Sermon on Isaiah 43:1-7, Lent Midweek 2 2021, "He Only Has Eyes for You"

 (lightly revised from "Singing with the Exiles" sermon by Rev. Reed Lessing)

“He Only Has Eyes for You!”

Isaiah 43:1-7

“You are valuable in my eyes.” Isaiah 43:4a.

 

            The song, I Only Have Eyes for You, was composed in 1934 and has been recorded by numerous musicians, and one of the many versions ranks 157^th in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

            Yahweh has his own version of this golden oldie. “You are valuable in my eyes.”

            The “you” is singular, not plural. It’s “you” not “you all.” A Singular “you” is individual and intimate, particular and personal. The same specific concern for “you” comes in Is. 43:1 where Yahweh says, “I am calling you by name, you are mine.” Yahweh’s care is cosmic and universal, to be sure, but his exclusive love for you, is emphasized by twenty-five “you” singular words and endings in Is. 43:1–7. Over and over again it is you, you, you! “You are valuable in my eyes.”

            Those who first heard this were exiles in Babylon. To Babylon those Jewish exiles were anything but valuable. Babylon was distant, aloof, cold, and calculating. Judean exiles were state slaves, prisoners, cogs in their vast and ever-growing political machine. Babylon boasted that the exiles would never go home. Last week we reflected on how the exiles were under the heavy boot of Babylon, and how that powerful nation dishonored all that was precious to the Jews. They were faced with a constant reflection on their weakness and low estate.

            You know how amusement parks often have fun house mirrors? Some mirrors make you look tall and skinny. Others make you look short and fat. Still others would make you look ugly and creepy. None of them reflect who you really are.

            And neither do the mirrors that surround us. Just turn on the TV, surf the net, go to a mall, pick up a magazine. There we see perfect people with perfect families and perfect marriages delighting in perfect jobs. We are even more allured by these images because they show us how we want to be, imagine ourselves to be, or the perfect dream we imagine everyone else is already living. And when these images seductively summon us to gaze into their glass, what do we see? We see that we don’t measure up.  You name it. We don’t have it. Addicted to how the world sees us, we begin feeling tall and skinny, short and fat, ugly and creepy. If we look into these mirrors long enough, we begin to languish, lose heart, and feel worthless.

            And when we feel worthless we not only discount ourselves, we begin discounting everybody else. You name them. We discount them. Spouse, child, colleague, pastor, parent, boss. When we feel like nothing we treat other people like nothing. We sell each other off for cut rate prices, slashing and burning reputations. Obsessed with what we don’t have, we get stuck in the game of gossip, the silent stares, and the jungle of judgment.

            Let me be as clear as possible. How you stack up in the eyes of others does not reflect who you really are. Your identity is in Yahweh, and he says, “You are valuable in my eyes.” 

            It’s the same “you”, singular not plural. Specific, reserved, and exact. It is you!

            And you are incredibly valuable. The verb in our text comes from the Hebrew root yaqar, which denotes significance, stature, and substance. It means you are prized, priceless, preferred, and precious.  Let me explain.

            Value is often based on ownership. A car owned by Elvis Presley is worth a lot more than a scratched and dented minivan! Value is also determined by how much someone is willing to pay. A car is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it.

            So, value is based on ownership?  Yahweh says in Isaiah 43:6-7, “Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the end of the earth. All upon whom my name is called, and whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and whom I made.”  Yahweh has created and claimed, fashioned and formed us. We are his sons and his daughters. His children are found at every far reach of the earth. And they are precious to Him, and He will gather them. He is willing to pay for them; and He declares their worth.

            So value is based on how much someone is willing to pay?  Yahweh says in Isaiah 43:4. “And I will give people in exchange for you, and nations in exchange for your life.”  When Israel passed through the Red Sea, Yahweh paid for it with the life of Egyptians. Now Israel is about to leave their captivity through the Persian King Cyrus and Yahweh will pay for it with the life of Babylonians. Our God is willing to lay down people’s lives for us.

            But why trust Yahweh to place value on us? Just who is this Yahweh anyway? Let me be as clear as possible. In Isaiah 40-55 Yahweh can explain the past, predict the future, and do things in the present that are radically new. Yahweh is the holy, supreme, awesome, eternal God and there is no other!

            Within Isaiah 40-55 the prophet employs an abundance of human expressions to announce that Yahweh isn’t a system, a force, an idea, a movement, a doctrine, or a higher power. Yahweh is a person. He has hands, arms, a heart, a mouth, a face, and, of course, he has eyes. Yahweh sits, holds people’s hands, speaks, shouts, gasps, suffers, and screams. Yahweh is a Shepherd, a King, a Warrior, a Husband, a Father, a Potter, a Kinsman/Redeemer, a Gardener, a Forester, an Artist, and a Carpenter.  And in Isaiah 43:3, for the first time in the book, Yahweh is identified as your Savior –  “For I am Yahweh your God the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

            This is the One who says, “I only have eyes for you.”

            Who? “You” still you, just you, always you, forever and ever … you! 

            Are what?  Yaqar – valuable, cherished, of infinite worth.

            Where? Not in the eyes of Babylon. There we are nameless numbers and state-owned statistics. So break as many of Babylon’s mirrors as you can! 

            Where are we valuable? Not in our eyes. When our eyes are wide open we see our duplicity, dishonesty, idolatry, and our ongoing hypocrisy.

            So where are we valuable? Yahweh says, “In my eyes!” To quote Luther, “Although in supreme trials we seem nothing in our own eyes and are condemned as one cast off by the world, in God’s eyes we are glorious. Therefore we may be vile in our own eyes, in the eyes of the world, and even in those of our brothers. Fear not. In God’s eyes we are regarded as a precious jewel.”

            But there is more.

            In the baptismal flood Yahweh claimed you as his own and on a hill called Calvary he paid for you with his Son Jesus. And this means Yahweh has more than just eyes for you. Yahweh has a heart for you! Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” Yahweh has ears for you. Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” And Yahweh has body and blood for you. Jesus says, “Shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”  He has laid down His own, precious, invaluable life, to purchase us, to pay for our redemption. To take away the vile sin, the uncleanness, the darkness of all sin, to make us precious, clean, and new in Him. He renews us and makes us valuable by the price He paid to redeem us!

            The slaughtered Lamb, the empty tomb, and the gift of the Holy Spirit testify to this one indisputable fact. The LORD is certain about His people: “You are valuable in my eyes!”

            So why allow Babylon to define us? Let’s go home to our loving Father, which is right where we belong!

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.