ALIENATED

ALIENATED

Isaiah 59:1-2 NET.

¹ Look, the LORD’s hand is not too weak to deliver you; his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ² But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers.

Here are three dictionary definitions of a word. Can you determine what the word is?

• a situation, question, or thing that causes difficulty, stress, or doubt.
• a statement or equation that requires a solution.
• a thing that is difficult to deal with or to understand.

The word is problem. Isaiah, the prophet, spoke to a nation with a problem. They seemed to have lost the ability to contact God. Their ancestors had known God and communicated with him. He even rescued them when they needed it. But Isaiah’s nation had lost the ability to connect with their creator. It was a problem for them. It even seemed like an unsolvable problem. But two things cannot exist in the same universe: an Almighty God and an unsolvable problem.

God is not the problem (1).

Isaiah’s people had considered that there must be some problem with their God. Perhaps he had gotten too old and worn out and could no longer do the miracles he had done in the past. Or maybe he had lost the ability to hear their prayers. Maybe they should go shopping for a new God. This old one does not seem to function anymore. Maybe they can go to Walmart and see if there’s a sale on the latest gods. Perhaps they should check the nations around them and see if they are having better luck with their gods. Yes, it appears to be time for a change.

But Isaiah said whoa. Before you change gods like you’re putting on a new pair of shoes, you had better check and see if God is your problem. Changing gods and discovering you still have the same situation would be embarrassing.

Isaiah knows that God is not the problem. He knows what our theologians keep discovering, generation after generation. He knows the truth encapsulated in the prayer that some of us learned to pray at meals when we were small children: God is great, and God is good.

One of the traditional ways for theologians to describe God has been to use negative statements. In other words, God is described by pointing out who and what he is not. He is immeasurable, immutable, and immortal. Or, to put it in one word: He is infinite. Scientists sometimes

speak of space as infinite, but only because they lack the means to measure its immensity. The evidence from scripture reveals that God is infinite by nature. Even if it were possible to measure the vastness of space, God’s measurements would still be outside and beyond it.

For explanation purposes, we theologians sometimes convert these negative statements into positive ones. In doing so, we sacrifice accuracy, but we do so to express our faith in the One we

are trying to define. The positive definitions of God’s being resulting from this conversion are omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.

To say that God is omnipresent is to recognize that he exists everywhere simultaneously.

To say that God is omniscient is to recognize that he knows everything – everything that was, is now, and will be in the future.

To say that he is omnipotent is to recognize that he is all-powerful. He never gets weak or wears out. Isaiah reminded his people of that truth when he said the LORD’s hand was not too weak to deliver them.

But God is not only great, but he is also good. He not only can save us, but he also inclines to do so because he has compassion for us. The Bible describes the Lord’s goodness in Exodus 34:6-7, where he is described as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love and forgiving.

He is compassionate. He is more aware of our sins than we are. Yet he has chosen within the depths of his goodness to forego punishing us as we deserve because he wants the best for us.

He is gracious. He gives constant blessings and undeserved favors out of his supply of graciousness.

He is slow to anger. God can be angered by the wrongs so often manifested in this rebellious world, but his anger is under control.

He abounds in loyal love. It is the stubborn, relentless devotion to his

own people that led God to rescue them from bondage in Egypt powerfully.

He abounds in faithfulness. He is faithful to himself. He is a firm and solid rock because he never wavers from one position to another. What

is true about him remains true about him. In theological terms, he is immutable. In practical terms, he can be trusted.

He will keep his loyal love. We can trust our children to him just as much as we trust ourselves in his hands.

He forgives. The gods of the nations usually only offer the opportunity for sinners to make up for their sins through gifts, rituals, or acts of penance. The LORD actively bears the punishment for the sins himself. That is forgiveness. He can offer such lavish grace because he has already paid the price of all humanity’s sins by the death of Christ on Calvary’s cross.

Isaiah reminded his people that their God is good. His ears are not deaf to their cries. There is a problem, but it isn’t God.

Sin is the problem (2).

