Message

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Thank God for sending his Son to this world. His coming into the world is the immeasurable blessing of God to mankind. It is to be given to all--everyone needs it. This blessing is so great that it had to be prophesied again and again in order that people might prepare their hearts. Today we are going to study one of the prophecies in Isaiah. The prophet could not see God’s Son, the Messiah with his physical eyes. But his knowledge and description of the Messiah is admiring and accurate. It is because God, who is and who was and who is to come, spoke to him. With faith in the all-time Sovereign LORD Isaiah foresaw his nation Israel’s being liberated from Babylonian captivity and furthermore the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah would be a tender-hearted shepherd for all mankind. In this passage three voices are heard, leading people to the tender-hearted shepherd. First, a voice of calling for repentance (1-5). Look at verse 1. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” The Israelites would be captives in Babylon and suffer unbearably under the oppression of the merciless Babylonians. They looked most miserable and hopeless people in the world. But still God called them, “my people.” What could better blessing than God’s calling, “my people.” Our God is the God of comfort, the God of all comfort, who comforts his people in all their troubles (2 Cor 1:3,4). God’s punishment for his people in Babylon was severe and hard to bear. As immigrants taken captive they sat and wept by the rivers of Babylon (Ps 137:1). Their lives in Babylon seemed to be never-ending. But now God says, “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” God’s people would be liberated from Babylonian captivity. In God there is an end to hard service and punishment of sin. There is hope and new beginning in God. When human hope ends, God’s hope starts. Look at verse 3. “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” What kind of voice of calling is this? This voice of calling is not the calling for government or a good company job or a specific task. It is a voice of calling to prepare the way for the LORD.” For the Israelites, their lives were like the desert. Yet, God wanted them to prepare their hearts for the LORD as returnees to Jerusalem their home. Why did they need to prepare the way for the LORD? It was so that God might come to them. The voice said, “…make straight in the wilderness a high way for God.” God wanted a highway so that he might come to them quickly. The voice says continually, “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.” People’s hearts statuses are not the same. Some are like valley because of their despair, others like mountain and hill in their pride, and still others like the rough ground and the rugged places because of their difficult life situations. So there are proud sinners, fatalistic despairing sinners, rough sinners or rugged sinners. But before God they are all sinners. And in repentance, they all become leveled and plain. Repentance is turning to God, while sinning is going far, farther and farther, away from God. When we turn to God, he comes to us. James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” At any human situation repentance is the solution. Isaiah 30: 15 says, “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…” That’s way this voice of calling for repentance is important. In the New Testament John the Baptist came as a voice of one calling in the desert. He lived as a forerunner of Christ preaching a baptism of repentance. Thus he helped people for the coming of Christ into their hearts and lives. The greatest tragedy of mankind was being driven out of the Garden of Eden and the Spirit of God leaving them. Then God’s coming to us through Christ is none other than the glory of God. So verse 5 says, “And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.” It is truly the great glory of God and it is confirmed with the words, “For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” How can people turn to God? They must return to the Bible. This is the reason we invite U of T students to Bible study. Rejecting the Bible is going far away from God and life becomes harder and harder. May each of us be a voice of calling for the invitation to Bible study. May we ourselves turn to the word of God more and more as his people and listen to him attentively so that God can come near to us. Second, a voice of crying out for the fleeting life of man (6-8). Now here is another voice. This is the voice of crying. For what? Look at verses 6-7. “A voice says, ‘Cry out.’