Isaiah 41-42 - Here is My Servant!

Opening thought:  Ever heard someone say, “I’m so scared about this I don’t want to know anything about it.” That is the situation we have in today’s passage.

Contextual Notes: Let’s set up the stage for today’s passage with a thumbnail of how things happened. There was David, Israel’s greatest king. Then there was David’s son, Solomon, Israel’s wisest and wealthiest king. Then things fell apart Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. In some ways Israel’s most foolish king, the nation split along tribal lines. Ten northern tribes seceded and formed the nation of Israel, leaving the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to form the nation of Judah with Jerusalem as its capital.

A people called Assyria, based in what is today’s northern Iraq, had dominated much of the Middle East. In 722 B.C., the idolatrous northern Israel fell to the Assyrians, and they were deported to another part of their empire. Then a new kingdom was arising, the Babylonians, from today’s southern Iraq. They took the world stage under Nebuchadnezzar and destroyed the southern kingdom of Judah, the city of Jerusalem, and the Temple in 586 B.C., hauling off the important people into the Exile, people like Ezekiel and Daniel.

Then Persia arose, from what is today’s Iran, and on the night that King Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall, the Persians breached Babylon’s walls, destroyed their empire, and became the superpower of the ancient world. The Persian leader was named Cyrus, and it was Cyrus who issued the decree in 539 B.C. for the Jews to go home to their Land – to end the Exile.

What is amazing about today’s passage is that Isaiah is living and preaching while the Assyrians are in power, before the Babylonian empire, and certainly before anyone had ever heard of Cyrus of Persia – 150 years before, but he names Cyrus by name.

We are now into the second half of Isaiah’s prophecy, and it began with chapter 40 and a theme of comfort. Where Isaiah is going with the idea of comfort is to tell them that, yes, Babylon will be God’s instrument of punishment for Judah, but take comfort. God will send a man named Cyrus to destroy Babylon (chapters 46-47).

That theme of comfort provides the context for chapter 41 where God Himself speaks to the nations for Israel’s comfort. The scene is a courtroom where the Lord is the injured party, the prosecutor, and the judge (41:1), and he describes the stunning rise of Cyrus of Persia. The Lord says he is behind Cyrus’ rise to power (41:2-7), and Israel should not be in fear (41:8-10) because Israel’s enemies will be put to shame (41:11-16) and her desperate need met by God (41:17-20). The gods of the nations are powerless and false (41:21-24), because only the Lord has the power to predict the future (41:25-29). The rise of Cyrus, even boldly naming him, mentioned here, is 150 years in the future as Isaiah prophesies.

But the real star of the show comes in chapter 42.

Pray and Read:  Isaiah 41-42

Key Truth: Isaiah wrote Isaiah 41-42 to teach Israel not to fear tomorrow or embrace blindness, but to trust the strength of God’s Servant-Messiah.

Key Application: Today I want to show you what God’s Word says about rejecting fear and blindness and embracing Christ’s strength.

Sermon Points:

1. Do not trust your fears – Trust His Strength (Isaiah 41)
2. Do not embrace blindness – Embrace My Servant! (Isaiah 42)

Exposition:   Note well,

1.   DO NOT TRUST YOUR FEARS – TRUST HIS STRENGTH (Isaiah 41)

a.   41:1 – The courtroom (Heb. rib). These courtroom scenes present God’s case against evildoers and to announce divine judgment, both seen in this chapter. Verse 41:1 is similar to 1:2 and 34:1 in God summons ‘all nations’ to hear what is said. The islands are the countries farthest away. God calls the idols of Babylon to testify (41:21-24) and announces the rise of Cyrus as a judgment on Babylon (44:24-28).

b.   APPLICATION: As intercessors, we can stand in that courtroom and plead the case before Him. An incredible thing about this trial system is that if someone will stand and repent for the sin, God’s judgment will be allayed. Are you using that privilege to plead the case of your nation? Your family? An unreached people group?

