“I, even I, am He Who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of man, who shall die, and of a son of man, who shall be made [as destructible] as grass,” (v12) Oh can you see how our Almighty God compared Himself with us man bringing out how little and inferior we are compared to Him God? Having seen that the main purpose of a shepherd’s rod was to lovingly guide and discipline his sheep, we turn now to consider the next item of his equipment –the staff. ‘It is the staff’, says Philip Keller, ‘that identifies a shepherd as a shepherd. No one in any other profession carries a shepherd’s staff. It is uniquely an instrument used for the care and management of sheep and we humans are the sheep of our God Almighty. Staff will not do for cattle, horses or hogs. Staff is designed, shaped and adapted especially to the safety needs of sheep only.’ The staff was a slender pole with a little crook on the end or head, and was used for variety of purposes. It was used to gently lift a newborn lamb and bring it to its mother when it had become separated. It is very important to note that any time a newborn lamb is carried with a bare hand to an ewe she will sometimes reject her offspring if it has the smell of human hands upon it. So in other not to use the bare hand in lifting up a newborn lamb when need arises, the staff is used. The staff was used also to reach out and draw a sheep to the shepherd’s side for physical examination, as timid and nervous sheep tend to keep as much distance as possible between themselves and the shepherd. All of this explains God’s attitude in drawing us closer when our sin tends to make us keep distance with our God, it is important to realize and knowing that it is only in God’s Presence we have peace! The main use of an ancient shepherd’s staff, however, was to guide the sheep. The tip of the staff would be laid against the animal’s side, and the gentle pressure applied would guide the sheep in the way the shepherd wanted it to go. One observer of the ways of a shepherd with his sheep says, ‘Sometimes I have been fascinated to see how a shepherd will actually hold his staff against the side of a nervous or frightened sheep simply so that they are ‘in touch’. They the sheep will walk along the way almost as though they were ‘hand in hand’ with the shepherd. To be treated in this special way by the shepherd is to know comfort in a deep dimension and this is exactly what we humans enjoys in God’s hand of care.’ So let us always appreciate God’s care over us and know that we should give thanksgiving to Him in every situation that we find ourselves good or bad and also know that it is only in God’s Presence that we can find true Peace!

Now let us read Isaiah 51:1-16; Hearken to Me, you who follow after rightness and justice, you who seek and inquire of [and require] the Lord [claiming Him by necessity and by right]: look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole in the quarry from which you were dug; 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him when he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many. 3 For the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. And He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song or instrument of praise. 4 Listen to Me [the Lord], O My people, and give ear to Me, O My nation; for a [divine] law will go forth from Me, and I will establish My justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My rightness and justice are near, My salvation is going forth, and My arms shall rule the peoples; the islands shall wait for and expect Me, and on My arm shall they trust and wait with hope. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall be dissolved and vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner [like gnats]. But My salvation shall be forever, and My rightness and justice [and faithfully fulfilled promise] shall not be abolished. 7 Listen to Me, you who know rightness and justice and right standing with God, the people in whose heart is My law and My instruction: fear not the reproach of men, neither be afraid nor dismayed at their revilings. 8 For [in comparison with the Lord they are so weak that things as insignificant as] the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But My rightness and justice [and faithfully fulfilled promise] shall be forever, and My salvation to all generations. 9 [Zion now cries to the Lord, the God of Israel] Awake, awake, put on strength and might, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, as in the generations of long ago. Was it not You Who cut Rahab [Egypt] in pieces, Who pierced the dragon [symbol of Egypt]? 10 Was it not You Who dried up the Red Sea, the waters of the great deep, Who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? [Why then are we left so long in captivity?] 11 [The Lord God says] And the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 12 I, even I, am He Who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of man, who shall die, and of a son of man, who shall be made [as destructible] as grass, 13 That you should forget the Lord your Maker, Who stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and fear continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy or even though he did so? And where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exile and he who is bent down by chains shall speedily be released; and he shall not die and go down to the pit of destruction, nor shall his food fail. 15 For I am the Lord your God, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar and Who by rebuke restrains it—the Lord of hosts is His name. 16 And I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may fix the [new] heavens as a tabernacle and lay the foundations of a [new] earth and say to Zion, You are My people.

