Isaiah 40:9-11 - The God Who Comes For You

9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

Target Date: Sunday, 3 December 2023

Sermon Text:

This Sunday marks the beginning of the season of the Church we call Advent.

It is the time we remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ who, prior to His birth, existed eternally as the second Person of the Godhead.

He was, at that time of anticipation and promise, in all ways God,

Don’t ask me to explain it – we have no analogy or picture to liken God to.

In all His creation, He made nothing that resembles Himself enough that we could understand or comprehend Him.

It was enough for God to reveal Himself to us in the ways He has.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. – John 1:1

That is the way John begins his gospel record.

Most likely, he knew that Matthew and Luke had written about the baby Jesus, but John knew through the Holy Spirit we might need something more to understand the significance of that birth.

The miraculous events: angelic visitations, virginal pregnancy, dreams, choirs of angels, and even the stars in the sky proclaimed the birth of the Messiah of God.

But John knows we need to understand even more than that, and he wants to make it clear: God became a man.

The entire first chapter of the gospel of John constitutes the significance and meaning of the Christmas story.

God – the Word – became flesh and dwelt among us – John 1:14.

What God’s creation lacked was now put there: His very image.

He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. - Colossians 1:15

God had created man in His own image, to be His representation in creation, but man sinned.

Adam sinned.

He chose his own way instead of obeying God’s way.

And when he did so, that image of God on earth was shattered and distorted in a million different ways so that He was invisible to His creatures, including men and women.

But in Jesus Christ, the image of God was restored into this world.

He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name - John 1:11-12

So in the midst of all the angel choruses and visits from wise men, the greatest miracle of all is the Incarnation – God became flesh.

Other births had been foretold, like Samson.

Other angels had been seen, like in the times of Elisha.

Other messengers had appeared, for example, to Daniel.

Other great heavenly events had been witnessed, like in Ezekiel.

But only once, only now, only in that blessed baby in the manger, Jesus Christ, had GOD Himself made Himself a part of His creation.

That is the point of our passage in Isaiah this morning.

It begins with the call to the people of God to climb the highest mountain and cry out mightily and courageously:

“Behold your God!”

Off and on for 39 chapters before this, Isaiah has talked about the false gods people wanted to see.

The ones they made with their hands.

The ones they had to carry for themselves from place to place.

The ones that could be stolen or defaced or destroyed.

But now THE God comes, and He comes under His own power and on His own terms.

He comes Himself, not some cheap representation of Him.

He comes in might, His power on display.

He rules with His own arm, not hiding behind priests or others to do His bidding.

He Himself comes, and He is bringing His reward with Him.

And it is God Himself, the eternal Creator, who comes.

You don’t shout “Behold your God” when He is not there.

You shout it when He is right there with you.

No longer a promise of His coming, but His actual presence.

So we may ask when this coming would occur – when would God Himself enter into the world?

That is what happened in Bethlehem, around 4 BC.

In the reign of Caesar Augustus, at the time of the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

Luke is quite specific in his dating of this event, this birth of the one who is fully God and also fully man.

No hand-waving, saying “A long time ago…”

This has a date. God’s Incarnation has a historic date to it.

I think we lose sight of that sometimes.

When we consider those things that we are taught in history class or read in books, we might tend to lump all those events together in our heads into some vague time period like “A long time before I was born…”

I remember the shock I had in college – yes, college – when I realized Beethoven was alive at the same time as Napoleon’s wars.

It had never occurred to me because we only talked about Beethoven in music classes, and only talked about Napoleon in history class.

So it took me far too long to put the two men together because, let’s face it, they both died long before I was born.

And although Isaiah was writing several centuries before Mary gave birth to the Lord, He is right there with the great throng.

He was straining, longing to see what would come to pass.

For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. – Matthew 13:17

This wasn’t about the Jewish return from exile or any time before the birth of Jesus Christ.

This was about nothing less than the advent of the King of Glory.

We have read Ezra together (in perhaps excruciating detail), and there is one person notably absent from the lists of those returning from Babylon to Jerusalem.

God.

They went in His name, at His bidding, in His will, and according to His promises – but He did not march alongside them into the Promised Land.

They did not herald His return before them.

His feet were not made dusty by the road from Babylon to Jerusalem.

They went in the middle of His sovereign will, but He did not enter Jerusalem in the flesh.

Not here; not now.

And this is also not a passage and promise about the Parousia, the Return of Jesus Christ after His ascension into heaven.

That great event that is still in our future that we all look forward to.

That day when creation will be recreated to innocence and goodness.

Certainly on that day God’s power and might will be on full display, fully revealed,

And His rewards and judgments will be executed on all the earth.