c.   42:2-7 – It was Cyrus the Persian who was called ‘from the east’ to service by the Lord (45:1). He overthrew the Babylonian Empire and issued the decree that permitted the Jews to return to their homeland (end of 2 Kings, Ezra 1). He was God’s servant for fulfilling God’s will in accomplishing these two jobs. (cf. 41:4 & Revelation 22:13). Yet even facing God’s imminent judgment, the nations prefer to take refuge in idolatry, even though they made the idols with their own hands and are so powerless that the idols need to be nailed down to keep them from toppling over (41:5-7). But Israel, the descendants of Jacob and Abraham, God’s friend, are to act differently (41:8). And Paul says in Galatians 3 that we who are in Christ as spiritual descendants of Abraham.

d.   APPLICATION: When you are under pressure, under duress, under stress, where is your refuge? Is it an iPod? Is it your beach home? Is it a person? Is it a hobby? Is it a Xanax? Is it nicotine? Is it 80 or 100 proof? Is it porn? Is it food? Be careful. Where you run for refuge when the pressure hits hard will indicate your spiritual state. Are you running for refuge to Jesus? Hebrews 2:18 tells us that because Christ himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able (literally boetheo) to run to the cry of those who are being tempted.

e.   If you have no allegiance to Christ Jesus, then make anything you want an idol. Isaiah says it is something you made with your own hands and if you don’t nail it down, it can’t keep itself from falling over. But if you call yourself a believer in Jesus, your first and only place of refuge should be Him alone. Psalm 91:1-2 says that “he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Such a believer “will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Is that true of you? If not, why not?

f.    41:8 – My servant. In Isaiah, avdi, my servant, points up two things: God’s choice and the fulfillment of a divinely appointed task. Israel is God’s servant but falls short of completing the mission. Isaiah will reveal in the next chapter that God will send another Servant, the Messiah, to accomplish the mission God has for him. Yet even though Israel fell short, they remained “my servant.”

g.   APPLICATION: God does not discard us when we fail, but remains committed to us in love.

h.   41:10 – The Key verse: Do not be afraid, cf. 41:13-14.

i.     41:10 – power, strength. Here for the second time Isaiah’s emphasis on comfort is centered in God’s commitment to strengthen and help his people (41:28-31). These words allude to God’s great acts: Creation, the Flood, and Israel’s redemption from Egypt.

j.    41:14 – Worm. That little worm Israel will overcome. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:6-10) and Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) were acutely aware of this status, but that worm with God’s help can destroy mountains (41:15-16; Matthew 21:21 – “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.”). Our modern worship of self-esteem has changed these words in our hymnbook, but the original, and more biblically correct wording of the hymn is, “Alas! and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?”

k.   41:16 – Rejoice. They are not to fear. They are to rejoice. Philippians 4:4

l.     41:26 – from the beginning. The phrase emphasizes God’s end-time purposes even in Creation and as history unfolds. God began with the end in mind. He is not a deistic God who wound the clock and left it to run down. From the beginning he has been working a plan and purpose to carry out, and history unfolds according to his grand, eternal design.

m. APPLICATION:  God controls the course of history and the rise and fall of nations. Even pagan nations serve God’s purposes. Tomorrow’s wars hold no terrors for those God has chosen for his own. You have trusted God with your eternal soul. Trust him with your tomorrow as well.

2.   DO NOT EMBRACE BLINDNESS – EMBRACE MY SERVANT! (Isaiah 42)

a.   42:1-9 – Here is the first of the famous “servant songs” (others are 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). On the face, the servant is Cyrus (42:6; 45:13), but he is a type of a king who will come suddenly with great power in the future. The perfect, coming servant is neither Cyrus nor Israel, but the Messiah, through whom God will establish justice on earth (42:1-8).

b.   How do we know? Matthew 12:18-21 specifically applies 42:1-9 to Christ.

                i.    This Servant is chosen by God (42:1; Mark 1:9-11).

              ii.    He will bring justice to the nations, even the far distant islands (42:1, 2-3, 4).

            iii.    He is a light for the Gentiles (42:6-7; Matthew 28:19; Acts 10:28).

             iv.    He will not falter, but is faithful (42:4; 53:7)

               v.    He represents the Creator (42:5-6; language similar to Genesis 1:1; 2:7)

             vi.    He represents YHWH (42:8-9; Exodus 3:14-15; Jesus claimed this John 14:6-7).

