Sermon – Year B – 5 Epiphany – February 8 2015
“Have you not known? Have you not heard?”
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah can be broadly divided into
two main sections.
The first, chapters 1-39 is often called “The Book of
Judgment.” It details much of the history and prophecy of
the last years of the southern Kingdom of Judah, ending with
the destruction of Jerusalem and the forced deportation and
exile of the people into ghettos in Babylon.
The second portion of Isaiah, chapters 40-66 is called “The
Book of Comfort.”
Here are the words of hope and comfort that the exiles
would need to find the strength and courage to return to the
Promised Land and rebuild Jerusalem and their lives after the
fall of the Babylon Empire.
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We must first approach this morning’s passage from Isaiah
with that understanding.
So, imagine what it would have been like for the exiles.
They saw their homes and villages utterly destroyed.
They saw their nation overrun, their capital city burned to
the ground, and perhaps worst of all, they saw the Temple,
the heartbeat of the nation and the center of their identity as
God’s people, desecrated, ransacked, and burned to the
ground.
Then like cattle, they were herded hundreds of miles into
ghettos in a foreign land.
There they remained for 70 years.
It was the length of time that God had set, and the prophets
had told the people so.
A time of judgment, repentance, or reorientation, of refining.
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But, God had also promised that He would bring the people
home and that they would rebuild the Temple, Jerusalem,
their homes, their lives.
However, they had a hard time holding on to that hope in
the midst of exile.
And so we hear their cry, “My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God.” In other words,
“Why has God abandoned me? Doesn’t He see what I’m
going through? Doesn’t He care? Why doesn’t He do
something to set things right?”
But God does see, He does know.
So much so that His answer is given even before the
question is asked, “Have you not know? Have you not
heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?”
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Do you not know that God is the Creator of all that is, that
He is the one who stretched out the heavens and numbered
the stars?
Have you not known that God is omnipresent, omnipotent,
immortal, and the Holy One?
So you not understand that it was God who created the earth
and who gives rain and sun and so provides all that we need
for life?
Have you not heard that it is God who controls all history,
and who will bring the Babylonian princes to naught?
“Have you not known? Have you not heard?”
And the answer is, of course, that they had heard, and they
should have known.
Telling the stories about God, especially the events of
Passover and the Exodus was one of the most important
duties of every Israelite family. They were to tell their
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children of God’s great rescue, or His providence and
provision. They were to, “Recite them to your children and
talk about them when you are at home and when you are
away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a
sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead,
and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your
gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:7-9)
And the telling was not just a dry and dusty recitation of long
ago history, but a living remembrance to make God’s mighty
acts once again real in the present moment – so that they
could be encouraged and strengthened in their faith and
relationship with God.
So here in Isaiah God is calling His people to remember what
they have heard and know, namely that God is God, that He
is with them, and that He will act for His people.
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However, the schedule and the means of rescue from
Babylon were God’s.
The exiles had been given a general timetable, but the
specifics were not revealed to them, that knowledge
belonged to the “unsearchable” understanding of God.
So Isaiah told them that they would have to “wait for the
Lord.
But their waiting was not to be idle, or despondent.
Indeed, the Hebrew word used here for wait is kah-vah, (not
as it is in English a ‘four letter word’). It connotes hopeful
and vigilant waiting – trusting that God would come through
for them. And they could trust that, because they had heard
and they knew all that God had done for them in the past.
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And so the prophet ends this passage by exhorting the exiles
to hear and know God, for it is God who will give them the
power to persevere and the energy to journey home to
rebuild their lives. It is in trusting God and looking to Him
that they will find the hope to move beyond the fatigue of
their despair and depression. It is by hearing and knowing
God, and in remembering His love for them that they will
learn to stretch out their wings like the eagles and soar on
the winds of God.
Have you not heard? ….
God kept His promise.
The Babylonian Empire fell and the exiles went home.
And they were given the strength to rebuild the Temple,
their nation, their homes, and their lives.
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Have you not known? …
God’s word is living and active.
It speaks in its original context, but truth rings speaks in all
times and places, so God has a word for us in this passage
too.
First, although we are not in captivity to foreign worldly
conquerors, we as baptized Christians recognize that we are
our true home is in Christ, and that we are sojourners here.
We look around and see all the ways that the world is far
from God and His goodness, and is captive to sin and death
and it is easy to despair, easy to feel overwhelmed by the
magnitude of the problems, and feel helpless and hopeless to
do anything. We find ourselves, like the Jewish exiles, crying
out, “Don’t you see God? Why won’t you set all this evil and
madness right?”
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“Have you not known? Have you not heard?”
Yes!!!
We have heard and know something even greater than the
exiles – we know Jesus.
We have heard of the Incarnation, we have heard of the
miracles and the teachings of Jesus.
We have heard the good news of Good Friday, that God the
Son, Jesus Christ died bearing our sins and nailing them to
the Cross, so that we could be forgiven and made whole.
We have heard the good new of Easter Sunday, that Jesus
rose from the dead, never to die again, so that we could rise
in Him and have eternal life with God.
We know Jesus!
“Lift up you eyes and see…”, not the stars, but the
Cross…and know God’s love for you.
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And do not despair, instead wait and watch trusting that God
will keep His promises.
For He will. He will come again in glory and all evil shall be
finally and utterly destroyed, and everything shall be set
right and there will be no sin, no sadness, sickness, no
death.
Have you not heard? Hear the Word of God.
Have you not known? Know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
He is our hope as we seek to share the good news in the
darkness of the world.
He is our strength for the journey.
Have you not heard? Have you not known?
Yes you have – so stretch out your wings like the eagles and
soar on the breath of God lifted by the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.
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