First Sunday after Christmas
Preaching
Preaching And Reading The Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
This text continues with the passage that we read from Isaiah 61 on the Third Sunday in Advent. The preacher therefore may want to refer to that exposition also. There the historical context and meaning of the text are further explicated.
As is sometimes the case with the lectionary, it has begun with the ending of one pericope and joined it to the beginning of another. Verses 10 and 11 in chapter 61 form the ending of that chapter's long poem. Verses 1--3 in chapter 62 are the beginning of the poem that continues through 62:9. However, the two portions have some content in common, and we can treat them together.
In 61:10--11, the Judean community breaks forth into praise, exulting that it has been clothed with God's salvation, like a bride and groom clothed with their wedding garments. Israel is often pictured in the Old Testament as the bride of God (cf. Hosea chs. 1--3 and Jeremiah 2:1--3), just as the church and the new Jerusalem are portrayed by that metaphor in the New Testament (Mark 2:19--20 and parallels; John 3:29; Revelation 21:2). And the thought here is that the Lord will so cover the Judean community with salvation that it will be as if that is the clothing that the Judeans wear. They will be wrapped in God's salvation, covered, garbed with it.
As a result, in verse 11, the community expresses its faith in God's fidelity to his promises. The people confess that as surely as the earth brings forth vegetation, so surely will the Lord God (the title used also in 61:1) cause his saving righteousness and praise to spring up before the eyes of all the nations as a witness to them. Judah will be saved, and all peoples with her. Therefore she rejoices.
That has not yet taken place in the lives of the Judeans who are the object of these promises, however. Indeed, if we examine the living conditions of the Judeans who returned to Palestine from Babylonian exile, their lives seem anything but saved. They are still subjects of the Persian Empire, and they make up not a nation, but a struggling little congregation of priests and laity and leaders. Often they know poverty and inflation and hunger. They manage to rebuild their temple, but it is a pitiful little edifice compared to the temple that once was (cf. Haggai 2:3). They are constantly harrassed by opponents when they reconstruct Jerusalem's walls (cf. Nehemiah 4). The glorious promises made to them by the earlier Second Isaiah and here, Third Isaiah, have not come to pass. And this announcement of salvation in our text must have been received with a good deal of skepticism by those who heard it. All nations will see Judah's salvation? Hardly!
For that reason, in 62:1--3, the reformed prophets who speak in this book reassure the struggling Judeans that intercession before God will be made for them. One of the frequent functions of a prophet in the Old Testament is to intercede before God for his people (cf. Deuteronomy 9:25--29; Jeremiah 7:16; Amos 7:1--6), and in Isaiah 62:1, a prophet reassures the people that he will never cease praying for them. He will pound on God's door in prayer, as it were, until "her vindication (that is, her forgiveness) goes forth as brightness" and her salvation (her fullness of life) "as a burning torch" - as light to be seen by all peoples everywhere (cf. 60:1--3). Then all nations will be drawn to Judah's light and will acknowledge that the Lord is their God also. In short, Judah here is promised that she will become the beginning center of the Kingdom of God on earth. God will delight in her and give her a new name and treasure her like a precious jewel in his hands.
Did that beckoning light ever dawn, and did the Kingdom of God ever begin on earth? Not in Old Testament times. That is the strange thing about the Old Testament prophecies. They often end up in the air, unfinished and unfulfilled. And whenever we read the Old Testament, we always have to ask, did God keep these glowing promises?
The Word of God never fails, and in the fullness of time, God kept his promises. He gathered them all up and incarnated them in Jesus Christ, born at Bethlehem, and brought them to fulfillment. In our Lord Jesus, God did indeed begin his kingdom. Do you remember the words of our Lord as he began his preaching? "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). And in Luke, "If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you" (Luke 11:20). There is the beginning of God's universal reign over all the earth, there in that man from Nazareth, in that one clothed in the pure righteousness of his Father, bringing God's promises of comfort and freedom and joy to all people.
There too, in Jesus Christ, is the light that will draw all nations to himself, the "light of the world" (John 8:12; 9:5), "the true light that enlightens everyone" (John 1:9), the light that "shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5).
Do we realize, then, that if we trust in Jesus Christ and if we let him live in us (cf. Galatians 2:20), we participate in his righteousness and in his life--giving light? Certainly we have no righteousness and light of our own, do we? We are too much soiled with our selfishness and sin that cast a shadow over any light we possess in ourselves. But in Jesus Christ, by trust in him and his victory over sin and death, we are counted righteousness and light in the eyes of our God, and we become also "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), saved, vindicated, forgiven, treasured, as Judah was promised she would be.
