Presented to Swift
Current Corps on February 23, 2014 and February 14, 2010. By Captain Michael
Ramsay
Click
here to read the 2010 version: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2010/02/isaiah-122-surely-god-is-my-salvation.html
Isaiah 12:2 “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation” (see Exodus 15:2).[1]
VBS was great this week. The youth
did a wonderful job with the SonCastle Faire. In the Vacation Bible
School play that the girls performed for us, we saw how the people were saved
by the king and we know that we are all saved by the King of Kings, the Lord of
Lords, God Himself. Isaiah 12:2 “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and
not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my
salvation” (see Exodus 15:2).
Now last weekend in Manitoba they
celebrated Louis Riel Day. Louis Riel was a Métis leader. I have been truly
honoured to be a part of many important Métis celebrations here in this
community and have a lot of respect for all of the work that is done here. A
very important person to this community was ‘Promoted to Glory’ this week.
Walter and Cecile Blanke have done so much for the local Métis and Lac
Pelletier and Swift Current and we will mourn Walter’s passing as we celebrate
what the Lord has done in his life in a ceremony this Wednesday.
Last weekend in Manitoba they
celebrated Louis Riel Day. Louis Riel is an interesting character. In Winnipeg
where we lived for a couple of years, there is a giant statue of him outside
the legislative buildings. Depending on when and where you live in Canadian
history Louis Riel has been cast as everything as an expectant messiah to the
devil himself. Certainly for some in his lifetime he seems to have embodied
attributes of both.[2]
Louis Riel's greatest work was in the Red River area. He is credited by some as being a father of confederation for the work he did around bringing Manitoba into Canada. Louis Riel was sadly also one of the leaders
of the NW Rebellion. In the NW Rebellion, Canada sent in our version of the US
cavalry to quell the revolt: we sent in the RCMP, the Mounties. And – well –
Canada being much more efficient that our Southern neighbours, instead of
sending the RCMP all the way west on horseback to save the day for Ontario, they took the
train. There was a certain irony to this as well because one of the reasons for
the rebellion on the prairies was that its supporters did not want the railroad
to come through the prairies and of course the rebellion was put down with the
help of this newly-built CPR Railroad on the prairies.[3]
For Louis Riel’s rebels the CPR contributed to the ongoing destruction of their traditional way of life but for the settlers in the area, the Mounties on
the train had become their salvation.[4]
Now we know of course that this is
only a temporal salvation and we know as well that not everyone was saved.
While the Canadian Anglophones celebrated the end of this rebellion as a great
victory for Canadians, it was a sad day for the First Nations, the Metis and other
Fracophones. The Francophones protested fiercely the hanging of Louie Riel and
the First Nations suffered the loss of much of their leadership. Did you know
that Louie Riel’s Northwest Rebellion resulted in the largest mass hanging in
Canadian history? Most of the victims were
First Nations.
The salvation brought by the
Mounties on the CPR did deliver the settlers of what would be Saskatchewan and
Alberta but – of course – it did not and could not possibly benefit all. There
is only one who has brought that kind of salvation and that one is God. That
one is Jesus Christ. Isaiah 12:2 “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and
not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my
salvation” (see Exodus 15:2).
I think we in Canada forget this
sometimes in our lives: that God is our salvation. I think we in the churches
forget this sometimes: that God is our salvation. I think that often here even
in the churches instead of looking to God for our salvation we look to our
contemporary equivalent of the Mounties riding in on the train.
These comics illustrate some of
the ways that I think we look for salvation from our problems instead of
turning to the Lord…[5]
Just relying on others…
or money… or
Just relying on others…
These are all ways that sometimes we can be tempted to try to solve a problem or look for salvation in the face of a crisis other than relying on God and as the cartoonist Bill Watterson points out, the results of this can be sorrowfully amusing.[6]
Because Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is
my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my
strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”
Sadly, even in the churches instead
of looking to God for our salvation, I think, we can be tempted to look to our
contemporary equivalent of the Mounties riding in on the train. Some of the
false Mounties, false messiahs that we look to are self, pride, money…
I have heard prosperity gospel
proponents speak as if they think that capitalism; the service of money is the
salvation of the world when of course we know that neither a person nor a
country can serve both God and money (cf. James 3:6-10; Hebrews 13:5; 1 Peter
5:2). The Bible says that if we try to do this we will wind up hating one master
and serving another (Matthew 6:24; Luke 6:13). Nonetheless some who call
themselves Christian can tend to put their faith in their money. How many
people in this country put their faith in their investments or retirement plans
(cf. Luke 12:13-21)? If we have learned nothing from our 20th century history
and the Great depression, surely the current global economic downtown should
wake at least us Christians up to the fact that money is not from where our
salvation comes.
Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation” (see Exod. 15:2).
As far as other things that people
in the Canadian churches look to for their salvation instead of God, I have
read published comments by professing Christians declaring that it justifiable
to invade a foreign country and kill however many women and children and other
collateral damage as may happen in order to ‘save’ these people by bringing
democracy to them. We kill them to save them all in the mistaken belief that a
political system can save anyone, let alone one that is based on no more than a
glorified popularity contest every couple of years (cf. Genesis 3; Numbers
11:5, 14:1-4; Judges 21:25).
This really frustrates me actually.
I don’t know how many conversations I have listened to where people talk about
the Conservatives, NDP or (not so much here) the Liberals as if they are our
salvation, as if one of them will actually really change the world for the
better. It won’t. Whoever we elect in the next election, won’t give sight to
the blind, won’t walk on water, and won’t stamp out poverty. This is not where
our salvation comes from. Don’t look to politics or politicians to help us,
they won’t. They can’t save us.
Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation.”
How about our own hard work? How
many of us believe that we will be okay so long as we work really hard. I have
heard people say that the only reason people go to a food bank is because they
are lazy. People who say these things seem to believe that our salvation comes
from our work alone. Scriptures tell us, of course, that this is not the case:
the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong (Ecclesiastes 9:11).
Scriptures tell us that even the best, the most altruistic work on the face of
this planet, without faith in our God, yields nothing but death. Don’t listen
to the secular humanists: no matter what we tell ourselves, we can’t save
ourselves.
Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation.”
In the time of the prophet Isaiah
we remember that he rebuked King Ahaz of Israel because King Ahaz refused to
seek confirmation from the Lord that his salvation was secured by the Lord
(Isaiah 7:1-2).
Not unlike the NW Rebellion on the
Canadian prairies, in the time of Isaiah we remember that there was a rebellion
in the works as well. We remember that Egypt was trying to whip up the
Palestinian states (including Aram, Israel and Judah) into a disastrous state of rebellion, just like some were trying to whip up the Métis and First Nations and
went to the US looking for a false saviour (indeed Riel himself, by
this point, arguably thought he was either a prophet or the Messiah himself). And just
like the Northwest Rebellion in the prairies resulted in the largest mass
hanging in Canadian history and the destruction of so many lives, so too the
rebellion in Palestine at the time of Isaiah resulted in the destruction of
Syria and of Israel (See Isaiah 7:1-2, 37:1-7, 37-38; see 2 Kings 15:38 -
16:20; 19:1-7, 36-37).
We remember from Bible studies, the
trouble that Israel got into under Joshua because they acted on their own and
made a covenant without first consulting God (Joshua 9; Judges 2:1-5; Cf. also
2 Samuel 21 and Deuteronomy 7:1-4).
We also remember from our Bible
studies what happened when Moses struck the rock, disobeying God, instead of
talking to the rock. What happened? What happened when Moses didn’t give God
the honour for God’s miracles? With others possibly tempted to look to Moses
instead of God for their salvation, he died. Because of this disobedience he died outside of
the Promised Land (Numbers 20:6-10; Deuteronomy 34).
We also remember from the book of
Numbers that when the Israelites refused to follow the Lord into the Promised
Land but tried to invade it on their own initiative, what happened? What
happened when they relied on themselves for their salvation? They died outside
of the promise.
What about Abraham? What about
David? What about the Kings? What about ancient Israel? What about us in 21st
Century Swift Current, Saskatchewan? What will happen to us if we look for our
salvation from people, politicians, systems or our own ability? What will
happen? Death.
We know that Jesus died because of
our sins and we know that Jesus rose from the dead again defeating sin and
death in the process and we know that Jesus is coming back.
Chapters 5-11 of Isaiah talk about
the disobedience of Judah and its resultant destruction. Even in light of the
consequences of humanity’s sin, God still loves us and is offering us salvation
if we will just take Him up on it.[7]
Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation.”
