Sermon: Is Your Way Hidden?
by Randall Perkins
June 2009
Mills Rd. Baptist Church

"Is your way hidden?" Isaiah40:27-31

Our text this morning was originally addressed to the remnant of Israel in captivity. By the time this message from Isaiah was delivered to Israel, she had been dragged into Babylon where she lived as aliens and foreigners in a culture radically different from her own…. it is not a stretch to say that she was struggling with the care and providence of God.

Follow along with me as I read from Isaiah 40:27-31

The people of Israel identified themselves as God’s chosen people and at the same time they recognized the discipline of God against their apostasy as a nation. She was a people, wrestling within her experiences like Jacob with God, and indeed found her circumstances to be difficult. What was true of the nation was also true for each individual. Each one was confronted face to face with the startling contrast between the realities of life and the promises and calling of God. The monotonous character of Israel’s daily struggle, in light of her high calling brought forward questions within their hearts and minds … indeed questions within each one. They cried out within their hearts… “Lord, I don’t understand!” …but their behavior digressed…they were speaking to one another, murmuring and muttering that they were abandoned and they began to even question the usefulness of their faith!

In the middle of their despair, the people of the dispersion were the recipients of various interpretive voices with respect to their situation. The Babylonians largely looked to them to help their economy yet considered them to be a peculiar and odd people. The false prophets promised immediate deliverance, a name it and claim it approach to their situation, a realized eschatology of sorts. Their own hearts questioned “Why am I in this struggle and how am I to build a life here among the ungodly?” But, the Lord delivered his word through both Jeremiah and Isaiah. This word called them to face their immediate circumstances and live their lives, but it also proclaimed a future that pointed forward to a redemption that was beyond their mortal existence. The prophets told those who lived in the tension of the present to deal with it! And the question of how to live in this tension was then and is today significant. The Lord provides the answer to the tensions of life and faith in our text this morning.

Questions arise daily within the details of life's circumstances. For Israel, those questions related to her place in a foreign land and as we seek to apply her situation to ours, parallels can be drawn.

For the church at large here in America, there are great political and cultural struggles. These struggles give rise to ethical tensions and dividing lines are drawn and recast along competing ideologies. These ideologies are politicized and form struggles for us here in our culture with respect to a variety of practical issues. What should be the size and shape of government? What should be the role of government be in our free market society? What standards should best shape our social policies and programs that seek to address social concerns and ethical decisions. The potential for change confronts us daily and for us, as Christians within our society, they frequently appear to be for the worse rather than for the better. As we approach our role in society as a whole, particularly as God’s people, I suggest ever so briefly four lines of thought on the issues. They can be cast in the form of questions… that beg for answers. They are:
· What should our involvement be in our society?
· What sort of expectations should we have?
· What should be the goal of our efforts?
· And, Ultimately where do we rest our hope?

Today’s message does not seek to answer these issues in a broader cultural sense; nevertheless, these questions together with their answers should link our individual lives with God’s purposes. The answers to these questions are to come from God’s Word. The first 3 questions address the here and now of our life circumstances and the last question puts the other 3 in their proper place. These questions are to deal with this side of eternity in a broader sense. These are important issues; but we must limit ourselves to the message to us as the church and as individuals this morning.

We, very much like Israel in captivity, desire clarity to the questions of home, vocation, social involvement, life’s adversities and some sort of vindication of our allegiances and faith. Are we to respond to our struggles in a pessimistic or optimistic framework? For Israel, she still faced many years as a captive in a foreign land. How were the people to endure the hardship of their lives? There were the false prophets promising an immediate return to the Land of Israel; on the other hand, the Word of God spoken through Jeremiah and Isaiah told them otherwise. Most, if not all would live and die in the land of Babylon. Their questions centered on the providence of God within their circumstances. They looked at their situation and cried out to one another “we are forgotten and hidden from the Lord!” and “what good is our faith and identity as God’s chosen people? ... These questions festered like a thorn in their hearts and minds.

They wrestled with life. This is why the word of God here in our text calls them by the two identifying names of Jacob, and Israel; Jacob was the deceiver / wrestler… and Israel, the wrestler / prevailer with God.

We frequently like to look back on Old Testament stories of the Israelites and think better of ourselves… but are we any different? What about you child of God? Are there not illnesses and broken down vehicles? Are there not broken relationships? Are there not lost careers? Unfilled Pews? Theological and ethical differences? And rebellious wayward children?

The Lord’s Word to Israel was to participate and not withdraw from life. It was to build homes, raise families and to pray for the peace and welfare of their community; they were to be involved in their society as active participants, seeking a common well being within the details of life, even in a foreign land. But they were also not to look to turn Babylon into the Land of Promise. The Lord told them they would eventually return, yet He also told them not place their ultimate hope in the issues of life this side of eternity.

