Rev. Peter J. Haugen
St. Paul Evangelical
Lutheran Church
Even we Christians often fall into the trap of believing that suffering is a sign that God is punishing us. We do not understand that God reveals Himself, reveals His love in suffering, that He uses suffering to purge us, to purify us, to draw us to Himself. We Christians do not seek suffering, but we do interpret suffering in the light of God’s Word. We do hold fast to the promises of God even when the evidence of our senses would tell us otherwise.
“You will say in that day” (Isaiah 12:1) – In what day? God is here speaking through Isaiah to a people who are facing destruction, who will be enduring much (deserved) suffering and sorrow. But “there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1).
We typically hear this verse around Christmas. We don’t think about its context, that this was spoken to both believers and unbelievers, both Christians and non-Christians, both church and society. We don’t recognize that it was spoken to a people who were about to be destroyed, scattered, exiled.
And yet it was that very suffering and destruction that would cause “the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob” to “lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth” (Isaiah 10:20). So it is that our Lord promised, “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God” (Isaiah 10:21). That remnant would be gathered by the shoot from Jesse’s stump, by the Jesus Who is the Way by Which we must travel, Who is our Salvation. “In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of His people” (Isaiah 11:11).
That is why “you will say in that day,” in the day of your salvation, “‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though You were angry with me, Your anger turned away’” (Isaiah 12:1). His anger is turned away from us who deserve it because our Shoot from the stump of Jesse, our Jesus, is made to be sin for our sake as God’s wrath is poured out upon Him instead of upon us. And God has turned away His anger so “that [He] might comfort [us]” (Isaiah 12:1), so that “we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
“Behold,” then, O sinner, O overwhelmed, O suffering, O failure, O incompetent one. “Behold, God is [our] Salvation” (Isaiah 12:2). “Behold, …the Lord God is [our] Strength and [our] Song” (Isaiah 12:2). So let us “sing to the Lord a new song” (Psalm 98:1), sing of our Salvation.
And let us trust, and not be afraid. Let us endure with patience our afflictions and trials. Let us love our brothers and sisters, love our neighbors, forgiving them, even as our Lord forgives us. For “the Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob” (Isaiah 48:20). The Lord has redeemed us. Amen.
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