Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23.

Sermon text: Isaiah 40:18-31.

“Where can I find help?” This question will arise in every human life, regardless of nationality, social class, race, or religion. No one will make it through life without encountering some major situation beyond his capacity to resolve. Our current economic crisis has greatly increased the number of people asking this question in our time.

The Hebrews of Isaiah’s time faced uncertainty as they watched the Assyrian Empire enter another period of aggression toward its neighbors. The Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel during Isaiah’s ministry and deported most of the Hebrew population into exile in Mesopotamia. Isaiah persistently exhorted the Hebrews of Judah  — known in history as the Jews — to repent of their sins against God, return to their covenant obligations under the Mosaic Law, and to enjoy the blessings of obedience.

Unfortunately, the people had refused to listen to Isaiah’s warning, leading to his promise that exile would come to them as well. The first half of the book of Isaiah contains both the warnings and the promises of justice.

The Scripture passage from today comes from the second half of the book, the section containing the promises of restoration. Beginning in chapter 40, Isaiah began promising the people that the coming exile would end with a glorious restoration back to their land and to their relationship with God. The Jews would face a major crisis, a crisis only God could overcome.

What about our crises today? Can God help us today? What words did God give the Jews to encourage them of His help, and can these words comfort us today?

First, the Scripture passage today reminds us of a theme that weaves throughout Isaiah’s magnificent book. “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?” Isaiah never forgot the theophany he witnessed in the sanctuary in Jerusalem (cf. Isaiah 6). In that appearance, God had called Isaiah to prophesy to the Jews of the coming judgment, but He had also warned Isaiah that the people would refuse to listen. The Jews had forsaken their covenant obligation to worship only God, the God who had created the universe, chosen their ancestor Abraham to bless the world, and delivered them from slavery in Egypt.

To whom — or what — had the Jews turned to worship? The pagan nations surrounding ancient Israel worshiped a variety of gods, often represented in their temples by images of stone, precious metals, or wood. The Jews had fallen for the same useless polytheism as their neighbors, even copying the heinous practice of child sacrifice.

Isaiah poked fun at the idolators: “An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.” How senseless! Those who could afford a pricey “god” would use their wealth to buy a gold or silver idol. Even the poor fell for the fallacy; those who could not afford an expensive household idol would find a piece of durable wood and ask a craftsman to carve a wooden idol for the family.

“Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?” The Jews, of all people, should have known God. Of all the nations, the Jews alone had retained the true story of the Creation in the writings of Moses. Of all the nations, the Jews alone heard the stories of God’s creation from birth: In the books of Moses, in their Psalms, and in their religious festivals in Jerusalem. The Jews should have known that only their God was worthy of worship.

“It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.” Unlike the pagan deities who “lived” in the sky, on mountains, or in the sea, the God of Israel exists outside the universe; He is not part of Creation. God’s creative work continued even after the original creation. God stretches the universe “like a curtain” and “spreads them like a tent.” Astronomers learned only last century that the universe continues to expand. Isaiah’s words describe the so-called “red shift” phenomenon in the eighth century B.C.

Therefore, God alone is the One “who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.” The nations surrounding Judah often conveyed almost godlike status on their rulers. (The Egyptians actually believed that Pharaoh was a deity.) Compared to the God of the Jews, however, the pagan monarchs were nothing but grass: Short-lived, weak, and powerless before the storms of history.

Although God exists outside the universe, Isaiah understood that He remains intimately connected with His people within the creation. The God who created the stars of the heavens still cared about the people He had called as His covenant people. Isaiah challenged the Jews to “Lift up your eyes on high and see.” This challenge reminds us of the words of David is Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). In a declaration of God’s continued care for creation, Isaiah proclaimed that He “brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.” Nothing happens within the universe without God’s knowledge; even the creation of stars in the nebulae happen at His command.

