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January 20, 2008
A-Epiphany 2
Isaiah 49:1-6
Pastor Robert Raasch

The Servant of the Lord

1. Called before birth
2. A mouth like a sword
3. Labored to no purpose
4. Restored the tribes of Jacob

(Isaiah 49:1-6)  Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. {2} He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. {3} He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor." {4} But I said, "I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is with my God." {5} And now the LORD says-- he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength-- {6} he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

Tell me, do you like solving riddles?  You know, those little verbal puzzles that kind of tease your brain until you figure out the answer to them, and then it’s like, “Oh yeah, I get it.”  Some riddles are easy, like “what’s black and white and re(a)d all over?”  Yes, a newspaper.  Some riddles are a little harder.  How about this one: “I have two arms, but fingers none.  I have two feet but cannot run.  I carry well, but I have found I carry best with my feet off the ground.  What am I?”  I am a wheelbarrow.  Listen again: “I have two arms (the handles).  I have two feet, (the 2 little legs) but cannot run.  I carry well, but carry best with my feet off the ground.”  You see, because a riddle often uses some kind of figurative language, we maybe at first don’t get it.  But once the riddle is solved, once that mystery is unlocked, then the whole thing becomes clear to us.

Now, maybe you’ve thinking, why are we talking about riddles in church?  Because the particular portion of God’s Word that we have before us today has lot of the same characteristics of a riddle.  I don’t know about you, but every time I read these words, I feel like it should start and end with the words, “Who am I?”  I mean, it’s like a little word puzzle.  Listen to the clues that Isaiah gives:  “Before I was born, the Lord called me.  He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.  He concealed me in his quiver.  I have labored to no purpose, yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand.”  I mean, who is this talking about?  What does all this mean?  It’s like a riddle that is begging to be solved. 

Well, this morning/evening, we’re going to let God solve the riddle for us.  You see, God never intended that his word be a mystery to us.  Rather he intends that we use all of his Word to shed light on those parts of Scripture which at first seem a little more confusing, mysterious, even ridiculous.  So let’s do that.  Today we turn our attention to “someone” who is described as:

The Servant of the Lord
And we’ll focus especially on four rather unusual characteristics of this servant of the Lord.  We’ll see that he was:

1. Called before birth
2. A mouth like a sword
3. Labored to no purpose
4. Restored the tribes of Jacob

Now, for the sake of our discussion today, I’m going to tell you right up front what maybe already know, namely, this whole section is talking about Jesus, the Son of God.  Jesus is the Servant of the Lord described here.  But now, having said that, having solved the riddle, let’s go back and see how each one of these descriptions finds its fulfillment in Jesus.  In that way, we will get a clearer picture of who Jesus really and what he has done for us. 

The first thing that the servant of the Lord says about himself?  “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.”  What is that—other than a reference to the fact that long before God’s Son actually took on human flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary, God had already set him apart for the task of rescuing all mankind from sin.  Thousands of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God was already talking about him with our first parents, Adam and Eve.  Long before Jesus was actually born, God had already made mention of his name.  Remember, God told both Mary and Joseph, “You are to give (the child) the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The point is this:  Jesus is not some guy who lived a really good life, who kind of caught God’s eye and was then promoted to the position of Savior.  No, Jesus had been set apart by God to serve as our redeemer, from eternity.  That’s what we learn about Jesus from the first verse. 

Let’s go to verse 2.  Jesus says, II. “He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.”  Hmmm.  What does that mean?  He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.  That presents kind of a gruesome visual, doesn’t it?  Actually, it’s just another way of saying what Hebrews 4:12 says, namely, “The Word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”.  The Word of God is like a sword.  You think of how many times that, with his words, Jesus was able to cut right to people’s hearts.  What did he say to the Pharisees?  "You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. {28} On the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:27-28).  Ouch!  Or Jesus’ words to his disciples, “How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? (Matthew 7:4).  Or his words to the woman who was living with a man outside of marriage: “Go, call your husband” (John 4:16).  All such words from the mouth of Jesus would have to cut to the heart of his hearers.  Jesus’ words convicted them of sin.  And yet, Jesus words not only convicted human hearts with the law.  His words also comforted hearts with the gospel.  You think of his words to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  Or to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you.”  Or to the disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” 

My friends, isn’t the same thing still true today?  Jesus’ words still cut us to the heart.  His word exposes our inner failings, our lack of trust in him, our unwillingness to let him be #1 in our lives, our innate selfishness, and desire to put on a good front without actually giving him our hearts. 

