Isaiah 35:4-7a * September 20, 2009 * Pentecost 16 * Pastor Pagels

In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:

Abram had left everyone and everything he knew in Haran and traveled hundreds of miles to Canaan. He was a stranger living in a strange land, with few friends and more than a few enemies. He had just rescued his nephew Lot from some overly aggressive neighbors, but he didn’t know if and when his family would come under attack again.

The Lord knew how Abram was feeling. He was vulnerable and he was lonely, but he was not alone. To remind him of this, God appeared to him in a vision and said: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward” (Genesis 15:1).

Hundreds of years later God appointed a descendant of Abram to conquer the land of Canaan, but the Canaanites weren’t going to give up without a fight. Five kings formed an alliance against the forces of Joshua, and perhaps Israel’s general was having second thoughts: “Maybe their armies are too strong. Maybe our army isn’t strong enough. Maybe we should quit while we are ahead… and while we are still alive.”

God wasn’t interested in making a compromise. God had not intention of calling for a truce. He had promised to give his people this land. He had promised to help his people take possession of this land. And so the Lord came to Joshua and said: “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand” (Joshua 10:8).

Hundreds of years later the Lord sent an angel to a young girl in Nazareth. When Mary saw him, she was understandably shaken. Gabriel was holy. She was not. Gabriel knew why he was there. She did not. To keep her from becoming any more troubled, to assure her that she was not in any trouble, the angel spoke to her in a calm and reassuring voice: “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30).

“Don’t be afraid.” It’s amazing how many times that little phrase, or a variation of it, appears in the Bible. And it is interesting to see how many times it comes from the mouth of God. The Lord spoke those words of comfort to Abram, to Joshua, (through his messenger) to Mary, and this morning God instructs the prophet Isaiah to share the same comforting message again.

The message of this text isn’t all that difficult to understand. The meaning of this text isn’t hidden or obscure. It is so simple and yet so valuable. It is both ancient and relevant. It is a timeless and timely word of encouragement for every child of God…

DO NOT FEAR!

I. Your God will come for you

II. Your God will care for you

The Lord said to Isaiah: “Say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you’” (4). The opening verse ends with a promise, but the very nature of God’s promise implies that there was a problem. The fact that God promised to save his people means that they needed to be rescued. And the fact that the Lord needed to tell his people not to fear suggests that they were already afraid.

Judah was afraid, and the cause of the nation's fear had a name: Assyria. Twenty years earlier the Assyrian armies had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, and they were on the march again. The Assyrians had systematically destroyed every one of Judah’s fortified strongholds (forty six to be exact). The only city that was left standing was Jerusalem, and it was under siege.

Good King Hezekiah hoped that if he paid the Assyrians enough tribute their city and their lives would be spared. He offered Sennacherib three hundred talents (11 tons) of silver and thirty talents (more than a ton) of gold. He even stripped the gold off the doors and doorposts of the temple and gave it to the Assyrian king, but it was too little too late.

The Assyrian armies had surrounded the city, and they had every intention of destroying it. King Sennacherib sent his messengers to the city gates with this message: “People of Jerusalem, don’t trust your king. Don’t put your trust in your God either. In fact, it was your God, the one you call Yahweh, who told me to march against this city and destroy it (II Kings 18:25).”

Hezekiah knew that wasn’t true, but he also knew that the city and every person in it was in great danger. And so he prayed. He asked God to save them from their enemies. He asked God to punish Sennacherib for his blasphemy. He prayed: “O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God” (Isaiah 37:20).

God heard Hezekiah’s prayer. God answered Hezekiah’s prayer. And God’s response can be summarized in three words: “Do not fear! Don’t be afraid, Hezekiah, because I will come. I will protect you. I will deliver you.” And God made good in his promise in a miraculous way. Without a single arrow being shot, without a single sword being drawn, the angel of the LORD went out and put to death 185,000 Assyrians.

