Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, this is a difficult time.
It’s a time of sickness, death, and uncertainty.
We are worried about our loved ones and about our neighbors.
We’re asking questions about food, protection, and safety.
We’re upset by sports cancellations and school closings.
We are trying to steer a course between panic and apathy.
We are coping with the possibility of isolation, loneliness, and sickness.
We are coming face to face with our mortality and life’s transitoriness.
So, we’re trying to find our way through all of this, as many of our fellow Christians have in past centuries.
The way I see it, Christ who is “the way” {John 14:6}, who is our “captain” {Heb. 2:10}, in whom all the promises of God are a resounding “yes” {2 Cor. 1:20}, is our sure and certain hope during the Coronavirus, throughout our life, and one day, at the moment of our death.
Throughout this Lent we’ve been entrusting ourselves to Jesus, our Suffering Servant, by committing ourselves and our families to him in prayer and repentance. Now, in the face of this pandemic, we have got to entrust all that we are and all that we have to Him.
We have to remember that since the ancient times of the New Testament, there have been countless epidemics, wars, persecutions, and disasters. Many millions of Christians have suffered and died. The saints and the confessors and martyrs themselves testify, there is no other way but Christ, no other solution but Christ, no other answer but Christ.
Even the prophets foresaw this, and just imagine what they experienced in their lives and ministries. Think of the times and struggles of people like Moses, Elijah, Deborah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel.
What fears did they experience? What questions did they have? What was their world like?
In Lent we’ve been reading the Servant Songs from the Prophet Isaiah. Let’s look into him now and see what his situation was like and how he saw the Christ as the answer to confusion, difficulty, and death.
Isaiah was actually experiencing a siege by Assyrian troops when he recorded many of his oracles. The foreign armies, led by Sennacharib, had infamous, deadly troops: bowmen, footsoldiers, and charioteers. Thousands marched south into Judah after King Hezekiah had entered into an alliance with Egypt. The northern kingdom, Israel, was already a lost cause. It had been conquered by a former Assyrian king, Shalmaneser V. Later the people were exiled to Assyria.
So, around 701 B.C. Sennacharib led a massive force into the southern kingdom. King Hezekiah was afraid for his people, especially after the Assyrians split their forces in two. One half besieged the city of Jerusalem, with Hezekiah and Isaiah, and the other marched south, to the large and important Judean city of Lachish. The Assyrians surrounded the city and built a massive ramp of stones and earth so that their siege weapons and battering rams could reach the walls. After they breached the walls, they destroyed the city and enslaved the inhabitants.
An ancient Assyrian relief depicts the battle in great detail. It’s a massive, stone relief that adorned a palace in Nineveh. It’s now displayed at the British Museum in London. Across panel after panel, you can see various scenes of Judeans being thrown down the cliff and executed by Assyrian footsolders. Sennacharib stands triumphantly on the backs of his defeated enemies. Other residents of Lachish are led away, en masse, off to exile and forced labor in Assyria and Babylon.
Jerusalem had heard about the defeat and the bloodshed and the slavery. And they waited for their turn.
Sennacharib recorded all of this in cuneiform writing on different clay prisms, which have somehow survived the turbulent centuries. These annals of the king can be found in museums in London, Chicago, and Jerusalem today. In these annals, Sennacherib records, “As for the king of Judah, Hezekiah, who had not submitted to my authority, I besieged and captured forty-six of his fortified cities, along with many smaller towns, taken in battle with my battering rams. ... I took as plunder 200,150 people, both small and great, male and female, along with a great number of animals including horses, mules, donkeys, camels, oxen, and sheep. As for Hezekiah, I shut him up like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem. I then constructed a series of fortresses around him, and I did not allow anyone to come out of the city gates.”
Can you even imagine that horror? I can’t. But Isaiah’s hope and confidence is almost more unimaginable to us. Yes, in the midst of all this war and terror, Isaiah sees hope, deliverance, and peace. We read this prophecy in the 37th chapter of his book:
“He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,”
declares the Lord.
“I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
Next we read that the Lord God sent an angel into the army’s camp and slew 185,000 of the Assyrians. Jerusalem was delivered. Isaiah and Hezekiah were spared. God had remembered his people.
Here was a physical, national moment of deliverance. Israel’s enemies were destroyed. Peace was restored. King Hezekiah had prayed and called for his people to pray. Isaiah spoke on behalf of God and promised deliverance. Then the actions of the angel proved it.
We, too, shall be delivered, but Lachish may have to fall. Sennacherib or sin, death, and Satan will win some apparent victories. But as the Word of God saved Jerusalem, so will the Word of God save us. Christ Jesus, our Suffering Servant, will.
This shocks the nations and disturbs the kings. This looks utterly foolish to the world. But it’s the Church’s foundation, her hope, her guiding light, her truth, her fortress, her deliverer, her servant. Isaiah prophesies,
“See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted
Just as there were many who were appalled at him —
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.”
The Suffering Servant has been raised from the dead. He has ascended into heaven. He now reigns in glory and victory. But this glory is not at all apparent to the world. This resurrection is not at all familiar to the world. The world expects instant relief, longevity, success, and happiness. Christ brings a cross, and transformation, and victory over death.
We see our hope and our foundation, and now we go to Jesus Christ the Servant. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, this is a difficult time.
It’s a time of sickness, death, and uncertainty.
