Pastor Tom Johnson, September 13, 2015
Isaiah gives a beautiful picture of how God led him to greater spiritual awareness and a more meaningful journey of faith. God is at work, Isaiah tells us, in such a profound way that he reaches deep into our subconscious.“Morning by morning he wakens—wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.” Morning by morning—day after day God speaks gently to Isaiah, “Isaiah, wake up. It’s time to open your ears. It’s time to open all your senses to the reality of a new day. This is the day that the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it.”Leave the false dreams and nightmares behind. Let go of the deadening of your senses that calls you back to slumber. Don’t let the gravity of sleep pull you back deep under cover. God has taken the initiative. He draws you into the promise of a new day. He rouses us out of spiritual unconsciousness. He opens our senses to take in the fullness of life. He opens our receptors and minds to wisdom. He gives us a wider, deeper, and higher worldview. We are wakened to the fullness of who God is, his creation, and our re-creation.
Sometimes that gentle rousing comes through difficulty, trials, and suffering as we see in our Scripture this morning. Isaiah says he gave his back to those who struck him, his cheeks to those who pulled violently on his beard, and his face to those who insulted him and spit upon him. It is morning by morning on those difficult days that God keeps pursuing Isaiah’s ear. By his Spirit and his Word, God wakes Isaiah up to his goodness. “I will not leave you as an orphan to wake up on your own and find yourself abandoned. I will come to you (Jn 14:18),” God says, “and bring you into my fullness.” We may be beaten up by the world. We may be in the midst in a battle. It may be a battle with illness or the abuse of others. We may held captive by our sin, addiction, apathy, or laziness; this is a kind of evil sleep and drowsiness.
But God is there morning by morning to awaken our spiritual ears to him. It reminds me when Elijah hears God’s voice: “God says, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence”—a still small voice—a whisper” (1 Kings 19:11,12). It is another reminder that even in the midst of destructive wind, earthquakes, and fire, God’s voice still speaks and can still be heard. Isaiah goes out into the world wide awake and more aware of the fullness of God’s acceptance and presence.
Last week, a beautiful picture of a sailboat on Lake Michigan appeared on my Facebook feed. The deep blue water and skies and the white clouds and sails awakened my eyes to the beauty of the lake that is always nearby. The photo was taken by First Saint Paul’s own Jen Masengarb. And this is what she wrote, “This. This is what cancer teaches you, my friends… When your 4pm meeting on Navy Pier ends early, and you have an hour to spare, and a tall ship with beautiful white sails is waiting on the dock, and it’s 92F and sunny…you hop on and head out to the lake.”
“Morning by morning he wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.” Day by day God molds and shapes us by his Spirit and his Word. And when we are awakened to his fullness, we step out boldly into life with a quiet confidence. “The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced;” Isaiah says, “…I know that I shall not be put to shame. [God] who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?”
“Morning by morning he wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.”
And what was Isaiah taught? What did he learn? That he could hold his head up high. That greater is he who is within us than he who is in the world (1 Jn 4:4). He learned the power of standing up together—that a cord of three strands is not easily broken (Eccl 4:12). He learned that we have an advocate with the Father and that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Rom 8). He learned that the enemy may accuse and condemn us. The evil foe wants us to carry the heavy burden of guilt and shame. But God is the one who justifies. And he has declared us “forgiven” and “a new creation” because of the death and resurrection of his Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
God wakes us up to journey forward ever more mindful—sober and awakened to the fullness of God’s creation around us that we experience with our senses and also to his Word and Spirit that we hear with the ears of faith. Wake up. It’s time to get up. The fullness of a new day is upon you. God awakens us and is ready to quietly lead us forward in his confidence and strength. “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps 118:24).
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