Before we go ahead in today’s sermon message, let us summarize a little the things we have just learnt in our Bible passage reading of Isaiah 51; normally you hear people will say that good people never last, part of the reason why it is so is because the good people do not live their life according to Isaiah 51 and living their life according to God’s commands in Isaiah and the rest of the Bible. Here in the Book of Isaiah God asked His people and His nation to live by His rightness and justice that is near with and embrace God’s salvation that is going forth and live by God’s rule you who I am near to and do not be like the Islands (possibly the Gentiles) who shall wait for and expect Me with hope but today the people of God, that very people who were with God as the first (possibly Israel) have lost that chance and have become like the people of the Islands that we read in verse 5 of Isaiah 51. In verse 6 is a big warning to those who have become like the Islands who shall be on wait and on hope, there He God also gave a hint of what shall become of the earth in His bid to bring about a new earth. In verse 7 another insight was released by God concerning another new set of people different from Israel or Gentiles, God called this new set of people those in whose ‘heart is My law and My instruction’. Now I want all of us to realize here that so far three sets of people have been talked about: those that God first started with (exemplified in Israel), those that are yet afar off from God who are on the wait and who are expecting Me (exemplified) in the Islands (possibly Gentile) as people who are in wait and hope for Me and thirdly those in whose heart are God’s law and instruction, then the question now will be of which group are you? Also in part of verse 7 God told us something concerning the people of the world who possibly are different from the three groups and what they can do in terms of wickedness but told us, those whose heart contains God’s law and instructions not to fear the people of the world. God even compared Himself with these world people in other to tell us that the people of the world are weak and are like insignificant things that moth shall eat them up, telling us that nevertheless His rightness and justice and faithfully fulfilled promises shall be forever and His salvation shall be to all generations and God added calling us to Awake and put on Strength and Might as the arm of God, meaning as God’s real people, those in whose heart is God’s law and instruction to awake as in the ancient days, as in the generations of long ago and God gave examples of what He did cutting Rahab [Egypt] in pieces, and He pierced the dragon [symbol of Egypt] in other to demonstrate His Power and Might to His people to build faith. What God did continues in verse 10 where Red Sea was dried up for their sake, God is asking all of us saying, after hearing all these things that He has done then why do we still allow sin to hold us so long in captivity. In verse 11 we are given an insight of how the Lord God has spoken and those who shall hear His words as His Redeemed of the Lord shall return and come back to the Lord with singing, with everlasting joy that shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Verse 12 then repeated what God said in the beginning, asking in verse 13 if you shall forget the Lord your Maker, who made the heavens and earth and continue to fear every day because of the fury of the oppressor, who He God shall soon destroy in other to release those the oppressor kept in chains promising that He God will provide food for them after releasing them from their chains and God repeated and reminded the people of the things He did in the Red Sea and assures us that He is still the same God who never change and that He is going to make the earth New and the heavens New and God reaffirms that we are still His people. How refreshing, these words of encouragement and promise of deliverance and restoration sound to the heart that is weary and troubled, that longs for help and assistance from God. At a time when the remnant of God’s people was disheartened by the disorder and disobedience in the land, injustice of the rulers and the Babylonian exile pains on God’s people and nation, through the Prophet Isaiah, God sends words of encouragement to comfort His people. Despite the bleak and oppressive situations that we face in this world, as we meditate on these aspects of today’s reading, let us persist firmly in faith and be strengthened in our Christian walk. Some people argue that the fundamental teaching of the Bible is that we are to be grateful before God. Sometimes life makes it pretty difficult to do so. How can a prophet writing 500 years before Christ help us give thanks today? We have got to realize that as God changes not, so are the many things that are happening in the universe! Isaiah 51:1-16 was written close to the end of the Exile. In 587 BC the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and deported the prominent citizens. The Exile would last about 70 years, and prophetic writers like the “Isaiah” of this passage (the Isaiah after whom the book is named wrote two centuries earlier) sustained the faith and hope of the Exiles. It was a challenging task. And from Isaiah’s writing many years before the incidence for which it was written happened, we see God’s love in preparing His people ahead of every issue so that they will be comforted and be prepared not to be taken unawares in issues of life. Today how do we take God’s word especially when these words are meant to guide, prepare and forewarn us ahead of the actual time of occurrence of an issue? Just like the Israel of old today and even before today God has told us that He is going to bring about