There is an unfortunate tendency among believers to think that passages about God’s power and glory and judgment are only about the Last Day.

Some undoubtedly are – but not this one.

But this can be an easy error to make.

It is almost like some think there are two forms of Jesus Christ:

The humble, loving Savior of the gospels.

The One who was crucified.

And the conquering Lord of the book of the Revelation.

The One who comes riding in on His great horse executing God’s judgment.

We might not even realize we are classifying Scriptures in that way – dividing the prophecies about Jesus into the “nice” Jesus and the “stern and conquering” Jesus.

When we read about a display of the power of God, our minds automatically file that prophecy in the “this comes at the end of time” folder.

But consider: what takes more power?

To conquer an enemy or to join the infinite and eternal God into human flesh?

Men, even quite weak men, can conquer enemies; only God can make Himself flesh.

What takes more power: to judge wrongdoers or to calm the sea with a word?

Again, there is no contest here. Human courts meet and judgments are handed down every day, but only Jesus Christ can speak and the wind and waves obey.

This prophecy doesn’t look to the return from the Exile or the future Return of Jesus Christ;

It points firmly and surely to the first Advent, the Incarnation of the Son of God.

Let’s see why we can think that:

1. The context of this passage sets our time period.

If you have your Bible open, look just a few verses before our passage today, beginning in verse 3. Look at what will immediately precede this coming of our God:

A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. – Isaiah 40:3

In John chapter 1, verse 23, John the Baptizer describes himself this way:

He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

This entire section of Isaiah is talking about the declaration of the coming of the Lord God, and we find John the Baptizer identifying himself as the prophesied voice.

But it wasn’t just him who tells us that.

We see in the first chapter of Luke, the angel of the Lord describes the unborn child John in this way:

It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” – Luke 1:17

“Go as a forerunner” – will run ahead to declare.

Will be a herald for the king of glory, preparing people to “Behold their God”.

2. The rewards mentioned in verse 10 describe the work of Jesus Christ.

I know that may not be apparent from the first reading, but stay with me as we look at what is said here:

behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

Everything in this verse hinges on what “reward” and “recompense” mean.

These words are very close synonyms, used, the best we can see, interchangeably.

They both are translated in various places “reward”, “recompense”, and “wages”.

That is because both of them mean “that which was earned from labor”.

They can also be used to describe spoils of victory for a conqueror.

So the first question we must ask is WHOSE labor earned these rewards? Who are these rewards for; who do they belong to?

You might read it to mean something like “He is coming to dispense to everyone according to his works”.

That would make the rewards effectively God’s judgment – the rewards people earned based on their deeds and works.

The words themselves could mean that, but in this joyous passage of God’s arrival, it stands apart from everything else in the passage.

The chapter begins with “Comfort my people”.

It is the song of peace – her warfare is ended.

It is the song of joy – Zion is the bearer of good news.

And even if we allow this to be the case, that these are the rewards WE have earned, we are left with the sticky question of how we EARN God’s favor and mercy.

It doesn’t agree with the rest of Scripture that God’s salvation is all of His mercy and grace, and none of our works.

It just doesn’t fit.

A better way, I think, to understand the rewards is that they are indeed His rewards, His spoils, He brings with Him.

And those spoils are His people He has rescued from the warfare and slavery of this world.

The picture here is a great triumphant parade with God arriving and bringing with Him His reclaimed people from this fallen world.

Not brought in as slaves, but brought in as beloved followers, subjects, friends of the Most High.

If the meaning of Christmas is the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, the message of Christmas is this:

Behold your God! He has come to rescue you and save you.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only [unique] Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

3. Which leads us to the shocking ending of this passage, verse 11, which points to no one else than Jesus Christ.

I say shocking because, as Isaiah does in other places, he slams one picture right up against another.

In verses 9-10, we see God coming in might and power, leading forth His people from the captivity to this world and to sin,

And then in verse 11, we see:

He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

What does God, who becomes man so we can behold Him – what does He do with His great power?

He gathers his flock.

He picks up His lambs.

He carries them in His arms, against His chest.

He is GENTLE.

The highest King takes on one of the lowliest and humble occupations: shepherd.

His great power displayed against the forces of this world, that spiritual opposition, that would dare try to separate His lamb from Him.

But to His flock, He is kind, loving, healing, merciful.

Jesus Christ, the rightful possessor of all God’s glory and power, humbled Himself for a single purpose: to call YOU to the mercy and grace of God.

To draw YOU to repentance and faith in Him alone.

Not you only, but everyone – EVERYONE – to declare to all people everywhere to repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord.