Introduction
We’re in a very exciting section of Isaiah in our series Yahweh Alone is God.
The energy of the whole of Isaiah 40–55 is like the invitation Cinderella receives to leave the floor and ashes and rags behind and go to the ball, go the palace, take your rightful place next to the prince.
Now you might say, Modern-day Cinderella doesn’t need a prince. Agreed. But you and I do. (We’ll get back to that.)
Why 16 chapters rehashing the same themes? You were a slave, you were a captive, but now get off the floor, put on bejeweled garments, and sit on the throne. You are chosen. Why deliver the same message again and again?
Coming off of 200 years of hardship, destitution, and finally exile, it’s not hard to imagine the difficulty believing this message of rags to riches, captive to chosen.
So these chapters issue in a rousing call, rouse from your slumbers, time to wake up!
Can you recall times when you were called to attention, when something so exciting was put before you, and you woke up?
I remember when it dawned on me that Anna Leatherwood was interested in me. I was 21 years old. I had only been a Christian for three years while Anna was practically born holding a Bible. She was a powerful young lady, fully absorbed in the king’s work, pushing in women’s lives against the darkness. I was not in her league.
But then we started working together and pretty quickly I could tell that she liked me. Anna has no poker face. The kids will say, Mom, why don’t you like the gifts we gave you? She’ll be surprised and say, How do you know? And they’ll say, Your face. So pretty quickly I could tell that she liked me.
And that was game over. I snapped to attention. I was at my best, grinning from ear to ear all the way to our wedding day and beyond. I’m still grinning, baby! I woke up.
Another wake-up call came in January of 2021. As you recall, the country was still waking up from Covid, we had a long way to go. Bob Shirock called me and asked if I’d be interested in being considered for his role. I was not looking for something new. I was happy where the Lord had me. But the call certainly ignited serious prayers and conversations because the invitation was to something really good and important – you. It was a rousing call.
Can you recall times when you were called to attention, when something so exciting was put before you, and you woke up?
That’s what we have in our text today, and that’s how God comes to us every day, not with the same intensity, but always with the same message. Let’s dig in.
Wake up! Judgment is over.
Remember that last week we saw how the prophet Isaiah, following the incredible promises God was making, called on the Lord to wake up. Awake, awake, arm of the LORD, clothe yourself with strength! (51:9) He on behalf of the people was saying to God, Wake up and do for your people what you did before. But the Lord turns the tables and says, You, wake up. You’re the one I’ve been rousing from slumber to believe it’s a new day. Let’s read the passage together.
Isaiah 51:17–20
Awake, awake!
Rise up, Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
the cup of his wrath,
you who have drained to its dregs
the goblet that makes people stagger.
Among all the children she bore
there was none to guide her;
among all the children she reared
there was none to take her by the hand.
These double calamities have come upon you—
who can comfort you?—
ruin and destruction, famine and sword—
who can console you?
Your children have fainted;
they lie at every street corner,
like antelope caught in a net.
They are filled with the wrath of the Lord,
with the rebuke of your God.
At our last ministry in Royal Oak, we did a shelter for the homeless during the winter. It was a wonderful way to serve those in the community who needed a place to sleep and be warm.
Some of the people we served were in a tough spot because of some unfortunate turn of events. But they were working their way out of homelessness, and that was so encouraging to hear. They were just passing through.
But there were others who had now made a lifestyle out of homelessness, and for some of them homelessness went together with a number of vices and addictions like drinking. And there was no easy way of getting them out of that condition. Their family had long given up on them.
You heard heartbreaking stories.
Isaiah depicts Israel-under-judgment as a drunken old woman who needs to be helped by the hand and yet none of her children can be found to guide her.
Israel is staggering but not from wine—from the cup of God’s wrath.
Remember that the people of God were unfaithful. God had said, You shall have no other gods before me (Exod 20:3), but they had gone after the gods of other nations, prostituting themselves. God had looked for righteousness and justice, but instead he found bloodshed, the powerful oppressing the weak.
God had warned them of the judgment that would come if they continued in this behavior and unbelief, but they did not heed his word. And so, his judgment came, and it was crushing.
Verses 19–20, These double calamities have come upon you—who can comfort you?—ruin and destruction, famine and sword—who can console you? Your children have fainted; they lie at every street corner, like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD, with the rebuke of your God.
The judgment of God was so thorough that the prophet says, you . . . have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes people stagger (51:17).
But now the Lord delivers incredible news.
Isaiah 51:21–23
Therefore hear this, you afflicted one,
made drunk, but not with wine.
This is what your Sovereign Lord says,
your God, who defends his people:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
you will never drink again.
I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
who said to you,
‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’
And you made your back like the ground,
like a street to be walked on.”
God comes and says to his people, Judgment is over. Yes, the cup that made you stagger was the goblet of my wrath. But I am your defender, and I will take the cup out of your hand and give it instead to your tormentors. You will never drink again.
That’s an incredible message, but I know it brings up questions for us. How is God his people’s defender but also the one who made them stagger with his wrath?
I know that’s a difficult message for us to hear because our concept of God runs something like this. God is good, and people are also good, mostly. But there are forces at work in this world that are evil, such as disease and tornadoes, and yes, a few bad apples that can make life miserable for the average person. But God is constantly helping people, especially those who help themselves and pray. That’s how American religion functions for a whole lot of people in our country, and I would guess for a number of you.
But that’s not biblical religion, and it’s what we’ve seen in Isaiah again and again, and it’s why the series is called Yahweh Alone is God. Because for a religion to be true, it must worship the true God, and the only true God, according to the Bible, is Yahweh.
And he’s the only one who can tell us who he is and how life works.
So here’s how it works.
God is good, but people are not good, none of us. People are what the Bible calls sinful, born in a state of rebellion from God. And so the whole human race is under God’s judgment. It’s not just that there’s a final Judgment Day coming—there is—but even now we are under judgment. We’ve been drinking the cup of God’s wrath that makes people stagger. Ruin, destruction, famine, sword—as for Israel, all of these things in the history of humanity are the result of our exile from God.
As a pastor, I see up close and personal what sin does to people. Sin ruins people. It destroys relationships. It brings famine. It kills like the sword. This world will never know peace apart from God’s king.
The invitation for everyone is to embrace God’s king.
The reason everyone has an opportunity to come out from under God’s judgment is that God is a Creator and also a Redeemer.
As Creator, God has rights over his creation, and when the creation corrupts itself, God rightly calls it to account. Judgment.
But as Redeemer, God not only calls creation to account. He also provides a way to remake the creation through the gospel.
John 3:36, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
The wrath of God is already on us. At the final judgment those who reject God’s son will experience the full blow of his wrath for all eternity. But those who believe in his son will not suffer wrath but have eternal life.
This is how God is both defender of his people and the one who makes people stagger with his wrath.
But if you are his people and have embraced his son, then his message to you is, Wake up! Judgment is over.
Wake up! Put on splendor and strength.
Isaiah 52:1–6
Awake, awake, Zion,
clothe yourself with strength!
Put on your garments of splendor,
Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled
will not enter you again.
Shake off your dust;
rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.
Free yourself from the chains on your neck,
Daughter Zion, now a captive.
For this is what the Lord says:
“You were sold for nothing,
and without money you will be redeemed.”
For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“At first my people went down to Egypt to live;
lately, Assyria has oppressed them.
“And now what do I have here?” declares the Lord.
“For my people have been taken away for nothing,
and those who rule them mock,”
declares the Lord.
“And all day long
my name is constantly blasphemed.
Therefore my people will know my name;
therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it.
Yes, it is I.”
The Lord comes back with another Awake, awake!
This time what he’s saying is that he has the final word. He has the first and final word for his people and it’s a good one.
They have to hear again the description of where they’ve been and where God is calling them to.
And I wonder if you and I also need to hear this word—because we often live in a sleepy state. Even though we know that God’s judgment went to Jesus, so it could be removed from us. Even though we should be on the journey of joy we talked about last week, out of exile and toward God’s new world, we can still live as if we’re in rags and cinder.
So God says to them and to us, Clothe yourself with strength! Put on your garments of splendor, Jerusalem, the holy city.
He calls them the holy city even though the city had been defiled and trampled. He says, You’re still holy. You’re still my city.
So he says, Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion, now a captive.
It’s heartbreaking to me when Christians live with the chains that held them captive still on their necks.
God says, Put on strength and splendor, but you live in chains. The chains are broken. The nails into the hands of Jesus broke the chains around your neck—if you trust him. But you have to flick them off. You can’t loosen them yourself. He’s loosened them for you. But you need to stop carrying them around.
It’s like that old illustration of the baby elephant who is tethered to a peg by a chain, chain which he’s not strong enough to break free from. But as he grows, he certainly has the strength to break free but not the will, because he’s learned that the chain keeps him in place.
And I wonder if you’ve not reflected deeply enough on the freedom and splendor and strength Jesus has brought to you by his death and resurrection. So you believe in him, but you’re still in chains.
You need to hear this word from Isaiah. Shake off your dust, rise up, free yourself from the chains on your neck. The nails in Jesus’ hands broke you free.
For the exiles, the reason for vast hope is that God has the first and last word.
He says, You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed. I don’t owe anyone anything for you. I will take you without money.
Then he goes over Israel’s oppressors, Egypt, Assyria, and now Babylon. All day long my name is constantly blasphemed, he says. But that’s not the end. What will God do, given that this is the history of the people associated with his name?