c.   42:1-3 – My Spirit. These opening verses emphasize servanthood and the endowment with the Holy Spirit. He is so humble and sensitive that even those whom society has rejected as of no value (bruised reeds and flax) are worth saving for Him.

d.   APPLICATION: Anyone who serves God must (a) have a desire to do so, (b) remain humble before others and dependent on the Lord, (c) be committed to winning others release from sin’s grip, (d) accept personal suffering, and (e) rely completely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and strength.

e.   42:1 – These servant songs clearly depict the Messiah, who will bring salvation and righteousness to this world. The servant songs emphasize Messiah’s humility and his being set aside for a special mission. In Israel, it is linked with the high priesthood and the king, the son of David who will take His throne at the end of history and rule and eternal kingdom (Psalm 2:2; 18:50; 84:9; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17; Isaiah 9:7; 11:1-5).

f.    APPLICATION: How awesome that the greatest of all stooped down and suffered for us. He set aside his crown for a cross so that when he takes up the crown again we might rule and reign with him.

g.   42:9-13 – Proper Response to The Servant: Praise. He stimulates God’s people to praise (42:9-13). He is about to act (42:13). After a time of silence (such as the Exile) the Lord will intervene on behalf of his people (42:14-15). He will heal the blindness and deafness (42:16-20; 6:10; 29:18). God is like a pregnant woman in labor (42:14-17) while Israel is blind and deaf to God’s purposes, unable to fulfill the role of servant (42:18-25). But because God is faithful, they will come to know the Messiah as their Savior and Redeemer because God loves them (43:1-7).

h.   42:21-25 – Pay close attention – Isaiah recognizes that Israel brought their coming discipline and judgment on themselves through their sin. These sufferings are to teach them to pay close attention in the future when God speaks (42:23). They need to hear the message of redemption which is coming in chapter 43.

i.    APPLICATION:  Are you paying attention to what is going on? Are you paying attention to what God is doing in our nation? Are you paying attention to what God is doing in your church? Are you paying attention to what God is doing in your family? Are you paying attention to what God is doing in you? What exactly is he doing in you?

Invitation:

Perhaps he is doing something in you that needs a response from you. We don’t offer invitations to make the preacher feel good or for the congregation to gauge how good the sermon or service was. We give invitations so that you can respond to the Word that has been planted in you in the last half hour. The question is, are you going to respond to what the Holy Spirit’s work in you right now? Or will you be disobedient to his tender leading? What will you do?

Oct. 3 at Union Church

Please share with your friends.

Steak and Stanley

Daddy with his grand-girls, newborn Lily, Rachel, and Ava-Grace

I miss my Daddy.

He lives about five hours away, and he was here after our newest, Lily Catherine, was born in the spring. He turned 69 this past week, and I enjoyed hearing him talking on the phone for what seemed like forever to our two oldest, ages 5 and 3.

He still works full-time because Bowater laid him off at Christmas 1997 after 27 years of loyalty, and, conveniently for them, he lost a lot of his retirement. But he's never sounded bitter about it. These days he helps manage a saw mill in Hodges, SC, producing furniture-grade lumber that gets shipped to the North Carolina furniture market.

Every Saturday night growing up, Daddy tried to make sure our family had steak off the charcoal grill. Sometimes when times were not the best we had grilled chicken or grilled hamburger, but he always wanted to grill us steaks.

Along with the steaks, we watched Charles Stanley on WGGS-TV Channel 16, at 6pm. This was back in the days when you had to walk over to the TV and turn the channel on the set and arrange the antenna in such a way that you minimized the fuzz on the screen.

We would eat steak, and Charles Stanley would preach. Good days.

Daddy taught me how to grill a steak over charcoal, and he was a grilling purist. There never were any gas cylinders in our house. Whenever I grill or smoke some meat, I enjoy it when the cooking produces a good smoke. It's a comforting smell for me, because the smell puts me back on Daddy's back porch with him grilling, sitting with him and talking and laughing and waiting for Steak and Stanley.

