Isaiah 51:1-6
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
that I might bless him and multiply him.
For the Lord comforts Zion;
he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.
“Give attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
My righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
the coastlands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. Are you ready to dig in? Here we go. The Old Testament reading for August 27 is from Isaiah chapter 51. It reads, listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you. For he was about one when I called him, and that I might bless him and multiply him. For the Lord comfort Zion, he comforts all her waist places, and makes her wilderness like Eden, her deserts like the garden of the Lord, joy and gladness will be found in her Thanksgiving and the voice of song. Give attention to me, my people and give her to me, my nation, for a law will go out from me. And I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. My righteousness draws near my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples, the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm, they wait. Lift up your eyes to the heavens and looked at the earth beneath. For the heavens vanish, like smoke, the Earth will wear out like a garment. And they who dwell on it will die in like manner. But my salvation will be forever. And my righteousness will never be dismayed. Here is the reading. So let's get started with this. It opens up with Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you are human and to the quarry from which you are dug. So what it is, is it's pointing out to all the faithful people says look to where you grew out of what he's doing is he's looked preparing us to look ahead to Abraham, and continues. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah, who bore you. For he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. You can see in this assumption that Isaiah is speaking to the people of Abraham. It's a sort of as a group identity, that Abraham the father and Sarah his wife bore them. And he says, Abraham was just one man when he called him so that he could bless him and make him multiply. I think the idea here is that for people that Isaiah was likely thinking about were stuck in exile and and tragedy that God had blessed Abraham who was just one person and made him huge. How much more could he bless Israel? How much more could he bless God's people? It continues for the Lord comfort Zion, he comforts all her waist places, and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord, joy and gladness would be found in her Thanksgiving and the voice of song. So not only is God going to bless the people of Israel who are reading this in Isaias day, it is also a blessing for the church. We who are children of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ. Now we have this comfort that God gives not just to Zion of the Old Testament, but to the whole Christian Church on earth, that God is going to make the waist places of life like a garden. Now, this might be somewhat metaphorical for the Christian now, but on the day that Jesus Christ returns, all of the earth will be made perfect joy and gladness and Thanksgiving in song. Isaiah continues, give attention to me, my people, and give here to me, my nation, for a law will go out from me. And I will set my justice for a light to the people's. It's interesting when when the Old Testament uses that word law, sometimes it doesn't mean law as in a set of rules. Sometimes it means law, like the Torah is in the whole Old Testament covenants and promises and all of the things that Moses wrote. And so I think here this idea is that God's promises His law and his gospel will go out from him out into the peoples. He continues, my righteous drawers, nests drawers near my salvation has gone out and my arms will judge the people's, the coastlands hope for me and for my arm, they wait. This idea is that when God's righteousness goes out into the world, it is not just the Jews, but also to the Gentiles who are waiting for his his law, His righteousness, His justice. And that's what it means when it says the coastlands it's the far off peoples, not just those who are nearby. Isaiah continues, lift up your eyes to the heavens and look at the earth beneath. For the heavens vanish, like smoke, the Earth will wear out like a garment. And they who dwell in it will die in like manner, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed. Everything in this world goes away, doesn't it? The heavens vanish, like smoke, the Earth will wear out, and we all eventually die. But God's salvation lasts forever. Because Jesus will come back and take the dying and Vanishing Earth and make it new. He will take all our bodies and make them new, and we will live forever with Christ and the resurrection from the dead. All of the things that vanish now, they will be made new on the day that God salvation returns for the final time in Jesus Christ. That's the end of our reading today. I hope to see you on Sunday.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai