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Sermon: Isaiah 40 The God of the Servant

Isaiah 40

 

The God of the Servant


Have you ever felt despair? Have you ever known what
it feels like to be beaten? To have no fight left in you.
Have you ever been totally flattened, numbed, worn
out by the experience of life? The tide of events
running against you for a very long time until you are
empty. No emotion left. No bottle to get up and get on?
You’re just drained and weary and crushed.


Perhaps some of us are just here tonight.


How do you revive a crushed spirit?


That is the issue of Isaiah Ch 40. Judah is broken. For
60 - 70 years she has been in exiled in Babylon. The
unimaginable had happened. God had abandoned his
people. Judah and Jerusalem had been ravaged by
Nebuchadnezzar its people brutalised, the flower of its
youth carried off into Babylon and the city itself left
more or less a heap of rubble with only the old and the
useless left behind.


Judah believed it could never happen, but it did. God
could never forsake his people, but he had. The shock
of this discovery and the years in Babylon had taken a
heavy toll physically and mentally and emotionally.
They were dispirited and depressed.


Mind you, Judah, the two tribes in the South should
have known better. They had already seen the ten tribes
in the North - formed when Israel had civil war and was
partitioned - carried off into exile in Assyria.


Not only so but Isaiah himself and a number of other
prophets too had been warning them for years that
God’s judgement was going to come - Ch1-39 of Isaiah
is almost one long continuous siren of coming
judgement. Having the capital city, Jerusalem and the
temple in their territory wouldn’t preserve them from
the same fate as Israel.

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About John

Hi there - I am a member of Greenview and have been for over 20 years. For a number of these years I functioned as an elder, however, indifferent health forced me to take more of a back seat. I see this as an opportunity to do a little writing, often focussing on issues that are a matter of evangelical debate today. Naturally the views expressed are my own and may not reflect the views of the elders or church at large, though differences are likely to be in the detail and not the substance.

These articles and sermons were written partly to clarify my own thoughts and partly with the intention of provoking thought in others who may read them. If you read one I hope you find it stimulating. Please feel free to give me feedback or discuss my articles in the forums.

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