John 11:17-27: Giving Hope Today

Presented to the Nipawin Corps, 25 January 2009

614 Warehouse Mission Corps, 02 April 2017

Alberni Valley Ministries, 21 September 2025
By Major Michael Ramsay

 

This is the 2025 Version, to view the original click here:

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/01/john-1117-27-giving-hope-today.html

 

Della’s memorial service is October 18^th. The passage of Scripture that we are looking at today takes place around a memorial service, a funeral. Funerals are an important part of life. I say life because they are really for the living rather than the dead. Funerals are for those of us who are left behind rather than for those of us who go on ahead, of course. They are where we comfort those who mourn and celebrate the hope of the future resurrection (Matt 5:4; Acts 23:6; 24:15, 25; 1 Cor 15, Phil 3:11,12; 1 Pet 1:3, 3:21;Rev 20:4-6).

 

Funerals are a way for us to grieve our own loss even as we recognise that the ones we love who love the Lord are bound for a better place. We can share the hope for the future resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:6; 24:15, 25; 1 Cor 15, Phil 3:11,12; 1 Pet 1:3, 3:21;Rev 20:4-6).

 

What is happening in our text today is not unlike today’s funerals but it takes place in first century Palestine. The family and friends have all gathered. It has some things similar to contemporary services. It takes friends and family a while to arrive at the home of the bereaved. In our day people usually have a lot farther to travel but, in those days, instead of catching the ferry to Bethany or the first flight out of Nazareth, they had to walk; so, it took a while for some people to get there. Because of travel time and other factors, they would gather for a period of days.

 

Like we sometimes hire pianists or funeral directors, people in first century Palestine sometimes hired professional mourners so there may have been professional mourners present. If there were, they are already at the house with everyone else. The home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, is full of friends and family and others; they are just waiting for the teacher. They are just waiting for their friend – their very close friend. They are just waiting for Jesus and his entourage (companions) to arrive.

 

Now Jesus wasn’t very far away (10:40-42) – about 20 miles[1] - the distance between here and Cameron Lake - when he heard the news that his friend was ill but he didn’t rush to see him (11:1-6). He had his reasons for this (11:15) and his disciples are certainly concerned that if Jesus does go back to Bethany now, where Mary and Marth live and where Lazarus is buried, he might be killed (11:8) but to his credit, the disciple Thomas is willing and eager to lay down his life with Jesus since Jesus (in his own time) is determined to go to see Mary, Martha (his friends) and their family (11:16). It is in this context that our story opens up today, John 11:17-20:

 

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

 

We can picture this; we can identify with this, can’t we? The crowds are all at the house. Mary and Martha are there. There are inevitably people preparing food, people talking, people eating. There are all sorts of people going in and coming out, offering their support and comfort. Most people are probably at Mary and Martha’s home already but family and friends are still arriving – then like now some people are later than others.

 

In our world today it would be as if, with all this going on, they hear that Jesus and his companions have just arrived at the ferry terminal or the airport and Martha goes out to meet them while Mary stays home to keep an eye on all the friends and family and everything else that is happening at the home front. But look how Martha greets Jesus. Jesus has just arrived to see his friends and the friends and family of his recently deceased friend and how does Lazarus’ sister, how does Jesus' friend Martha, greet him?[2]

 

Verses 21 and 22: “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask of Him.” At first she reproaches Jesus[3] – she says, Vs. 21, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

 

This is interesting. It really expresses two things. 1) She had the hope, she has the faith that Jesus could have saved her brother from dying – you know that she and her sister have probably been praying for that. And 2) she is angry, upset, or not happy anyway that Jesus did not come right away even though they sent for him in plenty of time.

 

He did not answer her request right away. His friend and her brother was dying. Martha, Mary and Lazarus all have a strong personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Mary and Martha don’t want their brother to die but Jesus doesn’t come when they want him to come. Jesus doesn’t come to heal Lazarus, their brother (11:6), who loves him (11:5). Jesus, who could have saved him, let her brother die (11:14,15,21).

 

Today this is not an uncommon charge against our Lord is it? Particularly when young people are affected; I have certainly heard of people who ask this very question: ‘How can a loving God let this sort of thing happen?’ These are the kind of things that Martha is demanding of Jesus. She asks him, ‘How could you – who say that you love me – how could you let my brother die?’ She reproaches him. She is grieving.

