This is actually an unfinished sermon... Since I'm out of town this week, I began this sermon, but then turned it over to the elders of the church to finish and present. If you're reading this, you can finish it by taking time to ponder the questions in bold as you read.
The nation of Judah was prospering under King Uzziah. But then, under later kings, Assyria came in and basically took over the country. The people were devastated. They wondered why God could have allowed this to happen. They tried to make sense of it all. They tried to find meaning in their terrible situation.
Some of us know what that’s like. When someone dies tragically, or at too young of an age; or, when there is a great disaster, a plague, a pandemic, or a major terrorist attack, people start questioning God, trying to make it all make sense.
And often, you’ll hear people say that God must have had a reason for causing this to happen, or for letting it happen. Maybe it was punishment for sin. Maybe it was, in the case of a person who died too young, that God needed that person with him in heaven more than we needed that person with us here on earth.
Well, that’s what some people say…
And maybe you don’t agree that that’s how God operates… but you can see how people, when they are desperate, and when they are trying to make sense of things, will come to such conclusions…
In Isaiah 5, the terrible thing that happened was Assyria’s takeover of Judah. And people tried to make sense of it. Was this God’s will? Was this punishment for sin?
Isaiah wrote about a garden. The gardener put a lot of care into growing that garden, hoping for delicious grapes… but only wild, bitter, inedible grapes appeared. So the gardener destroyed the whole garden - ripped it all out - and started over.
That’s how Isaiah understood what was happening to the people of Judah. They had sinned. Their leaders had failed to do what is right. They had failed to rule with justice. And so God allowed Assyria to come in and (basically) destroy Judah, so that God could then start all over, and create a nation that would produce the fruit God desires, the fruit of justice.
There are other stories in scripture of great destruction, which are seen as God acting to punish sin. Last week, we heard about Sodom and Gomorrah. There’s also the Great Flood - 40 days and nights of rain, causing waters to cover the entire earth, destroying all of creation, so that God could then start it all over again.
The flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the invasion by Assyria - Biblical writers tried to make sense of these events, and they came to the conclusion that God allowed or caused these events to happen as punishment for sin.
This is how people made sense of what was happening. It was how they gave meaning to the events which took place.
Does it make sense to you that God would cause terrible catastrophe as punishment for sin?
Not every scripture agrees with the idea that God punishes the wicked but blesses the righteous. There are places in scripture where this interpretation is called into question.
The writer of Ecclesiastes was well acquainted with the idea that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. Yet when he looked at the world around him, he saw that “the wise die just like fools” (2:16).
And the writer of Ecclesiastes also wrote this:
“In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing.” (7:15)
And the writer of Ecclesiastes struggles to make sense of this. Make it make sense!
The whole book of Job is about a man who suffered terrible calamities, despite being the “most righteous man on earth.” His friends believed that calamity is God’s punishment for sin, so they kept asking Job what sin he had committed. But Job had committed no sin. Sometimes, terrible things happen, and it’s not because we’re being punished for sin.
In the 9th chapter of John, there’s a story about Jesus and his disciples passing by a man who had been blind from birth. The disciples had been taught that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, so they asked Jesus: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered: “Neither.” So here’s another example - this time from Jesus - that argues against the idea that terrible misfortune is always the result of God punishing people for sin…
What do you think? Does God cause, or allow to happen, terrible things, as punishment for sin?
Scripture itself offers different answers to this question…
And yet… every time something catastrophic happens in scripture, we read that God is there, working to restore and renew creation. God is there in the midst of whatever catastrophe occurs. Even when the people suffering feel as if God is far away, God is still there, and God is working to bring about a future of healing, wholeness, and restoration.
The garden: It is destroyed, but it is also replanted. It doesn’t talk about replanting in this scripture (Isaiah 5:1-7), but later in Isaiah, there is a lot of talk about how God will restore and renew (ex. “I am about to do a new thing!” - Isaiah 43:19)
A home renovation project often begins with a demolition phase… Planting a new garden begins with pulling up the weeds and unwanted plants that are already there…
What replanting have you seen in your own life? Have you ever experienced a time of disappointment, only to find in that time the birth of something new and wonderful?
What I am sure of: God is with God’s people. Always. In captivity, God was at work, planting something new (as it were). And in any time where we feel things have fallen apart, God is always at work, planting, restoring, making a way for healing and wholeness to return.
Is there any part of your life where it feels like a garden that has been completely uprooted? Can you imagine the possibility that this is actually a time of replanting, a time of preparation for something new, and that new growth, healing, and restoration are coming?
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