Isaiah tells his people that their sinful acts have alienated them from their God. God is still as strong as he has ever been, but the connection that the Israelites had with God has been severed. Sin has cut the cord. If the cord is cut, no power will get to the motor. It won’t start. It won’t run. All the engine pieces may still be there, but the energy that makes the whole thing work is gone.

Alienation happens when something separates a person from another person or a group from another group. A wall has separated the Israelites from their God. They cannot scale that wall or burst through it. God hears them trying to live normally on the other side of the wall. It isn’t working. They have to overcome the barrier, but they don’t know how. The wall is not God. The wall is their sin. Because of their sin, God has rejected them. He still hears them. He can’t not hear them. But he is not listening to their prayers.

They cannot undo the wall with their hands because they built it with their hands. Isaiah goes on to say that their hands are stained with blood, and their fingers are stained with sin.

They cannot undo the wall by saying something because everything they say is building it. Their lips speak lies, and their tongues utter malicious words.

They have been busy like poisonous snakes, hatching eggs to make more poisonous snakes. They have been busy spinning spiders’ webs to trap others like they are trapped. They have been busy with violent acts and don’t even know what peace is. They wait for the light, but it never comes. They only see darkness.

As I said before, two things cannot exist in the same universe: an Almighty God and an unsolvable problem. If the people cannot save themselves, then God, who is both great and good, must save them.

God has provided a Solution (20).

“A protector comes to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their rebellious deeds,” says the LORD.

Notice three things about this protector that the Lord says will come to Zion. First, he says the protector will come to Zion. The protector will not come from Zion. The solution will come from the other side of the wall. No one has ever been saved by deciding to do better. You can decide to do better every day of your life and still die in your sins. God does not have two solutions to our alienation problem. He doesn’t say, “Y’all try your best, and I’ll help a little if needed.” No, if salvation will happen, it has to come from outside us.

Many of the world’s religions are based on the idea of self-help. They tell us to get in touch with our inner selves and find help that way. But the Bible tells us that “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).

We cannot save ourselves. We cannot even help ourselves. But God is our helper and savior. He promised through the prophet Isaiah to send a protector. The Hebrew word is גּוֹאֵל, which means a reclaimer. That is a significant word to use in this context because the problem the Israelites had was that they had been alienated from God (verse 2). The word for alienated is used in Genesis to separate light from the darkness. When God was creating, he divided the day of time into day and night. He used light as a divider. When it was night, it was not day because there was no light. When it was day, it was not night because the light was shining.

The problem the Israelites had was that they were separated from God. They were the darkness, and he was the light. The only way for them to become light again was for God to reclaim them. Isaiah says that God is going to do that by sending a reclaimer. He was going to come into the darkness and bring the light with him so that the people would have the opportunity to get back into God’s light.

Notice what the Israelites had to do to be reclaimed. It was not automatic. The one who is coming will only reclaim “those in Jacob who repent of their rebellious deeds.” The light will come, but the Israelites will have to decide whether or not they want to walk in the light. If they remain in darkness, they will remain alienated, no matter who their ancestors were.

Our communion meditation this morning continues the same theme and is based on John’s words in one of his letters:

“…the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness. The one who loves his fellow Christian resides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:8-11 NET).

We move in time a few centuries from the prophet Isaiah’s time to that of the apostles. The reclaimer has already come to Israel. He was the light that came into the world and he came to reconcile all people to God, not just the children of Jacob. So, John tells us that if we are Christians, the world will know it.

The apostle says that there are two things that a Christian does. A Christian says he is in the light. That’s the first thing. This morning, we confess that we are in the light by taking these emblems representing the world’s reclaimer. By taking this bread, we acknowledge that Christ’s body was put to death for us to reclaim us for God. By taking this cup, we confess that Christ’s blood was shed for our forgiveness, to rescue us from the darkness of sin, and to reclaim us for the light of God.

The second thing that the apostle says a Christian does is reside in the light. It’s the proof that our confession is real. John says we prove the reality of our confession by loving one another.

FATHER, give us the courage and wisdom to love one another as Christians and prove our confession of Christ. We want to be authentic. We want to walk in the light to prove that Jesus is the light of the world. In His name, we pray, Amen.

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