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.” This is the truth about men. At that time Babylonians looked great as the people of the powerfully rising nation of the world, and the glory of the empire looked forever. But the people would wither and her glory be gone. Scipio, a Roman general, fought 700,000 Carthaginian soldiers for three years. Finally, he won the victory. At the moment of victory, he did not smile; rather he burst into tears, reflecting on the inevitable change which awaited the Roman Empire—the most serious thing to him was the change that would inevitably come upon himself. Change is inexorable truth. Scipio knew that the general truth of mankind is “men are like grass”. The voice continues to cry, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” Those who realize the fleetingness of man’s life on earth can turn to God. They put trust and hope in the ever-standing word of God’s promise. At that time God’s word of promise of their liberation from Babylonian captivity would stand, and so would the coming of the Messiah. We cannot entrust our lives and our loved ones to any fading things of the world but the enduring word of God’s promise. There will be climate conference in Copenhagen on December 6-18. World leaders seem to be more and more awakened. They hope that this meeting may be a success ending up with a Copenhagen protocol to prevent global warming and climate changes. The Bible does not say about global warming but about the roaring and tossing of the sea, famines and earthquakes in various places, and the nations being in anguish and perplexity. According to the Bible these are the beginning of birth-pains. And it says that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and the end will come through the second coming of our Lord Jesus. May we really put our trust and hope in the eternal word of God. Third, a voice of shouting for good tidings (9-11). What is the last voice? It is the voice of shouting and it is for good tidings. Look at verse 9. “You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, life it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah…” What are the good tidings? The message is “Here is your God!” What a message! God is in heaven. But now it says, “Here is your God!” If you are told, “Here is your professor, your company CEO, or your Prime Minister,” it is surprising. But the message is, “Here is your God!” The voice does not say, “Here is God,” but “Here is your God!” Then the voice continues to say, “See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him.” It is the coming of the Sovereign LORD with his power. He is the sovereign Ruler of history. But he does not come to punish but reward. The voice says, “See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.” His coming is to reward and recompense. Hebrews 11:6 says, “…Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” We all like reward. Awards from school and reward from company are good. People are awarded or rewarded because of their excellent works or achievements. However, no human being’s work is excellent enough to receive God’s reward. But God gives his reward to those who put their faith in him, those who humbly and thankfully accept it with faith. Then what is God’s reward? It is beyond what mankind could imagine. Yet it is what all mankind truly desires. What is it? Look at verse 11. “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” God’s reward given to mankind is the good shepherd Jesus. Jesus came to this word and declared, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” One of the best images of Jesus in the Bible is carrying his sheep in his arms on his heart. A shepherd knows our name, strength and weaknesses and all about us. He leads us going ahead of us. He protects us from evil ones. He gives us salvation and eternal life through his death and resurrection. He helps to live an abundant life with clear meaning and purpose of life. He guides us step by step until we reach the kingdom of God. He gives us his voice for us to follow him. What a blessing it to have such a shepherd in this world! David was truly happy when he said, “The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not be in want.” To him the shepherd LORD was everything to him. Verse 11b says, “He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.” Once Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” His arm is big enough to embrace all people of the world. He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” At the same time he carries them one by one close to his heart. (People carry the most precious thing to his heart.) It is not because the lamb is cute or smart or capable, but because the lamb is his possession. For we are his treasured possession bought by his life: he laid down his life for the sheep. He wants us to put our full trust in his perfect love and personal care. Apostle John called himself as one or the disciple whom Jesus loved. In Jesus’ bosom of assured love, he became an apostle of love from a man of selfish ambition. In his bosom a doubter Thomas became a strong believer with his personal confession, “My Lord and my God.” Matthew, in his bosom, became a great teacher for mankind from a selfish lonely man. In his bosom Peter, a man of big mouth and abrupt emotion, became a gentle and rock-like shepherd for God’s flock of sheep scattered all over the world. After his resurrection and before his ascension Jesus said to Peter, “Do you truly love me more than these?... Feed my lambs…Take care of my…Feed my sheep.” Later on Peter said to the suffering early Christians, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care.” As we studied, the world is like a wilderness and human life is fleeting. Living in this world, people become lonely, disheartened and hopeless. They cry within and without. But we thank and praise God for granting us his reward, the tender-hearted shepherd Jesus in his mercy. All men wither like grass and all their glory fall like the flowers of the field, but the tender-hearted shepherd and his lambs carried in his arms close to his heart will last forever. May we live as his sheep listening to his voice and be shepherds for God’s flock like him.

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