Then, says our text, all nations will be drawn to the salvation of God that he makes evident in our lives, and all peoples too will confess that our Lord is their Lord and our God is their God. Thus, God will spread the salvation of his kingdom over all his earth. And the praise that we hear in our text will be the praise of all men and women everywhere.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my soul will exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
Isaiah 61:10
As is sometimes the case with the lectionary, it has begun with the ending of one pericope and joined it to the beginning of another. Verses 10 and 11 in chapter 61 form the ending of that chapter's long poem. Verses 1--3 in chapter 62 are the beginning of the poem that continues through 62:9. However, the two portions have some content in common, and we can treat them together.
In 61:10--11, the Judean community breaks forth into praise, exulting that it has been clothed with God's salvation, like a bride and groom clothed with their wedding garments. Israel is often pictured in the Old Testament as the bride of God (cf. Hosea chs. 1--3 and Jeremiah 2:1--3), just as the church and the new Jerusalem are portrayed by that metaphor in the New Testament (Mark 2:19--20 and parallels; John 3:29; Revelation 21:2). And the thought here is that the Lord will so cover the Judean community with salvation that it will be as if that is the clothing that the Judeans wear. They will be wrapped in God's salvation, covered, garbed with it.
As a result, in verse 11, the community expresses its faith in God's fidelity to his promises. The people confess that as surely as the earth brings forth vegetation, so surely will the Lord God (the title used also in 61:1) cause his saving righteousness and praise to spring up before the eyes of all the nations as a witness to them. Judah will be saved, and all peoples with her. Therefore she rejoices.
That has not yet taken place in the lives of the Judeans who are the object of these promises, however. Indeed, if we examine the living conditions of the Judeans who returned to Palestine from Babylonian exile, their lives seem anything but saved. They are still subjects of the Persian Empire, and they make up not a nation, but a struggling little congregation of priests and laity and leaders. Often they know poverty and inflation and hunger. They manage to rebuild their temple, but it is a pitiful little edifice compared to the temple that once was (cf. Haggai 2:3). They are constantly harrassed by opponents when they reconstruct Jerusalem's walls (cf. Nehemiah 4). The glorious promises made to them by the earlier Second Isaiah and here, Third Isaiah, have not come to pass. And this announcement of salvation in our text must have been received with a good deal of skepticism by those who heard it. All nations will see Judah's salvation? Hardly!
For that reason, in 62:1--3, the reformed prophets who speak in this book reassure the struggling Judeans that intercession before God will be made for them. One of the frequent functions of a prophet in the Old Testament is to intercede before God for his people (cf. Deuteronomy 9:25--29; Jeremiah 7:16; Amos 7:1--6), and in Isaiah 62:1, a prophet reassures the people that he will never cease praying for them. He will pound on God's door in prayer, as it were, until "her vindication (that is, her forgiveness) goes forth as brightness" and her salvation (her fullness of life) "as a burning torch" - as light to be seen by all peoples everywhere (cf. 60:1--3). Then all nations will be drawn to Judah's light and will acknowledge that the Lord is their God also. In short, Judah here is promised that she will become the beginning center of the Kingdom of God on earth. God will delight in her and give her a new name and treasure her like a precious jewel in his hands.
Did that beckoning light ever dawn, and did the Kingdom of God ever begin on earth? Not in Old Testament times. That is the strange thing about the Old Testament prophecies. They often end up in the air, unfinished and unfulfilled. And whenever we read the Old Testament, we always have to ask, did God keep these glowing promises?
The Word of God never fails, and in the fullness of time, God kept his promises. He gathered them all up and incarnated them in Jesus Christ, born at Bethlehem, and brought them to fulfillment. In our Lord Jesus, God did indeed begin his kingdom. Do you remember the words of our Lord as he began his preaching? "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). And in Luke, "If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you" (Luke 11:20). There is the beginning of God's universal reign over all the earth, there in that man from Nazareth, in that one clothed in the pure righteousness of his Father, bringing God's promises of comfort and freedom and joy to all people.
There too, in Jesus Christ, is the light that will draw all nations to himself, the "light of the world" (John 8:12; 9:5), "the true light that enlightens everyone" (John 1:9), the light that "shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5).
Do we realize, then, that if we trust in Jesus Christ and if we let him live in us (cf. Galatians 2:20), we participate in his righteousness and in his life--giving light? Certainly we have no righteousness and light of our own, do we? We are too much soiled with our selfishness and sin that cast a shadow over any light we possess in ourselves. But in Jesus Christ, by trust in him and his victory over sin and death, we are counted righteousness and light in the eyes of our God, and we become also "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), saved, vindicated, forgiven, treasured, as Judah was promised she would be.
Then, says our text, all nations will be drawn to the salvation of God that he makes evident in our lives, and all peoples too will confess that our Lord is their Lord and our God is their God. Thus, God will spread the salvation of his kingdom over all his earth. And the praise that we hear in our text will be the praise of all men and women everywhere.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my soul will exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
Isaiah 61:10
