Isaiah 66:18-24 *
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
On this date in 1882 the first Labor Day holiday was
celebrated in
The idea spread quickly with the growth of labor
organizations, and only three years later the holiday was being celebrated in
many industrial centers around the country.
In 1894, Congress passed an act designating the first Monday in
September as Labor Day, the legal holiday we still observe today.
So why do so many of us have off from work tomorrow? Why is there no school? Why is there no mail? What is the purpose of Labor Day? The following explanation comes from the
United States Department of Labor:
The vital force of labor added materially to the highest
standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has
brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and
political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation
pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's
strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
On this day, the day before Labor
Day, we also pay tribute. But we are not
here to congratulate ourselves for a job well done. We gather every week, we give thanks every
day, we live every moment in thanksgiving to God for everything he has done for
us.
And as a way to respond to his
goodness, the Lord has given us a job to do.
The work is challenging, but not impossible. It can be difficult, but also rewarding. What is this important work? The text for today provides us with a brief
job description. On this Labor Day
weekend Isaiah reminds us that it is the work of every believer to…
PROCLAIM GOD’S GLORY AMONG
THE NATIONS
I. The
glory of his judgment
II. The glory of his grace
III. The glory of his
heaven
“And they lived happily ever
after.” Isn’t that the way every good
book is supposed to end? The nice guy
gets the girl. Good triumphs over
evil. Apparently someone forgot to tell
Isaiah. At the end of his book of
prophecy, at the very end of the sixty sixth chapter, these are Isaiah’s final words:
“And they will go out and look upon the
dead bodies of those who rebelled against me;
their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will
be loathsome to all mankind” (24). Not
exactly what I would describe as a happy ending.
As horrible as that sounds, the
verse that comes immediately before our text isn’t any better: “See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his
chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his
rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire
and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment upon all men,
and many will be those slain by the LORD” (15).
These words of warning were not
directed at
God said: “You shall have no other
gods.” They bowed down to idols. God said: “Do not covet.” They chased after the things of this
world. God said: “Put your trust in
me.” They opted for military
alliances.
Because there was no end to their
wickedness, because of their stubborn defiance and self-reliance, the Lord
finally decided to act. He said: “And I, because of their actions and their imaginations,
am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see
my glory” (18).
That doesn’t sound so bad, at
least not at first. God’s glory is a
good thing, right? Who wouldn’t want to
see God in his glory? Don’t we look
forward to that sight? Don’t we look
forward to that day?
We do look forward to Judgment
Day, we do anticipate the day when we will see the Lord in his glory… because
Jesus has made us holy. But imagine what
it would feel like to try to stand on your own, to stand all alone in the
presence of a sin-hating, sin-punishing God.
God's glory wouldn’t be so comforting anymore. God’s glory wouldn’t be comforting at all because
the holiness of God exposes just how unholy we really are.
The pictures Isaiah paints are
disturbing: fires that never go out, worms that never die, dead bodies as far
as the eye can see. But perhaps even
more troubling than the images themselves is the context in which they were
written.
Remember that Isaiah was pleading
with his own people. They knew what God
wanted from them. They knew the
difference between right and wrong. They
knew better. But it didn’t matter. In spite of the warnings, in spite of the
threats, they rebelled against God and had to live (and die) with the
consequences.
Have we learned this lesson from
Before we can proclaim the glory
of God to the nations, before we can proclaim the glory of God at all, we need
to acknowledge that we have rebelled. We
deserve God’s wrath. We deserve God’s fury. We deserve the fire and brimstone.
But as the psalmist says, “he does not treat us as our sins deserve”
(Psalm 103:10). The Lord of glory
left his throne in heaven to become one of us, to suffer and die for us, to
give us peace in the present and hope for the future.
Only God could come up with a plan
like this. Only God could execute a plan
like this, and that is exactly what he did.
Through the life and death of resurrection of his Son Jesus, he has made
the objects of his wrath into the objects of his grace, and the objects of his
grace into proclaimers of his grace.
Isaiah is an important book in the
Old Testament because of its numerous Messianic prophecies. There is the reference to Jesus’ miraculous
birth in chapter 7: “The virgin will be
with child and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (
The prophecies recorded at the end
of the book are not as well known, and they are not Messianic (they don’t refer
directly to the life of Jesus), but they are just as real. Isaiah wrote: “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who
survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as
archers), to Tubal and
Prophecy #1: In spite of the
coming judgment, God would not allow his people to be completely
destroyed. Prophecy #2: Out of this
small group of survivors, God would select some to carry his name beyond the
borders of
With the benefit of hindsight,
with the ability to study both the Old and New Testaments, we are able to see
that both of these prophecies have been fulfilled. Even though they were carried into exile,
even though they were forced to live under foreign rule, God preserved his
people. And then God sent out people
like Paul and Barnabas and Silas to faraway places like
But the proclamation of the gospel
didn’t stop there. In fact, the words of
Isaiah the prophet continue to be fulfilled to this very day: “They will proclaim my glory among the
nations. And they will bring all your
brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in
Who is Isaiah talking about? When Isaiah says, “They will proclaim my
glory among the nations,” who does the “they” include? God sent angels to announce that a Savior had
been born, but he uses people, ordinary people, sinful people like you and me,
to tell the rest of the story.
As the recipients of God’s grace,
it is our privilege to proclaim the glory of God’s grace. And all we have to do is open our eyes to see
opportunities God gives us to proclaim his glory to the nations. In November St. John’s will celebrate the
five year anniversary of our work among the Chinese. In May our congregation adopted the WELS
world mission in Malawi as our Mission Partner.
In our prayers we remember our Christian brothers and sisters who share
God’s Word with people around the world.
Isaiah’s description of the
gathering of believers, people coming together from many different nations to
one place reminds me of the Olympics. If
you were among the twenty five million plus Americans who tuned in to the
opening ceremonies, you witnessed the parade of nations, where thousands of
athletes from hundreds of countries marched around the track of the Olympic
stadium in
As impressive as it was (and it
must have been even more impressive to see in person), it is nothing compared
with the grand procession that will take place on the Last Day. With trumpets sounding and angels singing,
the Lord will descend in all his glory.
He will gather his people, people of every nation and color and culture and
language. And he will lead them to his
holy mountain, to the new Jerusalem, to live with him
forever.
This is the glorious message that
we have. This is the glorious message we
have to share. We proclaim the glory of
God’s grace on earth, and when we draw our last breath we will experience the
glory of heaven.
Listen to Isaiah’s description of
eternal glory: “‘As the new heavens and
the new earth that I will make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so
will your name and descendants endure.
From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all
mankind will come and bow down before me’ says the Lord” (22,23).
Isaiah doesn’t go into great
detail. The Bible doesn’t tell us
everything there is to know about heaven, but what we do know only increases
our desire to get there. We know that
heaven will never get old. We know that
heaven will be filled with people, people you have only read about in the
Bible, people you know and love on earth, people who trust in Jesus as their
Savior. Because there is no death or
mourning or crying or pain, we know that heaven will be a place of unending,
uninterrupted joy.
What God wants us to do now is
tell the world what we know. What God
wants us to do is proclaim that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world,
that Jesus is preparing places for his people in heaven, that there is always
room for one more.
I know that not everyone likes
their job. I have even heard some people
say that they hate what they do. And so
they view tomorrow as an escape, as one less day they have to do the work they
despise. The work God has given us isn’t
like that. God gives us good news to
share with the world. God tells us to
proclaim his glory among the nations. This
work doesn’t sound like work at all.
Enjoy your Labor Day. Even better than that, enjoy your labor in
the Lord. Amen.