 

When I first preached on this text 16 years ago, in 2009; there was a significant story about grieving in the news that has some chilling parallels to what is going on in the world today. It was all over the media. I read the tragic story of Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish[4] on CBC.ca.[5] The following is a paraphrase of that account.

 

Dr. Abu al-Aish,a peace activist and a Palestinian doctor in Gaza, openly spoke to Israeli television as his community was being invaded by the Israeli forces. He reported the suffering there in nightly interviews with Israel's Channel 10.

 

Friday night, he was speaking with an Israeli news correspondent when Israeli soldiers launched two shells directly into his own home. Everyone listening could hear him wail. "My daughters!" he screams. "Oh, God, my daughters!" he cries as the Israeli forces kill his niece and his three daughters live on TV.

 

Before his community was invaded, Dr Abu al-Aish had already been planning to move his family for start fresh in Canada, but not soon enough as no one in Gaza is immune to the brutality of the invasion which left in excess of six thousand Palestinian causalities – more than 1800 of those children.[6] (this was in 2009 remember – in the last few months. Isreal has murdered more than ten times that number of people)

 

The horror and the terror of this event does not end here for the good doctor. Eighteen members of his extended family were in the house at the time it was attacked. [on live TV by the Israeli Army]

 

An Israeli television correspondent choked up as the doctor's cries were broadcast across the nation. The cameras followed the reporter as he appealed to the soldiers to get an ambulance to the scene, at least to help the others who were wounded. They don’t usually help Palestinians in this way but Dr. Abu al-Aish was able to transfer two of his injured daughters to an Israeli hospital.  Probably because of the media presence, the Israeli army for the first time allowed a Palestinian ambulance to go straight to the Erez border crossing, where they were then transferred to be taken by to a hospital in Tel Aviv.

 

Now much of Abu al-Aish's world has been shattered. His wife had died six months ago but then there was hope for the future of the rest of the family, and he said that at the very time of the attack, he was sitting there with them, his daughters, planning, because he got an offer in Canada, from the University of Toronto.

 

Now they are dead and even while he was in the hospital grieving for his daughters and speaking - even on TV calling for peace instead of war - even while all this is happening an Israeli man visiting the hospital begins to verbally attack at him – blaming Dr. Abu al-Aish and his countrymen for the loss of his own daughters. Even as this man was forgiving the killers of his children, a bigot was blaming him for his troubles.

 

Where is God in all this? Why did God not come and save this man's family?

 

Why did Jesus not come and save Lazarus? This is what Martha is asking Jesus in her distraught state after having just lost her only brother. But this isn't where she leaves her questioning.

 

This is important. Even in her grief, even in her distress she doesn’t end her approach with this reproach. Instead, after she says, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” she says, “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask of Him.”

 

This is important. Even now, in the midst of her grief, even now in the midst of her suffering even now, Martha believes; even now Martha has hope; even now Martha has faith in God and she even now believes that God will give Jesus whatever he asks of Him.

 

Now Lazarus has been dead for four days. Respected Johnine scholar Gail O’ Day tells us that, “according to popular Jewish belief at the time of Jesus, the soul hovered around the body in the grave for three days after death, hoping to re-enter the body. But after the third day, when the soul ‘sees that the colour of its face has changed;’ the soul leaves the body for Good.”[7] It is now that fourth day. All those present know that Lazarus is indeed dead.

 

Verse 23: Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha does believe in Jesus but she knows that Lazarus is dead and she is sad so it is no wonder that she interprets Jesus’ words as comfort and a hope in the final resurrection (as opposed to an immanent resurrection) – and she is not yet fully realising (how could she?) what is about to happen. Verse 24, Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

 

The people of first century Palestine – with the exception of the Sadducees – knew that there would be this resurrection “on the last day.” Martha knows that on the last day the dead will rise, like we know that on the last day the dead will rise and the dead in Christ will be the first to be raised. Martha here, you will notice, even in her grief, even in her distress, Martha shows her belief, her faith, her hope in God. She doesn’t just believe in a nebulous idea that Lazarus is in some unknown ‘better place’ or that he has gotten wings or a harp or something like that. Martha hopes that – like all of us – She knows that Lazarus will rise on the last day. Martha has this hope in the resurrection of the dead.

 

Now, of course, we know that this truth isn’t all that Jesus is speaking about. Jesus is speaking about something different and even more immediate as well - but Martha, who couldn’t possibly be expected to know that, is showing that she believes in Christ in the midst of her suffering.

