Hope Has Come
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Turn with me in your Bibles to Isaiah 62:6-12. This advent season we have been dwelling in the book of Isaiah, who was a prophet who lived about 700 years before Christ Jesus was born. Isaiah was preaching about a future reality to a people who were experiencing a tremendous amount of turmoil. They have been led by evil kings for decades, and finally a good king came along for a while but then he tragically died. Powerful neighboring nations were trying to either destroy them or demand exorbitant amounts of tribute from them. Do they fight and die or pay and starve?
While we may not be facing the same kind of decisions, we do know a little about turmoil, don’t we? We have experienced turmoil in our families through broken relationships, illness, and death this year. We’ve experienced turmoil in our world because of covid wreaking havoc in peoples lives and businesses and schools, natural disasters like the tornadoes in Kentucky, and we have seen political upheaval in many parts of our world. In the midst of all this turmoil, what hope do we have? Even in the midst of dark days and times of turmoil, our Hope is in the Lord who has Come.
Listen as I read Isaiah 62:6-12
6 I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, 7 and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. 8 The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain as food for your enemies, and never again will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled; 9 but those who harvest it will eat it and praise the Lord, and those who gather the grapes will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.” 10 Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. 11 The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’” 12 They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.
Let’s pray.
Isaiah gave this message to the people of Israel when they were experiencing trouble all around them. His message rings true for us today, too. What do we do when we are surrounded by trouble? When life is hard and the days are dark? Where do we find hope when it seems hopeless?
A couple weeks ago our youngest, Theodore, came down with hand foot and mouth. It’s a virus that you cannot cure or even really treat. You just have to wait for it to end. Theodore had what is considered a mild case, thankfully, but there were still several nights and days when he cried because it hurt to eat and drink because of the sores in his throat. Tylenol did just enough to bring his fever down to manageable, but the poor baby wanted nothing but to be in mommas arms. He wouldn’t even nurse the pain was too much.
I can tell you looking back at that time that it was not hopeless. But after 3 nights of almost no sleep, pacing around with a screaming baby, that sleep-deprived Kimberly certainly felt a little hopeless. We might also be able to blame that on the utter exhaustion, but my thoughts were not light and cheerful. I was most worried about the fact that he wouldn’t nurse. I cried. I cried out of exhaustion and pain. I cried and called the on call nurse. She wasn’t very helpful. I cried out to God. And He actually reminded me of a resource that I had forgotten about: the la leche league! I reached out to the local mentor and finally got some very helpful advice about how to help Theodore get back to nursing and sleeping again. My soul and body felt such relief. There is nothing quite like worrying over the health of your child and seeing them thrive again.
Have you felt hopeless at all this year? Have there been moments, even fleeting ones, where it seemed like nothing was going to work out? Or things couldn’t possibly get worse and then somehow they actually did get worse? Have you cried out for help? Cried out to God?
Isaiah spoke a message to the people of Israel who were experiencing great turmoil. Their situation seemed hopeless. What Isaiah does is not what we would usually expect in such a situation. He doesn’t offer any platitudes. He doesn’t say “it will be ok” or “things will get better.” He actually encourages the people to pray. But this is not the kind of vending machine prayer we often think about where you put in a “please” or an “in Jesus name” and out comes your answer. Isaiah tells the people to not stop calling on God. Give yourself no rest. He also says they are to give God no rest. A closer reading of the Hebrew here says they are to “cause God to remember.” Cause God to remember! Remember what he has already done. Remember what he has already promised. At this point in Israel’s history God had done a LOT. He had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. He had established them as a nation in the promised land. He had rescued them over and over and provided for them repeatedly. They knew what he could do.
Do you know what happens when we remind God of what He has done? We remind ourselves. And when we remember what God has done, it increases our faith. Praying this way, causing God to remember, is one of the best ways to increase our hope. When things seem hopeless, pray without ceasing, reminding God of what He has done and promised to do. And Isaiah shows us here that God responds with hope. The things you have worked so hard to see become a reality will be yours. Hope is here.
Isaiah calls on the people to pray and to prepare. Prepare the way for the nations. One of the promises that Isarel was holding on to was the promise that one day all the nations would come to Jerusalem to worship because they would all recognize that there is One God, the God of Israel. When all the nations around you are trying to kill you, this doesn’t seem like a very likely promise to come true. But in their dark moment, when it seemed like everything was hopeless, God reminded them of this crazy big dream. Some day, all the nations will come here to Jerusalem, to worship. So GET READY! You’ve prayed and reminded God of what he has done and what he has promised. Get ready to see it fulfilled! Build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. Make the way smooth, easy for them. Remove whatever is in the way. Raise a banner for the nations – let them know you are expecting them. This is hospitality with hope! Preparing for what is not yet as though any moment it might walk through that door.
You as a congregation did this for us, for me and my family. You made sure the house was ready for us even though you had no idea if a pastor would be appointed to this church. In faith and with hope you prepared and made the way smooth for us. When God called us here, you were ready for us to come. So I believe God is inviting us to do the same thing. As a congregation and as the worldwide church. Let’s make the way smooth and the way easy and the invitation clear and welcoming for the nations, for Cortland, for our neighbors to come and worship. That is what I am praying and believing for.
When life seems hopeless and full of turmoil, first pray in such a way that your faith and hope has a chance to grow. Like blowing on a little ember until a flame appears, pray yourself hot and on fire for God because of who He is and what He has done. When your faith and hope have increased, then get ready!!! This is HOPE! Even before things are happening, even before the enemy has been vanquished and before the nations come to worship, prepare. Pray and prepare.
Finally, at the end of this passage, God speaks some amazing words over his people. He invites them to rejoice because the savior has come. This is Jesus! Jesus has come and that is what we celebrate on Christmas. Hope has arrived in Jesus Christ. Then God goes on to speak this overwhelmingly beautiful blessing over his people. He declares that they will be called these four things: Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord, Sought After, and the City No Longer Deserted. That word “deserted” can also be translated “Forsaken.” These are remarkable things to hear in light of how the people of Israel were acting at this time. They weren’t particularly holy. They kept worshipping other gods and pushing back against God’s laws and doing things their own way. They were not sought after because of their value, rather they were consistently being threatened because they were considered unvaluable by the nations around them. And all of this together made it seem as though God had forsaken them.
Into this hopelessness, God through Isaiah calls on them to pray and prepare. Then he invites them to receive a tremendous blessing…a blessing of hope. They will be called Holy. It will be obvious to the world that they are set apart and reflect the holiness of God. They will be redeemed. Redemption means taking something that has no value and making it valuable. We redeem pop cans when they are empty and get money in return. Those pennies are not a lot of money, but those cans have been redeemed! Jesus redeemed us when he died on the cross and rose again. Satan had declared us worthless and Jesus paid the price so that we could be called Holy, Redeemed, no longer worthless. No longer ignored. Sought After. Not Forsaken. These are words of Hope.
When things seem hopeless, pray without ceasing, reminding God of what He has done and promised. When things seem hopeless, pray until your hope increases. And then prepare! Get Ready for what God will do next because he’s going to make good on those promises you just reminded him about. And then receive the good words of hope from God. Your savior has come! Hope is Here! You who trust in Him are Holy. You ARE Holy, Redeemed, Sought After, and Not Forsaken.