The God Who is Wide Awake - Isaiah 52

Copyright July 31, 2022 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

Perhaps there have been times in your life when it seemed like God had fallen asleep, turned away, or had forgotten about you. You cried out to Him and heard nothing.

Today we turn to Isaiah 52, and we find the people of Israel wondering if God was asleep. They had been exiles in Babylon for 70 years! They cried out to the Lord, and it appeared nothing was happening. We saw this cry first last week in chapter 51:9,

Wake up, wake up, O Lord! Clothe yourself with strength!

Flex your mighty right arm!

Rouse yourself as in the days of old

when you slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile. (Isa. 51:9)

God’s answer in chapter 51 was they were not in exile because God was asleep; they were in exile because of their own choices. They had deserted the Lord, and He let them face the consequences. As we continue in chapter 52, God continues to answer their cry with one of His own.

1 Wake up, wake up, O Zion!

Clothe yourself with strength.

Put on your beautiful clothes, O holy city of Jerusalem,

for unclean and godless people will enter your gates no longer.

2 Rise from the dust, O Jerusalem.

Sit in a place of honor.

Remove the chains of slavery from your neck,

O captive daughter of Zion.

3 For this is what the Lordsays:

“When I sold you into exile,

I received no payment.

Now I can redeem you

without having to pay for you.”

4 This is what the Sovereign Lordsays: “Long ago my people chose to live in Egypt. Now they are oppressed by Assyria. 5 What is this?” asks the Lord. “Why are my people enslaved again? Those who rule them shout in exultation. My name is blasphemed all day long. 6 But I will reveal my name to my people, and they will come to know its power. Then at last they will recognize that I am the one who speaks to them.”

Time for God to Act

The Lord uses the same words to tell the people of Jerusalem to wake up. They should get ready because He is going to rescue them from captivity. The Lord reasons that since He never SOLD them to Babylon, there never was a transaction. The people still belonged to Him, and He was going to bring them home!

It was a time for celebration and renewal of hope. Though God may have seemed silent, He never abandons His people.

I have wrestled with verses 4-6. God takes them on a little history lesson. In the past they were enslaved in Egypt and now they are again enslaved by the Assyrians. God asks, “Why does this keep happening?” The reason, it seems is because the people refuse to continue to trust Him! When they refuse to trust Him, God lets them experience the consequence of their choices. God not only held Israel accountable, He held the oppressing nations accountable and was going to bring judgment on them. God was faithful as He had been throughout their history.

Like me apply this lesson to our life, sometimes we experience what seems to be the silence of God because step by step we have ignored the Lord and moved farther and farther away from Him. (Let me quickly add that sometimes we feel the silence of God for other reasons. We may feel His silence because He is refining us, preparing us, or strengthening us). However, Israel was oppressed because they drifted from the Lord.

It can easily happen. It may not seem like they are big things. We may say, “I was only having a little fun” or “it was only one time.” But the result is the same, we move further away from Him. A series of those things and we can no longer hear the call of the Lord.

We are like a little active child in a big store. They don’t set out to get lost from their parents, they are just distracted by other things. They drift away from their parents and soon they have no idea where they are. For some of those kids, they don’t even realize they are lost until their parents frantically come to find them.

Here’s the takeaway: God didn’t give up on Israel and He will not give up on you. He told Israel He was going to restore them to silence the critics, and to show His people that He loves and cares for them. He has declared that “nothing can separate us from His love.” God will pursue us and bring us home, but it may be a long and/or painful process. It is certainly better to not drift away in the first place. This is not a “Get out of jail free!” card. It is painful to drift from the Lord and not know how to get back to Him.

To prevent drifting, the best thing is to keep checking back in with the Lord. We need to confess and repent from sin as soon as possible. We also need to keep consulting the Bible and measuring our life by what God tells us to do. God does not want us to stay alienated from Him. He wants to restore us, but He will wait until we are ready for Him to do so.

Our text continues with God holding out the picture of His restoration of His people.

Redemption is on the Way (7-12)

7 How beautiful on the mountains

are the feet of the messenger who brings good news,

the good news of peace and salvation,

the news that the God of Israel reigns!

