It is the humble who will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Or, as Jesus said it elsewhere in Matthew: “The poor in spirit are blessed because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Our text for today falls into the beginning of Isaiah’s discussion of the Assyrian punishment of Judah (Chapters 28-33). More specifically, it discusses Jerusalem itself. The opening verses (11-12) draw out the offense of Judah. They have so deeply offended the LORD that He will no longer allow Judah to see or understand what He is doing. The nation must first be put to death before it will be able to live. Verse 14 is quoted by the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, in order to demonstrate the folly of the world’s wisdom. In Isaiah’s context, when facing the impending doom of Assyria, the common wisdom was to ally themselves with Egypt so they can rely on their horses and chariots (Chapters 30-31). However, verse 15 casts a “woe” on all plans which are not from the LORD. Isaiah has also thrown the clay and potter imagery around in other places like 41:25, 45:9 and 64:8.
It is not until verses 18-19 that we get a hook to hang the Gospel for this sermon on. The humble deaf and blind will be accepted by the LORD, which is why Jesus quotes this passage (Matthew 11:5) as evidence of His ministry. It is the humble who will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Or, as Jesus said it elsewhere in Matthew: “The poor in spirit are blessed because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3). In the first verse of this text, it speaks of “a book that is sealed.” That is what Isaiah’s writing would have been because of the Law. But an angel flies forth from Revelation 5:2 crying out a question that rings through the scriptures: “Who is worthy to open the book?” Not long after that an elder answers, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so He can open the book that is sealed” (Revelation 5:5). What made Him worthy to open the book that was sealed? He alone took the Law for us and satisfied God’s just wrath for sin by His crucifixion and resurrection. Just look a few verses later in Revelation where it says: “Worthy are You to take the book and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
The humble deaf and blind will be accepted by the LORD, which is why Jesus quotes this passage as evidence of His ministry.
Since this text is so easily divided between Law (verses 11-16) and Gospel (verses 17-19), this seems to be the apropos structure to use for preaching it:
“This sermon structure organizes the sermon on the basis of two experiences that God’s word creates in the lives of the hearers: Repentance and trust in the work of Christ for the forgiveness of one’s sins. This structure has similarities to the problem-solution structure (of the thematic designs), the Lowry-loop structure (of the dynamic designs), and it has recently been popularized by Paul Scott Wilson, in The Four Pages of the Sermon.
At its heart, the Law/Gospel sermon structure is divided into two parts, law proclamation and gospel proclamation, with greater attention preferably devoted to the gospel proclamation. In each section, the preacher references both the text and the lives of the hearers (sometimes starting with the text and then moving to the hearers; sometimes starting with the hearers and then moving to the text). The first portion focuses upon law proclamation: It depicts the sin or trouble that is present both in the life situation of the text and in the contemporary lives of the hearers. The second portion focuses upon gospel proclamation: it depicts God’s gracious intervention to forgive people their sins both in the life situation of the text and in the contemporary lives of the hearers.
In using this structure, the preacher needs to be careful that he is not misusing the text. For example, a preacher could select one word from the text (for example, prayer) and using that word create an experience of law for the hearers (for the example of prayer, we do not pray as we ought) and then an experience of gospel (in this same example, Jesus prays for us on the cross, asking God to forgive our sins for the sake of His suffering and death) regardless of what that word meant in its original context.”[1]
------
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 29:11-19.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 29:11-19.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
Lectionary Podcast- Professor Ryan Tietz of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN walks us through Isaiah 29:11-19.
-----
[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/dynamic/lawgospel-structure/