 

Verses 25 and 26: ‘Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"’

 

To this she responds with the clearest declaration of faith to this point in John’s account of the gospel. Verse 27: "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

 

Martha believes in Jesus and we know that Jesus will do even more. We know that he will even raise Lazarus before the final day. Jesus reveals to us the truth that indeed he is the resurrection. He is the one who gives us hope and he is the one in whom we should place our hope.

 

Do we believe? Do we have the faith of Martha (and of Mary)? Do we have the same hope in the resurrection of the dead? Do we believe that even now, in the midst of our own sufferings, that Jesus can pull us through? Do we have this hope today? Do we believe? Do we believe in Jesus?

 

For those who remember the story of Job, you know how everything that Job could have ever of hoped for was realised in the end: he had possessions, status, and family restored unto him - even more than before - and a renewed spirit, a renewed hope and faith in God.

 

Jesus, as we read in the rest of this chapter, raises Lazarus from the dead fulfilling more than they could possibly hope for.

 

And Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish leaves us with these thoughts even as he was being verbally assaulted on live TV: He says, "From our pain we can learn," he said. "We may disagree, but we should learn from that… It's beneficial to us all."

 

During the whole invasion to that point, the invaders had remained largely unmoved by the death of women, children, men, and the destruction in Gaza, but as Dr. Abu al-Aish's story was followed closely by every Israeli news agency, it struck a chord: A man who has lost almost everything still has hope that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace.

 

"Maybe the blood of my daughters was the price," he said, "and if it was, I am happy about it. The cost of ceasefire to save lives to be my daughters' and my niece's blood — honestly, I am proud of it. I am fully proud of it."

 

Now we know that this ceasefire didn’t last. Israel persists in killing children and others today, 16 plus years later, the genocide continues. He paid the price of his daughters for a temporary peace.

 

And Lazarus died again. Even after the miraculous resurrection. Lazarus died.

 

God’s Son, Jesus, died too but He did not die for a temporary peace. He died for a permanent peace. Jesus will not die again. Jesus rose from the dead so that one day, we may all raise to eternal life – where there is no more death, no more sin, no more sadness, no more injury, no more illness, no more pain.

 

God, Jesus, died and rose again so we now have that hope and, as followers of Jesus, since we have that hope, it is our responsibility to live in that hope and to share hope – Just like the good doctor did. May we all do that. And as we do, may we all experience the love and peace of Christ for evermore.

 

John 11:24-25: Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"’

 

May we all believe and respond like Martha, Verse 27: "Yes, Lord, … I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

 

Let us pray.

---

[1]Merrill C. Tenney. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The conversation with Martha and Mary (11:17-37), Book Version: 4.0.2: the death of Lazarus must have occurred not long after Jesus was first informed of his illness. The trip each way would have taken not much less than a day's travel since Bethany was more than twenty miles distant from Jesus' refuge in Perea.

[2]Cf. , Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 688.

[3]Cf. Gail O’Day, 688, and Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The conversation with Martha and Mary (11:17-37), Book Version: 4.0.2.

[4] Live video: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=655_1232202860

[5]Before ceasefire, Gaza doctor's grief was heard on live Israeli TV 'Oh, God, my daughters!' he cried after Israeli shells hit house Last Updated: Sun, Jan 18/09 10:29 PM ET With files from AP: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/01/18/gaza-doctor.ht

[6] UN: …the death toll stood at 1,003, with 4,482 people wounded. Mr. Ging has previously called Palestinian casualties figures credible, with 42 per cent of the dead and nearly 50 per cent of the injured listed as women and children – mostly children. (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29543&Cr=gaza&Cr1=&Kw1=palestinian&Kw2=deaths&Kw3=)

[7]Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 687.

Exodus 17:8-13, Hebrews 10:32-37: Thank you for holding my arms

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 14 September 2025 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Busy time at The Salvation Army! And only getting busier now until Christmas is done! Yesterday was the Toy Run. We were blessed to be able to prepare and serve chili and hotdogs. We were blessed to be able to pick up a cube van full of toys. We were blessed to say the prayer and ask the blessing before the riders rode.

 

Last weekend was the fall fair and the parade. Thank you to everyone who helped out. We were blessed to be able to have  a booth and we were blessed to have a float and our mobile kitchen (CRU) and a number of walkers in the parade. Thank you!