Our passage this morning provides for three points. First, it is in the adversity of life that the prophet calls to them and to us to not withdraw, but to seriously look at and face our problems. Isaiah then tells us to reconsider the Lord of our Confession because in so doing we are entreated to truly consider who it is we have placed our hope! The Word of God concludes then by telling us what we are to expect when rightly looking to Him within our individual struggles!

So, you who are struggling along the way, consider now the four realities of the God you serve in verse 28 …”The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.” The four realities of God declared here are His eternal covenantal character, His originating authority; His persevering power and finally His unsearchable wisdom. The covenantal name that God disclosed by special revelation to Moses, the deliverer of Israel from Egypt is YHWH, the eternal “I AM” who is to be understood not in abstract terms, but as He who is the very same eternal God who promised blessings to Abraham and upon his seed! It is the Lord who binds Himself irrevocably and eternally to His people in accordance with His gracious promises. Should you lack perspective, this is the very same One whose Spirit hovered in avian fashion over the chaotic face of the deep and created all things from nothing. There is an objectivity in view here that God seeks to convey to you when pondering the incredible creative forces in those first 6 days of creation that you should reflect upon when facing the chaos of life. The LORD calls you to rise above the chaos of life… to a Spiritual Objectivity of the events in your life. There is a Christian form that is to be created within you within life’s chaos.

It is He who has the creative authority, power and might to govern the affairs of even His fallen creation without growing faint or weary. Consider our Lord’s patience and endurance in dealing with the problems of human evil. Christ endured even the cross; and the process of reconciliation is still not consummated! God continues to endure the decay of sin in his created world…. He does so for a purpose… He is seeking transform us in THIS life.

In all of this we are to acknowledge that His providential governance is in accordance with His absolute wisdom and understanding! God is not subject to the twists and turns of historical events, He directs them! We should not presume to understand all of God’s purposes in history. You, people of God, who far too often feel neglected and hidden from your LORD need to be reminded to hear and understand that He has purposed and guides all things according to His Wisdom for your good as the apostle Paul reminds us in the 8th chapter of his letter to the Roman church. We too often feel abandoned and desolate on life’s path BUT be assured of this… It isn’t God who cannot and does not know your way… it is YOU who too frequently fail to fully understand and trust the absolute love and wisdom of God’s presence and purposes in the small and large events of life! Your LORD has promised you that all things will work together for good and the nature of that good is disclosed here in the 40th chapter of Isaiah.

We are called to face our circumstances in a manner that brings results that are indeed counter intuitive in the world we live in. This approach for facing our individual challenges is summed up for us in this morning’s passage in verse 31. It tells us what we are to expect and rejoice in within the trials of our circumstances!

The prophet directs his readers,… directs us… to a promise that is both existentially conditioned and provided. The call to us this morning touches upon the attitude of our hearts in the heat of the day. We are called to wait upon the LORD!

God will give you who are weary and faint… strength. If you rely on what you see you will lose heart, if you seek to rely on your own strength it will fail you, for even those who are young faint and fall exhausted in the trials of life. No, we are called upon to walk the path God has laid out for us in life, and when that path is difficult, the promise God gives in this age prior to the consummation is that if we fix our eyes on Jesus, our strength will be renewed… or, more literally within the text… exchanged with His!

People of God, we so often want our circumstances to be transformed. When the way is monotonous and dreary we hope for change but grow tired, when the storms of life come crashing in on us, we long for calm waters as we grow exhausted… But the LORD calls upon us to redirect our longing and hope within our problems. He encourages us to place our hope in nothing less than His presence. This is to be our pursuit. And when it is, He offers the promise of His renewal and strength.

We want our circumstances changed but God desires to change and transform us! According to God’s good purposes our circumstances will eventually and inevitably change; yet, He calls upon us, within our present experience to something far more meaningful and rich. He calls us to walk by faith in Him and not by sight or even our own strength. This is because He wants us to rely upon Him and not on our jobs, our wealth, our strength, our character, our plans, nor upon any finite thing. Our LORD wants our joy, our peace, our confidence and hope to reside no where else than in our relationship with Him.

As we begin to close our look into this mornings passage, lets look again at verse 31 which says …”but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

So in response to the question posed in the title of this morning’s message: “Is your way hidden?”… the answer is an obvious NO. You, child of God, are called to wait on the LORD. To trust Him. To believe Him! When you do so, there is a promise, you will be renewed and lifted up like the eagle above your daily struggles. This is re-creation… the image of the Spirit’s creative work in Genesis 1 should come to mind. You will not grow weak in the chaos of many demanding responsibilities, nor will those of you who face a large seemingly endless climb out of some unending situation… faint! Look to the LORD for He brings the reward of His presence and strength with Him… even in your situation.

Wait upon Him… Trust Him.

Amen.