Well, then, why didn’t this God of Isaiah’s help the Northern Kingdom? It looked to most Jews as if the Assyrians’ deities had won the war. It seemed as if God was either impotent to help His people or, even worse, didn’t care what happened to them. “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God’?” It certainly looked to everyone in the region that Israel’s God had abandoned His people. Even worse, the righteous few in the Northern Kingdom suffered siege, death, and exile just like the wicked.

Isaiah emphatically answered by pronouncing that only the God who appeared to the Jews at Mt. Sinai was worthy of their worship. God had not forsaken His people when He used the Assyrians to judge them in the eighth century B.C., and He would not abandon the Jews in Judah in the sixth century B.C. when He used the Babylonians to judge them. God would prove His worth to His people by delivering them from exile as He once delivered them from Egypt.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” The God of the Jews kept constant watch on His people, both in judgment and in deliverance. When His people needed grace in exile, they would find anew the love He showed in Egypt.

In one of the most beautiful passages in some of the most beautiful poetry of the ancient world, Isaiah wrote of God’s care for His people. These words still comfort us, encourage us, and strengthen us today:

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Although the Jews thought that the Assyrians were stronger than God, God would deliver His people. When the Jews suffered exile under Nebuchadnezzar in 605, 597, and 586 B.C., God would not abandon them. In due time (70 years; cf. Jeremiah 25, Daniel 9), God would return His people to their land. The decree of Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C. allowed all exiled peoples throughout the former Babylonian Empire to return to their native lands. To begin, many of the returnees would wonder if this was merely a ploy and try to escape as quickly as possible (wings like eagles). Eventually, they would realize the pursuit wasn’t coming and settle into a slower pace (run), but the Jews would recognize the decree as God’s deliverance and settle into a deliberate “walk” back to their land.

The Jews would come to realize that God had fulfilled the covenant they had broken. Moses had prophesied their idolatry and the resulting exile, if the Jews disobeyed (Deuteronomy 28-29). Fortunately, Moses had also prophesied the Jews’ return after exile (Deuteronomy 30). When their nation faced extinction, God restored them. The Jews, in return, never again fell into idolatry after their return from the exile.

What about today? Do Isaiah’s pronouncements of God’s preeminence, of His omnipotence, of His deliverance say anything to His people today?

I believe that Isaiah’s words remind us again of the God we serve. Many people look at the possibility of creation and wonder how it happened. I found this quote this week while looking for a Galileo quote: “Big bang cosmology... presents a problem for atheistic scientists because it points directly to the existence of a transcendent Creator - a fact they dare not concede” (Edward Wright, Ph.D., “Cosmology and Religion,” available online http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmo-religion.html). I find it amazing that Isaiah’s words in the eighth century B.C. find their confirmation in twenty-first century science.

However, some have considered the possibility of a Creator and concluded that any “creator” would care nothing about such puny creatures as humans. Isaiah reminds us that God not only watches humans but deeply cares about us, guiding events to correct His people in times of disobedience and to bless His people in times of obedience. Everything we do in life matters greatly to our Creator.

We find the ultimate expression of God’s care when we consider the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The ancient Jews faced exile from their promised land, but all humanity faced eternal exile from our Creator, a fate that horrifies something deep within every person ever born. As St. Augustine wrote, “Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee” (Confessions, I.i). God created us for a relationship with Him, but sin destroyed that relationship. God sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to pay the price for our sins and restore the relationship. Furthermore, Jesus’ resurrection proves that God intends for us to spend eternity with Him in a new creation that far exceeds anything we can imagine in beauty and joy.

St. Paul told the Roman church that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Everyone who confesses Jesus as Lord of his life finds another meaning for Isaiah’s promise about strengthening. When we are weak, God renews our strength. We find that, in God’s strength, we can “mount up with wings like eagles.” When we follow God in obedience to His call on our lives, we find the strength to “run and not be weary.” When life seems to crash around us, we trust in a loving God that helps us “walk and not faint.”

Isaiah’s proclamation of God’s majesty and love give us hope in the times we face. If you’re looking for help in your life, look no further than the God who created you. Accept the sacrifice of His Son who died for you and rose from the dead for you. Help is only a prayer away.