8 The watchmen shout and sing with joy,

for before their very eyes

they see the Lord returning to Jerusalem.

9 Let the ruins of Jerusalem break into joyful song,

for the Lord has comforted his people.

He has redeemed Jerusalem.

10 The Lord has demonstrated his holy power

before the eyes of all the nations.

All the ends of the earth will see

the victory of our God.

This is an announcement of what was going to happen written as if it had already happened. When the Bible does this it is to show that you can count on this promise. It is so sure, you can speak of it in the past tense. It is similar to the way we talk about having been saved. (Salvation is a process, but, we are so sure it will continue, that we can speak of it as if it is already accomplished.)

The picture we are given is that of the people of the city looking out from the city wall on the horizon to see a runner coming their way with a message. When at first you see the messenger, you don’t know whether they are bringing good news or bad news. In this case, they arrive with the good news that God is going to redeem His people. He will rescue them from their captivity and make it possible for them to go home.

The good news was that God was going to redeem His people from exile and this should lead to great rejoicing. God was about to show the oppressing nations that Israel was His people and He would show these nations his power.

The Apostle Paul quotes these words in Romans 10:13-15 and applies them to us.

13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

The “messenger” in Romans represents us! When we tell someone about God’s invitation to forgiveness and new life, we are bringing them good news (whether they embrace it or not). Paul points out that people who truly call on the name of the Lord will be saved. The problem is no one will call on Him if they don’t know He is there to deliver them from their sin and their lostness. His plea is for us to be the “beautiful messenger” that others need. This requires we move beyond our comfort zone and dare to bring up the subject of faith in Christ.

That good news is this: God has come to rescue us. He doesn’t summon us to be “better people” (that would be a belief that if we can be good enough to get to Heaven. . .in which case we don’t need a Savior!) The good news is that God, recognizing our sinful and hopeless situation, sent Christ to die for ANYONE who will believe, trust, and follow Him.

This isn’t simply about believing certain information. It is not just getting the facts straight or your theology in line. The Devil believes in Jesus! He understands the character of God. His theology leads Him to tremble before the Lord. God calls us to more than be knowledgeable. “Saving faith” is the willingness to entrust yourself to the One who died in your place. In a sense, it is a willingness to bet your life on Him; to follow Him even when we don’t know where He is leading us or how He is going to get us there.

In the next verses, the Lord speaks to Israel,

11 Get out! Get out and leave your captivity,

where everything you touch is unclean.

Get out of there and purify yourselves,

you who carry home the sacred objects of the Lord.

12 You will not leave in a hurry,

running for your lives.

For the Lord will go ahead of you;

yes, the God of Israel will protect you from behind.

God has announced His willingness to rescue the people and now He tells the people to get out, to start fresh, and to begin their new life as those blessed of the Lord.

When we share the gospel message with people, there should also be a call to action. We need to encourage people to act on what they are hearing. It is not enough to “know,” we must also embrace and rely on the truth of the gospel.

It is possible that you are here today and know all about the message of Christ dying on the cross for you. You may be clear on the fact that He rose from the dead and those who trust Him will live even though they die. The question is: “What are you going to do with this information about Christ dying to make it possible for you to be forgiven?” Are you willing to embrace Him as YOUR Savior? Are you willing to trust Him to forgive you and begin to follow Him as one who has been set free from your past to new life in Him? Are you willing to bet your life and eternity on Him? True faith requires action. Saying you have faith, and living the life of faith, are very different. It is great news! But it is more than information. It is news that demands a response.

The One Who Saves (13-15)

The next three verses begin one of the most profound passages in all the Bible. The words that follow describe the suffering of Christ in incredible detail several hundred years before it even happened. In fact, it was several hundred years before crucifixion was even “a thing.” Rick will take us into Isaiah 53 next week. Here we have a picture of the Redeemer that confused many as they read the words.

13 See, my servant will prosper;

he will be highly exalted.

14 But many were amazed when they saw him.

His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human,

and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.

15 And he will startle many nations.

Kings will stand speechless in his presence.

For they will see what they had not been told;

they will understand what they had not heard about.

