Sermon 12th February 2012

Today, our Curate, Gill Tayleur, continues our look at different types of Bible literature. Her sermon is based around Isaiah 1: 1-20 - PROPHECY.

Over breakfast one morning, a woman said to her husband, “I bet you don’t know what day it is today.” “Of course I do” he answered indignantly, leaving for work.

At 10am, the doorbell rang and when the woman answered it, she was handed a bouquet of a dozen red roses. At 2pm a wrapped box of chocolates arrived and at 4pm a beautiful necklace from her favourite jewellers. She couldn’t wait for her husband to get home. “First the flowers, then the chocolates, and then the necklace!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never had a more wonderful Shrove Tuesday in my life!”

The connection with this morning’s subject of prophecy is tenuous, I admit, but it’s about correctly understanding the time you live in. This Tues is Valentine’s Day, and the following one is Shrove Tues!

In this series on types of Bible literature, we’ve looked so far at the Law, or Torah, at history, wisdom and poetry. Today we’re looking at the books of prophecy. There are 17 prophecy books, from Isaiah through to the end of the Old Testament. They are Isaiah, Jeremiah, - some include Lamentations – Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah & Malachi. The 3 longest books, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are known as the major prophets, because their books are long, and the shorter books are known as the minor prophets. Some of these 17 prophets lived in the northern kingdom of Israel, and some in the southern kingdom of Judah. Some were prophets before the exile, in the 8^th century BC, and some lived during the exile in the 7^th century BC. And some prophets lived after the exile when the people had returned to Jerusalem. The point being that each prophet lived in a particular time and place, and it’s good to be aware of that context when we read the book about them.

The books of prophecy have one major thing in common, the use of the words, “The Lord says” or “the mouth of the Lord has spoken”. These phrases, plus “the word of the Lord came to so and so” are used no less than 700 times in the prophecy books! And that tells us what a prophet was. A prophet was God’s spokesperson or mouthpiece, someone sent by God to speak in his name, with his authority. It was a rare and special calling to be God’s prophet.

Special – and costly. Because prophets spoke out about injustice and the abuse of power, they were often in conflict with kings or temple authorities, and for this they were sometimes punished. Prophets were often equally unpopular with ordinary people, as their messages were confrontational & deeply challenging. Prophets were often misunderstood – and considered very odd, to say the least! Some of them had visions, and some not only spoke God’s messages, they acted them out, showing the meaning of the message with symbolic actions. For example, Isaiah walked around Jerusalem naked for 3 years, Ezekiel shut himself up in his house, lay only on his left side for over a year and shaved himself with a sword. And some prophets not only acted the message but lived it. God called Jeremiah to renounce marriage because of the trouble to fall upon Judah and he was very lonely. God told Hosea to marry a woman who would be terribly unfaithful to him and have other men’s children, and to continue to love her.

He was to do this as a picture of how unfaithful God’s people were to him and his love & longing that they would return to him. Poor Hosea!

All these different ways of bringing God’s message to the people were designed to shake, stir up, intrigue and provoke them to listen and to change!

The 17 prophets we read about in these books weren’t the first or only prophets. Moses was a prophet. He brought God’s message to the people, brought the law and the covenant, the solemn agreement that God would be their God, and if the people lived with him as their God, worshipping him and in obedience to his law, they would be God’s people, live in his promised place, under his rule and great blessing. The next great prophets after Moses were Elijah and Elisha, and they and all the Old Testament prophets had a very similar message. Again and again they reinforced the covenant, urging the people to worship God and obey the law, and reminding them of the blessings that followed obedience and the judgement that followed disobedience.

The messages that the prophets brought with the words, “The Lord says” mostly fall into two categories – what has been called forth telling and foretelling. Forth telling is speaking out about the present, whereas foretelling is about the future. We may think prophecy is mostly predictions about the future, but in fact far far more of what the prophets said from the Lord, was about their present than their future.

