Ominously, envoys from that little “garage upstart,” Babylon, had come to visit Israel “just to take a look around.” Cluelessly and proudly, Hezekiah gladly showed them everything. In fact, he tells the prophet Isaiah, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.” (Isaiah 39) Thus is set in motion the final demise of Judah, and the eventual fall of Jerusalem to the as-yet unknown, Nebuchadnezzar.
When things are falling apart; when it appears that all is lost and the last hope for the restoration of our fortunes has long since faded, what will sustain us? The message of God to his people through Isaiah is, “In such times, behold, your God!” In the wake of the ominous visit of the envoys that foreshadowed the collapse of Jerusalem, Isaiah prophesies: “Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’” (Isaiah 40) In such times, behold, your God, himself, will come and rescue you! Stand back and watch the mighty things that the Lord will do. While the people to whom Isaiah spoke looked FORWARD to the day when the Lord would begin that mighty rescue effort, we look BACK to that day when the work was begun, and the definitive battle was won. We live, as it were, in the wake of this definitive victory, in the last days of the King’s clean-up operations.
This week, as you and your families prepare to gather with those who have been rescued from disaster by the mighty grace of your God in Christ, take time to look about you; scan the landscape of your life and your family – and behold the evidence of your God’s mighty work by which the dead are made alive, the lost are found, the blind are given sight, the bound are unbound, the weak are made strong, the confounded are made wise through Jesus Christ and him crucified – then, come, and let us worship together!