It's in these days of working long hours, trying to be a good husband, and figure out this daddy-ing thing myself that I am really missing my Daddy. (And I am not nearly as good a daddy to my kids as he was to me. I'm selfish. He never was.) He can't come see us because of his work (the saw mill only takes vacation the week of the Fourth), and his knees hurt him to ride so far, too.

I can't really go to see him. Pastoring is presence-intensive. You have to be around to do the job, because you get calls, and sometimes it seems they come whenever you plan to do something like go see your Daddy. It's been nearly a year since we've been to Clinton.

Yesterday I stood with a man in an ICU in Wilson, NC, while he watched his daddy dying. The effects of death were taking hold on his body, and I wondered what kind of relationship they had had during the years.

I had a good one. My Daddy is the best, most unselfish, most giving man I know in this old world.

And today I'm missing him a little bit more than usual.

Isaiah 40 - Comfort My People

Opening thought:  Ever had someone tell you to get out of your comfort zone? Those who say that want you to get out of your complacency, drop the laziness, get moving, do something you’ve never done before, try something risky. In today’s passage, Isaiah encourages us to find a real comfort zone and get in it – a different kind of comfort zone – a comfort zone of anticipation of our coming King, a comfort zone of celebration of a sovereign Lord, a comfort zone where the universe’s Creator desires a close relationship person to person with you, a comfort zone of strength and renewal that comes from the Savior. What a great day, and what a great passage of Scripture. Let’s read together Isaiah 40.

Pray and Read:  Isaiah 40

Contextual Notes:

Today we launch the second half of Isaiah’s incredible prophecy. The fortieth chapter of Isaiah is a famous one by itself. G.F. Handel powerfully set many of these verses to music. And Isaiah 40 begins the second of two sections of Isaiah’s prophecy. Chapters 1-35 announce a coming judent on the earth and a coming Messiah who can rescue all who call on him. Chapters 36-39 serve as a pivot for Isaiah’s work, proving God’s commitment to his people, his faithfulness despite their unfaithfulness. Notice that there is no mention of the coming Exile to Babylon, when the nation was hauled away from the land for disobedience and the land was desolate. Chapters 40-66 give us a comforting vision of the coming future and the coming Messiah who will make that vision reality.

In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Kings (our 1 & 2 Kings), which comes just before Isaiah, narrates the building and then decline of Jerusalem and the Davidic line. Then Isaiah 1 portrays a sick Israel with a ruined Jerusalem, but in chapter 2, Jerusalem is restored and becomes the capital of the world with a descendant of David on the throne. In chapters 36-39, Jerusalem is attacked, but God protects her and preserves Hezekiah, the heir of David’s line. In 40:2, Jerusalem’s pain is over and comfort has come through a Shepherd (like David). At the end of Isaiah (65:17-19), Isaiah envisions a new heavens, a new earth, and a New Jerusalem.

At the beginning of Isaiah (1:4), Israel is a nation mired in transgression (chatat), but at the beginning of this section, her transgression has been paid for (40:2). In the song of praise at the end of the first segment of Isaiah (12:1), the nation is comforted by forgiveness of its sin, a foreshadowing of the tender comfort of 40:1-2.

Key Truth: Isaiah wrote Isaiah 40 to teach Israel that comfort is found in the Messiah who is a sovereign Shepherd, an incomparable Creator, and a strengthening Savior.

Key Application: Today I want to show you what God’s Word says about knowing Christ’s comfort.

Sermon Points:

1. Comfort is found in a Sovereign Shepherd (Isaiah 40:1-11)
2. Comfort is found in an Incomparable Creator (Isaiah 40:12-26)
3. Comfort is found in the Strengthening Savior (Isaiah 40:27-31)

