Scripture reading: Psalm 147.

Sermon text: Isaiah 61:10-62:3.

Yesterday, we all celebrated Christmas, the day we commemorate the birth of Jesus, the divine Son of God, into the world. Christmas proves to the world that God does care about our problems; He does take our sin seriously, and He would do everything possible to atone for the sin of the world. Nothing says “I love you” like the coming of the Son of God to us.

The people in Isaiah’s time needed to hear God’s voice; they needed to hear that God loved them in spite of their sins. Isaiah had already warned the people of Jerusalem of the consequences of their sins. When God called them to repentance, they refused to repent, leading to assurances of exile. By the time Isaiah delivered the message of the sermon text today, the people needed to hear that God’s love remained steadfast in the midst of their rebellion and sin.

Isaiah’s prophecy opens with an expression of great joy, spoken in the person of Jerusalem herself. The city that would suffer for the sins of the nation would later rejoice as God restored her glory and her standing among the nations.

In Isaiah’s prophecy, Jerusalem “will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God.” The Hebrew word for “greatly rejoice” reminded the Jews of God’s covenant love for them. In Deuteronomy 28:63, Moses reminded the people of God’s rejoicing in “doing good” for them; however, in the same verse, Moses also reminded the people that God would “take delight,” or rejoice, in “bringing ruin” to the people if they broke the covenant.

Isaiah took away the sting of the words in Deuteronomy. God would faithfully keep the covenant, but He would also restore the people after they broke the covenant. In the time of the prophecy’s fulfillment, Jerusalem would “rejoice” and “exult in my God” because of His gracious restoration of the people. Jerusalem would say, “he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Every word in this passage reminds us of God’s love for His people. When we come to God admitting our sin, seeking His forgiveness, God “clothes” us with “salvation” and “covers” us with “righteousness.” We cannot stand before God, our Creator, unclothed; Adam and Eve noticed their own “nakedness” immediately after their first sin. Humanity has tried ever since to weave our own clothes, and with as much success as Adam and Eve. (I don’t know if you’ve ever seen fig leaves, but rest assured there’s a reason why you won’t see them in the spring fashion lines.) However, Isaiah would later tell the Jews, “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). We cannot cover our sins, for God alone can deal with them. When we confess our sins before God, He covers us with “salvation;” He saves us from the penalty of sin. When we accept His atonement for our sins, God covers us with His righteousness, assuring that He does not hold our sins against us. Instead, He sees His own righteousness instead of our sin.

This forgiveness and restoration comes as surely “as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up.” I’ve grown up around gardens my entire life. Fortunately, we here in the South enjoy the benefits of fertile ground almost everywhere around us. No one starves in the South because of infertile ground, because most areas of our land will grow anything if you can keep the animals and weeds out of the crops. Isaiah used this picture to assure Israel of God’s certain forgiveness of their sins. Instead of sin and rebellion, God “will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.” God’s fulfillment of this promise would certainly bring joy to His people and testify to the nations around Israel that God loved His people in spite of their sins.

In the next part of the text, Isaiah shifted speakers. Instead of Jerusalem, Isaiah himself assumes the speaker’s role. When we read his words, we can see why Isaiah could “not keep silent.” Isaiah had foreseen the blessings of God poured out upon the city he loved and the people who would for so long suffer exile and scorn by the nations.

Isaiah’s rejoicing would come because of God’s work on behalf of His people. “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.” The “righteousness” of Jerusalem, remember, would not be her own; God would cover Jerusalem with His own righteousness. Jerusalem’s righteousness and salvation would proclaim God’s grace to the nations that had oppressed Israel for centuries. The nations would now see God’s righteousness, and their kings would see God’s glory reflected in Jerusalem.

We need to remember that hostile nations had surrounded and oppressed Israel for most of her history. Aside from short periods during the times of Joshua, David, Solomon, Jeroboam II, and Uzziah, Israel suffered from invasions, conquests, and exile for most of her time in the Promised Land. Israel spent her entire existence sandwiched between 2 superpowers (Egypt and the Mesopotamian powers) and surrounded by hostile nations (Ammon, Moab, Philistia, and Syria). These nations had raided Israel for slaves, demanded tribute from her kings, taken her territory, and finally would destroy the nation.

When God fulfilled this prophecy, the nations would see God’s righteousness restore the nation; they would see Jerusalem become the “light to the nations” God had always intended for His nation to become. Jerusalem would finally become the “crown of beauty” and “royal diadem” before all the Gentiles.

I love the fact this passage comes during the Christmas season this year. How much better to celebrate the arrival of our Savior than to rejoice with Isaiah in this prophecy?

You’ll say, “Jerusalem hasn’t seen this prophecy fulfilled.” I agree. However, while Jerusalem hasn’t become the royal diadem Isaiah prophesied, she has still served a major role in God’s plan for our redemption.

We celebrate Christmas during this season, the birth of Jesus in the world through the Virgin Mary. The birth of Jesus led to the only completely righteous life the world has ever seen. Jesus fulfilled perfectly the covenant the Jews had broken, leading to their conquest, exile, and oppression by Gentiles for millennia. After the destruction of Jerusalem prophesied by Isaiah, the Jews experienced less than a century of independence in the time between 586 B.C. and A.D. 1948 at the founding of the modern nation of Israel. Jesus then died at the hands of the Romans, executed for the sins of the world. Jerusalem witnessed the worst crime in our existence: The death of our Creator at our hands, to pay the penalty for our rebellion against God.

Jerusalem then witnessed the greatest event in our existence: The resurrection of Jesus, the event we celebrate at Easter. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that this constitutes the gospel, the good news: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Jesus’ righteous life fulfilled the covenant for us; His death paid the penalty for our sins; His resurrection give us the sure and certain assurance that we, too, will one day rise again from the dead, never to experience sin or death again.

St. Paul told the Roman believers that those who confess Jesus as Lord, believing in His resurrection, “shall be saved” (Romans 10:9), or receive the salvation Isaiah prophesied. St. Paul also wrote to the Romans:

1. “And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin’” (Romans 4:4-8).
   

In other words, everyone who believes in Jesus, whose faith rests in Jesus alone and not in his own works, finds that Jesus’ righteousness becomes our own. God clothes us in Jesus’ righteousness.

When we receive Jesus’ salvation and righteousness, we, too, should not keep silent; we should not be quiet. We should proclaim to everyone around us, through our lives and our words, that God has redeemed us from sin and proclaimed us righteous.

Perhaps we’re past the time of year to say, “Merry Christmas.” It’s not too late to show someone how Jesus’ righteousness makes a difference in your life, by loving everyone around you and demonstrating God’s love to everyone as He has loved you. Let the people around you see the righteousness of Christ in all you do in the new year.