Smelling Salts – Isaiah 59

The occasion for this sermon comes by way of a week of national protests and riots sparked in our state following some 3 months of global fears and lockdowns due to a viral pandemic scare. It feels like our world is coming apart at the seams. A horrifically disturbing video of a law enforcement officer with his knee on the neck of now dead man supplied the spark that has enflamed passions in a tinderbox of economic emergency and social instability. Voices all over the news are screaming for justice and burning down their own communities to give vent to their outrage. Cooler heads and well meaning advocates for the cause of truth and consistent standards have suffered their voices suffocated by anarchy and lawlessness. Naturally our souls can panic in times like these. We can relate to the drowning man's impulse to thrash violently against the towering waves. The scripture in your hands today is your life preserver. Cling to it, get your bearings, and reach out to someone struggling next to you directing them to the safety of God's never withering Word! Isaiah wrote to a people under the looming shadow of judgement. As a prophet, he served the ministry of the voice of God to the people. He served prophetically as both covenant prosecutor and herald of Gospel. The words we read today were addressed to a nation returning to the ruins of their burned out civilization having endured disciplinary exile. His writings provided the foundation upon which Nehemiah built covenant renewal and reformation. The context of our chapter today is a message of cultural self-awareness exhorting the nation to objectively evaluate their condition according to the universal absolutes of God's revealed Word that they might follow Him and live..