Exposition:   Note well,

1.   COMFORT IS FOUND IN A SOVEREIGN SHEPHERD (Isaiah 40:1-11)

a.   40:1-2 – “Comfort!” Isaiah’s opening cry is “Comfort, comfort my people.” The original word for comfort is naham, meaning ‘console.’ It is a deeply emotional word, overflowing with concern and pity. In chapters 1-35, Isaiah has cried out against the spiritual insensitivity of his generation and warned of devastating consequences. But God’s love for Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem has never changed or weakened. In the Exile, God made an example of the nation that was commissioned as his representative (Deut. 4:5-8, 23-24), but they cry out in exile for the grace proclaimed by Isaiah 40:1-2 (Ezra 9:6-8; Neh. 1:5-10; 9; Daniel 9). Now Isaiah speaks to the remnant, the shaken survivors, to comfort and console them, to announce to them their forgiveness. God’s commitment to his own never changes. Notice that comfort is repeated twice (40:1) to balance the double punishment for sin. God is the one who shows mercy (40:2).

b.   APPLICATION: Perhaps today you find yourself in the shaken survival of the ravages of sin in your life. Are you in need of a comfort zone? Are the winds blowing so hard you wonder, ‘what next?’ Christ brings comfort, but you must be willing for him to embrace you with his consolation. Won’t you let him forgive you? Won’t you forgive yourself? Comfort is found on the other side. As believers who have been forgiven, we have been called to a ministry and mission of comforting others (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

c.   40:3-5 – Highway in the desert. The exiles hear a herald’s voice ordering a highway to be built in the desert (40:3). The desert often is a symbol of God’s punishment and desolation (34:8-15; Numbers 32:13), but it has also been a place of discovering or returning to God (Exodus 3:1-2; Hosea 2:14) or even of testing and empowerment by God (Matthew 4; Luke 4; Israel in Wilderness; Paul-Galatians 1:17-18). The herald comes calling for a new exodus from Babylon (Exodus 16:10). It will be a smooth road (40:4) paved by a Messiah (35:8-10). The gospel writers saw this passage applied to the role of John the Baptizer, preparing the way for the coming of Christ (Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23). The coming of God brings deliverance for his people and brings God’s glory (40:5).

d.   APPLICATION: There are deserts in our lives. They are inevitable. You might be there. Some of us through sin put ourselves into the desolate place of the desert. A herald is calling you out, and like John’s message, it is one of repentance. You must turn away from your sin and choose to walk with Christ. “Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling O sinner, come home.” Are you listening? He has provided a smooth road out through the person and work of the Messiah, the Highway of Holiness Himself (35:8), Jesus Christ.

e.   Some of us are placed in the desert for testing and empowerment. God put you in that desert – not because he is mean, but because he has high aspirations for you. You have been appointed to display his glory, and the desert is where the dross is burned off so that you can shine. It is the desolation of soul that drives you to crave the living water of the Holy Spirit (John 3) and the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ (John 6). When the desert times come in your Christian life, what do you do? The same thing every sinner does. You get close to Christ. You seek Him. You pursue Him. You abandon all for Him. You are there for the purpose of greater intimacy with the result of greater empowerment for the work he has called you to do for His glory.

f.    40:6-9 – The Word. God has a plan, and it will be carried out. Despite man’s brief wisp of a life (Psalm 103:15; Genesis 2:7), the “Word of our God stands” as utterly reliable (40:8; 25:1). It has eternal value. Therefore, the message of salvation can be proclaimed with confidence, from a high mountain (40:9). This mission, entrusted to the people of the Messiah (Genesis 28:14; John 4:22), fully accomplished by the Messiah on the Cross (“It is finished”), is now been given as a Great Commission to the Body of Messiah, the Church (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15).

g.   APPLICATION: In the last generation among Southern Baptists, there was a battle royal over the inerrancy of Scripture, whether the Bible had errors in it. Why was that battle important? Because if we cannot trust the Word of God, then we cannot trust its message of salvation through Christ. If it is not all equally inspired, fully inspired, and inerrantly inspired, it is not inspired to the point for us to trust our eternal destiny on it to point us to Christ.

