An active sacrificial love for all our rough tracks
by Pastor Matt Bishop
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Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation (Isaiah 25:9).
The track between Dalhousie Springs and Mt Dare in South Australia’s north is one of the most terrible I’ve been on. It wasn’t just the corrugations. But worse – the jagged rocks in every direction. It was more of a wasted moonscape than a road. Arriving at the ‘mountain’ – Mt Dare – after being shaken to the core was blessed relief, as was a cold beer.
It’s similar getting to Isaiah 25 after the woe of chapters 13 to 24. The contrast strikes in every sense. After the corrugations, desolations and judgements of the oracles against the nations, we arrive at this tremendous place of serenity, rebuilding and nurture in the Lord.
Maybe life has been shaken up for you for a while. Or just recently. Verses six to nine are among the most delightful in all Scripture. They proclaim the promise of life in Jesus, describing how he kills death and gives abundance:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine … and he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples … He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces (Isaiah 25:6–8).
Without Jesus, the corrugated rocky road of life’s sin and destruction would never end. The shaking would never cease. That is why Jesus ascended the mountain for us. Carrying his cross, he bulldozed sin’s corrugations and shook death and its ruthlessness to the core. It’s worth remembering there was no automatic solution like a bad road that eventually peters out at the destination. No. This was an active ‘to-the-bitter-end’ sacrificial love for us upon a road of wretchedness borne by Jesus that cost him his life. And only because he loves us.
As saved children of God, we are, therefore, invited in this Advent season to confess the corrugations we cause and hand over the jarring others have caused us. See Jesus wiping away our tears and ‘be glad and rejoice in his salvation’ (verse 9). Why not do that now?
Behold, you are my God. By your Spirit, keep me waiting on you, knowing that you save me. You are the Lord; I have trusted in you, and you give me faith. I am glad, and I rejoice in your salvation. In Immanuel’s name, I pray. Amen.
Pastor Matt Bishop serves the congregation and primary school at St Paul Lutheran Church Blair Athol and is chair of the LCANZ General Pastors Conference. He is married to Melissa, delights in his three young adult daughters, and enjoys caring for his five chickens and five budgerigars. He says he would like to spend more time at Venus Bay on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula fishing for King George Whiting, but he loves being both a pastor (mostly) and sharing the gospel with everyone God puts in his path (always).
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