Verse 6, Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.
God affirms that his people will know his name. His name is of consequence. It’s been defamed, but they will know that he is who he says he is. And look at us today, 2700 years later, foreigners to the people of Abraham, yet knowing and praising Yahweh, the NAME!
And they will know that he is the one who foretold it. This is the same argument that Isaiah’s been making for a number of chapters. God is a speaking God. He announces what he will do and then brings it to pass.
There is no bigger question for human life: Has God spoken?
If he hasn’t, we can’t know him. If he hasn’t, right and wrong are arbitrary. But if he has, everything changes.
This is why, from Isaiah’s historical moment, the future of Israel is so critical. It’s how God shows that he is not like the false gods that can’t speak or deliver. He will claim his people again. The people are to wake up and put on strength and splendor.
Burst into song! Your God reigns.
Isaiah 52:7–10
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God.
We reach a climax in the prophecy, as God has been announcing his deliverance.
Perhaps you’ve been huddled with family members at a hospital as you anxiously await the doctor to come out with an update after many hours of a serious surgery, and as she emerges, scrubs dirty, you try to assess from the look on her face if the news is good or bad, except that with the mask, cap, and glasses, you can’t tell.
The feeling is similar in this scene Isaiah describes. A besieged city anxiously awaits the messenger from the battlefield. At last, they spot him. Running he gets closer and closer. And when it’s good news he brings, the prophet says, how beautiful on the mountains are those feet!
Feet rarely are beautiful. Feet are dutiful. They do a job. They take us places. They can be hairy, dirty, cracked, calloused, swollen, smelly. But when the news they bring is good, they are beautiful. Not as an attribute of the feet themselves, but as an expression of the release of fear and tension the news they carry brings.
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Your God reigns means that when God is enthroned as king, peace, good and salvation have come. Tormentors, oppressors, prison, chains, ruin and destruction, famine and sword have no place when God is king.
As the messenger bringing good news comes into view, the watchmen lift up their voices and shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together . . . for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
Comfort and redemption. This is the good news. When God returns to his people, he comes to comfort and redeem. He comes to make whole.
This is why the Gospel of Mark begins with the words, The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet (Mark 1:1).
And then a few verses down, we read, After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Jesus came declaring that the reign of God was near. Peace, good, and salvation were near. This is the same salvation Isaiah announced—it was not a salvation simply to take the exiles out of Babylon. It was larger, for the whole world, for the ends of the earth. A salvation that encompassed political, material, and spiritual realities.
This is the cry of every heart, the longing of every page in Scripture, for the LORD to return to his people and heal the world.
When Jesus set foot in Galilee and announced, The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news, how beautiful on the mountains of Galilee are his feet!
Isaiah is proclaiming the same salvation Jesus proclaimed.
The Gospels tell the story of how the comfort and redemption of God actually met his people. How is it that God could take the cup of wrath away from his people? How is it that the transgressions of sinful Israel and a sinful world could be atoned for, forgiven, cleansed? Cyrus took the exiles out of Babylon, but who takes the spiritual exiles out of the realm of death?
The next chapter of Isaiah answers that question as do the Gospels. The answer reveals that when the Lord returns to Zion announcing the good news of salvation, his beautiful feet have to bleed. His whole body is sacrificed for us—for our peace, good, and salvation.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace we all need.
Cinderella may do just fine without a prince, but you and I need the Prince of Peace.
So I leave you with Isaiah 52:11–12
Depart, depart, go out from there!
Touch no unclean thing!
Come out from it and be pure,
you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.
But you will not leave in haste
or go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you,
the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
Are you awake?
Do you hear God’s wake-up call to you?
If you are in Christ, judgment is over. So wake up! Don’t live like you’re still condemned.
If you are in Christ, put on splendor and strength. Wake up! Don’t walk around with the heavy chains of sin and your damning past still hanging on your neck. Shake off your dust, rise up, free yourself from the chains on your neck.
Jesus has broken you free. And his word to you is the same one from Isaiah:
Depart, depart, go out from there!
The word to the sleepy exiles was, Leave Babylon. Come out from it and be pure. And the word to us sleepy followers of Jesus is, Go out from there!
From where? From the place of exile. The place of judgment. The place of death. The place of sin. The place where you’re a captive. You are chosen. So shake off the dust, rise up, and throw off your chains.
So often we say to God, Wake up and do something in my life!
But he comes right back at us and says, You wake up! I’ve given my precious son for you. I’ve redeemed you. I’ve set you free.
Church, the Lord is setting before us incredible gospel ministry in the months and years ahead. But we must wake up. We must trust him and confess that Yahweh Alone is God and he has saved us by the beautiful feet and body of Jesus. We must leave our lives of sin and carry this good news into a lost and broken world.