h.   40:10-11 – Sovereign Lord. The names of God are a key to the second half of Isaiah. Sovereign Lord is ‘adonay YHWH.’ The first word is an intensive form of Master or Lord. In the OT, it is used only of God, and it emphasizes his greatness, ultimate power, and rule (a strong, muscular man (Exodus 6:6; Psalm 79:11). YHWH is the personal name of God, built off the Hebrew word, ‘to be.’ It emphasizes God’s personal presence with his people. These two names put together is significant. They link Power and Love, transcendence and intimacy. What a God we have, so great the universe can hardly reflect some of His glory and so tender and loving toward you and me that he pursues us for a close relationship. Then to emphasize the character of the Messiah, he is not only a strong, muscular Man, but he is a tender Shepherd (Psalm 23; John 10:11), like his father David (1 Samuel 16).

i.    APPLICATION: You have an Almighty Messiah who is a gentle shepherd who stands ready to welcome you into comfort, into peace, into contentment. The mountains that stand in our way are nothing in his sight. They melt at his powerful Word. The demons who assail you are completely powerless at the mere breath of the Lord. When will you trust him with the mountain in front of you? When will you repent and forgive and ask Him to remove the enemy from your life?

2.   COMFORT IS FOUND IN AN INCOMPARABLE CREATOR (Isaiah 40:12-26)

a.   40:12-17 – The greatness of this Strongman Shepherd is celebrated in this poem of his immense power and wisdom (40:12-17; Job 38-39). It speaks of the wonders of His creation by asking questions about God that open the way to a mature and thoughtful faith.

b.   ILLUSTRATION: I’ve been told in a deacons meeting at another church I pastored that, “We don’t need to learn nothing. We don’t need teaching. We need preaching.”

c.   APPLICATION: Brothers and sisters, there is no way to preach the Bible with any stripe of integrity without teaching the Body of Christ something along the way. Many in our churches are still childish. They don’t want Bible teaching. They are unwilling to study the Word. They want some pabulum shouted at them from a pulpit, some mantra with an ounce of truth that is more akin to a poor side show at a county fair than anything actually related to vital, growing Christianity. They want some pitiful form of free entertainment, but at heart they are rebellious and desire to appear religious rather than actually develop a vital relationship with the Lord. God pushes us to use our minds and our intellectual capacities to their fullest in calling us to reflect on the wonders he has made (Proverbs 1:1-7).

d.   40:15-20 – He is incomparable. Compared to the greatness of God, the nations are insignificant (40:15, 17). All the cedars of Lebanon are not sufficient to burn an offering the size the Lord deserves (40:16). Twice we are asked, “To whom or to what will you compare Him?” (40:18, 25). Both times the answers underline our inability to comprehend God fully. Human artistic efforts of deity are ridiculous (40:19-20). The idolator fashions an idol that will not topple, but we serve a God who balances the heavens like a canopy (40:21-22). Instead of foolish idolatry or trust in men and governments, we should contemplate and meditate on God’s creation (40:26; Romans 1:20).

e.   40:21-26 – Create. Isaiah says creation demonstrates God’s greatness. He made all things, sustains all things, rules all things (v. 21-25). The word for create, ‘bara’,’ is used only of God in the Qal stem as a technical theological term. Rather than simply “make something out of nothing,” bara’ means to initiate an object or project. The use of this word, (echoing Genesis 1-2), points up a great fact. There are certain things that only God can do. He alone could fabricate the material universe and set natural process in motion. Only He could shape male and female in His image and launch the human race. He alone could initiate time, set history on its course, and guide its development and progress. He alone is able to give existence to the world and new life to you and me. He alone can take sinful man’s character and create in us a new heart. He alone was qualified and able to forge an unbreakable covenant, the Son with the Father, on the Cross at Calvary, and He alone therefore could be the first one permanently raised from the dead. He alone is able to renew the universe, purge it of all evil, and initiate a new heaven and earth at the culmination of history. This is the Holy One of Israel whom Isaiah presents to us. This is the person of the Messiah to whom we give praise.

f.    Colossians 1:16-20: ¹⁶For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

g.   APPLICATION: At some point in your life you are going to get to the point where you will have to admit that you cannot handle everything on your own. You do not have the resources within yourself to handle everything life throws at you. Where will you turn then? A wise man, a wise woman will look to the only One who can handle every mess we work up for ourselves. So when are you going to let him take control of your life and make something out of it? Christian, when are you going to stop living like an atheist, stop relying on yourself for every responsibility and expectation that is before you? When are you going to run to the Lord and cast your cares on him (1 Peter 5:8)?

