Opening Prayer
Lord, be gracious to us, and save us. Amen.
Text: Isaiah 1:2-6
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; the ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.
Devotion
Heaven and earth and everything in them testify against the unconverted and accuse them for their obstinacy. Indeed the whole creation was corrupted by our fall, yet not in the same way as we have gone astray from the divine Law. Other creatures do not exercise such willing obstinacy against the Lord and do not willfully close their eyes and hearts to Him. Man is the most gloriously endowed, and man is the most deeply corrupted; man should know God most clearly and obey Him most willingly, but nothing became more estranged from Him than man, and nothing so obstinate as man.
How stirring and compelling this is: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me’,” yet it is not heard. It was spoken to the Jews, it is said to us; it applied to them, it applies to us: Alas, it applies to us, just as much as it applied to them! Heaven and earth hear it, but we don’t hear it! – Read slowly and thoughtfully what the Lord says later on: “Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward.” What alarming and piercing words! Yet most people reject them now, just as the unbelieving Jews did. What use are all the words and deeds of the Lord’s love and chastisement? He has shown us His fatherly goodness a thousand times, now comes His reprimand. A few repent and are “like a tent in the vineyard” or like fruits that hang on after the harvest. For the majority the chastisement is also in vain: “Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more.” How horrible when the chastisement only results in shame! And now He paints a picture that shows us the deep, gaping, infected sore, – to humble the individual and the people: “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.” Look at yourself in a mirror, my friend, and look at your people in a mirror! The more God’s Word and faith are rejected, the sicker the people become, and the closer is the judgment. But this is not understood. “The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider.”
Closing Prayer
Lord, turn to us, so that we may be converted, renew our days as of old. Will You cast us off forever? Will You be so angry with us? O most merciful God, convert us, and save us for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Hymn
If thou but knew the life that thou art leading
In sin and shame, is Satan’s tyranny,
Thou wouldest kneel at once,
With Jesus pleading,
That He thy soul from bondage might set free.
O how thy Savior would rejoice,
If thou should’st now begin
To listen to His voice!
If thou but knew the grace so freely given,
Its blessed pow’r and readiness to save,
Thou wouldest not resist
The call from heaven,
But cease at once in Satan’s chains to slave.
O how thy Savior would rejoice,
If thou should’st now begin
To listen to His voice!
Brorson: Ak, vidste du, som gaar i Syndens Lænke L 507:1-2 HCH 171:1-2 tr. P. C. Paulsen;
tune: Ak vidste du (HCH 171); alternate hymn: The world is very evil ELH 534:2