgrace will be removed. With the benefit of hindsight, we see how Jesus fulfilled this promise.
What is a shroud? – a burial cloth. It’s the name for the sheet cover a dead body before body bags were invented.
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
Jesus defeated death because he, a perfectly holy human was condemned to die. He went to the cross to die for the sin of humankind. In his crucifixion and death, God the Father put the punishment for sin on Jesus. By rising from the tomb on the third day, Jesus demonstrated that death and sin had been completely defeated. Exactly as the Lord said through Isaiah, death was defeated on the mountain of Jerusalem.
By forgiving our sin and reaching out to us with grace instead of punishment, the Lord God has brought comfort and joy. He has drawn us close to himself.
Like a parent lifts their sobbing child onto their knee and wipes away their tears, so “the Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.” It’s a comforting image; a phrase that gets repeated several times in the Bible. Maybe the best known example is in (NIV)
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Knowing that our sin is forgiven and our relationship with God is restored – we gain comfort and confidence for today.
Knowing that death has been defeated gives us confidence as we age, confidence as we grieve for the death of people we love. Jesus gives life – abundant, everlasting life with our Creator – to all who put their faith in him. Is there any reason you wouldn’t put your faith in God and his promises?
Seeing the way God fulfilled the promises he made through Isaiah also gives us confidence to come to the Lord’s Supper Table. It’s true that our guilt is very great. But the grace that we gain in Christ is greater still.
On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
(NIV)
A banquet! God is eager to eat and drink with his people. The shroud that cut us off from God has been removed in Christ!
We can gather around the Lord’s Supper table with Isaiah’s words of praise on our lips.
Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done wonderful things,
things planned long ago.
(NIV)
One of the ways we praise God and testify to his grace is by eating and drinking at his Table. Our very participation is a profession of our faith. One of the apostles put it this way,
Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
(NIV)
By eating and drinking at the Lord’s Table, we proclaim and celebrate the way that Jesus died and rose again so that sin and death could be defeated. Through Christ we’ve been rescued from a sinful path that led to death. Our feet have been steered onto the path of life; a life lived with God and for the praise of Jesus’ glory.