3.   COMFORT IS FOUND IN A STRENGTHENING SAVIOR (Isaiah 40:27-31)

a.   Since the Lord is so great, does he even have time for you and me? (40:27). But we should not be tempted in difficulty to become discouraged (40:27). God’s knowledge is infinite and he does not grow weary (40:28). If we will place our hope in the Lord, we will have strength to endure (40:29-31; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

b.   Colossians 2:6-7, 9-10 – ⁶So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, ⁷rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁹For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

c.   APPLICATION: The great power and mighty strength of 40:26, used throughout the OT to emphasize the ultimate power and strength of Messiah, flow into and enable you and me through a personal relationship with Him. So what about you? Do you have access to that ultimate power and strength found only in Christ Jesus? If you were to die this afternoon and pass into eternity, how certain are you that you would be in Jesus’ presence? You CAN have that confidence, you know. Many of the people in this room know that assurance of salvation. Do you? You’ve sat here listening for weeks or months or years, but are you sure about your eternal future?

Invitation: Will you come today to your Sovereign Shepherd? Will you respond to your Incomparable Creator? Will you give your life today to a Savior who can give you strength?

1,500 and beyond

"I'll light the way fer ye!"

A friend told me she discovered this blog this past week, and she wished she hadn't, because it is taking a lot of valuable time from her at work! The 'Sunday in the South' blog passed 1,500 posts this week, and it's time for a few suggestions to help you get the most out of this blog without getting fired.

First, you will not have to worry about missing a post anymore if you subscribe to 'Sunday in the South.' Some of you read these posts on Facebook or in other places, so if you are not using a feed reader, simply go to the blog at http://genebrooks.blogspot.com, look on the top left and enter your email address to get one email a day with every post in the past 24 hours.

Second, if you want to look at what is already on the blog, scroll down the left column to 'LABELS." There the categories are in order by volume. Pick a category that interests you, and it will filter all the posts related to that topic. You can also look at what was published in a particular month by looking at 'BLOG ARCHIVE' just below 'Labels.' 

Now that this blog has passed 1,500, there will soon be an occasional new category called "I remember," a post about a memory that comes to me that week. Hope you enjoy it.

Churches and the lending industry

An article from Christian Century came across my screen today asking, in light of the banking and securities debacles of recent years, which banking and investment institutions should churches do business with. 

Good question: Should churches base their banking choices on the best deal they can get (stewardship), or should they consider the moral background, financial practices, and perhaps the causes they fund, in their financial decisions? 

Following is an excerpt from the article.

Given our practically inescapable participation in an interest-based economy, the relevant question may not be "Should Christians loan at interest?" but "What would it look like today to participate in lending and borrowing in such a way that it served human good and benefited all parties involved?" Such a question might, in fact, lead us to more radical proposals for social change than would come from simply rejecting capitalism from the sidelines.

Despite his reputation for giving a Christian blessing to capitalism, John Calvin was quite candid about his assessment of lending at interest: "Usury almost always travels with two inseparable companions: tyrannical cruelty and the art of deception" of the poor. (Now widely taken to refer only to lending at excessive or unlawful levels of interest, Calvin uses the term usury in the classical sense to mean any lending at interest.)

Calvin proves to be a helpful guide. He was quite reluctant to allow usury and did so only with clear restrictions intended to conform the practice to justice and the common good. "To be certain, it would be desirable if usurers were chased from every country, even if the practice were unknown," he wrote. "But since that is impossible, we ought at least to use it for the common good."

Among Calvin's rules for rightly ordered money lending were the following.

1)    One should not lend money at interest to the poor. Lending at interest made moral sense to Calvin only if it functioned as investment in someone's business rather than exploitation of someone's need. The proper response to indigence was to lend without interest or expectation of return.

2)    Lending should follow the precept of "natural equity." Equity for Calvin was displayed most clearly in Jesus' command to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Interest-based lending is just only when it is perceived by all parties as mutually beneficial. This sense of equity was not, he argued, to be based simply on common practice but on God's word.