This was confusing. The Jews fully believed their Messiah was going to be exalted. They believed He would be the leader they had waited for all their lives. He would be a ruler like David and Solomon. What they did not understand was this stuff about a servant who would be disfigured (v. 14)

When Jesus was brought before the people on the day of His trial before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, He hadn’t slept, He had been beaten by the guards, spat upon, had thorns pushed into His scalp, and then was also whipped. The scourging He endured would have torn his flesh with parts of bone or metal pieces embedded into the tip of the whip. The men who were to inflict the torture were experts at delivering pain and they knew just when to stop so the victim did not die before they could be executed and made a spectacle before the people.

Jesus would have stood before the people bloodied, weak, with sweat and spit on his face. How could this man be the One to save them? In reality, He was the only one who could save us! He paid the debt we incurred. He suffered the wrath of God in our place. The text gets much more descriptive as Isaiah 53 unfolds. For now, we need to see that the One who would be the true Redeemer, would confuse people with the great paradox of a disfigured King. He would suffer and then be exalted.

Conclusions

God’s silence was coming to an end and His rescue plan was being put into place. Why does God sometimes stay silent for so long at time? Commentator John Oswalt writes,

Why does God wait until we are helpless, or at least aware of our helplessness before he acts? One of the main reasons is that we are usually unwilling to give up our control of the situation until we come to that extremity. . . As long as we think the solution to our problems is somehow in ourselves, we are liable to think of God as an assistant or as a fall-back device. But to think of the almighty Creator in such a way is to deprive ourselves of his aid. He is not our servant. This is especially true in regard to our relation to him. As long as we think that we can do something to earn his favor, we are unlikely to cast ourselves on the Savior whom God has provided. We think we don’t need a Savior—perhaps a teacher, or an example, or a friend, but not a Savior.

Is this what has happened in our time? Have we become so confident of our ability to fix things (through the “right” political candidate, the correct community mindset, getting certain laws and policies passed, casting the right vision, or establishing the right program? Do we consider God our assistant instead of our very life and hope?

It is essential that we remember God does not work for us. He does not exist to make our lives better. He is the Lord of all Creation! He is the Ruler over all things! We serve Him! We must never think that His love for us somehow makes us equals, or worse, that He waits to serve us. We must repent of such thinking and restore God to His rightful place in our lives, our community, and in our country.

Here's a positive takeaway from our text: In everything we do in our lives, we represent the Lord. When we live for Him, God is glorified. When we wander from the truth God is dishonored. Considering all He has done for us, we should want others to see Him in the best light possible. Let us resolve to do our best to bring honor to His name in all we do.

There is a second takeaway from this text: we have been given a great privilege: to share the words of life with those who feel lost and hopeless. Somewhere in our past there was someone who cared enough to tell us that we mattered to God. Someone told us the truth about our sin and the provision God made for that sin through the death of Christ on the cross. It is a message we are to pass on to others. It is message we should be eager to share with ANYONE who will listen. We can do so with a simple conversation about “spiritual things,”or, you can give your testimony of how you met Christ. You can share a Christian book, invite someone to watch “The Chosen” with you, or inviting someone to worship with you. We witness with our deeds as well are our words.

I believe God leads people into our lives, or we into the lives of others, so we can share the good news of the gospel. Sadly, most of the time we don’t even consider this fact. We think only about witnessing to people who seem to be interested in religion. Every person you meet and talk to this week would be blessed to know or be reminded that God loved them enough to send Jesus to rescue them. We are willing to talk to people about all kinds of things (our kids, grandkids, special projects, accomplishments.) We can’t wait to find opportunities to bring these topics up in conversations! Why don’t we feel the same way about the gospel? It is the most important message we can every deliver. It is a great honor to be His ambassadors. We should be looking for opportunities to tell others about Him.

One more thing. Every time we see a cross in a church, on a necklace, or even a tattoo, we should feel something in us shudder at the cost God paid to love and rescue us. We should be able to see in our mind the disfigured form of our Savior. As we allow our hearts and minds to feel the horror of His suffering, we should feel His arms of love, forgiveness, and new life hug us. And that hug should be all the motivation we need, to live for Him, and to tell anyone we meet about the good news that Christ has come to give us new life.