Sermon Tone Analysis

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that her warfare is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the LORD‟s hand

double for all her sins.1

Contemporary Christians seem often to exhibit a flaccid faith.

They believe the primary job of the preacher they have hired is to make them comfortable.

Perhaps they would even appeal to the words of our text to support a distorted view of the preacher‟s role.

Isaiah, speaking on behalf of God, is commanded to comfort the LORD‟s people.

However, there is nothing to make those receiving the message feel comfortable, though there is great comfort in what he writes.

Let‟s examine the text to discover real comfort for God‟s people.

COMFORT ARISES FROM PEACE — “her warfare is ended.”

Let‟s get a little perspective of Isaiah‟s reference.

He is writing to the remnant of God‟s people in Babylonian captivity.

Though at the time he was writing, the fall of Jerusalem had not yet occurred, it was certain.

Therefore, what Isaiah wrote in this text would at a point in the future be read and understood as a reference to God‟s eternal love.

God knew that the captives would be discouraged and dejected.

They would be defeated in battle and humbled by a ferocious enemy.

Under such conditions, it would be nearly impossible for the survivors not to focus on their sad situation; and focused on what was happening, they would be depressed, dismayed, disheartened.

It is not enough to say to those who are being disciplined that they brought judgement upon themselves.

Though discipline is the result of our own foolish choices, we seldom need to inform those who are undergoing discipline of the reason for their particular situation.

Christians may moan and whine, plaintively bleating out a familiar refrain, “Why did this happen to me?”

However, it is unfailingly true that when we are disciplined, we know the reason for our distress.

Unlike some strange situations that may be evident in our fallen world, our Father does not injure us capriciously.

If we are disciplined, we know why it is happening.

Those who whine and moan are either deliberately ignorant of their sin or they have no relationship to the Father of life.

If we belong to the Lord God, we can anticipate His discipline.

God does not discipline the devil‟s children.

Moreover, when He disciplines His own child, that child will know the reason for the discipline.

Perhaps we need to review again the words of the author to the Hebrew Letter, who writes, “Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

„My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.‟

“It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” [HEBREWS 12:5-11].

The people of God had racked up an incredible list of charges brought by God‟s prophets.

Throughout the land was evidence of the guilt of the people—idolatry, injustice, immorality and insensitivity to God‟s messengers.

The people of Israel not only engaged in these grave offences against Holy God, but they also justified their actions and minimised their guilt by appealing to the fact that they continued to maintain the religious practises instituted by Moses.

Though this rampant wickedness was addressed repeatedly by numerous prophets, Jeremiah especially brings the evil to the fore.

On one particular day, Jeremiah received a command from the LORD.

“Stand in the gate of the LORD‟s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

Do not trust in these deceptive words: „This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.‟

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever” [JEREMIAH 7:2-7].

The message was offensive precisely because it stripped away the façade of goodness, exposing the sin that permeated the entire society.

God commanded Jeremiah to charge, “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, „We are delivered!‟—only

to go on doing all these abominations?

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?

Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.

Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.

And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

“As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.

Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven.

And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.

Is it I whom they provoke?

declares the LORD.

Is it not themselves, to their own shame?

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: „Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.

For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

But this command I gave them: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people.

And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.”

But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.

From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day.

Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck.

They did worse than their fathers.‟

“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you.

You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

And you shall say to them, „This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips‟” [JEREMIAH 7:8-28].

Throughout the entire society, sin was rampant.

The people were unrepentant, though they presented offerings, recited prayers, listened to the reading of the Scriptures and kept kosher.

The rituals were icily precise; but there was no evidence of righteousness in daily life.

Because of the wickedness permeating society, God would judge them, sending them into exile.

One thing is evident as I review life in ancient Israel as Jeremiah described it—the people lived much like people in modern western society.

Generally, the populace was religious, though the rituals were performed in a mindless fashion.

They routinely went to the Temple, certain that all was well because they had mindlessly performed the requisite rites prescribed in the Law.

Can you imagine a pastor speaking so bluntly in this day of heightened sensitivities and inflated egos?

Church boards are hypersensitive in the fear that some sinner may take umbrage at the sermon the pastor may deliver.

These timid saints seem somehow to imagine that sinners will make a painless transition from unbelief to faith through hints and suggestions coyly dropped in casual conversation.

Because the churches are filled with half-converted people that are actually inoculated against the Faith, these religious tyrants tremble at any word that makes them uncomfortable.

Underscore in your mind that an uncomfortable person is not an individual experiencing peace—either with God or with herself.

Thus, when judgement comes, and judgement must come ultimately to all who bear the Name of the Risen Saviour, it will be extremely painful.

This was the situation prophesied for Israel when Isaiah wrote the words of our text.

They would be exiled, suffering because of their own sin, though the Lord would still be watching over them, even in captivity.

The captivity was “hard service,” which is the actual meaning of the word “warfare” in our text.

So, God instructs Isaiah to tell the people that one would “speak tenderly” (literally, “speak to the heart”) of the people to tell them that their exile was ended.

We have a message of peace—peace with God and peace with oneself.

God presents Himself as “the God of peace” [ROMANS 15:13, 33; 16:20; 1 THESSALONIANS 5:23; HEBREWS 13:20].