Forth telling messages from God were to change the people’s understanding of the present, to show it from God’s perspective, which was usually very different from the people’s! Prophets said, ‘You may think this is what’s going on, but actually God says this is how it really is.’ The Isaiah 1 passage we just read has an example of this, in verse 3, it says the people don’t understand.

These forth telling messages nearly always involved a big rousing challenge to change the present, for the people to repent of their sin and come back to God.

Fore telling messages were about the future, about what God was going to do in the future. The timing of the fulfilment of the prophecy wasn’t specified, and most fore telling prophecies use a phrase like “in the days to come”.

In both the forth telling and foretelling prophecies, there were two main themes, judgement and hope.

First, judgement. There are long sections in the prophetic books that exposed the people’s sin and announced God’s judgement against it. In the passage from Isaiah 1

we just heard, Isaiah said the people are “loaded with guilt, given to corruption, have turned their backs on God” He calls upon them to “stop doing wrong, learn to do right, seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the fatherless and the widow.”

The prophets said that the issues of justice, greed and the abuse of power were often the cause of God’s anger with the people.

As was their unfaithfulness, as they either went and worshipped other so called gods, or they worshipped God in outward appearance only, not engaging the heart or lifestyle. In our Isaiah 1 passage, there’s a tirade against the sacrifices offered at the temple, as meaningless and a wearisome burden to God.

The people of both the northern and southern kingdoms were complacent and didn’t take the warnings of the prophets seriously. But their complacency was shattered when the Assyrians defeated Israel and the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took the people of Judah into exile. The prophets stressed that these events were not historical accidents; they were acts of God’s judgement as a consequence of their disobedience, as set out in the covenant. Even before they entered the land all those centuries before they had been warned, ’If you turn away from God, you will be judged and sent into exile.’ They did disobey, so God, through the prophets, reminded them, “If you continue to live like this, God will judge you”. God was patient with them for many, many years, but still they did not repent, so in the end, judgement came. And then God spoke again, through prophets like Ezekiel during the exile, explaining what was happening to them; “God is punishing you, just as he said he would have to.” They were not to think that Jerusalem had been defeated because God was less powerful than the Babylonian gods. He was still in control. He had been at work through the Babylonians, carrying out the judgement he had promised.

God has not changed. He is still the God of infinite love, but he is also a holy God who hates what is evil and gets angry when he sees it. His judgement on the people in the Old Testament should warn us too against being complacent.

Are we complacent about issues of justice, as Isaiah’s listeners were? What do we do to

“seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the fatherless and the widow”?

Really, what do we do? On our doorstep, or further away?

This week on Wednesday we have Gita Paton from the Prison Fellowship is coming to tell us about the work of restorative justice. Come and listen, and maybe see how you can support them, 8pm at St Saviour’s.

In Chennai in India, the International Justice Mission and our very own Andy Griffiths are working for justice by literally setting slaves free. They do all the legal work necessary, and then carry out a rescue operation that swoops in and frees whole families from abusive bonded labour and gives them a fresh start in liberty! Support them, with prayer and/or giving.

Go and look at the traidcraft stall after church, that brings trade justice to those who make or farm the things on sale.

And is there someone you know, a neighbour or colleague, who comes under the ‘oppressed, orphans and widows’ category who needs your support? What could you do to draw alongside them?

And what about unfaithfulness to God? We may not obviously worship other gods – although what we put first in our life could helpfully be the subject of a whole sermon – but in our Sunday morning worship, are we sometimes just going through the motions?

Or are we truly attentive, repentant and worshipful, bringing all our hearts, minds and wills to God? And do we live a whole life of worship to God 24/7, doing what is right not just in word but in deed?

Actions have consequences and the everyday choices we make, matter. As Bishop Tom Wright says, real human life isn’t like a game of chess where even if we do badly the pieces get put back in the box at the end of the day and we can start again tomorrow. The great, deep truth of God’s forgiveness isn’t the same as saying, that whatever we do isn’t really important because it’ll all work out somehow.

