Year of Grace or Day of Vengeance?

“The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify Him.” (Isaiah‬ ‭61‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

As you know, each week I try and introduce the key idea in our focal passage through some analogy or illustration. I try to find a common link between what we are studying and what we know about life through our common experience. This week, we are confronted with what I hope are familiar words. At least, most of them should be familiar to any student of scripture because the opening verse was quoted by Jesus in His home church (Nazareth’s synagogue) at the beginning of His public ministry (see Lk. 4:16-21). After Jesus announced that He is the fulfillment of God’s promise in Isaiah 61:1-3 His neighbors and friends become enraged towards Him. Why? They cannot see past their own prejudiced view of Him, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Our view or perception of someone or something is shaped by our beliefs about them but those beliefs may be wrong or incomplete. The people of Jesus’ hometown saw Him only as Joseph’s son and that inhibited their ability to see Him as God’s Son, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. In fact, we are also told in the Gospel stories that His own family struggled with this same problem. I want to suggest to you that we may face the same issue. Our perception or understanding about Jesus and His mission may be wrong due to our faulty view of who He is.

The historical background for Isaiah’s words is a people who are poor or downtrodden, brokenhearted and held captive or imprisoned. Their brokenness is the result of years of oppression by the Babylonians and the many years spent in exile. But there’s a bigger picture being presented in Isaiah and his prophetic message than just the struggle Israel faces with the exile, the return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the city. The words of hope reverberate not just in the ears of the exiles, but in the ears of all mankind. At least, for all who “have ears to hear and eyes to see.” God is not deaf to our struggle and He’s not blind to our predicament. 

While the words of Isaiah 61 are given in first person, it seems fairly obvious that Isaiah is NOT the one speaking, it is the LORD’s Servant – the Messiah. While good Bible study habits would dictate that we need to first understand the historical context and original audience, it would be ludicrous to ignore the glaring personal application of these words by Jesus in Luke 4. Isaiah’s words may have been given to the Babylonian exiles but God’s visionary plan of redemption is much, MUCH bigger than that. In addition, the historical context must include Israel’s laws regarding the Year of Jubilee as described in Leviticus 25 because they clearly describe God’s heart regarding our tendency towards personal failure.

I mentioned above that Jesus’ hometown had a limited view of His identity. In similar fashion, we often have a limited view of God and His purpose and plan for this world. While scripture clearly tells us that God made man in His own image, it also tells us that all of creation declares His glory. God is speaking to us and showing us His character through everything He has created. Are you familiar with the laws of thermodynamics? The second law, the law of entropy, states that all closed systems move towards chaos or collapse unless they are acted upon by an outside force. The created universe is a closed system and we are careening towards chaos and collapse unless some outside energy intervenes. I believe that “energy” is personal and He has intervened…

“In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a feeding trough.” Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!” (Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭8‬-‭14‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

That’s the essence of God’s promise in our focal passage, “I am intervening in your chaos and downward spiral towards inevitable doom with a message of hope and liberty. I am sending My Servant – My Only Son in whom I am well pleased and on whom I have placed My Spirit – to set you free the tyranny of this life, to lead you out of chaos and into My peace and a life of wholeness.” When Jesus stands up in His hometown synagogue and reads this passage from the Isaiah scroll, those who heard Him understood the implications of His statement, “Today, as you listened, this was fulfilled.” The kingdom of God and the reality of God’s fulfilled promise had exploded into their world. He was fulfilling His promise right in their very presence but they were unable to see it. They only saw “Joseph’s son.”

Now, we need to explore the implications of God’s promise and its fulfillment in our own lives. Like the members of Jesus’ hometown synagogue, the promise’s fulfillment is dependent on who we see – Joseph’s son or God’s Son. Notice, the promise tells us that the method through which the promise would be revealed would be through “words” – the Servant would bring “good news” and “proclaim” liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners – “to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.” The Servant would be the very expression and fulfillment of God’s promise – His Word (see Jn. 1). The key here is that what God says, God does. Just as everything God created has design and purpose, “so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.” (Isaiah‬ ‭55‬:‭11‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

But I called this message the “YEAR of grace or DAY of vengeance.” The Servant is not only sent to bring good news, to heal the brokenhearted and proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners but He is also sent to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of His vengeance. The same messenger, the righteous Servant, will proclaim the year of grace and God’s favor but also the day of God’s vengeance and judgment. Which one we see, God’s grace and favor or His vengeance and judgment,  depends on who we see – Joseph’s son or God’s Son.

Why a year of grace or favor and a day of vengeance? It is intended to contrast and highlight God’s long suffering grace with His quick and unexpected judgment. Jesus taught His disciples to be alert, because they wouldn’t know when “that day” would come because it would come like a thief in the night. The Apostle Peter put it this way: “The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭9‬ ‭HCSB‬‬) Man lives in the “year” of God’s grace and favor but we’re facing the day of His vengeance and judgment.

Judgment is certainly not a popular subject, but it is a necessary one. We want our world to be set right. Even those who don’t believe in God believe in justice. Isn’t that ironic? We all want justice to prevail but justice cannot prevail without judgment. Let me remind you, Biblical justice is not legal retribution. Biblical justice includes what we might call legal retribution or legal justice, but Biblical justice is much bigger than just that narrow legal concept. We want people who do things wrong to be held accountable but that’s just a bandage on the real problem. The real issue is not legal justice but human brokenness. That’s the reason that prison will never fix the justice problem we face. Only God can fix the brokenness within us.

So, the “year” of the LORD’s favor is that period of time when the Good News of Jesus redemptive work is being proclaimed and we are able to respond. We are living in the midst of that “year of the LORD’s favor.” How do we respond to the LORD’s favor? Let me take you back to that day in the Nazareth synagogue. How did they respond to His claim? They doubted. They denied. They rejected Him and His word. They saw Him only as Joseph’s son and not as God’s promise. They did not have ears to hear or eyes to see what God was doing. Do you?

That brings us to the day of our God’s vengeance. If we reject God’s promise, if we turn away from the LORD’s favor, if we see Jesus as only Joseph’s son and not God’s Son then we are facing the day of God’s vengeance. Some folks might think it is cruel to preach on judgment and hell. If it’s coming then it would be more cruel of me not to preach on it. Others think that a loving God would never reject us and condemn us to judgment and hell. As I mentioned last week, I believe God is simply giving us what we really want. If we reject God and His right to rule over us then we get the results of our choice, eternity without Him / the source of life. With Him we have everything we could ever want – life at its fullest, without Him we have nothing – not even life.

Finally, we see the fulfillment of the promise: comfort to all who mourn, a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, splendid clothes instead of despair. Pay attention, each of those things is drawing a contrast between life and death. We will have comfort, a crown of beauty, festive oil and splendid clothes instead of mourning, ashes on our head, tears and despair. All of those things that accompany and signify death will be replaced with things that bring hope, cause rejoicing and celebrate life. We will not be people who grieve death like others do, we will celebrate the gift of eternal life in God’s Son.

We must also be “called righteous trees, planted by the LORD to glorify Him!” That means that we must live a life of Biblical justice while we await the culmination of the year of His favor and the coming of the day of His vengeance. The beauty of a life lived in obedience to Jesus doesn’t make headlines. It is lived out in the many small and unseen acts of godly believers each day. He is glorified when we do our jobs well, care for each other, serve humbly and sacrifice daily for His Good News and His kingdom.

It all comes down to how you see God fulfilling His promise. Will you see the truth about His Son, Jesus the promised Messiah or will you simply see Him as another man, the son of Joseph? You’ll either find Him during the year of His favor or you’ll face Him on that day of His vengeance. Which one will it be?