Prelude To An Invasion

Prelude to an Invasion Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8 Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI December 4, 2005 Second Sunday of Advent In 1944 the entire world hung in the balance. The face of the European continent and the future was vastly different from what we see today. The world we now enjoy is due largely to one vast, bloody and terrifying battle fought on the shores of Normandy. Every June 6th we celebrate D-Day, the day in 1944 when the Allied forces landed approximately 300,000 troops in an all or nothing gambit to break the iron grip of Germany on the Western European continent. Through a mixture of valor, luck and just plain grit, the Allies won the day. But history records that but for some exceptionally brilliant pre-battle espionage and a providentially small window of calm in the midst of a nasty North Atlantic storm, the battle could have easily gone the other way. When we celebrate D-Day, we usually think of the men who landed on the beach – who faced a hail storm of bullets and anti-personnel ordinance. Thanks to Steven Spielberg, many of us have clear, disturbing images of what that day must have looked like. But the success of that day actually begins with a gigantic hoax played out by the allied forces in the days leading up to the invasion. In order to deceive the German high command the Allies planned and staged two other mass invasions – one just to the north of Normandy at Pas de Calais – the closest point of the European continent to the British Isles – and one

through Norway. Scads of false intelligence was fed to German agents, fake military installations and staging grounds were built, even the creation of a fictitious military command were created to convince the Germans and throw them off the scent of the real plan. Paper machete airplanes, plywood artillery and tube and canvas landing craft were all built to simulate the presence of a huge task force. And the crowning touch was the assignment of none other than George S. Patton as the commander of this straw man army. He was paraded up and down the southern coast of Britain like a commander deep in preparation for a massive military invasion. The result was that Germany placed its most powerful divisions north of Normandy. So convinced were the Germans that the main force was coming landing to the north, that even after the Battle of Normandy began, they held divisions in reserve looking for a Patton-led invasion thinking that Normandy was just a ruse. It was the prelude to the invasion that made the difference on June 6 th. The elaborate plans laid by the Allies to conceal their true target ensured that the German military was in the poor position to respond to the real invasion. If you think of the Allied invasion as a roadway to victory, through the pre-invasion planning they straightened out the switchbacks, filled in the potholes and leveled the bumps. Through the prelude to the invasion the Allies made what would have been an impossible task, possible; what was unreachable, suddenly within reach.

Last week marked the first Sunday of Advent – the time of preparation for celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It is a time for

reflecting on two things – the first is a look back at the birth of Christ and all the events that led up to God wrapping human flesh around his deity and being born as a frail and helpless baby. Imagine it, God dependent upon his fallen and sinflawed creatures for survival. Talk about an unexpected entrance! We look back to remind us of the great things God has done to redeem us – to claim us for his own. Hopefully, as we reflect on the unimaginable lengths God goes through to gain a people for himself our hearts will be stirred to deeper love and devotion. The second thing we reflect on during this season is our unique place in history – we celebrate that Christ has already come, but wait in anticipation for him to come again. Because we are waiting for Jesus to come again, we identify with the ancient world that languished in anticipation for the Messiah to come. Because we also wait for the Messiah, we understand their hope and their desperation. We understand their heart-wrenching desire for the one who will come establish his kingdom in righteousness and justice. Such a time of desperation was the setting for our first passage this morning – Isaiah 40:1-11. Isaish’s ministry as a prophet began during the reign of Uzziah the King, around 745 BC.

Uzziah had been a strong king who

expanded the borders of Judah and led the nation into a time of prosperity. So when Isaiah begins to prophesy, it is to a people who are experiencing the good