No, the judgement we see in the Old Testament is a foretaste of a far more terrible judgement to come at the end of time. On that day we shall have to stand before God and be held to account for how we have lived on earth.

BUT THERE IS HOPE!

Hope is the other main theme of the prophets. For although God’s prophets spoke of terrible judgement, they also spoke of forgiveness and of restoration. Again, our Isaiah 1 reading has an example of this.

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Again and again, the prophets called on the people – and rulers – to turn from their sin,

to repent, to come back to God and be forgiven. And some of the prophets spoke of a new way that God would deal with sin, a way that would surpass the sacrificial system of killing animals as a sin offering. Isaiah spoke of a slightly mysterious figure he called ‘the servant’, an individual who would be used by God to rescue his people, by dying for their sins, facing their punishment, so that they could be forgiven. This fore-telling prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross. He took on himself the sins of the whole world for all time, and because of that, we can all be forgiven and have a new start with God.

The prophets spoke of God’s intention to make a new start for his people. They brought this hope of good times ahead by talking of the past. ‘Do you remember what it was like in the good old days of Moses, David and Solomon?’ they asked. ‘Well it will be like that again in the future, only much better. There will be a new covenant, a new nation, a new Jerusalem, a new temple, a new king, even a new creation. Everything in the old covenant will be surpassed in the new. Still God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and enjoying his blessing, but perfectly. The prophets spoke of the ultimate fulfilment of these promises.

God’s people. There were prophecies about the servant restoring not only Israel but also to be a light for the Gentiles, the non Jews, so that all people everywhere would know God’s love, his forgiveness and goodness.

God’s people in God’s place. The prophet Ezekiel had a vision of new temple, even more magnificent than the first, as a symbol of a new creation. Isaiah also foretold of God the creator of everything being determined to undo the effects of sin in every way and renewing the whole world, creating a new heaven and new earth.

God’s people in God’s place enjoying God’s rule and blessing. Isaiah prophesied about a new king to be born, “to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders...He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever.”

Daniel prophesied about one called the Son of Man, who was to be given authority,

glory and sovereign power.Oh there is so much in the prophecy books that look ahead to Jesus, to both his first coming 2000 years ago, and his second coming when history will be wound up and the world renewed with Jesus’ rule finally established and peace and prosperity abounding forever. More about those last days of history next week!

But what for us, for now?

The message of the Old Testament prophets was reinforced and developed by the New. Indeed there were more people with gifts of prophecy in the New Testament,

and prophecy is listed as a spiritual gift that God gave, and still gives, his church.

Today it looks rather different, but still people are gifted by God to bring his message in a specific way, to forth tell God’s perspective on the present and to foretell of what God is going to do in future. Words, pictures, actions, all have their place in speaking God’s message today. Again, there’s plenty that could be said on that if there was time!

But I want to end by concluding that the message of the prophecy books, the message of judgement and of hope, is surely as relevant today as it was all those years ago. Yes our context and our world is very different, but God is the same yesterday today and forever, and his holiness and anger at sin is the same. We need to take very seriously the reality of his judgement to come. But God’s love and forgiveness are the same too.

He sent his son Jesus to die on a cross, for us, that we can be offered a fresh start in his loving mercy. So that we can live in a relationship with him, knowing him, worshipping him, loving him as he loves us. This is the hope he offers each of us today – for now and for eternity. So let’s hear the message God sent through his prophets, and his son Jesus, to repent, believe, receive his love and forgiveness, and to live for him today.

And so let’s pray, as we sit.

Dear God, we thank you for the message of the prophets. Please help us to grasp afresh, the severity of sin, and your judgement to come, and the wonderful love and forgiveness you offer through Jesus. Give us your power to hear and respond to your call to justice and heartfelt worship that changes our lives.

In your name we pray, amen.