Back in the day, our nation, our city and most of our individual hearts were far from God. We were described as a people who didn’t know their master. Animals can do better than that. An ox knows it’s master and a donkey knows who cares for him, but we chose to reject and despise the LORD, we turned our backs on Him and finally we didn’t even know Him.
It got even worse than that. We were described as prostitutes. We were haughty and flirtatious. Our God had made us a beautiful people. We were set apart for His glory and satisfaction alone. Yet, we flaunted that beauty to the nations surrounding us. We gave ourselves to their gods and joined in their lives.
We were like a vineyard. God’s vineyard. He spared nothing in cultivating the soil of our hearts and preparing us to produce His sweetness to the world around us. He planted the best vines of truth in us and built a watchtower from which to guard His investment. Yet when the time for harvest came, we produced only bitter grapes. There was nothing about us to enjoy. We were unpalatable. We became something that God wanted only to spit out.
That is exactly what He did. We were spit out before our enemies, wicked nations whom He called to His service. Those who had no regard for our land, our people or our God. Those whose only desire was to use us up. Use up our land, use up our people and disregard our God. Our families were torn apart as we became property and our possessions were ravaged by greedy pilferers whose only thought was themselves. A once beautiful city and land was left a wasteland.
Times were dark. Yet, our God would not let our darkness and despair go on forever. He planned to humble us. That He did, but He told us that a time was coming when a light would shine. Specifically, Galilee would be filled with His glory. A child would be born whose name was to be called: Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. He would be of the family of David and His rule would be for all eternity. This Chosen One was to bring justice, open the eyes of the blind and free captives from darkness. This Chosen One was also to be despised and rejected. He would know sorrow and grief. We would think that this was because of his own sins. No, it would be our sins that weighed Him down. He would be unjustly condemned, pierced, beaten, crushed and whipped for our sins. This would be the LORD’s plan. And yes, He is to rule for eternity with many descendants because of this plan.
God would not throw us away. We were not to be discouraged. He is our God and He said that He would strengthen us, help us and hold us up by His victorious right hand. He called us to understand that He alone is God. There is no other god – there never has been, and never will be. He freed us from our enemies for our own sake and for His name sake, He promised to blot out our sins; never to think of them again. Yes, we were a most stubborn people, but for His own sake, He held back His anger from wiping us completely out. Instead, He put us through the furnace of suffering in order to refine us. He rescued us for His own name sake. He would never let his reputation be tarnished nor would He share his glory with idols.
Times are still dark. We are oppressed by the Roman Empire now. They have no regard for our people, our land or our God. In many ways were not much different than our forefathers who endured captivity in Assyria and Babylon. There is a remnant of faithful ones, but so many only honor God with their lips and not with their hearts. Something interesting happened the other day here in Galilee. A man who grew up in this area had just come back to town. He name is Jesus. People were abuzz about the things that he had been saying. The reputation that was going ahead of him was good and people liked him. He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll that was handed to him was Isaiah. Upon unrolling the scroll, he looked for a specific place. Once he found it he began reading,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
He finished by saying that the Scriptures that he had just read were fulfilled that very day. That was a bold statement. Could he be the one that Isaiah said would shine as light into the darkness? Sometime later this Jesus proclaimed, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
It seems that He IS the one whom Isaiah tells us to expect. The road ahead will be a difficult one: sorrow and suffering, grief and despair. But, it will not end there. Isaiah told us of time when heaven will be His throne and earth His footstool. The wolf and lamb will feed together. Those who have a humble and contrite heart will be blessed. All humanity will worship the Lord from week to week and month to month.
Do things in history change? Are hearts any different today? There are those that are humble and contrite. They know their God. There are those that are proud and haughty. They are flirtatious with the idols of this world, despising and rejecting God. The one is a sweet fruit from God’s vineyard, the other a bitter fruit. One is a delight, the other is spit out. The choice to accept or reject the promised Chosen One makes the difference in the fruit. The choice is ours.
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