Isaiah 29:17–24
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
My sermon is going to be commenting on the Old Testament reading, but to get more context I want to begin earlier in Isaiah 29: The Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…” (Isaiah 29:13). The Lord is talking about the sinful rebellion of His people Israel. They speak God’s Word and they pray to Him, they know His Law and they recite the Psalms, but they have no faith in their hearts, and they worship God with man-made traditions.
“Therefore,” says the Lord, “behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” (Is. 29:14). The Lord is going to judge His people and act upon that judgment. And the wonders that He will bring upon them will be like the wonders He did in Egypt with the plagues. Punishment is coming to Jerusalem—she will be destroyed and her people brought to ruin. And all the wise men, the priests and false prophets and wicked kings—all the ones who thought they could live and do whatever they wanted and not have to answer to God—their “wisdom” will perish.
Next, God directly addresses these sinful people who think they can get away with their sin: Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” (Is. 29:15). They think God has overlooked them, that He doesn’t care. They think they can determine what is best for themselves and ignore God’s Word. And maybe, because they’ve been able to get away with their sin for so long, they think that there is no God at all.
And let’s not kid ourselves, it’s not only ancient Jerusalem that thinks and acts this way. Do you go to church and say your prayers, while in your heart you’re thinking about what you want to do later today? Do you think your ideas for life are better than what the Bible says? Do you think you can hide some part of your life from God? Is there some sin that you keep in the dark and don’t want to confess it? Have you thought or been tempted to think, “Nobody can judge me… not even God.” Repent.
The Lord says: You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? (Is. 29:16). The answer to these rhetorical questions is of course, “No!” But sinful people turn things upside down. We call good things evil and evil things good.We worship creatures rather than the Creator. Even though we are only clay in the Divine Potter’s hands, we think we are something. We have the audacity to claim that God is not our Maker. We have the arrogance to disagree with God and say, “His Word doesn’t work for me.”
This cannot stand in God’s sight. He will put an end to this. So, when God judges and acts He turns things upside down again—that is to say, He turns them right side up. The Lord says, Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? Here God gives us an image of His work: the great forest of Lebanon is subdued and cultivated and turned into a fruitful field producing crops, while a field is left to go wild and become an unproductive forest. This illustrates a key point from our Lord in last week’s Gospel: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14). This is what we call God’s great reversal. The worldly rich and powerful are not saved by their money or political influence. The worldly wise are not saved by their vast amounts of “knowledge.” In the words of Mary’s song, the Lord has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent empty away (Luke 1:52–53).
But, what we see as God’s great reversal is actually His work to restore what is good and true and beautiful. From the perspective of unbelieving sinners, the work of salvation looks like God is the One turning the world upside down. But in truth, He is setting things right that we have put wrong. And so we are told that when the Lord acts: In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. These wonderful works point to the greatest part of God’s great reversal: sinners are declared righteous, and the dead are made alive.
This Day that Isaiah sees, when the deaf and blind are healed and the meek and poor rejoice, that is the day of the Lord’s saving action, or in other words, the Day of Christ. This is not one particular 24-hour day, and it’s not only Judgment Day. But the Day of Christ is that time which encompasses all of Christ’s work: everything from His incarnation through His death and resurrection on up to the Last Day of His return. So, we in the New Testament Church—living in the time between Christ’s first coming and His final coming—we are in that Day. We, who believe in Christ, are the meek and poor who do not enjoy or brag about our sin, but we humble ourselves and rejoice and exult in the Lord. We exult in the Holy One because He makes us holy by His death and blood, and because we have come to hear and see and know the Truth of God.
Sin make us deaf, but the Lord has given us new ears. And the only way this can happen is to have the living God stick His finger in there and hollow out some new ears for you. Like Jesus with the deaf man, the Lord speaks His Word by the mouth of His minister and the Spirit of God gets stuck into your ears, into your mind and heart, to create real hearing. Jesus says, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” (Mark 7:34). The minister says, “I forgive you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” By hearing the Word, the Spirit creates in you real saving faith. And with these new ears, when you listen to the Lord’s Word, you are hearing how things really are. You are learning to know what’s what the way God tells it.
To use the other analogy in our text, sin makes us blind, but the Lord gives us new eyes. By opening our ears and teaching us the Truth of His Word, He reveals reality. With the eyes of faith we can see the world as it really is. Everyone has a “worldview”—that’s the way they think and look at and interact with the world around them. As the redeemed and holy people of God, we should have a Christian worldview. We have eyes that can see past the suffering and death, past the lies of the devil and the unbelieves. We see that for what it is: evil, ugly, and not going to last. And by faith we see the truth and beauty that God has prepared for us.
And now, like the deaf man, once we have our ears opened we can also speak rightly. If we were still deaf to God’s Word, we could never hope to speak what is true, but only spout off our opinions. Only if we are first taught by God’s Word will our tongue be released to speak rightly. And this certainly includes speaking rightly on moral issues, speaking God’s Law in order to condemn sinners and show the kind of good life that God intends for us in His commandments. But our speaking rightly as Christians should always include the Gospel. In fact, the Gospel of Christ and the free forgiveness that it bestows is the chief thing that we speak about. It is at the center of everything we Christians think and say and do. This right speaking, of both the Law and the Gospel, is the true praise of God.
New ears, new eyes, new tongues—right hearing, right seeing, right speaking—this is real enlightenment. Unfortunately, many in our world are not so enlightened (even if they think they are). They are still in ignorant deafness and blindness. God is the Creator and Author of all truth (Biblical truth, scientific truth, historical truth), so without Him even the very best of human knowledge is incomplete, and often misguided. If you don’t know what God says then you don’t know what to think (even if you think you do!). Without God, you only have your sinful opinion. Without His Word you have no way to check if your version of reality really holds up.
The unenlightened are the ruthless, the scoffers, the ones who look for any chance to do evil. They’re the ones who think they’re really smart and Christians are stupid and outdated. And God makes it very clear: the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off. But for now we still must deal with them.
By a word they make a man out to be an offender. That sounds familiar right? So many people are offended by everything, even by the most obvious facts: like boys and girls are different, they do different things, and you can’t decide which one you are. But that is considered offensive. These ruthless enemies of God also lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate. They are constantly on the lookout for Christians who don’t live up to God’s Law, especially church leaders, and they love to see them get caught and put to shame. And with an empty plea these unbelievers turn aside him who is in the right. They cry for their “rights,” which is only their desire to sin, and they attack and take to court those who do what is truly right in God’s eyes.
As Christians, we must contend with these who oppose the God of truth and so also oppose us. We fight for and stand up for the truth, not with swords or fists, but with the Word of God. And they will be overcome. But it will not be our doing that overcomes them. We are not sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God (2 Corinthians 3:5). And this goes for both the ministers and the people. Our wisdom and strength will never defeat them, and our personality and kindliness will never win them over. The Lord and His Word does that.
We look to and listen for the work of the Lord: Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst,they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.” The Lord redeemed us, and He will be the One to take away our shame and our fear. If we continue to rightly hear and rightly see and rightly speak the Truth, then we will be vindicated in the end. We will see the work of His hands—the work of Christ and His Kingdom. Only the work and message of Christ our Savior can cause His people to truly praise and sanctify God’s name. And so also, only the work and message of Christ our Savior can bring true understanding and instruction to us and to all people.
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
