Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, July 17

As you prepare for worship this Sunday I encourage you to read Isaiah 33.  It would also be helpful for you to read the historical context of this passage in 2 Kings 18 & 19. 

The events of Isaiah 33 took place over 2,700 years ago.  The Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem.  Their reputation for ruthlessness and violence had terrified Judah and her leaders long before the enemy arrived.  After attempts to obtain security from Egypt had failed, King Hezekiah tried to buy off the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:13-16).  He took silver from the temple treasury, stripped the gold from the temple doors and used these sacred resources to pay Assyria to leave them alone.  The payment was made, but Judah had made a deal with the devil.  Instead of packing up their weapons and folding up their tents, the Assyrians kept the money and moved forward with plans to attack.  With no other options remaining Judah turns to God.  For Judah God is not plan A, or Plan B, not even plan C.  God is for them a last resort. 

Even as a ‘last resort’ God is gracious to hear and act on behalf of his people.

2700 years have not changed our propensity to turn to God only after we have made a mess of our lives.  Even then it seems we turn to him only with great reluctance.  What we have in Isaiah 33 is God’s answer to unenthusiastic overdue repentance.  “Isaiah 33 is for people who haven’t been trusting God.  It’s for people who are seeing in a new way that they can’t treat God as a rabbit’s foot and experience his power;  they can’t marginalize God and live in the flow of his blessing.  Isaiah 33 is for people who’ve given themselves to all the wrong things and are only now seeing that their lives are fast becoming a lost opportunity.  And the message of Isaiah 33 is this: It’s too late to think that you really honor God.  But even now, if you’ll come to him just as you are, “your eyes will behold the king (God) in his beauty (v17).” (ISAIAH, God Saves Sinners, Ray Ortland, p188)

Even when the words are slow to come, God graciously hears us when we pray the Isaiah 33:2: O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you.  Be our arm (our strength) every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.  

I encourage you to pray this verse as you prepare for worship this Sunday. 

Here is God’s response to this prayer: “Now I will arise,” says the LORD, “now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted.”  For God’s enemies this is a word of judgment.  For God’s people this is a word of salvation.  

For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us. (Isaiah 33:22)

Alec Motyer reminds us, “It is as ‘judge, lawgiver, and king’ that he saves us (v22):  the Judge who would otherwise condemn acquits, the claims of the law of God have been met, the king throws his city open so that we may enter by the gates (Rev 22:14)!  Was there ever such a package deal?” (Isaiah by the Day, p. 161)  

When we gather for worship we pray to our King, we sing of our King and we hear from him through his Word.  But these prayers, songs and sermons are just words apart from faith.  The words we read and hear become the vision of our hearts through faith.  “Your eyes will see the King in his beauty” (v17) only through eyes of faith. 

As we prepare for worship I ask you to join me in praying this prayer: I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.  (Ephesians 1:16-23)