Sermon on Isaiah 51:9-16, for the 24th Sunday after Trinity (1 Yr lectionary), "Waiting for the Lord's Arm"

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. In Isaiah 51:5, just before our reading, God tells His people that His righteousness and salvation are near. He says that His arm will judge the peoples, but that His people wait for God’s arm. God’s arm is His power and might to act, to save, to deliver. So they are waiting on God’s action, His deliverance, and where our reading begins in verse 9, they are crying out to God: “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!” They are calling on God as if He is late, or asleep, or has forgotten them. In times of trial and difficulty, like the exile the Israelites endured, it’s a common feeling to wonder where is the “arm of the Lord?”

In times of our distress, in times when we cry out to the Lord and seem to hear no answer, we too wait for the Lord’s arm. Anxious for His help, crying out for Him to act, our faith is tested. Faith is not tested or strengthened by ease and comfort, but by bearing the cross. In these times, we lift up our eyes to the hills—and where does our help come from? Our help comes from the Lord.

In Isaiah, when they cry out to wake up the arm of the Lord, they remember how in days of old—He flexed His arm and defeated Pharaoh and the Egyptians when He dried up the sea. He led the Israelites across the Red Sea on dry ground. He ransomed them from slavery, and brought them out safely. Even while all that was happening, they were still doubting and mistrustful of God and Moses—but God remained faithful and continued to work wonders by His arm. Now, remembering all that, they call God to act again with His strength and might. This is the familiar posture of believers—remembering God’s record of faithful deliverance, and begging God to save by His mighty arm once again. One former professor said this was the Hebrew way of thinking; to enter the future facing the past. What he meant is that while we can’t see the future or what is ahead of us—we can know God’s record of faithfulness, and count on Him to safely guide us into the future. Looking to the past, we see God’s arm working especially when things seemed in doubt; but God never abandoned His people. We are blind to the future, but He is not, so we can step backwards, trusting in His lead, looking back over all the examples of His faithfulness to us and to previous generations.

What happens when God does save with His arm? V. 11, And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Those who wait upon the Lord shall not be put to shame (Ps. 25:3). Their patience is rewarded with singing, and everlasting joy. God will chase away all sorrow and sighing. There have been many heavy sighs, sobs, and expressions of sorrow in our congregation these past weeks. Life in the sinful world is never completely fair or just; it is often cruel and unfeeling. Life’s tragedies strike when we least expect, and we cry out for the arm of the Lord to be revealed, to take action. And sometimes our prayers are answered in the way that we hoped, and other times not. But in neither situation do our prayers fall on deaf ears. In neither situation has God fallen asleep or forgotten us. In the mystery of God’s will, sometimes the Lord gives, sometimes He takes away. But God’s final reward for those who wait on Him, is an everlasting homecoming to Zion—a joyful return where singing, and joy and gladness will be our permanent possession. All the sorrows and tears and sadness of this life will be driven away.

In v. 12, God answers: “I, I am He who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.” Here God contrasts the power of His arm, to the power of men, who oppress or make themselves enemies of God’s children. Is there any comparison? NO! But even though there is no comparison, He says we fear men, who will die and face God’s judgment, but we forget God, who made the heavens and the earth! That’s the work of His hands! When you gaze at the splendor of the stars, and cannot even fathom how far they reach, or you take in the splendid views of mountain and sea on Maui—can you help but wonder at the majesty of our God? Yet why do we fear men, who are here today and gone tomorrow? Why do we “fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor?” God will rescue His children. He ransoms His servants. And God Himself comforts us. God’s own Word speaks to our heart, and nourishes our wounds.

This passage reminds me of a powerful scene in the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, where the longsuffering Uncle Tom declares to a wicked slave master who is beating him—that you may have bought my body, but you haven’t bought my soul. Jesus has bought my soul, and there’s nothing you can do to harm it. Evil met its match in forgiveness and love, as when Jesus died on the cross. The wrath of the oppressor is bent to destroy us, but who is He against our God? If God is for us, who can stand against? Even if our rescue comes only through death, God will deliver us, and thanks to Jesus’ resurrection, even death cannot hold us back from God’s redemption. Who is the devil to oppress us and destroy us? Even his fate is written in the Word of God, for everlasting punishment.

In the darkest times, God does not abandon us, and we are reminded of that most of all when Jesus hung on the cross and cried out those painful words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Never did a soul experience forsakenness as deeply as Jesus when He hung on the cross. Jesus, who sees and knows all things, and whose relationship to God the Father had never been hindered by sin in any way—and who knew the Father’s will—Jesus experienced that forsakenness from God in those terrible hours. But even in those depths of grief, God had not abandoned Him. God raised Jesus up from the dead, and the wrath of the oppressor, God’s enemy, is overthrown and defeated.

So instead of fearing man and forgetting God, we should do the reverse! Fear God and remember His mighty arm! Wait on His arm and His deliverance. And remember that even when God’s arms were pinned by nails to the cross, and everything seemed forsaken and lost, God’s arm was not shortened to save. God worked a mighty deliverance when He raised Jesus from the dead. And our future hope and confidence is built on His mighty arm raising us and all believers to life again in Him. Rising to a body free of sorrows and sighing, and renewed in everlasting joy and gladness.

The closing verses of the reading say: “I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” God’s arm is still mighty to save—we do not know His timing, we do not know His mysterious ways, but we know that His will is always best, and nothing can separate us from the love of God for those who are in Christ Jesus. God still stirs up the seas by the power of His arm. He still rules the angels and the heavens on high.

And He puts His words in our mouth and covers us with the shadow of His hand. In other words, He gives the precious message of His Gospel to His people. He puts His Truth in our mouth, so that we confess His mighty name and all His works. From our songs of praise and joy, to our prayers and intercession for those in need, or speaking words of encouragement from scripture to those who need it, or speaking the lifesaving message of the Gospel to those who hear, God puts His words in our mouth. And His hand is stretched over us in protection, shading us from darkness, danger, and evil. We are God’s treasured people.

Truly, those who wait on the arm of the Lord will delight in His deliverance. All in His good timing, and we cannot determine our own wait time. But God’s ransomed people are promised to enter His Holy City Zion, and to enter it with everlasting joy. And God will be our comfort. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.