life. Trouble seems far away, but in reality a storm was rising to the north in Assyria. The Assyrian king was beginning to disturb the peace. Isaiah began to speak of the Assyrian king as the rod of discipline in the hand of God. And soon, it proved true as the Assyrians began sweeping across the known world, taking whole nations into captivity. By 722 BC, Samaria, the capitol city for the northern ten tribes of Israel was decimated and the people taken into exile. Before long, the Assyrians were at the gate of Jerusalem itself, laying siege. Though the city was not breeched, it took an enormous amount of tribute to avert disaster. Ahaz who succeeded Jotham, son of Uzziah, became a vassal of Assyria. Socially, things aren’t going well either. The leaders of the country grow more and more corrupt. The rich get richer and the poor only get poorer. Israel neglects the law, particularly those aimed at promoting social equity. The judicial system becomes biased toward those who can pay a bribe. The priesthood begins incorporating pagan rituals into the worship life of people. False prophets pop up everywhere saying, “Peace, peace.” But there is no peace. Outside the borders, a cruel and powerful nation threatens the life of God’s people. Inside the borders, only a remnant continues to keep the Word of the Lord.

Most do what is right in their own eyes.

The situation looked dire.

Meanwhile, Babylon was growing and beginning to show signs of having designs for world domination.

And, quite frankly, the only thing that the Hebrews could expect from God was judgment. The people had forgotten the covenant God had made with them before entering the Promised Land. He had warned those placed as judges to show no partiality, yet they did. He warned them about kings who take many wives – yet Israel’s kings did and often had their hearts led astray. He warned them to care for the poor and the widowed and the stranger in their midst – to leave the corners of their fields for the poor to glean. But the Hebrews not only gleaned the corners of their fields, they also used dishonest scales in trade. So corrupt, such a stench had the Israelites become in the nostrils of God, that the curse God spoke in Deuteronomy 28:36-37 had already come to pass for the Northern kingdom and must soon come to pass for the Southern kingdom of Judah, as well. God said to them, “The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.

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You will become a thing of horror and an object

of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you.” 1 This is what the residents of Judah had to look forward to – what they could expect from the hand of God. Over and over they had ignored or beaten or imprisoned or ridiculed the prophets sent to warn them. So what else could they expect but judgment? What else could they expect Isaiah to say but what Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar “Mene tekel – God has numbered your days

1All texts taken from The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.

and brought them to an end, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.” As the writer of Hebrews so poignantly points out in chapter 9:26-27, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,

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but only a fearful expectation of

judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” You have to believe that people of Judah and Jerusalem were there – were at that point of fearful expectation. I can imagine they must have started to cringe whenever Isaiah came into view. Now, imagine how you would feel in their place when the prophet opened his mouth and said, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isn’t God amazing? Just when you think you have him figured out he surprises you. Here are the Israelites – far astray, thumbing there nose at the prophets and ignoring the signs of the times – like we all do. The hammer starts to fall and all seems lost. Then God says, “Enough! “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel…? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man— the Holy One among you.

I will not come in wrath.” Instead of destruction; instead of finally just getting rid of the free radical in creation – that would be us, mankind – God plans an invasion. So great is the love of God, that rather than lose us – even though we tried to be lost – he chose to wrap human flesh around Deity and come to earth in the fragile form of an infant. An infant – you know, the little buggers that cannot eat on their own, can’t hold their heads up, has the muscle tone of a noodle! Need constant supervision from a grown up in order to survive. God planned to break into time by becoming one of us. Isn’t that just the most foolish thing you have ever heard? But love is crazy that way. It doesn’t know a limit or boundary when it comes to the object of its affection. Love will go to whatever lengths are necessary to win the heart of the one Love desires. So God plans an invasion – one in which his people would receive double for all their sin from his hands, his nail-scarred hands. And tells his people, here is the sign that the real battle is about to begin. There will be one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.” In other words, people of God prepare your hearts. Cast off the old rags of sin and clothe yourselves in the robes of righteousness and holiness. Lay the groundwork that will lead to successful invasion.

On this second Sunday of Advent, we celebrate God’s successful invasion over two thousand years ago.

In fact, God’s invasion still continues and its

success grows with each heart that hears the cry “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord!” and responds. This Christmas, as we look back at his First Advent in anticipation of his Second Advent, let us listen for that voice crying out in the wilderness. Is your heart prepared? Are your crooked ways made straight? Have you leveled every barrier and raised every pit to make a straight path for God into your heart? Have you cast off your sin and made room for God? Children of God, love that would endure such abuse at our hands and then go to such lengths to rescue us deserves no less.