by Wyatt Pruitt
Isaiah 39:5-8; 40:1-11;
Introduction
What is the Word of God? An obvious answer is that it is this (points at bible), the text of scripture. But God’s word is much more than just characters printed on a piece of paper. God’s word is mysterious and has been slowly revealed. It has existed before time began. It has been revealed in these last days to not be an it but a He. A person. The book that we call the bible does not only contain the Word of God, but it is mysteriously connected with the person of God. The Word. This book’s story is different from all other stories. In a normal story like the Hunger Games, you can relate with Katniss, you can fear for her life, you can celebrate with her when she prevails. But that’s where this story stops. The Word of God is the only story that can live inside of you. Because he is God. And because he lives inside of you he changes who you are. A normal story cannot do this. This Word cares about you, and has made you a part of His story. This Word of God has moved before time began to create the whole Universe. This word is so powerful that in 4 breaths “let there be light” an infinite universe with 2 Trillion Galaxies explodes into existence, our own galaxy containing 100 billion stars, with 3.2 trillion planets. Everything He created is good. And out of those planets 300 million are potentially habitable. And out of that vast expanse God’s Word made you. Isaiah 40:17 says, “All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.” Yet out of his mysterious will, God still cares about you by calling you before he made this universe to be in relationship with him, The Word of God cares about the Justice and Reconciliation of man to the God of this majestic and expansive universe. The Word of the Lord enters into covenant with his people, enters into relationship with his people, in order to bring his people back into his kingdom. This Word of the Lord is good because he always brings forth God’s purpose of judgment and reconciliation for his people.
Law Then
God has worked in a covenant of Grace with his people since the time of the Fall. This covenant of Grace has said that if you have faith in God’s promises you will be saved. This covenant has been expressed in many different “dispensations” across time. This means that God works out his covenant of Grace differently with different people in order to expand the mission of the covenant which is to exact justice and reconcile the elect people of God to himself. In our text God has covenanted with King Hezekiah through his father David in the “Davidic Covenant” This is found in 2 Samuel 7 which says:
I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men; but I will not take my steadfast love from him/ And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.’
King Hezekiah was a great King. He was faithful to God. Because of this God defeated his enemies. In 2 Kings 19, the Assyrian King Sennacherib is on his way to siege Jerusalem. King Hezekiah reinforces Jerusalem by building a huge outer wall and redirecting water into the city from outside rivers through an underground tunnel. But this was not enough. Sennacherib will destroy Jerusalem, and King Hezekiah is not powerful enough to stop it. So King Hezekiah Prays to the Lord.
Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, I beseech thee, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, O Lord, art God alone. – 2 Kings 19:17-19
And the Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer because Hezekiah was faithful. The Lord miraculously destroyed the Assyrian forces and crippled Sennechireb’s Kingdom. The most powerful man on Earth defeated by the Word of God. What a faithful King! It looks like he is going to usher in God’s Justice and Reconciliation. The Kingdom of God is at hand in King Hezekiah’s reign! There have been Sixteen Kings of Judah since the time of the great King David. We can finally celebrate. Judah’s darkest hour is over. King Hezekiah will unite the northern and southern Kingdoms. He will be the King that the Lord said would:
“Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes! The Lord is at your right hand; -Psalm 110:1-2; 5-6
But then Hezekiah gets a little prideful. When Babylonian envoys heard that King Hezekiah had been miraculously healed by the Lord from a deadly illness he had later come under, they decided to pay Hezekiah a visit. Hezekiah in his pride showed them all of his wealth he had accumulated. He took the credit of his fortune for himself instead of giving it to God. For at least a moment he was not faithful to God. He was not perfect. So God sends the prophet Isaiah to tell him: The Word of God has judged him.
“Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon; -Isaiah 39:5
But King Hezekiah does not say, “This is unfair!” nor does he run from God. Instead he plainly says, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good” But he has still broken God’s law. There will be consequences, and as a result his descendants will be pulled away from the Kingdom and Babylon will rule over them.