And yet, just when we’re on the brink of despair, just when it appears that there is no hope for us, what does Jesus say to us?  He says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”  And where does that rest come from?  It comes from the forgiveness Jesus has freely granted to us.  He says, “I am the good shepherd.  I know my sheep and they listen to my voice.  I lay down my life for the sheep.  They shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”  If you think about it, the very words that Jesus spoke during his earthly ministry, 2000 years ago still apply to you and me today.  The words of his mouth are like a sharpened sword. 

Unfortunately, the effect that Jesus’ words had on the people of his day was not always what you might hope that it would be.  In fact, Jesus refers to that fact in the next section of our reading.  In verse four, Jesus says to his heavenly father, III. “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.” 

With these words, Jesus is not saying that the work of redeeming mankind from sin was a failure or a waste of time.  Rather, he’s referring to the day to day work he carried out during his three years of earthly ministry in the land of Judea.  Think about it.  During the first year of his public ministry very few people knew about him.  During his second year, he became wildly popular.  People came great distances to come and see him.  And by the third year, the crowds were turning away from him.  The evangelist John tells us, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”  For all that Jesus did for his fellow Jews, for all the miracles he performed for them, to then have them ultimately treat him like their worst enemy—is it any wonder that from a human perspective, Jesus would have lamented, “I’ve labored to no purpose?”     

If you think about it, that statement gives us a glimpse into the depths of Christ’s humiliation.  I mean, for Jesus to be true God and then have to undergo absolute rejection by a world of worthless sinners—that’s just a part of the degradation that Jesus underwent on our behalf.  But it also means that Jesus knows the hurt that a Christian parent feels when, in spite of years of encouragement and Christian education, his or her child turns away from God to a life of sin.  Jesus knows how it feels when the unchurched family that you’ve been working on for years, spurns your invitation to come and learn more about the God who loves them unconditionally.  Jesus knows what it’s like to put in long, hard hours at home or work and feel like you don’t have a single thing to show for it.  Jesus knows what it’s like to feel like you’ve “labored for no purpose.”

And yet, how did Jesus deal with these apparent failures?  Listen to the attitude he expresses in verse 4.  “What is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”  In other words, Jesus says, “I’ll trust that my Heavenly Father has a plan.  I’ll focus on being faithful to his will—and leave the final results in his hands.”  My friends, that attitude is still the model for our attitude today.  Be faithful with what is your responsibility and then let God handle what is his responsibility.

Now, when Jesus followed that course of action, what was the result?  Well, God tells us here in our text.  The fourth and final characteristic of the Servant of the Lord is that he would IV. Restore the tribes of Jacob.  Now, what does that mean?  Like the three previous characteristics, this is one that makes you kind of scratch your head a bit.  I mean, just a minute ago we said that the Jewish nation by and large rejected Jesus as Savior.  In what way was he going to restore the tribes of Jacob?  Is this a reference to the fact that in 1948 the nation of Israel was called into existence?  No, God’s not talking about raising up the Jews as political power, an earthly nation.  He’s talking about raising them up spiritually.  He’s talking about calling them back to faith in the true God.  Even though there were a lot of Jews who stubbornly clung to their own misguided belief that their attempts to keep the Old Testament law would make them right with God, still there were a lot of Jews who realized, “wait a minute.”  We’re not able to keep all those law.  We need someone else to keep them for us.  We need someone to rescue us from our sins and guilt.  We need a Savior.  A savior like the one that God promised in the Old Testament.  A Savior like the one John the Baptist pointed to when he said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”  By the grace of God, there were a lot of Jews, even in Jesus’ day, who looked at Jesus and said, “He’s the one.  He’s my Savior.  Eleven disciples, the Apostle Paul, the thief on the cross, hundreds of thousands of people who were Jewish by blood, ultimately became Christian by belief.  And that miracle of God gathering to himself people of Jewish descent has not stopped to this very day. 

And yet, lest we think that God was content to have his Servant Jesus gather only Jews to himself…what does God say to his servant?  “It’s too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.  I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”  Wow!  Already here in the Old Testament, God was saying, “The Savior I send will not just be for the Jews.  He’ll be for all people, of all nations—including you and me.