Words of Comfort and Grace

Isaiah 51:12-23

12 "I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid
Of a man who will die,
And of the son of a man who will be made like grass?

13 And you forget the LORD your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth;
You have feared continually every day
Because of the fury of the oppressor,
When he has prepared to destroy.

And where is the fury of the oppressor?

14 The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed,
That he should not die in the pit,
And that his bread should not fail.

15 But I am the LORD your God,
Who divided the sea whose waves roared—
The LORD of hosts is His name.

16 And I have put My words in your mouth;
I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
That I may plant the heavens,
Lay the foundations of the earth,
And say to Zion, 'You are My people.'"

17 Awake, awake!
Stand up, O Jerusalem,
You who have drunk at the hand of the LORD
The cup of His fury;
You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling,
And drained it out.

18 There is no one to guide her
Among all the sons she has brought forth;
Nor is there any who takes her by the hand
Among all the sons she has brought up.

19 These two things have come to you;
Who will be sorry for you?—
Desolation and destruction, famine and sword—
By whom will I comfort you?

20 Your sons have fainted,
They lie at the head of all the streets,
Like an antelope in a net;
They are full of the fury of the LORD,
The rebuke of your God.

21 Therefore please hear this, you afflicted,
And drunk but not with wine.

22 Thus says your Lord,
The LORD and your God,
Who pleads the cause of His people:

"See, I have taken out of your hand
The cup of trembling,
The dregs of the cup of My fury;
You shall no longer drink it.

23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
Who have said to you,
'Lie down, that we may walk over you.'
And you have laid your body like the ground,
And as the street, for those who walk over."

He is the LORD our Maker and the creator of all that is, the heavens of the universe and the world we live in.  Why then should we be afraid if He is for His people?  Is His arm of power shortened so that He cannot do certain things like delivering us?  May we not forget or minimize these attributes and works of our God as Israel had done when Isaiah gave this message of rebuke and comfort from the LORD to them.  God delivers we who are born captives of the bondage to sin by that same care and power because we are all His people who are in Christ, both out of Israel and out of all the other nations through Abraham as our one father of faith.  Remember how He put words in the prophet’s mouth and know that God still does because He lives within we who have been reborn by grace through faith in Christ alone.  He covers us with His protective hand in order to plant the kingdom of heaven through the words of the gospel to call out many to whom He says, “you are my people,” just as He did with Zion that we may be one people (Hosea 2:23, Romans 9:23-24, 25, 1 Peter 2:9-10, Galatians 3:28).  The call to Israel was to awaken from a drunk stupor of sin and stand up to face Him in accountability.  They wandered aimlessly without comfort or direction, facing only desolation and destruction and as animals trapped in a net.  God’s rebuke for their sin and His resultant wrath on them was followed by Him pleading their cause with grace in mercy and forgiveness, just as He does to sinners like us even now.  He takes the cup of His wrath for our sin from our dead and powerless hands as He did for Israel’s sake then.  He puts His wrath instead onto those who oppose us and Him who are rejecting His word and His living Word.  They will face the eternal judgment of His wrath on their unrepentant sin (Revelation 6:17, 9:20-21).  The comfort and grace of God are in His Christ proclaimed in the gospel, good news indeed for His people but retribution of accountability to those rejecting Him.  May we use the words of comfort and grace put in our mouths to found the kingdom of heaven in Christ with His people as we speak the gospel of hope and freedom from sin’s bondage and God’s wrath on our sin.  Amen.