3)    Lending should serve not only the private advantage of the parties involved but also the wider public good. Faithful lending required a vision of how the transaction affects the larger economy and thus human flourishing in a given community.

Whether one thinks that Calvin's standards were too stringent or too lax, he resolutely thought about money lending as a moral and theological issue.

The real break with Chris­tian tradition comes with the rise of [a theory based on evolutionary principles], a purportedly autonomous sphere called the free market and a discipline called economics, which teaches us to see economy as a set of mathematical rules that exist outside the sphere of moral debate.

The current financial crisis has led Christians and many others to ask questions not only about particular players and trans­actions but about whether the weight of our current financial system pushes people in a moral direction—that is, in the direction of solidarity, justice, mutual benefit and common good.

D.H. Hill: "We are a different people"

Maj. Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill, CSA

The following is a letter from Confederate Major General D.H. Hill to United States Major General J.G. Foster, both in eastern North Carolina in March 1863.

GOLDSBOROUGH, N. C., March 24, 1863. 

Major General J. G. FOSTER, Federal Army.

SIR: Two communications have been referred to me as the successor of General French. The prisoners from Swindell’s company and the Seventh North Carolina are true prisoners of war and if not paroled I will retaliate five-fold. In regard to your first communication touching the burning of  Plymouth you seem to have forgotten two things. You forget, sir, that you are a Yankee and that Plymouth is a Southern town. 

It is no business of yours if we choose to burn one of our own towns. A meddling Yankee troubles himself about everybody’s matters except his own and repents of everybody’s sins except his own. We are a different people. Should the Yankees burn a Union village in Connecticut or a cod-fish town in Massachusetts we would not meddle with them but rather bid them God-speed in their work of purifying the atmosphere. 

Your second act of forgetfulness consists in your not remembering that you are the most atrocious house-burner as yet unhung in the wide universe. Let me remind you of the fact that you have made two raids when you were weary of debauching in your negro harem and when you knew that your forces outnumbered the Confederates five to one. Your whole line of march has been marked by burning churches, school-houses, private residences, barns, stables, gin-houses, negro cabins, fences in the row, etc. 

Your men have plundered the country of all that it contained and wantonly destroyed what they could not carry off. Before you started on your freebooting expedition toward Tarborough you addressed your soldiers in the town of Washington and told them that you were going to take them to a rich country full of plunder. With such a hint to your thieves it is no wonderful that your raid was characterized by rapine, pillage, arson and murder. 

Learning last December that there was but a single weak brigade on this line you tore yourself from the arms of sable beauty and moved out with 15,000 men on a grand marauding foray. You partially burned Kinston and entirely destroyed the village of White Hall. The elegant mansion of the planter and the hut of the poor farmer and fisherman were alike consumed by your brigands.  How matchless is the impudence which in view of this wholesale arson can complain of the burning of Plymouth in the heat of action! 

But there is another species of effrontery which New England itself cannot excel. When you return to your harem from one of these Union-restoring excursions you write to your Government the deliberate lie that you have discovered a large and increasing Union sentiment in this State. No one knows better than yourself that there is not a respectable man in North Carolina in any condition of life who is not utterly and irrevocably opposed to union with your hated and hateful people. A few wealthy men have meanly and falsely professed Union sentiments to save their property and a few ignorant fishermen have joined your ranks but to betray you when the opportunity offers. 

No one knows better than yourself that our people are true as steel and that our poorer classes have excelled the wealthy in their devotion to our cause. You knowingly and willfully lie when you speak of a Union sentiment in this brave, noble and patriotic State.  Wherever the trained and disciplined soldiers of North Carolina have met the Federal forces you have been scattered as leaves before t he hurricane.

In conclusion let me inform you that I will receive no more white flags from you except the one which covers your surrender of the scene of your lust, your debauchery and your crimes. No one dislikes New England more cordially than I do, but there are thousands of honorable men even there who abhor your career fully as much as I do.

Sincerely and truly, your enemy,

D. H. HILL,

 Major-General, C. S. Army

Source: OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 2, vol 5, Part 1 (Prisoners of War), 389-390.