Sermon July 18, 1999 Rain for the Thirsty based on Isaiah 55:10-11
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
NIV Isaiah 55:10-11 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
What do you do when it rains? Do you run from the rain, or do you go out and get soaked? I suppose it depends upon how much rain has preceeded it. After a drought, the rain is such a blessing you may find yourself really enjoying getting wet. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, "For after all, the best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain." Now we let God's Word fall on us like rain after a drought, for it is a precious gift. Let us run into the rain of God's Word.
Isaiah was the Old Testament prophet sent to speak God's message to His people. He was the Lord's mouthpiece. His name, "Isaiah," means "Yahweh saves" where Yahweh is the Lord's personal name. He brought the Lord's message to the people roughly during the years 740 to 681 BC.
He was sent by the Lord to preach during a dark and gloomy age of the people of Judah and Israel. Their sins continued as they had for generations. They worshipped other gods and turned away from the one, true God. Their sins continued to offend. Thus the Lord is going to bring these people to their knees so that they might see that they needed to turn to Him once again in repentance and seeking forgiveness. The Lord would punish His people by first causing the nation of Assyria to come and conquer the northern kingdom of Israel. This did indeed happen in 722 BC, in the middle of Isaiah's work, just as Isaiah had predicted. He would also predict the later attack of the nation of Babylon which would conquer and repeatedly plunder and exile Jerusalem. This happened more than a hundred years later, in 586 BC. Isaiah had the job of telling the people of these terrible things which were going to happen to them if they did not turn from their idolatry, that is, worshipping other gods.
In our text Isaiah gives us a lesson based on how the rain works. The rain does what it is sent to do: it waters the earth. God's Word is like the rain in that it does what it was sent to do. It is effective. It achieves its purpose and it does what God intends it to do.
Elsewhere in Scripture, God's Word is compared to rain. NKJ Deuteronomy 32:1-3 says "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb, And as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God."
What is God's Word? We use phrases like: "hear the Word," "preach the Word," "follow the Word," and "believe the Word." This term is used many different ways. God's Word is simply God's message to us. Someone might use "word" this way: "What is the good 'word' for today?" In this use, it represents a message more than just a single word. "Is there any 'word' from home?"
God's Word comes to us in many forms. We may first of all think of the Bible which is God's Word in written form. When we read the Bible ourselves or when we hear it read, then we are hearing God's Word. It is as same as God speaking to us directly. God's Word fills our divine services on Sunday mornings. We speak it in our liturgy taken from God's Word. For example, today's opening verse was: "O Lord, open Thou my lips; And my mouth shall show forth Thy praise" ["O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth will declare your praise"] which comes from Psalm 51:15. Our hymns present God's Word to us also. Preaching which proclaims the truths of God's Word is God's Word spoken through the Pastor's mouth. Our sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, present God's Word to us with visible elements attached: the water, bread and wine. God's Word provides the power to these sacraments.
Certainly the most profound way in which God's Word comes to us is in the Word Incarnate, that is, the Word which took on a body. The Word Incarnate is the message which came as a man. Jesus Christ is God's Word. So John chapter 1 tells us: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." The Word of God comes to us in Jesus Christ. Now that we know how the Word comes, we ask: Is the Word reaching you?
We had quite a bit of rain back in June. Too much for most farmers, I would guess, unless they are raising rice or cranberries. Most would have liked to protect their crops from all that rain and hail. Wouldn't it have been nice to have a big transparent dome built over the fields. Then the big rainfall would not have damaged the crops that were growing. The drawback of this approach, however, is that the crops would not get enough rain. If you keep the rain from hitting the ground, then the ground won't get wet and the crops will not grow.
There is a lesson in this for us also. God's Word is like rain falling on the ground. If we build a dome over the ground, we are not letting the rain do the job it was sent to do. The ground won't get wet, the dome will. In the same way, if we avoid God's Word, it will never reach us. It won't soak in and satisfy our thirst. So, the question is: How are you going to get wet if you aren't standing out in the rain? If you stay inside, you will never get wet.
NKJ Romans 10:17 says: "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." To have God's Word soak in and create faith and grow our faith, we need to be exposing ourselves to that Word. To be watered by the Word, we ought not cover ourselves with a dome.