 

The weekend before that was Salmon Fest. We were blessed to be able to run the bullhead derby and we were blessed with rods and lures to be able to hand out to kids who were fishing.

 

We, of course, were blessed to help our community and Parksville / Qualicum with the fire relief as well this summer.

 

Next up: in a couple of weeks we have Men’s Camp and the Thanksgiving food drive. We are blessed to be able to take a number of men from here (some who stay with us in our shelter and eat at the Bread of Life) to camp. They get a chance to be a part of everything as equals and as friends. And a number of them have been saving up and looking forward to it for months.

 

That same weekend we are blessed to raise funds and food for people in the community through the Thanksgiving Food Drive. We also just finished collecting and distributing school supplies for families in need. And of course, a Thanksgiving meal is upcoming too! – served both at the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen and off The Salvation Army food truck to the homeless and housing insecure. We are blessed to be used by God to do a lot for this community.

 

October 4^th, we have a booth at Co-op Days. That day we are also officiating the wedding of Logan. He is a young man who works at the Bread of Life and whose family was a part of The Salvation Army for generations.

 

October 18^th is Della’s memorial service.

 

There has been, is still, and will be a lot of work involved in all of these things that we are blessed to a part of: planning work, doing work, and emotional work.

 

All of this is added to our everyday work of church and CCM/ care homes, soup kitchen, food bank, food truck, shelter, staffing, thrift store, etc., etc., etc.…

 

I know many of you and others work selflessly around the clock and around the calendar. I praise God for you and all He does through You.

 

The scriptures we read today and the scriptures we will read and the whole canon of scripture really tells us, along with other things, that we are to continue to serve and love God by allowing Him to serve and others through us.

 

Sometimes that is difficult.

 

This week as our team was still dealing with the passing of a teammate and friend, as our team was dealing with an assault that affected many, as our team was grieving employees who may not be returning – suddenly – after years of being part of our team. This week I have spoken with a few people who are faced with their own mortality.

 

This week I had to speak to city council.

 

I was told I didn’t need to speak. I was told there wouldn’t be public input. I was told that we wouldn’t need letters. I was told I didn’t need to be there. I shouldn’t have acted as if I believed the things I was told. I was there to get a permit!

 

I sat and I listened for a large portion of an hour as people told me and themselves bad things that we allegedly do or contribute to in our community. (You can watch the City Council meeting on-line.) Some of what was said was lies or at least intentionally misleading, some was mistaken, conflated and confused; some was angry; and one or more councillors slapped us with a backhanded compliment, a Marc Antony type soliloquy, or even put Brutus’ dagger in our back (Thanks Dustin!). I had to listen to this.

 

I had to answer to this. I had no notes. The public wasn’t supposed to be able to speak. I was told that I didn’t need to speak. I was told I didn’t need to be there. And then… I was asked why there was homelessness in our community, why it is getting worse, and what AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT!?!

 

I was only there to renew a permit to continue feeding and sheltering people in our community and now I was being asked to solve homelessness before they would consider renewing our permit to serve the homeless.

 

I wanted to say a bunch of things. I was tempted to tell them that was their job to solve homelessness! My job is to protect and provide for the people you forsake! I was tempted to tell them that if they didn’t close down the Port Pub, the trailers, and RB’s playground throwing all those people out on the street, then all those people would not be out on the street! I was tempted to tell them that if they provided supportive housing and involuntary treatment then there wouldn’t be homelessness! I was tempted to tell them that if they built homes and let people stay in them then there wouldn’t be homelessness!

 

I was tempted to say. “You are blaming us because people are sleeping in doorways, defecating and urinating in planters, and leaving drug paraphernalia on the streets; and your solution is for us to close our shelter tossing 25 to 45 more people onto the streets with no place to sleep or defecate!”

 

We have bathrooms, beds, and no in-and-out privileges at night. We keep our people safe. We are the only dry shelter in our whole community. We are the only safe place for sober addicts. We offer jobs, volunteer work, meaning, purpose and family for people. We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and befriend those with no friends. I was tempted to close it all down! And tell City Council to see how they like it now that there are 25 to 45 more people on the streets with no safe place to go! I was tempted… but I didn’t.

