Salvation: Vengeance and Recompense

Biblical Text: Isaiah 35:4-7

“Say to those with an anxious heart…”. That is how the text starts. And I think that is just about everyone. We start off with a background level of anxiety. Like background radiation. It is just there. But we all have our own specific anxiety. And here is a word from God to exactly those with an anxious heart. And that word is “Be Strong! Fear Not!” The immediate response from the anxious heart might just well be “why? tell me why I should fear not?” And the text gives us one of God’s rare answers. God will come and save you. God will come and save you with vengeance and recompence. And that is what this sermon preaches. What is a salvation of vengeance and recompence.

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Light and Darkness

As I’ve been hobbling around with a bit of gout this week, one theological idea became clearer. Just how scary the darkness can be. Swing your gouty toe into a carelessly discarded school bag or a dirty laundry basket taking up most of the space between the bed and the wall, because you refuse to turn on the lights, what seemed melodramatic in the prophets – “the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there (Zephaniah 1:14)” – can feel appropriate.

Both Zephaniah and the Apostle Paul pick up the metaphor of darkness and light for the Day of the LORD and the gospel. And the theme of darkness and light might be the oldest one in the bible. The first act of creation was “let there be light…and God separated the light from the darkness and it was good.” Biblically the theme of darkness and light is part of creation and the created order. What does it mean when Zephaniah says that the Day of the LORD is “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and think darkness. (Zephaniah 1:15)?’ I think there are three groupings of the darkness.

The first grouping is simply the unknown. Life is full of things we don’t know. From the day we are born we are learning things, but the horizon of knowing always seems to expand faster. Maybe somewhere in your 20’s, when you safely know it all, you can feel like you are on the cutting edge living in the light by your own efforts. The other not-so-effective strategy is often making your world so small that you know all of it. Just hope that you never get thrown outside of it where there is darkness, the wailing and gnashing of teeth. This might be the hardest lesson. We will never know everything, because we are not God. But the Apostle sheds light on this area. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:9).” The unknown is rightfully scary, but living in the light is faith that the Father cares for us and intends good for us because of His Son. We need not fear.

The second grouping of darkness I call intentional ignorance. It is me stumbling around on a gouty toe knowing full well that the kids have dropped school bags and laundry baskets are in the way but refusing to either go to bed earlier, clear the path before hand or turn on a light. I can convince myself that I’m helping others already asleep by not turning that light on, but that doesn’t mean much when I’m screaming out because I’ve hit something. Likewise there are lots of things that we like doing, like eating fish, that bring on things like gout. Paul address this type of darkness saying, “We are not of the night or of the darkness. So let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. (1 Thessalonians 1:5-6).” The law is given as a light to our feet and lamp for our path so that we might walk in the light. Yes, we can convince ourselves that we are helping other by staying in the darkness. The darkness can even feel good for a time. But slamming a gouty toe into a box because you like the darkness, is a pretty good metaphor of sin.

The last grouping of darkness is simply evil. The evil in our own hearts that likes the darkness. But also simply the evil that wishes to bind us in the darkness perpetually. Why is the Day of the Lord one of darkness? Because the LORD comes not as savior, but as judge. “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamp, and I will punish the men. (Zephaniah 1:12)…I will punish the officials and the king’s sons…those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud. (Zephaniah 1:8-9)” The judgement comes upon all. The light of God – those lamps in Jerusalem – brings all evil into the light that it may be known before it is cast out eternally. The Apostle Paul’s words here are both complex and easy. The easy part is “For you are all children of the light, children of the day. (1 Thessalonians 5:5)” As God separated the light from the darkness as the first of creation, at the end the children of the light are separated from the darkness. And in Christ you have been made children of the light. The hard part? The separation comes not like the moon and the sun. The separation comes “like thief in the night.” Until that Day of the LORD, the light and the darkness live side by side. Often within the same heart. “But since we belong to the day having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8)” we need not fear the evil one. The faith, hope and love of God armor us for the fight. And even death has no claim on those in the light, for He has dies and is risen “so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him. (1 Thessalonians 5:10).”

The Day of the LORD

I have a sweet tooth for what are called the minor prophets – like Amos. First they are short. They are more like a greatest hits album than a regular release. Every chapter is a banger. And you don’t have to make excuses for tracks that lag. “No really, this concept album of Rush has to be listened to all the way through. You can’t just listen to Tom Sawyer.” “Ezekiel 28 is the key to the whole book.” Part of being short is that they are pungent. They don’t hold back emotions even when coming from God himself. Like this morning’s reading, Amos 5:18-24.

“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:18-24 ESV)”

That is still sizzling after 3000 years! But what is God so offended by? Is it the offerings themselves? No. Israel – and this is the Northern Kingdom about to be destroyed by Assyria that Amos is talking to – Israel is still making assigned sacrifices and observing the commanded days. What was Israel’s condition? Israel was fat and happy. They were at ease in Zion and felt secure on the mountains of Samaria (Amos 6:1). They stretched out on beds of ivory and sang idle songs. (Amos 6:4-5). Amos calls them fat cows that crush the needy (Amos 4:1). It is not the offerings themselves that God disdains, it is the heart that brought them. The heart of Israel brought them to Yahweh to check the box and be done with Him. They would then turn and do the same thing in the high places to the idols. “You shall take up Sikkuth you king and Kiyyun your star-god-your images that you made for yourselves. (Amos 5:26).”

Israel was unserious. They no longer remembered why they were there. They were sacrificing from abundance out of muscle memory. Their hearts were not in any of it. It was all superstition and mere culture.

They would hear the words of the prophets – “repent, seek the LORD and live, do not seek Bethel. Seek the LORD and live before the fire breaks out (Amos 5:5).” – and they might respond with an offering. An offering paid for by higher interest rates on their brother. “You trample on the poor and exact taxes of grain from him (Amos 5:11).” At the same time they would sing the songs of Zion calling for the Day of the Lord. They would sing them without understanding. “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? (Amos 5:18).” And the Lord’s response was that the day was coming. They would receive what they asked for, even if they did not know it. “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an every-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24).”

Who can stand in the day of the LORD?

The day approaches. Maybe the capital D Day of the LORD. Maybe just a personal day of reckoning. When justice rolls down and righteous floods the earth, in whom are you trusting? Do you know, or are you going through the motions? Are you checking boxes here and there at various high places? Going about the rounds of the day on muscle memory. The day approaches. Do you have an ark?