In the closing Collect for the Word we pray: "Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them." ["Blessed Lord, since you have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart."] So we pray that we might be exposed to the Word. We pray that it might drench us, saturate us and soak us to the bone. How are you going to get wet if you aren't standing out in the rain? How are you going to be watered with God's Word if you aren't exposing yourself to that Word?
Now as we think about how the Word works, it is time to consider an important question: Why will some people end up being condemned to hell? It is because they reject God's Word. If we are saved it is because God saves us, and it is entirely His work On the other hand if we are condemned it is the result of our choice to reject God's Word. We have simply chosen hell. We have condemned ourselves.
Now, knowing that hell comes for those who reject the Word, how ought we approach that Word? The Word saves us from hell. Should we then take a risk and go as close to hell as we can and stay as far from the Word as we can? Do we take chances? Do we try to see just how little we can get away with? How far over the edge do you want to lean? Ought we not rather stay as close to God's Word as possible? Don't you want to be on the safe side?
Yet, many times do we find ourselves avoiding the Word. We each fail to give the Scriptures the importance they should have in our lives. We fail to keep the Word, the incarnate Word, Jesus, at the number one spot in our lives, each day, every hour and every minute. In this we rebel against the Lord as we close our ears, shut our minds and turn our backs to His Word. We fail to hear His message.
Isaiah deals with sin by giving many a message of a gloomy future for the people of God. Isaiah does not give a gloomy message in Chapter 55, however. Rather, he turns to a message about God's free grace offered to us. He begins the chapter with a word used to get attention. In effect, it is saying, "listen up, something important is coming." Elsewhere in the book of Isaiah when he uses this word it brings a message of unpleasant things to happen. Here in Chapter 55, Isaiah seeks the attention of his readers and listeners, but the message is not of woe but of blessing. He opens the chapter this way: NKJ Isaiah 55:1 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price." This is a message of God's free grace, offered without cost.
The way of our thinking would have us earn God's grace somehow. Our corrupted reason would teach us that we must pay something to God so that He will be happy with us. Instead of meeting our expectations and dropping to our level of thinking, God's ways are higher than ours. So Isaiah says in 55:8-9: "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the LORD. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.'"
God's thoughts then are to send His Word of grace which works just like the rain. This word will rain blessing upon us. Like the rain causes the earth to be drenched, causes it to bear plants, and causes it to sprout, so will God's Word be to us. Like the rain gives the gifts of seeds from the plants and grain to make the bread to feed the hungry, so God's Word is the seed and the bread leading us into forgiveness and eternal life. God's Word gives us the free food, without cost or price.
It is a powerful word. This Word is promised to work, to be effective, just as the rain is effective. The rain always waters the ground that it reaches. So the Word always saves those it reaches. The Word does not return empty-handed, but instead it redeems and rescues. It forgives and frees.
Isaiah tells us that God's Word "will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." God's desire regarding the incarnate Word was expressed by Isaiah in Chapter 53. There it is God's delight to "crush" the suffering servant as an offering for sins all the while knowing that He will see offspring and extended life. This was the delight of God: to have Jesus die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and then be raised to eternal life. Our thoughts are often that God should have done this another way; that He could have done it another way. God's thoughts are again higher than our thoughts.
In the midst of the doubts of others, Isaiah confesses clearly the power and certainty of what the Word accomplishes. Even though Isaiah would deliver his message to a people who would face a dark future with the Babylonians coming to attack, he would still hold to the bright future of God's Word of promise. Isaiah teaches us to take refuge in God's ways and wisdom, not in our own thoughts and ways. He calls on us to trust in the power of the Word from God's mouth.
This Word brings us forgiveness, making us righteous in God's eyes. The Word is like rain bringing righteousness. NKJ Hosea 10:12 says "Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you." This righteousness is a blessed gift that comes upon us abundantly, as Isaiah also wrote in Isaiah 61:11 "For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations."
This Word brings us eternal life. Jesus said in NKJ John 6:63 "...The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." This Word blesses us like showers of rain. Eze 34:26 "I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing."
God's Word works like rain. The rain comes and wets the ground and does what God intends it to do. Hiw Word also goes out and does a job. God's Word is a powerful Word that achieves the purpose for which it was sent. His Word is His message: you are forgiven, you are redeemed, you are My child. You are granted eternal life. This message was delivered by the Word which became flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.