 

Instead I spoke of the great work that the LORD is doing through all of you. I was and am very thankful for the support of our mayor, Sharie Minions; Councillors Deb Haggard and Charlse Mealy. I know that another councillor who shall remain nameless is our enemy (as he always speaks and votes against us) and I am still smarting from Dustin’s knife in our backs. I left the City Council meeting upset. I did not sleep that night.

 

Do you ever get to the point where you just want to quit? Do you ever get to the point where you ask “what is the point? Why am I doing this?” I was getting to that point.

 

Susan pointed to our prayer meetings, our check-ins, our prayer / grace before meals as a part of how we are serving our Lord and our neighbourhood and pointed out that the Enemy will fight against those willing to be a part of the Lord’s kingdom and His transformative power in this age and in the age to come. Last week Tim read from Isaiha 61. We have been a part of two separate TSA Corps based on that chapter of the Bible – especially Verse 4.

 

I know that the LORD’s will will be done.

 

Sage Haven, Island Health, Agro Hope, CAT, Ineo, and others have already written or offered to write letters. I imagine another councillor or two will vote along with Sharie, Deb, and Charlse to support the vulnerable in our community. I have had many people reach out to me this past week, thank you: the Lord used and is using you to sustain me on top of all the other things He is using you to do.

 

Today I want to encourage you. We are all working so diligently for the LORD and the most vulnerable in our community. Please keep it up and please don’t give up!

 

I think of the story of the Hebrews in a battle during Moses’ time. The people were fighting hard. God used Moses to encourage His people. As Moses held his staff above his head, the Hebrews would prevail, when this burden became too heavy and his arms, his staff and his encouragement waned; the Hebrews started to falter and fall. God then provided people to uphold Moses’ arms so that God would still use Moses to encourage God’s people to win the battle.

 

Friends, many of you are fighting in life’s battle on behalf of Jesus and the Kingdom of God everyday – by serving at the soup kitchen, shelter, seniors homes, church, store, food bank, prayer and Bible studies, and even more.

 

I do see a big part of the blessing of my job to stand up here and elsewhere to hold up the staff of the LORD’s encouragement in the face of adversity. Please hear me now:

 

Hebrews 10:36-37: You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For,

“In just a little while,

He who is coming will come

and will not delay.”

 

1 Peter 3:8: ...all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9: The Lord says, “…My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

 

And Psalm 55:22: Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.

 

I thank the Lord for all of you that come alongside me and hold my arms each and everyday through prayer and conversation and listening on top of everything else you do; you are a vital part of this battle that is our life’: the battle to live in, to live for, and to grow the Kingdom of God for now and forever.

Amen.

 

www.sheepspeak.com

Isaiah 1:1-20: White as Snow

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 12 Jan 2014 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 07 Sept 2025, by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay.

This is the 2025 Version. The view the earlier version, click here: 

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2014/01/isaiah-11-20-white-as-snow.html

 

Isaiah Chapter 1 has often been compared to a courtroom scene as Isaiah uses much of the same language that one would hear in an ancient near east indictment. It is the first week of school. This passage can be compared to  a student coming before the principal in the days before they banned the strap[1] As a parent of three grown (or almost grown) children this reminds me of when your children are in trouble. The exasperated parent in the opening verses (1:2ff) calls out:

 

Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth!

For the Lord has spoken:

“I reared children and brought them up,

but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows its master,

the donkey its owner’s manger,

but [my daughter] Israel does not know,

my people [my children] do not understand.”

 

Mom or Dad continues,

Woe to the sinful nation [family],

a people whose guilt is great,

a brood of evildoers,

children given to corruption!

They have forsaken the Lord;

they have spurned the Holy One of Israel

and turned their backs on Him.

 

Now this is where it gets interesting. God is obviously being compared to a judge ordering corporal punishment or more likely - with this language of the family here - a parent who physically disciplines his children.[2] God is portrayed as one who has been provoked to this quite severely. Isaiah says, Verses 5-6:

Why should you be beaten anymore?

Why do you persist in rebellion?

Your whole head is injured,

your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head

there is no soundness—

only wounds and welts

and open sores,

not cleansed or bandaged

or soothed with olive oil.

 

And then Isaiah tells us what he means by this analogy of God having the transgressor beaten. He says:

 

Your country is desolate,

your cities burned with fire;

your fields are being stripped by foreigners

right before you,

laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

Daughter Zion is left

like a shelter in a vineyard,

like a hut in a cucumber field,

like a city under siege.

