What Isaiah Got Right -- FPC sermon excerpt
A new year is starting, and you’ve got to be wondering what the future holds.
Who will win the Super Bowl? Which nation will grab the most gold at the 2008 Olympics? Which candidate will reach the White House? Most important of all, who will be the next American Idol?
We simply do not know. But there have always been prophets willing to make predictions.
Some come true.
Most do not.
Take Jeane Dixon, astrologer to the Reagans. She made hundreds of predictions in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and wrote a horoscope book for dogs. According to mental_floss magazine (November-December 2006), Dixon was most famous for foreseeing the assassination of John F. Kennedy — in 1956, she said a Democrat would win the 1960 election and die in office.
But her record was far from perfect. She also said that World War III would break out in 1958, cancer would be cured in 1967, and peace would cover the Earth in the year 2000.
We’re still waiting.
How about Edward Bellamy, a prophet who lived in 1888 and wrote a novel about the year 2000? What he got right was a prediction of modern conveniences such as credit cards, music on the radio, and even wholesale stores like Costco.
What he got wrong was a vision of America as a socialist state in which housewives didn’t have to cook and everyone retired at 45.
Don’t you wish the retirement thing had come true?
Then there was “The Amazing Criswell,” a pop-culture fixture of the 1960s. He appeared on “The Jack Paar Program” in March of 1963, and predicted that tragedy would strike President Kennedy in November. He got that right.
What he got wrong: Predictions that a space ray would zap Denver, brain transplants would be sold in vending machines, and mass cannibalism would break out in August 1999.
There are clearly some bad prophets out there, and there always have been.
What about Isaiah?
In today’s passage of Scripture, God delivers a message through the prophet Isaiah, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Isaiah 42:1). Isaiah is a mouthpiece for God, and through him the Lord announces, “I have put my spirit upon him” (v.1) … “He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching” (v. 4).
Isaiah is speaking about a servant of God, and is making clear that this servant is chosen by the Lord, full of God’s Spirit, and known for his justice and his teachings.
Mishpat and torah are the marks of this servant — that’s Hebrew for justice and teaching. The prophet Isaiah is announcing that God’s servant is bringing justice and teaching right into the middle of all the chaos and confusion of day-to-day human life.
Who will win the Super Bowl? Which nation will grab the most gold at the 2008 Olympics? Which candidate will reach the White House? Most important of all, who will be the next American Idol?
We simply do not know. But there have always been prophets willing to make predictions.
Some come true.
Most do not.
Take Jeane Dixon, astrologer to the Reagans. She made hundreds of predictions in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and wrote a horoscope book for dogs. According to mental_floss magazine (November-December 2006), Dixon was most famous for foreseeing the assassination of John F. Kennedy — in 1956, she said a Democrat would win the 1960 election and die in office.
But her record was far from perfect. She also said that World War III would break out in 1958, cancer would be cured in 1967, and peace would cover the Earth in the year 2000.
We’re still waiting.
How about Edward Bellamy, a prophet who lived in 1888 and wrote a novel about the year 2000? What he got right was a prediction of modern conveniences such as credit cards, music on the radio, and even wholesale stores like Costco.
What he got wrong was a vision of America as a socialist state in which housewives didn’t have to cook and everyone retired at 45.
Don’t you wish the retirement thing had come true?
Then there was “The Amazing Criswell,” a pop-culture fixture of the 1960s. He appeared on “The Jack Paar Program” in March of 1963, and predicted that tragedy would strike President Kennedy in November. He got that right.
What he got wrong: Predictions that a space ray would zap Denver, brain transplants would be sold in vending machines, and mass cannibalism would break out in August 1999.
There are clearly some bad prophets out there, and there always have been.
What about Isaiah?
In today’s passage of Scripture, God delivers a message through the prophet Isaiah, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Isaiah 42:1). Isaiah is a mouthpiece for God, and through him the Lord announces, “I have put my spirit upon him” (v.1) … “He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching” (v. 4).
Isaiah is speaking about a servant of God, and is making clear that this servant is chosen by the Lord, full of God’s Spirit, and known for his justice and his teachings.
Mishpat and torah are the marks of this servant — that’s Hebrew for justice and teaching. The prophet Isaiah is announcing that God’s servant is bringing justice and teaching right into the middle of all the chaos and confusion of day-to-day human life.
posted by Henry Brinton | 10:40 AM
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