“I Am the Lord,
There is No Other” (Isaiah 45:1-7)
1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The theme of the message from God’s Word
today comes from the prophet Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 45:5, “I am the Lord,
and there is no other.” This is
echoed in the epistle for today, which says, “How you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1
Thess 1:9). Even our Gospel lesson for today
recognizes that Caesar is a servant of that one Lord when Jesus says, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt 22:21). This
further corresponds to our Old Testament Reading, which recognizes that Cyrus
is to be a servant of the Lord, even though he doesn’t believe in the one true
God our Heavenly Father. Cyrus is the Lord’s instrument to serve his chosen
people. God our Heavenly Father
looks out for and protects His people, even in ways that we wouldn’t normally
think. The message is entitled, “I Am the Lord, There is No Other,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ. Let
he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
2.
You
can make an idol out of anything or anyone in life. A church building can become an idol to us,
when all the while it is simply a place to meet and worship our Lord and
nothing more. Your child can become your idol… in subtle ways you can so adore
that little one that your whole life revolves around the child. Your spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend can be
given first place in your life and literally become your god. Your work can easily become a god or an
idol to you, as can any other of your pursuits in your life. A house, a lawn, an antique car, sports, your
leisure and vacation time, and even that goal of retirement.
3.
Why
do I say these things you ask? It’s because your Lord and Savior Jesus
wants to occupy first place in your life.
Matthew 6:33 says then when Jesus has first place in your life,
everything else will be added to you. How
long has it been since you’ve enlisted your Lord’s help in a private, personal confession
of your sins asking Him to forgive you of the false gods that you’ve made for
yourself? It’s so easy to get
attached to idols. But, these are all
things that God our Heavenly Father has created. We can use them for our pleasure, but not
to be worshiped.
4.
When
the nation of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem and disease ran rampant through
the city, the people wondered where God was. When the gates came crashing in and the soldiers
flowed into the city for slaughter, the people wondered where God was. The
Lord seemed unable to help. So too, at
times the Lord seems unable to help us.
When the earthquake struck Haiti a few years ago and Japan earlier this
year, when the floods rose this year in the Midwest, people wondered where the
Lord was. When a 9-year-old boy is hit by a car or the 6 year-old girl is
kidnapped, people wonder where God is. When you hear the doctor say “cancer” or when a loved one has died,
you may have wondered where God is.
5. In our text from Isaiah, the Lord
says, “I am the Lord, and there is no other” (v 5). Yet
at times it may seem that if the Lord is the only God, he is pretty weak and
helpless to lend us aid in our need. And it can even seem as if God is the one
causing our troubles. The events that
cause us to doubt the power of the Lord are ironic: we often experience a
display of great power, but that very powerful force is unable to help us in
our need; it may even be the source of our affliction. This is true of natural disasters. In a few
seconds, an earthquake can release the energy of a nuclear bomb many thousand
times over. Yet that great power causes untold grief and loss for the people
who experience it. The Lord in his
great power seems unable to help the people caught in his grip. In these
moments, the Lord seems weak to save his people. Where is God?
6. In v 7 of the text, the Lord says, “I form light and create
darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all
these things.” Now this doesn’t mean that the
Lord created evil, but rather that the Lord governs this world in such a way
that he allows evil to run rampant all over the earth. He seems to be a troublemaker
at times. He brings peace to those who do not deserve it, and he takes it away
from those who should be at peace. He seems to bring trouble and evil into
our lives. In the text, the Lord
says, “I am the Lord, who does all these things” (v 7). You might even be
tempted to think that you don’t need or want a God who does these sorts of
things. A troublemaker God is worse than a weak God.
7. But the Lord brings these things into our
lives to show us that he is our only source of refuge. When everything of this life fails us—our
friends, family, money, country, and finally our health—we have nothing to
cling to but the Lord, who has promised to deliver us, who has called us by
name in Holy Baptism. This is the issue:
we are tempted to forget the promises our Lord has made to us. We are tempted
to think that the Lord has forgotten us or turned away from us.
8. Then in and through weakness, the Lord
saves us. When everything that
could possibly help us is taken away, we have nothing to rely on but our Lord. When everything is taken away, we can’t fool
ourselves into thinking we saved ourselves, nor can we imagine it was dumb luck
or good fortune. Sometimes we need to
have everything removed from us so that we can more clearly see our Savior. But the Savior we see is one who comes to us
in weakness. You can’t get much weaker
than being nailed to a cross. In the ultimate weakness of death, your Savior,
Jesus, is strongest to save you. Notice
the irony. When the Lord appears with his power and might, as in the shaking
of the earth and the clapping of the thunder, he is weak to save you. But
when the Lord comes to you in his weakness, in the weakness of the cross, then
He is strong to save you.
9. In the great weakness of your sin, Jesus
forgives you. It is when our Lord comes
to us in weakness that we, like the centurion at the foot of the cross, can say,
“Truly this man [is] the Son of God!”
(Mk 15:39). It is in these weak moments that we see that Jesus is the Lord
and there is no other. Though in times
of trial the Lord seems weak, in precisely these times he shows himself to be our
Redeemer.
10. Therefore, when trials come . . . When the cross comes into your life, remember
that the Lord is strong to save you in weakness. When He is crucifying
our sinful flesh through trials and sufferings in this world, He is stripping
us bare of the things that would block our eyes from seeing Him as our Savior.
When you wonder “Where is God,”
remember that He is removing anything from you that would stop you from
clinging to Him as your Lord. He saves
you in weakness.
11. In your weakness, the Lord called you by
name. In the weakness of the sprinkling of water, your Lord saved you in
Baptism. He has chosen you, though you are weak in the eyes of the
world, so that he can make you strong in his promises. Amen.
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