“Be joyful, rejoice together, you ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has displayed His holy arm in the sight of all the nations; all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Leave, leave, go out from there! Do not touch anything unclean; go out from her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. For you will not leave in a hurry, and you will not have to take flight; because the Lord is going before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.”(Isaiah 52:9-12 HCSB)
There’s an old comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, whose tag line was: “I get no respect.” He jokes that he had no friends when he was a kid and to play on the see-saw he had to run back and forth from one end to the other. No respect. Honestly, we don’t have any respect for a life jacket until the boat sinks. We have no respect for a parachute until the plane is about to crash. We often have no respect for seat belts, air bags or insurance until you’ve been in a bad automobile accident. Unfortunately, we often have no respect for rain until we’re living through a severe drought.
I fear we tend to have little respect for God’s redemptive grace because we so easily forget what it was like to be enslaved. This week, we take a look at the commands God’s people were given when they were set free. Things like, “see the salvation of our God”, “Leave, go out! Don’t touch anything unclean; go out, purify yourselves” and “the LORD is going before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.” And like the parachute on the plane, we may not recognize the value until we realize just how badly we need it.
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to slip back into old, bad habits? When I was fighting that bad leg infection back in the fall, I began to lose weight. The weight loss was initially prompted by the fact that I just didn’t feel well. I didn’t feel like eating. Since I’ve regained my health, I’ve also regained my appetite. But an important part of why I feel so much better is because I’ve lost 25 pounds. Now that I feel better, I am struggling to keep the weight off. I keep having to remind myself how much better I feel as motivation to keep it up, to curb my desire to eat anything and everything I want. To be honest, I just enjoy cooking and eating good food. Now I have to be constantly aware and reminding myself that I like how I feel right now more than I like food.
In this passage, Israel has forgotten what it was like to live in the freedom of God’s redemptive grace. They had grown fat, lazy, comfortable and enslaved to their lives in Babylon. But God’s intention is that they should live in such a way that His salvation is “in sight of all the nations.” He wants to lead them out of the slavery they’ve embraced and into the marvelous freedom of His forgiveness. God has put His glory and reputation on the line in the expectation that His people will walk enjoy the freedom of His redemptive cleansing and grace. Redemptive grace is never a right we can demand but is always a gift we are privileged to enjoy. It is a gift of God given through the sacrifice of the Suffering Servant, His One and only Son. You can never demand grace, you can only hope for it.
Oh church, it feels like we may have forgotten what it was like to be enslaved. Just like my struggle with food, we slip back into our old way of living and too easily embrace our old sinful habits. Oh, we know our sin is wrong. The Holy Spirit convicts and reminds of us of that. But we just pray a little prayer of forgiveness, right? There’s a gospel song that asks, “Does He still feel the nails every time I fail? Does He hear the crowd cry ‘Crucify’, again?” The song asks if Jesus still feels the pain of His death when we sin? I think the better question is, do we respect the pain and suffering He endured because of our sin? As I stated at the beginning, we tend to ignore the parachute until the plane is about to crash. I think we often take our salvation for granted because we are so far removed from the pain our sin causes.
Next, God calls for His people to leave and to refrain from touching anything unclean. Specifically, “go out from her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.” Yes, at first glance this seems to be directed at the Priests and Levites. As you will recall, the Levites are charged with carrying and caring for the various items of the Tabernacle/Temple. But it is vitally important to note, this is not directed at just the Levites. We Baptists even have a theological term for this concept, the “Priesthood of the Believer.” In other words, this is not an expectation for just the Levites but an expectation and demand for all who walk in faith with our God. We have all been charged with being a holy people, a nation of priests for our God (see Ex. 19:6, 1 Pet. 2:9, Rev. 1:6, 5:10).
We are called to be a people who live our lives in one world while being a citizens of another. While dual citizenship is possible in this world, it is NOT possible in the spiritual world or realm. We belong to one or the other, never both. You can’t serve two masters and you can’t belong to opposing worlds. The Apostle Peter says it this way, “And if you address as Father the One who judges impartially based on each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your temporary residence.” (1 Peter 1:17 HCSB) We have temporary residency in this world because we are permanent residents of a new heaven and earth, the New Jerusalem.
But an integral part of being a citizen of God’s kingdom is our holiness. Holiness is essential for God says, “be holy for I am holy (see Lev. 11:44, 19:2, 20:7, 20:26 and 1 Pet. 1:15-16).” But it is important to recognize that your holiness is not based upon your ability to be good, it is based upon Christ’s goodness. When I pursue holiness, I am pursuing Him and my righteousness is just His righteousness covering my sin and unrighteousness. I am declared righteous, not based on my own righteous behavior but based on His and that motivates and empowers me to yield myself to Him and His Spirit to complete the work of sanctification in my life (see Rom. 5). I am not righteous, but I am in the process of being made righteous through His power at work within. He will complete that work at my death or His second coming, whichever comes first (see Phi. 1:6).
Finally, this process of walking with God, in obedience to His Word and the pursuit of His holiness, is not something that happens in a rush. It happens over a lifetime. Notice, “you will not leave in a hurry, and you will not have to take flight; because the LORD is going before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.” The people of God didn’t need to leave Babylon with the fear of the journey and of not arriving safely at their new home. They didn’t need to rush through dangerous territory in fear or take flight because they were being pursued by someone trying to destroy them. They could trust God to be with them throughout the journey. They could count on God to get them there, regardless of the obstacles in their path or their stumbling and struggles along the way. He would go before them, leading them all the way, and He would also be their rear guard, protecting any stragglers.
God knew, before He chose them, that they would be stiff necked and rebellious. God knew of their tendency to sin before He called them but He called them to holiness, anyway. God knew of their tendency to fall back into slavery to their past sin, but He promised to redeem them and to lead them out of slavery to a new life. I don’t know about you, but that is extremely comforting to know and hear. I’m not always the most responsive or responsible sheep in God’s flock. Like you, I struggle in my obedience to God’s will. Never forget, God didn’t abandon His people even in their disobedience and sin.
God knows us, too. He knows we have these same tendencies. That’s why we need God’s redemptive power in our lives. That’s why we need His mercy, grace and forgiveness. Believers live in a perpetual state of “not yet” in this world. While we are not able to be absolutely obedient, we are called to continually strive towards it. Perhaps you’ve been frustrated by that. Just remember, God is at work in you through all of these things to bring you into obedience and holiness so that you will reflect His glory and be more and more like Jesus each day (see Rom. 8:18-30).
We aren’t home, but we are on our way. My family gets a little frustrated with me when we travel. While I enjoy the trip, I am always looking forward to getting back home. When it’s time to go home, I’m a bit like an old mule – I see the barn and I’m not stopping until I get there. We must live in this world, for now, but we aren’t supposed to get tied to it. The Apostle John puts it this way: “Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For everything that belongs to the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle — is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.” (1 John 2:15-17 HCSB)
We can’t love God and pursue Him and His righteousness as long as we are hanging onto and loving the things of this world. It’s time to head home, so set your eyes on Jesus, the One who is the source of our faith and the One who will bring it completion (see Heb. 12:1-2). One of my favorite, old hymns is worth quoting here:
Thro’ death into life everlasting,
He passed, and we follow Him there;
O’er us sin no more hath dominion —
For more than conquerors we are!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
- Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus, by Helen Howarth Lemmel
- https://youtu.be/KNu7AeExvgs
Hilltop Baptist Church - Shawnee, OK 
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