We are worried about our loved ones and about our neighbors.
We’re asking questions about food, protection, and safety.
We’re upset by sports cancellations and school closings.
We are trying to steer a course between panic and apathy.
We are coping with the possibility of isolation, loneliness, and sickness.
We are coming face to face with our mortality and life’s transitoriness.
So, we’re trying to find our way through all of this, as many of our fellow Christians have in past centuries.
The way I see it, Christ who is “the way” {John 14:6}, who is our “captain” {Heb. 2:10}, in whom all the promises of God are a resounding “yes” {2 Cor. 1:20}, is our sure and certain hope during the Coronavirus, throughout our life, and one day, at the moment of our death.
Throughout this Lent we’ve been entrusting ourselves to Jesus, our Suffering Servant, by committing ourselves and our families to him in prayer and repentance. Now, in the face of this pandemic, we have got to entrust all that we are and all that we have to Him.
We have to remember that since the ancient times of the New Testament, there have been countless epidemics, wars, persecutions, and disasters. Many millions of Christians have suffered and died. The saints and the confessors and martyrs themselves testify, there is no other way but Christ, no other solution but Christ, no other answer but Christ.
Even the prophets foresaw this, and just imagine what they experienced in their lives and ministries. Think of the times and struggles of people like Moses, Elijah, Deborah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel.
What fears did they experience? What questions did they have? What was their world like?
In Lent we’ve been reading the Servant Songs from the Prophet Isaiah. Let’s look into him now and see what his situation was like and how he saw the Christ as the answer to confusion, difficulty, and death.
Isaiah was actually experiencing a siege by Assyrian troops when he recorded many of his oracles. The foreign armies, led by Sennacharib, had infamous, deadly troops: bowmen, footsoldiers, and charioteers. Thousands marched south into Judah after King Hezekiah had entered into an alliance with Egypt. The northern kingdom, Israel, was already a lost cause. It had been conquered by a former Assyrian king, Shalmaneser V. Later the people were exiled to Assyria.
So, around 701 B.C. Sennacharib led a massive force into the southern kingdom. King Hezekiah was afraid for his people, especially after the Assyrians split their forces in two. One half besieged the city of Jerusalem, with Hezekiah and Isaiah, and the other marched south, to the large and important Judean city of Lachish. The Assyrians surrounded the city and built a massive ramp of stones and earth so that their siege weapons and battering rams could reach the walls. After they breached the walls, they destroyed the city and enslaved the inhabitants.
An ancient Assyrian relief depicts the battle in great detail. It’s a massive, stone relief that adorned a palace in Nineveh. It’s now displayed at the British Museum in London. Across panel after panel, you can see various scenes of Judeans being thrown down the cliff and executed by Assyrian footsolders. Sennacharib stands triumphantly on the backs of his defeated enemies. Other residents of Lachish are led away, en masse, off to exile and forced labor in Assyria and Babylon.
Jerusalem had heard about the defeat and the bloodshed and the slavery. And they waited for their turn.
Sennacharib recorded all of this in cuneiform writing on different clay prisms, which have somehow survived the turbulent centuries. These annals of the king can be found in museums in London, Chicago, and Jerusalem today. In these annals, Sennacherib records, “As for the king of Judah, Hezekiah, who had not submitted to my authority, I besieged and captured forty-six of his fortified cities, along with many smaller towns, taken in battle with my battering rams. ... I took as plunder 200,150 people, both small and great, male and female, along with a great number of animals including horses, mules, donkeys, camels, oxen, and sheep. As for Hezekiah, I shut him up like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem. I then constructed a series of fortresses around him, and I did not allow anyone to come out of the city gates.”
Can you even imagine that horror? I can’t. But Isaiah’s hope and confidence is almost more unimaginable to us. Yes, in the midst of all this war and terror, Isaiah sees hope, deliverance, and peace. We read this prophecy in the 37th chapter of his book:
“He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,”
declares the Lord.
“I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
Next we read that the Lord God sent an angel into the army’s camp and slew 185,000 of the Assyrians. Jerusalem was delivered. Isaiah and Hezekiah were spared. God had remembered his people.
Here was a physical, national moment of deliverance. Israel’s enemies were destroyed. Peace was restored. King Hezekiah had prayed and called for his people to pray. Isaiah spoke on behalf of God and promised deliverance. Then the actions of the angel proved it.
We, too, shall be delivered, but Lachish may have to fall. Sennacherib or sin, death, and Satan will win some apparent victories. But as the Word of God saved Jerusalem, so will the Word of God save us. Christ Jesus, our Suffering Servant, will.
This shocks the nations and disturbs the kings. This looks utterly foolish to the world. But it’s the Church’s foundation, her hope, her guiding light, her truth, her fortress, her deliverer, her servant. Isaiah prophesies,
“See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted
Just as there were many who were appalled at him —
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.”
The Suffering Servant has been raised from the dead. He has ascended into heaven. He now reigns in glory and victory. But this glory is not at all apparent to the world. This resurrection is not at all familiar to the world. The world expects instant relief, longevity, success, and happiness. Christ brings a cross, and transformation, and victory over death.
We see our hope and our foundation, and now we go to Jesus Christ the Servant. Amen.
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| Sennacherib's prism, at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute |
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| Isaiah 37 scroll from Qumran, one of the most complete of all the Dead Sea Scrolls |
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