a new nation but how many of us have heard it and those who have, do they believe and are preparing not to be taken unawares? This is always how we treat God and His love in making us be aware of things ahead! Psalm 137:4 poignantly and succinctly states the issue: “How can we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?” We often find ourselves in a foreign land: When the test results come back positive; when the unimaginable phone call comes; when the betrayal is by the one closest to us like our present ndi sabo; when another month passes without resolution. How will it feel? Many of us experienced it during the war and the signs are not yet over, the question is how is it going to be? God help us! The positive perspective of Isaiah 51 is embedded in a section of the book famous for the “Suffering Servant Songs.” In four passages, the most famous including Isaiah 53, the prophet acknowledges the suffering of God’s people, God’s servants, in the world. But despite this, the prophet calls the people to thanksgiving in Isaiah 51. Isaiah offers three perspectives to help us give thanks when we’re in the foreign land. 1) We are not alone. Isaiah calls us to remember “the rock from which we were hewn,” including Abraham and Sarah, who were promised in their childless old age that their numerous offspring would bless the world. It took several more decades, but that promise was coming true and actually came true. It also includes Moses, who challenged Pharaoh, liberating God’s people from Egypt and leading them for a generation through the Wilderness towards the Land of Promise. Can we now see how God’s issues are fulfilled in stages! Today many of our sons have done for us as a people exactly what Moses and others did for God’s people in days long ago, all what God wants from His people is appreciation and thanks! Hebrews 11 is the “golden chapter” reminding us of the fact that we are not alone. The author lists our ancestors in the faith who, “conquered kingdoms, administered justice, shut the mouths of lions, escaped the edge of the sword,” among many other achievements—despite being “tortured, suffering mocking, flogging, chains and imprisonment, stoning, and death.” And in it all, Hebrews says, these champions of the faith did not receive what they were promised, in order that we might be born into those promises and receive them ourselves. Today how many of us are ready to work for others to gain? The kinds of people we have today are those who want to know what they will gain before they could undertake a venture, too bad! God wants those who will work for others to gain! Where are they? 2) Thus we are part of a greater story. By God’s design it is always important for us to know that suffering has a purpose. We may not know it at the time, and our understanding may be delayed. But the purpose of our suffering is known by God, and it is revealed to us when we have faith and suffer with patience, perseverance and understanding. Second Peter 3:9 says that God is patient also, not desiring anyone to perish, but wanting all to come to repentance. How many people will throw away shame and come back to God when they finally know the truth? The promises of deliverance are delayed by God so that more and more people can be a part of them. The heroes of Hebrews 11 didn’t receive the promises; their suffering was prolonged, to allow time for us to be included. Just as they waited for us (and are still waiting), so we endure and wait for others this is why the second coming appears to be in prolongation. Our suffering serves at least this purpose—that others may come into the reception of God’s grace. So from today do not ask why God is wasting time, especially for the second coming!

Through Isaiah God says He preserves us “in the shadow of His hand.” When we look afar on a sunny day and shield the sun with our hands not to strike our eye ball, we have a glimpse of Isaiah’s metaphor. God’s hand hovers over us, protecting us from the blazing sun. God also says He “puts His words in our mouths.” These are the words of praise and thanksgiving preserved in the Scriptural testimonies—words like Isaiah’s. With these assurances—God’s protection and God’s words—we can survive in the foreign land and give thanks in all matters. And in the mean time, between now and our deliverance, we can serve. We can serve like the suffering servant of Isaiah’s time, the people of Israel in Exile, who by their faith and thanksgiving bear testimony to the God of their deliverance. We can serve like our suffering Servant Lord Jesus, who testified of God’s Kingdom in the foreign land of this world, and suffered so that we might follow Him and be a part of it, a part of the suffering similar to that of our Master Lord Jesus Christ. When we find ourselves in the foreign land where it’s difficult to give thanks, we can remember that we are not alone, that our story is part of a greater story, and that God guides and guards us as we serve others, give thanks, and await our deliverance. Thanks be to God! Recall the past in Isaiah 51:1-2: Hearken to Me, you who follow after rightness and justice, you who seek and inquire of [and require] the Lord [claiming Him by necessity and by right]: look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole in the quarry from which you were dug; 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him when he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many. God calls His people to listen to Him and recall His past faithfulness, mercies and grace. He wanted the Israelites to look to their root: to the call of Abraham when he was still in the Ur of Chaldeans, to God’s blessing of a generation to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. In remembering that God