In that situation God removed his people’s fears by removing an immediate threat, but the problems we face today might not be so obvious. The things that make us afraid are not always things that confront us in the present. Many times our fears have to do with questions about the future.

Let’s call them the “what ifs.” What if the H1N1 flu is even worse than the experts are predicting? What if the recession isn’t really over? What if the pain I am feeling isn’t nothing? What if I don’t pass this class? What if I never find Mr. or Mrs. Right?

What if we let all of these "what if" questions get the best of us? How long would it take for our fears to eat away at our faith in God? How long before fear does permanent damage to our relationship with God?

Fear is as an instinct. Fear has been described as an emotion. There is even such a thing as having a "healthy fear," but on a spiritual level fear is a sin. Ultimately fear is a sin against the first commandment, not because we bow down to a false god, but because we fail to put our trust in the one true God.

Jesus told his followers: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). If you are going to be afraid of someone, fear the one who holds your life in his hands. If you are going to fear anyone, Jesus says, fear a righteous God who has every right to send every sinner to hell.

And when you realize that Jesus is talking about you, when your hands start shaking and your stomach won’t stop churning, then read Isaiah 35. When your fear makes you feel guilty and your guilt makes you fearful, read Isaiah 35 and rejoice. Rejoice because the God who inspires fear also inspired Isaiah to say: “Do not fear! Your God will come…He will come to save you.”

Actually, he already has. God came to fulfill Isaiah’s ancient prophecy. God came to earth in the form of a baby born to a virgin. God’s Son came to take your place, to take away your sins. And just as certainly as he has come Jesus will come again to take you to heaven.

The certainty of our eternal destiny has a way of making of our fears disappear. Christians have in their back pocket Jesus’ promise: “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you” (John 14:18). We know that Jesus is coming. We know where we are going.

But we aren’t there yet. And your own life experiences have probably taught you that faith in Jesus doesn’t exempt us from the problems of this life either. Therefore, it is good to be reminded that the Lord who has promised to come for us has also promised to care for us.

Normally God takes care of his creatures through what we call natural means. God promises to give us our daily bread, but that doesn't mean we should expect manna to fall from the sky. Instead God gives us the ability to grow food. Instead God gives us the ability to work so that we can buy food.

In the psalms David praises God as the one who "heals our diseases" (103:3), but that doesn't guarantee we will never set foot in a hospital. Instead God works through doctors and nurses and treatments and medications to heal injuries and cure disease.

But there are times when God does intervene, when he does something totally unexpected, something completely unnatural. We call them miracles, and the gospel lesson for today (Mark 7:31-37) provides us with a perfect example.

Jesus encountered a man who couldn't hear and could hardly speak. He took the man aside, put his fingers in his ears and touched his tongue. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and cried out "Ephphatha" (which means be opened). And as soon as Jesus spoke that word, the man who had been mute began speaking clearly on his own.

What was the purpose of that miracle? Obviously, Jesus saw this as an opportunity to help someone. He gave a man who was deaf and mute the ability to hear and speak. There is no question that he benefited from this miracle, but he wasn't the only one.

Other people saw what Jesus had done. Other people were hearing about what Jesus was doing. And they began to connect the dots: "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy" (5,6a). The words of Isaiah pointed to Jesus as the promised Messiah. He wasn't just a miracle worker. He is the world's Savior, and he will take care of you.

Even if it hasn't rained for twenty one straight days (and by the way, we are still two weeks from the record), even if you are stranded in middle of the hottest, driest, most God-forsaken place on earth, God will still provide: "Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs" (6,7a).

Do you see the picture Isaiah is painting here? It's not just the picture of a lush oasis in a desert. And it's not just the picture of a lame man jumping up and down and running around because he can use his legs for the first time.

If you take a step back and look at the big picture you will see God, a God who reminds us this morning that he can do anything, a Savior who assures us that he has taken care of everything. And because he has, because God has come down to earth for you, because God will always take care of you, guess what? Just like Abram and Joshua and Mary and Isaiah, you too have nothing to fear. Amen.