Law Now
We are not under the Davidic Covenant now, we are under the New Covenant. This covenant is all consuming of all previous covenants. The Old Covenants are passing away because the New fulfills all covenants and brings New life. Entrance into this New Covenant or relationship with God is by Baptism, or the Washing with water and the word to be regenerated in faith for the forgiveness of sins. Since this covenant is a fulfillment of the Old it has expanded on the moral demands of all previous covenants.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven…You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This is clear. These words cut to the heart of the Law. You must be perfect in the New Covenant. That is the moral requirement. These requirements were laid out in the old covenant as well, but they have continued into the New and have been expanded on to be clearer. The Word of God requires perfection for relationship, justice and reconciliation. And because of this clearer exposition of the Law we have failed worse than Hezekiah. We know the Lord, We know his descendant that was to take the throne. We reject him everyday. The Church itself is full of sin and imperfection. What about the girl who was born and raised in the church? She grew up learning, boys are bad, stay away from them, but as she grows older and her body, which is given to her by God, created by his infinite Word, develops and starts to be attracted to these boys a spark of rebellion is incited in her. She starts hanging out with this one boy at school and they start exploring each other’s bodies. One day this young woman finds out she is pregnant. No worries, she tells herself, I’m graduating highschool and I can marry my boyfriend before the church finds out. She tells her boyfriend and his family and they are so excited that they take her out to celebrate. Or she thought that’s what they were doing. In reality they brought her to a planned parenthood and forced her to get an abortion. When she finally fessed up to what happened to her elders at church they physically gasped. “How could you do something like this!” They yell. The young woman, now crying and hopeless, leaves the room and returns to her boyfriend where she spends the next twenty years in a toxic relationship. The moment where she needed the Church, the elders had a seemingly small Hezekiah moment of pride. And now a beautiful young woman is lost. We as the church have failed, we as individual believers have failed, we fail at meeting people like this where they are at loving them and not judging them. We failed at giving her justice and reconciliation. We do not deserve God’s covenant. We should have the Kingdom taken away from us just like God judged Hezekiah.
Grace Then
But all was not lost for King Hezekiah. The prophecy was not over after the Judgement. God’s word always brings the comfort of coming reconciliation.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her
that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. – Isaiah 40:1-2
God promises through the prophet Isaiah that he is going to comfort his people for all of their sins that they have committed. It is not over for King Hezekiah. He royally messed up but God is going to bring reconciliation. King Hezekiah trusted this. That is why he didn’t tell Isaiah that the Lord’s word was bad, but that the Word of the Lord that the prophet spoke to him was good. Hezekiah would have peace and security in his days because the Word of the Lord always works things for the good of his purposes and his people. This comfort is not some arbitrary word being spoken but in this very passage, The Word of God promises to come and deal with our sin himself,
Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom,and gently lead those that are with young.
King Hezekiah had hope that God would come and fix his horrible mistakes that caused the deportation of the people of God. The Word of the Lord is good because he always brings forth God’s purpose of judgment and reconciliation for his people.
Grace Now
We now in the New Covenant, have more than just retrospect. We have the promises actualized for us. As John says “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” This word took flesh and was named Emmanuel or “God with us” because he was. He was named Jesus because he is our savior from our sin. Jesus the Anointed one. Jesus the Christ became flesh, lived the life we could not live, died on a cross, was buried, was raised from the dead, and ascended to the Father to inaugurate the fullness of the covenant of grace. And this is the covenant,
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”
Yes we are called to be perfect. But we cannot. In this New Covenant we can trust that the Word of God is good. He will judge us not according to his wrath, but because now we are children in the Covenant through our baptisms he will judge us according to his discipline. We have the right as sons to ask God to “Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure; not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.” He will conform us to the nature of Jesus Christ so that we may more and more be like him. And when we look to Christ we will be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect.
Peter says when you look to Christ and partake in his grace in virtue “you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.”
Yes, what the young girl from earlier did was wrong. But there is forgiveness for all. The condemnation that the Church gave that girl is worse than what she did. Why? The Church may very well have condemned that girl to hell by judging her. Christ will Judge us (that is his purpose) for doing that to her. But if we focus on Christ. He will grant us the divine power to not judge that girl. That girl needed to be heard and by a divine miracle, Jesus will grant us the ability to hear her, if we repent, humble ourselves and listen to the Word of God. And what is the will of the Word of God? His will is to execute the Fathers purpose of judgment and reconciliation for his people. That young woman needed reconciliation. And the Word through the Church will provide it. Through this judgment and reconciliation, personal relationship with God is restored. Through these means, that Young girl by the grace of God found herself in another church. She heard the words of reconciliation from the pastor and she was redeemed. This woman now runs a ministry helping young women out of situations like hers. The Word of God is good for his people.
Conclusion
King Hezekiah was a great King, but he made a human mistake. So God promised to step in and fix his mistake. And He did. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ. His ministry was and is Judgment, Justice and Reconciliation. And in the New Covenant we now have a personal relationship with him through this ministry. The Word of the Lord is good because he always brings forth God’s purpose of judgment and reconciliation for his people. And by his grace, through faith we are his people.
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