PASTOR'S MESSAGE

 

No Other God

Isaiah 45:1-7

When the deacon went to New York on vacation, his pastor asked him to order a sign to be put over the church door at Christmas time.  On the last day of his trip the deacon suddenly remembered that he needed to order the sign.  But he had forgotten what it was supposed to say, so he sent a wire to the pastor asking for the dimensions of the sign and the message.  The lady at the Western Union office almost fainted when the pastor’s telegram came back.  It read:  “Unto us a child is born.  Eight feet long, three feet wide.”

Truly that sounds like an unbelievable message.  Where would you ever find a child that big and wide?  Well, in our text for today we hear about an equally unbelievable message.  Only this message is about a Savior, who is big and wide – big in mercy and wide in forgiveness.  In the words of our text, there is no other God like Him.  And the unbelievable part is that He chose a pagan king, named Cyrus to make His message known.

You see, our text takes place at the time, when the southern kingdom of Judah was being held captive in Babylon.  Through their own sinful fault, because of their rebellious idolatry, God had allowed His people to be conquered by their enemies, the Babylonians.  And as a result, the people of Judah could see no way out of their situation, no end to their pain and misery.  However, the unbelievable message of our text is that in spite of their sin, and even though they didn’t deserve it, God in His mercy and grace had promised to rescue them from their captors.  So it was that in the year 538 B.C., God caused Cyrus, the King of Persia to issue an edict, allowing the people of Judah to return to their homeland and rebuild city of Jerusalem and its temple.  In Scriptural terms, we would call Cyrus a type of Christ, that is, a prefiguring of Jesus Christ our Savior.  As a matter of fact, in verse one of our text Cyrus is referred to as ‘the Lord’s Annointed.’  And in Hebrew the word is ‘messiah.’  Which is to say that Cyrus is a foreshadowing of Jesus our Messiah.  For just as Cyrus released God’s people from bondage in Babylon, so in an even greater way Jesus Christ set us free from our captivity to sin, death and hell.  By His blood shed on the cross, He issued the divine edict of the Gospel that pronounces you and me forgiven of all our sin and cleansed of all our guilt!  Truly there is no other God like ours – a God of mercy and grace.

Perhaps the most unbelievable part of our text, though, is that when Cyrus issued his decree that the Jews could leaven, not all of them wanted to go.  Apparently, some of them had become so comfortable in their new home, and so accustomed to their new way of life, that they didn’t want to be free.  What a striking parallel that holds to our own Christian lives.  In our day to day living, it’s easy for us to become comfortable with our nasty, sinful habits, like using foul language when something goes wrong, or telling a lie to get out of trouble, or skipping our daily Bible reading time because we’re too busy, or giving into a favorite secret sin, because we don’t have enough willpower.  Yes, we too can grow accustomed to making our home side by side with evil, giving into the idolatry of the world around us and making a compromise with the devil, without thinking anything of it.

Maybe that’s how the people in our text felt.  They may have liked this new Persian way of life that Cyrus was bringing in.  You see, the Persians believed in a sort of dualism – the idea that there are two gods, one the source of evil and the other the source of good – both of them equally strong and powerful.  It’s similar nowadays to the concept of yin/yang or Star Wars and the ‘force,’ with it’s light and dark side.  And that idea is very popular with our Old Adam.  While our New Man desires to follow God and do His will, our old sinful nature still wants the freedom to do as he chooses, to take a walk on the dark side whenever he wants to.

Unfortunately, that kind of thinking has a very damaging impact on our faith.  It minimizes the deadly danger of sin and therefore lessens the magnitude of God’s grace.  For it tricks us into thinking that we can somehow make up for our evil deeds by just doing a little more good, and it will all equal out in the end.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  There is no way we can cancel out the power of sin, because our sin damns us to hell – the ultimate dark side.  And the only thing that can conquer that is the mercy and grace of God.

