The Shepherd’s Voice

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

What does God look like to you – I don’t mean physically, but what is your vision, your understanding regarding God? Is God that genie in a bottle that you call upon when you need a favor. Or is your God someone who shows up when you’re having a foxhole experience?

Our secular world doesn’t even like the idea of there being a God at all. At the Washington state capital house some atheists have put up a sign next to the nativity that says – There is no God…… religion is just a farce, a myth, a crutch it actually hardens peoples hearts.

Your view of God may also be couched in secular terms such as this:

• God is a little like Wal Mart – He has everything.

Or

• God is a little like Tide – He gets out the stains that others leave behind.

Some people are apprehensive about God so maybe their thinking is:

• God is like a toy from China – you buy it, but you’re not sure about the ingredients.

Sometimes it’s helpful to see God through the eyes of a youngster.
This is what an 8 year old from Chula Vista said about God:

One of God’s main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn’t make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn’t have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.” This might help explain why God’s incarnation resulting in the ‘Baby Jesus.’

Your definition may vary, but what does our scripture reveal about God?

Look at the first verse of our Isaiah passage – it says Comfort, O Comfort my people, says the Lord. Isaiah obviously believes we have a God who wishes God’s people well; in this case it was the people of Israel who had been put into exile by the Babylonians.

Life was not good at this point for the Jews. Life was tough, full of hardship. They were a repressed people. As the remnant in Babylon looked back, they saw failure and sin; and they needed encouragement. Their 70 years in captivity was almost over, but they were weary and needed to hear some encouragement. God through Isaiah gave them encouragement.

We have a God of encouragement
From the overall message of scripture we see a God who deeply loved the people of Israel in spite of what they did. Time after time they turned from God, but God called them back.
In the second verse Isaiah says “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry for her.” God’s message here was – I have seen your pain, it was great, difficult, overwhelming, but you have paid for your sin and soon a new dawn is coming when all will be well.

Since I’m a second career Pastor and I did much of my early seminary work part time it took me almost ten years to finish before I was ordained. At times during that process I would be discouraged, but I had a couple of Pastor friends who would come along side of me and say – you can do it. God is calling you. This is the kind of encouragement God provides us.

We also have a God of compassion
God understands our pain, our suffering and tenderly calls us as God did with the people of Israel. Even in verse 2 we see that a penalty was paid so God did require sacrifice, a turning about, and repentance on the part of Israel.

That’s understandable our God is a God of justice, and yet there is compassion. I love to watch a compassionate mother with a child because it’s such a strong image of God nurturing us. Taking care of us, loving us when we are hurt; yes, God can kiss our bruises and make them better.

In verse 3 and 4 we see that God has prepared a way. In fact, no hill gets in the way as they will be made low and the uneven ground will be made level. Here we see a God who is willing to do what it takes.

We have a God of action
Sometimes this aspect of God may be hard to see. Not too many burning bushes these days.

So then how do we see God at work? Henry Blackaby in his book Experiencing God talks about how we see God at work all around us, but we need to look for it. God works through people. There are many examples in scripture. God worked through Moses to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. God worked through Joseph, even when his brothers meant it for evil, (Gen 50:20) God made it work out for good by saving Joseph and his family.

We remember the story in (Luke 1) where Elizabeth was old and yet she conceived John. This was a God thing, only God could do that. Scripture says nothing is impossible with God.

In verse 5 it says “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all people shall see it.” The mouth of the Lord has spoken. God’s glory was revealed in all of the earlier examples.

Through these revelations, these God things we see we have a God who speaks.
How does God speak? There are numerous ways. The Holy Spirit spoke through Peter and thousands were saved. So we see God speaks through people.

God speaks through scripture. We see in Luke 4 Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and said “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” God’s Word will not return void or empty but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent, Isaiah says. (Is 55:11)

Luther said when you read scripture first look for the simple straight forward meaning. What is God conveying to me, to us through this text? We must always ask this simple question.

What else can we learn about God from this Isaiah passage? Look at verse 8 – “Yes, the grass whithers and the flower fades, but our God endures forever.” Our God endures, carries on….

We have a God who lasts
We have a God who is committed to us for the long haul. To think when I was growing up we still had to heat food in an oven. Today in a few moments with a microwave, heating food is almost instantaneous. As a culture we have lost what it means to be in it for the long haul.

God was in it for the long haul with Moses. God stood by Joseph and his family in time of famine. God stood by Paul all through his missionary journeys, God will stand by us. We know, we can have the assurance that God is faithful.

Let’s summarize where we are.

• We have a God who is compassionate and wants to encourage us.
• We have a God of action who works through people and speaks through scripture and the Holy Spirit directly to us.
• Finally we have a God who never fails us, who stands by us, wants the best for us, and desires fellowship with us.

In today’s world it’s hard to have close friends. Sharon and I have another couple who we have known since our kids were in kindergarten together. These good friends of ours have been very compassionate to us when we have been going through some tough times in our life. They stood by us through struggles, they have been there for us – but recently they moved away because of their kids. We miss them dearly.

Our compassionate God will not move away from us.

During Advent God is coming near to us. Advent is a time when we can look forward to some good news. Look at verse nine – here’s how it reads from the New English translation:

Jerusalem, go up on a high mountain and proclaim the good news!
Call out with a loud voice, Zion; announce the good news!
Speak out and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah that their God is coming!

Our God is coming to you. Our God wants you to understand the Good News! Yes, our God is a God of order and requires repentance, but right now, at this time God is making every path straight, raising every valley, lowering every mountain because our God is a God of action where nothing can stand in the way.

If you are troubled, have issues in your life – our God of compassion and encouragement has some good news for you. It may be a trite saying, but Jesus is the reason for the season.

Isaiah prophesied it would happen. John the Baptist was there to prepare the way.

Our God is expecting us to respond. The God of compassion, the God of stability, the God of encouragement, the God who speaks is once again proclaiming the life changing power of Jesus Christ. This is great news, tremendous news – my God, my God how great thou art! Amen