Unless the Lord Almighty

had left us some survivors,

we would have become like Sodom,

we would have been like Gomorrah.

 

Let’s stop and think about this for a while because it raises a number of really serious questions:

 

1. Does God condone beating children or other offenders?
2. Does God beat us into submission through events in our life?
3. Is God picking on Israel? Does He pick on us?

There will be a fourth question that we will look at too:

4. Does God want more from us than just to worship Him?

 

We will come back to these questions but first let us look a little bit at the historical context of this text. Isaiah the prophet lived in the 8^th Century BCE. He lived 700 or so years before Christ. He and his wife were both prophets (8:1-4)[3] and he had a number of disciples who worked with him (8:16-22) and they probably carried on his prophetic work long after he had received his ‘Promotion to Glory’. Isaiah is mentioned elsewhere in the books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles in our Bibles (2 Kings 19:1-7, 14-37; 20:1-11; 2 Chronicles 26:22, 32:9-33). And Verse 1 of Chapter 1 of Isaiah tells us that the part of the book to which we are referring is ‘The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah’.

 

At this time in history the regional superpowers are Egypt to the southwest and Assyria to the northeast of Israel and Judah who are, with others, stuck right in the middle as they vie for military, political, and economic power in the area. Israel and Judah, as this prophecy is being spoken to them, are extremely vulnerable to attack. Israel will actually be wiped out by the Assyrians right around this time, in 722 BCE. This brings us back to Isaiah’s prophetic warning to the people of Israel and Judah.[4]

 

As we have said, Isaiah uses the language of a parent applying corporal punishment – spanking or more – to his children. From this language arises then our first three questions that we are looking at:

 

1. Does God condone beating children or other offenders?
2. Does God beat us into submission through events in our life?
3. Is God picking on Israel? Does He pick on us?

 

Does God here condone beating children or other offenders (like they cane people in Singapore, for example)? No, He doesn’t. But neither does He condemn it here either. God isn’t actually addressing the best way to discipline your children at all in this pericope; God, through Isaiah, is merely drawing an analogy that everyone listening to his prophecy at this time and place would understand. If this pericope were penned in our contemporary Canadian culture, Verses 5 and 6 probably could read:

 

O Canada, why should you be in timeout anymore?

Why do you persist in rebellion?

Your whole day is spent in that timeout chair,

You are grounded for a week

From the time you get up in the morning until the time you go to bed

there is no TV, video games or friends—

only sitting in the timeout chair

not moving or talking

or doing anything but homework.

 

God is not addressing corporal punishment specifically here. He is talking about the importance of a parent disciplining his children. And we know that a loving parent does teach his children right from wrong. A loving parent does discipline her children. Proverbs 24:18, which my mother used to quote for me many time growing up, reads:

 

Whoever spares the rod hates their children,

but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

[Spare the rod and spoil the child]

 

The parent who loves their children disciplines them. The one who hates them does not. This is what God is talking about in our text today. God says to the people of Israel and Judah: 'Look at all of these things that are happening to you now', Verse 7:

 

Your country is desolate,

your cities burned with fire;

your fields are being stripped by foreigners

right before you,

laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

 

Take this as a warning, God says. Like a parent, He says, ‘now think about what you have done. This should be an opportunity for you, my children, to think about what you have done and make the necessary changes before it is too late and something really drastic happens.’

 

God isn’t beating His children into submission; God is disciplining them before they - through their actions - cause real problems for themselves. God is warning them and hopefully they will heed His instruction so that they will not force their own destruction upon themselves. What Israel and Judah are experiencing is a direct result of their blindly acting out on their own without taking care of their little brother or sister. God isn’t picking on Israel at all; as a matter of fact He is telling Israel to smarten up and to stop picking on her little sister or there will be real problems.

 

God doesn’t pick on us either in our lives. Many times, if the hardships in life that we are experiencing are the natural results of our own actions, then indeed we should take them as an opportunity to change before our own actions result in our own destruction. However, we must not forget that when in the New Testament Jesus’ own disciples make the theological error of the prosperity heresy, asking, John 9:2, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” When they say that sin is the reason the boy is blind; when they imply that anything and everything that we don’t enjoy in life is condemnation from God, Jesus rebukes them. John 9:3, “‘neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”

 

God doesn’t punish us ‘willy, nilly’. He isn’t a vengeful God like the mythological Zeus sitting on a cloud with a thunderbolt waiting to zap us whenever we do something wrong. Quite the opposite; in our pericope today, God is compared to a loving parent who needs to discipline His own children before they race off to their own destruction.