In speaking to the people of Judah, God put it this way:  “I WILL RAISE UP CYRUS MY RIGHTEOUS SERVANT.  HE WILL REBUILD MY CITY AND SET MY EXILES FREE, BUT NOT FOR A PRICE OR REWARD.”  This refers to the fact that in any given battle, the Persians accepted nothing less that full surrender.  They could not be bought off with costly gifts or donations.  Thus it was a sign of his favor, that Cyrus issued to the edict to set the exiles free.  Similarly, God cannot be bought off with our offerings or works.  We cannot assuage His anger by our paltry, alleged ‘good deeds.’  The only price that He would accept was the full surrender of His Son, Jesus Christ, who gave up His life on Calvary and shed His blood to make us whole.  That’s what God was talking about in our text, when He said: “I CREATE PROSPERITY.”  The Hebrew text actually says:  “I make peace.”  And that’s precisely what Jesus did by the blood of His cross – He made peace between us and the Heavenly Father, by the remission of all our sins.  And so, it is only out of His gracious favor that we the exiles have been set free from guilt and shame.

We might think of it this way:  a young man once approached an English evangelist to ask him, “Sir, what must I do to be saved?”  To this the evangelist replied, “It’s too late.”  When the young man worriedly pressed the evangelist to explain, he answered, “You are hundreds of years too late.  The work of salvation was completed when Jesus said from the cross, ‘It is finished!’  You see, the evangelist wanted the young man to know that there was nothing he could do to earn his own salvation.  Our gracious God did it all, when He died and rose again to save our souls.

That’s what God was getting at in our text, when He said that Cyrus would:  “OPEN DOORS BEFORE HIM, SO THAT GATES WILL NOT BE SHUT!”  In those days an open door was a sign of safety.  It represented freedom from danger.  But it was not Cyrus the Persian who brought that.  It was Jesus the Messiah.  As Jesus Himself said in John 10:9, “I AM THE DOOR.  IF ANYONE ENTERS THROUGH ME HE SHALL BE SAVED.”  Indeed, Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, the only Door to Heaven.  By His death on the cross He purchased for us safety from sin and freedom from the dangers of death and hell.  And all of that is a free gift of God’s grace.  That is His ‘open door’ policy, if you will.  No requirements for us to meet, no order for us to fulfill.  We simply walk through the door by faith in Jesus Christ.  And even that faith is gift of God, poured out to us in our Baptism.  For although you and I by our sin keep closing the door, our gracious God keeps opening it back up in the Word and Sacraments.  Every time we hear the Gospel proclamation, every time we drink the Cup of Redemption at His altar, He pardons and forgives us, and welcomes us into His heavenly kingdom.  Truly, there is no other God like that – the only True God, the Triune God, who is rich in mercy and grace!

The story is told of a crafty, Jewish doctor who was called to the hut of a shoemaker, whose wife was seriously ill.  “Please doctor, save her,” cried the man.  “I’ll pay anything, even if I have to sell everything I own.”  “But what if I can’t cure her,”  the doctor shrewdly asked.  The desperate husband replied:  “I’ll pay you, whether you cure her or kill her.”  So the doctor went ahead and treated her.  Unfortunately, a week later the woman died.  The doctor sent the shoemaker a huge bill.  But the shoemaker refused to pay it.  They decided to go to the Rabbi to discuss the matter.  The Rabbi, who knew the doctor’s reputation, asked him:  “What was your agreement with this man?”  “He agreed to pay me for treating his wife,” said the doctor, “whether I cured her or killed her.”  “And did you cure her,” asked the Rabbi.  “No.”  “Did you kill her?”  “Certainly not!” replied the doctor.  “Then,” said the Rabbi, “under what contract are you claiming your fee?”

Like that doctor, you and I have no claim on God – no claim on His forgiveness and salvation.  And yet, in His mercy and grace He has freely given them to us for Jesus’ sake.  He has opened wide the door to Heaven, and we can walk right in through faith in His name.  May that motivate us, dear friends, out of gratitude for all His goodness to us, to share that goodness with others, to tell people of God’s open door policy in Jesus Christ, to spread abroad the excellencies of our God, a God like no other, who is rich in mercy and grace, for His name’s sake.  Amen.

       

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