EPIPHANY
8
Feb.
22-24, 2014
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Isaiah 49:13-18
“WHEN YOU FEEL FORSAKEN AND FORGOTTEN…”
1.
Count
on God’s compassion.
2.
Count
on God’s commitment.
Isaiah 49:13-18
(NIV 1984)
“Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O
mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and
will have compassion on his afflicted ones. 14 But Zion
said, "The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten
me." 15 "Can a mother
forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child
she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever
before me. 17 Your sons hasten back,
and those who laid you waste depart from you. 18 Lift up your eyes and look
around; all your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I
live," declares the LORD, "you will wear
them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride.”
I distinctly remember one time I felt
forsaken and forgotten. I was sitting in prison. Let me tell you how I got
there. I was visiting a young WELS man from Texas who’d gotten himself into
such serious trouble that he was placed in the brand new maximum security
prison in Beeville, TX. To see him I had to arrange a visit with the prison
chaplain. After I was frisked he led me through the gatehouse, past the
barbwire topped kill zones and through massive sliding solid metal gates. He
led me deep into the prison past the cells of the men in the regular population
who whistled and hooted, banged cell bars and made nasty remarks as I walked by
to the visitation cells for those prisoners kept in solitary confinement. “You
only get 30 minutes,” he said. “I’ll be back to get you out.” Our visit went by
quickly as I urged the young man to accept earthly consequences and rejoice in
his forgiveness and release from the eternal consequence of sin. My thirty
minutes was up. No chaplain. We kept talking. Then an hour. No chaplain. We
kept talking. Then an hour and a half. No chaplain. I started to get nervous. Some loud buzzers
went off. Sounded like alarms. Metal clanging like gates crashing shut. I asked the prisoner if he knew what was going
on. No. Perhaps you can imagine how I was feeling. Forsaken and forgotten in a
maximum security prison with a riot going on. But there was no riot and 30
minutes later the chaplain apologetically did come get me admitting he had in
fact forgotten me.
Have you ever felt forsaken and
forgotten? Isaiah prepared God’s people for a time when they would feel that
way. He wrote around 700 BC. Despite his and other prophets warnings against
idolatry the people of Judah would worship idols. They would receive a
consequence of a temporary exile to Babylon around 600 BC. Temporary because
God said it would be. But the people there would not think that. They would
feel forsaken and forgotten--by God. Listen as Isaiah prophecies how they would
feel. But Zion
said, "The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me."
Graciously
God provided his people what they would need for that time and in so doing He
provided for you and me. You might feel forsaken and forgotten by God. Is there
some sin or some sins you have done that you feel are so bad you don’t want
anyone to know and you think God still holds against you? If not now the day
may come as you get closer to death or are in the midst of trouble that the
Devil will needle you and torment you that God will not have you nor help you.
Let this word of God be your comfort.
It
teaches you to count on God’s compassion. “Shout
for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the
LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.”
God called on the heavens and earth to rejoice and sing. Now remember that when
God’s people would come back to this they would be stuck in Babylon as a discipline
from God for their idolatry. Discipline often feels like and looks like
punishment but it’s not the same. Kids you need to know that. You hurt and feel
sad when you are punished for doing something wrong. You need to know that most
of the time your parents don’t enjoy giving you consequences. They know they
need to for your good. Sometimes, it’s true, they are just mad. God never
disciplines that way. What he did with His people in Babylon was for their
good. They needed to know what God was thinking so He told them. He comforts.
He has compassion. Remember that. Count on that. Hold to that the next time you
are feeling punished by God, that He has forsaken you or forgotten you. The
Lord takes no pleasure in our hurt, pain or anguish but only lets it last as
long as is for our good, just like parents do with discipline, only God does it
perfectly.
But
we have trouble believing that like the people stuck in Babylon would have trouble
believing it. So God gave them and us some pictures to help us to count on His commitment.
"Can a mother forget the baby at her
breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne”? God wants us to
know His rock solid commitment so He calls to our minds what is supposed to be
the ideal of commitment love, that between a mother and her child. Normally
that's a strong bond. Normally we see
that as mama bear often comes out to defend her child. Sadly because of sin we
all know of instances where a mother forgets her child, kills it before it is
born, rejects it later in life as selfishness wins out over love. Even what
should be the greatest commitment gets broken by people. But it’s never that
way with God. “Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”
Another
picture. “See, I have engraved you on the
palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.” God talks to His people
like they are a city. He talks about engraving a picture of Zion, Jerusalem, which stands for the people,
on His palms, like some people today do with tattoos to remember someone
always. God’s picture here is also of commitment. “I have placed you in the
palms of my hands so you know you are always on my mind and what my hands do
will be for your good. Please don’t doubt that I have your good in mind. Please
don’t cast aspersions on my commitment and love for you. Please trust my
promises. They will come true.” For the
people of Isaiah’s time it would mean this. “Your
sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. 18 Lift up your eyes and look
around; all your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live,"
declares the LORD, "you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them
on, like a bride.” The people in
Babylon at the right time, God’s time, would come back to their land. They
could count on it because God said so and God was committed.
God’s
committed to you too. Brothers and sisters, this word of God is for believers
who have broken hearts. I remember a Seminary professor telling his students to
remember that there are generally more broken hearts in church than hardened
hearts. Is that true for us? Are we a group of people who realize we’re just a
bunch of spiritual screw ups and our best attempts at righteousness really don’t
cut it? Do we know in our heart of
hearts that we really don’t deserve goodness from God and the difficulties we
have in life are what we justly deserve? Do our own sins bother us more than
the sins of others so we conclude we really are the poor miserable sinners we
confess ourselves to be? Is your heart broken?
Are you feeling forsaken and forgotten? You can count on God having
compassion on you and you can count and God being committed to you.
You can do that because of what He
allowed His Son to do for you. I don’t get nervous about a lot of things but I
have to tell you when I was forsaken and forgotten in that prison with what I
thought was a prison riot in progress I was scared. But nothing that could have
happened to me there can even begin to compare with what Jesus went through
when He was forsaken by God to pay for the sins of the world. He did that for you
and for me. All those sins we know make us unworthy of God’s love and help and
care He has removed and taken away. He was forsaken so you and I get to know we
will never be. You have the right to live that way. Endure hardships with a
smile on your face. They will not last. God has not forsaken or forgotten you.
He loves you. You can count on His compassion and His commitment. Jesus is your
proof. Amen.
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