God is a God of miracles. He is
real and He is really active in this world. I have met people whom God has
healed of cancer. I have met people whom God has healed of AIDS. I have met
people whom God has cured of diabetes. I have met people whom God has delivered
from demonic attack. God is real. God has already defeated sin and death so
when we are faced with life’s problems, let us grab onto this good news.
Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation.”
If the economy is bad, if we are
out of work, if we have lots of money or if we have no money at all; more
money, freer capitalism, or even conversely secular communism is not going to
save us.
Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation.”
And as the government of the day
here in Canada wipes out more and more of our social programs and raises the
cost of living across this country by reckless tax cuts or even if it changes
direction and reduces our potential access to frivolity through tax increases -
when the government of the day continues to curtail our religious freedoms in
this country, let us not be tricked into believing that a particular political
party or person will be our saviour. They won’t. This is a lot of Obama’s
problem in the States. He is not any better or any worse than all those who
have gone before him in his job but people set him up as if he was a messiah.
They are figuring out now that he isn’t his popularity has taken a nosedive. No
politician or political party can save us.[8]
Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation.”
Likewise we in The Salvation Army
here are administering food banks, hosting pro bono free legal clinics, counselling
people in need and providing Christian social services in this city. These are
all wonderful ways to worship and serve our Lord by helping our brothers and
sisters but we can’t put our faith in our ministries and in ourselves. The
Salvation Army, apart from God, has never saved anyone.
Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my
salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation.”
We need to realise this. We need to
stop turning to people and parties and institutions and hard work and good
deeds and everything else we are tempted to turn to for our salvation. Last
weekend was Valentine’s Day. Today we just need to accept God’s love present to us
“for God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in him need not perish but has eternal life” (John 3:16). For,
“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the
LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”
Let us pray.
----
[1] Cf.
Christopher R. Seitz, Isaiah 1-39 (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John
Knox Press, 1993), 112-113 for an interesting discussion about the term used
for Salvation here and the prophet’s own name. It is significant in light of
Isaiah 8:18 where Isaiah tells us “I and the children whom the LORD has given
me are signs.”
[2] There are
many good sources on this topic from many different perspectives. A good
starting point for easy access to researched information is from The Centre
for Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University. ‘Louis Riel and The
North-West Rebellion’ (Mount Allison University: 1999). Available on-line at
http://www.mta.ca/about_canada/multimedia/riel/index.html
[3] W. Stewart
Wallace, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada , Vol. V, Toronto, University
Associates of Canada, 1948, 401p., pp. 19-22. Available on-line at
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/North-WestRebellion-CanadianHistory.htm
[4] Geoffrey W.
Grogan, Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis
CD-ROM:Isaiah/Exposition of Isaiah/I. Oracles Concerning Judah and Jerusalem
(1:1-12:6)/S. A Song of Joyous Praise (12:1-6), Book Version: 4.0.2 : “In view
of the contiguity of v.1-2, it would be
attractive to interpret the salvation declared in v.2 in
spiritual terms, so that it would become a virtual synonym of the forgiveness
seen in v.1. This would bring it into line with
the normal use of the word "salvation" in the NT instead of with the
physical connotation it usually possesses in the Old. The physical and
spiritual could be combined here, but there can be little doubt that the
prophet had chiefly in mind the deliverance of the people from all their
enemies that was to be a consequence of God's forgiving grace.”
[5] Cf. Captain
Michael Ramsay, ‘2 Kings 1:6: Is it because there is no God in this place?’
Presented to Nipawin Corps 31 May 2009. Available on-line at:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/05/2-kings-16-is-it-because-there-is-no.html
[6] Bill
Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes cited from: http://www.marcellosendos.ch/comics/ch/
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[7] Cf. Geoffrey
W. Grogan, Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Isaiah/Exposition of
Isaiah/I. Oracles Concerning Judah and Jerusalem (1:1-12:6)/S. A Song of Joyous
Praise (12:1-6), Book Version: 4.0.2
[8] Cf. Captain
Michael Ramsay, ‘Vote for Jesus’, Journal of
Aggressive Christianity, Issue 57, October 2008 – November 2008, pp. 27-30.
Available on-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/pdf/JAC_Issue_057.pdf
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