called, blessed and multiplied one man to become the Nation of Israel, they were to look forward in hope to God’s plans for the future. In looking back, we understand the frailties of our old sinful self, from which Christ has redeemed us. ‘9 Do you not know that the unrighteous and the wrongdoers will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived (misled): neither the impure and immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexuality, 10 Nor cheats (swindlers and thieves), nor greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foulmouthed revilers and slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God. 11 And such some of you were [once]. But you were washed clean (purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sin), and you were consecrated (set apart, hallowed), and you were justified [pronounced righteous, by trusting] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God.’ (1 Cor. 6:9-11) As we acknowledge the change that God has brought in us, we are to look to the future with anticipation and joy. Rejoice in the future (Isa 51:3-6): 3 For the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. And He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song or instrument of praise. 4 Listen to Me [the Lord], O My people, and give ear to Me, O My nation; for a [divine] law will go forth from Me, and I will establish My justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My rightness and justice are near, My salvation is going forth, and My arms shall rule the peoples; the islands shall wait for and expect Me, and on My arm shall they trust and wait with hope. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall be dissolved and vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner [like gnats]. But My salvation shall be forever, and My rightness and justice [and faithfully fulfilled promise] shall not be abolished. God promises deliverance and restoration from our present struggles, but ultimately, the greatest joy is in the coming of the Messiah and His eternal reign of righteousness. 5 My rightness and justice are near, My salvation is going forth, and My arms shall rule the peoples; the islands shall wait for and expect Me, and on My arm shall they trust and wait with hope. We are reminded to look beyond the temporal world and its pressures and persecutions that will soon pass away and focus on the eternal salvation of God that endures forever. ‘17 For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!],’ (2 Cor. 4:17) Trust in God (Isa 51:7-16): 7 Listen to Me, you who know rightness and justice and right standing with God, the people in whose heart is My law and My instruction: fear not the reproach of men, neither be afraid nor dismayed at their revilings. 8 For [in comparison with the Lord they are so weak that things as insignificant as] the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But My rightness and justice [and faithfully fulfilled promise] shall be forever, and My salvation to all generations. 9 [Zion now cries to the Lord, the God of Israel] Awake, awake, put on strength and might, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, as in the generations of long ago. Was it not You Who cut Rahab [Egypt] in pieces, Who pierced the dragon [symbol of Egypt]? 10 Was it not You Who dried up the Red Sea, the waters of the great deep, Who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? [Why then are we left so long in captivity?] 11 [The Lord God says] And the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 12 I, even I, am He Who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of man, who shall die, and of a son of man, who shall be made [as destructible] as grass, 13 That you should forget the Lord your Maker, Who stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and fear continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy or even though he did so? And where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exile and he who is bent down by chains shall speedily be released; and he shall not die and go down to the pit of destruction, nor shall his food fail. 15 For I am the Lord your God, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar and Who by rebuke restrains it—the Lord of hosts is His name. 16 And I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may fix the [new] heavens as a tabernacle and lay the foundations of a [new] earth and say to Zion, You are My people. We need to examine ourselves and check where we have put our trust so that verses 14-16 be fulfilled to us. Be watchful that we do not allow fear of men to sidetrack us from our walk with the Lord. Fear God and not man! If we have placed our trust in God, we will not be afraid of mortal men and their attacks against us. As we look to the sovereign Lord, our Creator and Redeemer, we see His great love that paid the price on the cross of Calvary to set us free from the snare of sin and death; we experience His protection, mercies and grace day by day. The more we know this loving and merciful God, the deeper our desire should be to be more like Him – living in holiness. Do not be discouraged by the pressures we face in this world, but instead let us in faith, look heavenward to the eternal promise of rest and joy in God’s presence.

3 Then I heard a mighty voice from the throne and I perceived its distinct words, saying, See! The abode of God is with men, and He will live (encamp, tent) among them; and they shall be His people, and God shall personally be with them and be their God. 4 God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, neither shall there be anguish (sorrow and mourning) nor grief nor pain any more, for the old conditions and the former order of things have passed away. Revelation 21:3-4