 

That brings us to Verses 11-17. My own children of course are very near perfect and almost never needed correction or discipline…but occasionally if Susan or I pulled one of them aside and have to discipline them, she may protest: What did I do? It was my sister that did that. I didn’t do anything wrong! It wasn’t my day to do the dishes or do some other chore that isn't done! It’s not my fault! She hit me first... She told me to do that… I didn’t do anything wrong! I was just nicely doing my chores, doing my homework, minding my own business when all of a sudden that favourite mug of yours just jumped off the cupboard and broke all by itself. I didn’t do anything wrong! It's not my fault! You're picking on me! It’s not fair!

 

Israel’s complains: ‘Why are you disciplining us? We didn’t do anything wrong: we always observe the Sabbaths and other occasions, we always come to the Temple, we always offer You sacrifices, we always pray; so why are you picking on us, God? It’s not fair. That brings us to our fourth question: does God ask more of us than just to worship Him? Do You, God, always appreciate our worship even? God’s reply, Verses 11-15:

 

“The multitude of your sacrifices—

what are they to me?” says the Lord.

“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,

of rams and the fat of fattened animals;

I have no pleasure

in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me,

who has asked this of you,

this trampling of my courts?

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—

I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.

Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals

I hate with all my being.

They have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I hide my eyes from you;

even when you offer many prayers,

I am not listening.

Your hands are full of blood!

 

This is significant. The children of Israel are praying; they are going to church, going to the Temple; they are offering sacrifices; they are spending time with God; so, is praying, reading your Bible and worshipping in church? God says ‘no’. He wants you to love Him AND your brother.

 

Many times in the Scriptures God tells us that He doesn’t want a proverbial Christmas card from us if we are going to refuse to be nice to our sister. He says, ‘don’t give me a hug if you are just going to turn around and bop your brother on the head’. He says, ‘I don’t want your praises if you are going to keep picking on your little brother and your little sister.’ He says, ‘You say you love Me but that is not true; if it were true that you love Me, you would be nice to my children; if it were true that you love Me, you would love your brother. If it is true that you love Me, stop picking on your sister![5] Verses 16 and 17:

 

Wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds out of my sight;

stop doing wrong.

Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the widow.

 

This I think is very important for those of us who are here today. Jesus says, Matthew 22:37-38 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” But He doesn't end there. Verses 39 and 40, Jesus says, “...‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

 

Jesus says, Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

 

Jesus says, in the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:12, ‘forgive us our sins, as we also have forgiven those who have sinned against us.’ And Jesus says, Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

 

Jesus says again, Matthew 25, just like in Isaiah 1, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did not do for me (v.41).’ So ‘…depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (v. 45)’.  But “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world (v.34).’” For, ‘truly I tell you, whatever you did do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did do for me (v.40).’”

 

This is very important for us in the churches: when we gossip about others, when we complain about others, when we won’t sit with others, when we won’t talk to others, when we won’t go to church or to a certain event because someone else is there; when we are mad with our brother; when we don’t forgive our Christian sisters, when we do this, God is as exasperated as any parent.

 

God just wants us to love one another like any parent just wants their kids to love each other. And of we do that – love god and love our brother and sister – He tells us that all our sins – whatever they are – will be forgiven. God always loves us and wants to forgive us and Isaiah 1:18-19a,

 

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”

says the Lord.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

If you are willing and obedient...

 

Let us pray.

 

www.sheepspeak.com  

 

 

[1]Cf. Alec Motyer, J.: Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1999 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 20), S. 50

[2] Cf. Gene M. Tucker, NIB VI: The Book of Isaiah 1-39, (Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tenn: 2001),53.

[3] But Cf. John H. Tullock and Mark MacEntire, The Old Testament Story, (Pearson Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ: 2006) 214 where they argue that Isaiah 8:3 may not be designating his wife as a prophet but rather as the wife of a prophet.

[4] Cf. By Captain Michael Ramsay, Isaiah 1-39: 1^st Isaiah, Later the World. Presented to Swift Current Corps on January 10, 2010. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2010/01/isaiah-1-39-1st-isaiah-later-world.html

[5] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, ‘Isaiah 1-39,’ Westminster Bible Companion (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky, 1998), 17-18