Isaiah 35,3-10. Advent II

Isaiah 35,3-10 0225

Ad te levavi. Advent ii 02 

Apollos of Corinth, Bishop and assistant of the Apostle Paul

Arnold Peter Bauernfeind, Jr. ✠ 2018

8. Dezember 2024

1. ℣ I have lifted up mine eyes to You:  

℟ Who dwell in heaven. (Psalm 121,1 vul lxx).

Ad te levavi oculos meos: qui habitas in caelo/caelis. lxx mas

O Ever-faithful and Merciful God, we render praise and thanksgiving unto You, that, by Your beloved Prophets You have promised to the Patriarchs of old the gift of Your Beloved Son, whom You did send into the world in the fullness of time, so that, by Him, Your holy will and counsel might be fully revealed unto us. He crushed the Serpent’s head and has redeemed us from sin and death. All generations wait upon Him, and in Him are all the nations of the earth blessed. Prepare us, Good Lord, so that we may serve Him with undefiled hearts; and, when He arrives, to receive Him with joy; and, for this, we will thank You eternally in heaven.  Amen. (Loehe 443-44) 

2. »Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart: „Be strong, and do not be afraid! Behold, your God arrives with His  justice and compensation. God arrives and saves you.“ Then the eyes of the blind are opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame man leaps like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sings for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand becomes a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass becomes reeds and rushes. And a highway is there, and it is called the Way of Holiness; the unclean do not pass over it. It belongs to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they do not go astray. No lion is there, nor any ravenous beast arrives up on it; they are not found there, but the redeemed walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord return and go to Zion with singing; everlasting joy is upon their heads; they obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing flee away.« 

3. The Prophet Isaiah describes the Messianic Age where the curse imposed upon creation is reversed: the blind will see, the deaf will hear and the lame will leap. The desert will bloom, despair yields to hope and sorrow is replaced with singing. The Messiah’s advent brings salvation.  

4. When Jesus preached in His synagogue in Nazareth, He read the beginning of Isaiah 61 and proclaimed that He fulfills Isaiah 35 and 61; He is the Messiah who heals the sick, restores the land and proclaims the year of Yahweh’s favor. What was the response from His neighbors? They were filled with wrath, drove Him out of Nazareth and wanted to throw Him down the cliff (Luke 4,28-29) for rightly saying no prophet is acceptable in his hometown (Luke 4,24). 

5. Anxiety and fear can cause the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. That seemed to be the cause for the Nazarenes to reject Jesus’ claims. During a storm on the Sea of Galilee, 12 of Jesus’ closest disciples allowed their fear to overcome the peace of safety that was present in Jesus in their midst. Martha let her anxiety over serving Jesus and the disciples hinder her from resting and receiving Jesus’ teaching. Too often we succumb to the cares of this world rather than relying on Jesus’ Providence. 

6. The Holy Spirit can use our anxiety and fear to prepare us for Jesus. An anxious heart feels the depth of despair that not everything is or can be in our control. In our helpless state, we look to God to give us strength. A fearful heart acknowledges that it is a poor miserable sinner before the Almighty and Righteous God. We cannot atone for our sin; it must be propitiated by God. »αὐτὸς δέ ἐστιν οἰκτίρμων καὶ ἱλάσεταιταῖς ἁμαρτίαις αὐτῶν καὶ οὐ διαφθερεῖ καὶπληθυνεῖ τοῦ ἀποστρέψαι τὸν θυμὸν αὐτοῦ καὶοὐχὶ ἐκκαύσει πᾶσαν τὴν ὀργὴν αὐτοῦ. Ipse autem est misericors et propitius fiet peccatis eorum et non perdet eos et eos abundabit ut avertat iram suam et non accendet omnem iram  suam. But He is merciful and propitiates their sins, and will not be angry or provoked to anger, nor will He stir up all his wrath« ( Psalm 77,38 vul; Psalm 78,38 lxx). 

7. Though my heart might break apart,

You, O Christ, are my Hope, my Steadfast Heart,

My Portion, and my Comfort true,

Who by Your blood my soul rescued (Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr! (1569) 1571 selk 564,1ghij 2021 Martin Schalling 1532-1608). 

8. As she mourned her brother Lazarus, Martha believed that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life who is the Christ, the Son of God (John 11,25-27). She rested in Jesus and received the promise that He would raise Lazarus to life once more. Jesus takes our anxieties and fears; He gives us comfort and peace. Lo, the dead will live.

9. Even in winter, God’s creation is beautiful. We highlight it with decorations in preparation for Christmas. People get in the festive mood and parties abound. Nevertheless, salvation may not be deduced from God’s nature, but from what Christ has done (Nagel). What Christ has done is He has brought into our present the future Messianic Age; creation responds to its Savior. 

10. Isaiah describes the redemption that occurs in the Messianic Age on 3 levels: psychological [intellectual], historical and cosmological (Hummel 213). 1. Anxious hearts will be set at ease; the blind will see and the deaf hear; the lame will leap and the mute will speak. The Lord’s redemption effects the entire human being: mind, body and spirit. Jesus performed such healing upon the people during His ministry as proof that He is the Messiah promised on the Day of Yahweh. 2. God will arrive with vengeance and save you. [The ransomed of Yahweh will return from Exile.] This is an historical promise that was fulfilled by Yahweh. In Isaiah’s day in Judah was facing conquest at the hands of the Assyrian Empire. Judah was outmanned and overwhelmed by the might of the Assyrian army, and then in one night in 701 bc God sent an angel who wiped out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers (2. Kings 19; 2. Chronicles 32). The Rev. Archibald Henry Sayce was a British Professor of Assyriology and linguist at Oxford from 1891-1919; he described the event this way: „Like Xerxes in Greece, Sennacherib never recovered from the shock of the disaster in Judah. He made no more expeditions against either Southern Palestine or Egypt “ (Sayce 132). 3. Yahweh will restore all of creation. Streams will break forth in the desert; the burning sand will become a pool; the haunt of jackals will become a safe land. The Apostle Paul tells us that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8,21). 

 11. And so like 8. century Israel we wait for the arrival of the Christ. As we continue our Advent preparation for the birth of Jesus, we do so with the hope and joy that creation will be liberated, mankind will be restored in purity and that our sins have been forgiven, solely by Christ Jesus our Advent Lord.

12. The Day of Judgment now draws near,

Come, Jesus Christ, our Lord so dear.

No day goes by, we wait for Thee,

And long to soon with Thee to be. 

(Ihr lieben Christen, freut euch nun selk 306,2 2021 Erasmus Alber 1546) 

This is most certainly true. 

13. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7).  Amen. 

14. Let us pray. Accept, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our praises and supplications, and look graciously upon this household that we may abide this night in peace and safety under the shadow of Thy wings, and so assist us by Thy grace that we may be fitted for that kingdom where there shall be no more sin, nor sorrow, neither any more pain, but all shall be joy and peace in the Holy Ghost.  Amen. (Advent ii, 2^nd Vespers Collect. The Daily Office). 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

 

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2021 Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, Hannover. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand. 

 Sayce, Archibald Henry. The Ancient Empires of the East. Copyright © 1884 Charles Scribner’s Sons. (https://archive.org/details/ancientempirese05saycgoog/page/n162/mode/2up)

The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.