God’s Story Is Our Story: From Genesis To JesusSample

Reflecting on the last week: This is one of the earliest usages of “Good news,” or as we would say today “the gospel.” So what is the good news being proclaimed here? We must consider the context: Jerusalem, the city to which this news is proclaimed, is desolate. Its ruination was no accident—it was God’s punishment for Judah’s long disobedience. Before Jerusalem’s destruction, God tried to call his people back to himself. He was patient beyond all reasonable bounds. He tried to win them with kindness. He tried to warn them with discipline. But they were deaf to it all (Is. 6:10). Finally, and not without anguish, he sent Babylon to destroy his beloved city (Ezekiel 18:30-32). He abandoned his Temple (Ezekiel 10). It seemed as though human rebellion finally overwhelmed God’s gracious plan to bless the nations and restore creation. But then a voice breaks into the hopeless wastes, “Good news!” What is the news? “Your God reigns!” God has not given up on Israel, so there is hope for the world. God promises a day when he will establish his reign on earth and bring about his great restoration. The figure who accomplishes this is an unlikely hero: a suffering servant (Is.52:13-53:12). This servant ransoms and cleanses God’s people with his own (unjustly spilt) blood (Is. 53:5-9). Kings and rulers mocked him at his death (Is. 53:3), but afterward they realized that his apparent defeat was actually his cosmic victory (53:12). So they exalt him as king of kings and lord of lords (Is. 42:22-23; Phil. 2:11). Has the good news caught hold of us? Jesus, the suffering servant, reigns! Jesus brought about his rule by defeating, cleansing and ransoming a people for God. Does our life together reveal his hopeful reign? There is no doubt that we have desolate places in our lives individually and collectively. What does it look like to let that messenger run into our hearts, into the most hopeless places and cry out—“It’s over! Your God reigns!” Isaiah spoke of this messenger to Israel before he ever arrived. In the same way, we must hear his message and trust it before it is totally fulfilled at the return of Jesus. Your God reigns. The waste places will be new creation soon enough. Take heart.