The prophets were not popular because they brought God’s word of challenge and judgment to His people. In Amos 2:6-16, we see this clearly. People who knew God’s grace and goodness, who had experienced His deliverance and provision through the wilderness and subsequently, should have known better than to abandon His word and truth, but sadly, as Hosea commented, there was no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. (Hos 4:1)

People may feel that because of their historical relevance, the prophets have little to say to us today, but the truth is that very little has changed in terms of people’s behaviour. Western civilisation has pushed God away and must inevitably reap the consequences of this; as George Orwell said (in ‘Notes On The Way’ in 1940), “For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake. The thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all; it was a cesspool full of barbed wire… It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic.”

People are not fundamentally good or nice. When God is pushed aside and His laws disregarded, sin abounds. We see this in civil wars in recent years; more recently, we see how pervasive is the need to control through fear, rather than through doing what is right. God had given His people clear instructions about justice and caring for the needy (Ex 23:6-7, Deut 10:18, Deut 24:17). These same principles should be at the heart of our laws and justice. Just as Israel could not assume they would not be judged (and judgment would surely come, Amos warns), we cannot hide from the truth that we are accountable before God for what we have done with His word and how we live before others.

Dave spoke from 1 Pet 2:9-10 about being God’s chosen people. People, for all their flaws and imperfections, have wonderful capacities for love, beauty, joy and kindness, being made in God’s image. To be alive is a wondrous thing, but humans constantly ask ‘Who am I?’ What God says about us is the most important factor in answering this question, and in these verses, Peter highlights key truths about our identity as God’s people.

1. We are a chosen people, having a corporate identity, not simply an individual one.

2. We have received mercy – God has acted on our behalf.

3. We belong to God and are His possessions.

4. We are holy – something that may seem very odd to those around us, but we are called to be like God.

5. We are a royal priesthood, having direct access to God through Christ.

Our identity, meaning and calling are all from God. We are then called to declare His praises. What we are is defined by God; our purpose is God-centred, to make Him known.

Is 40:28-31 contain some of the most encouraging verses in the whole BIble, connecting hope with faith: ‘Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.’ (Is 40:31) When we stop trusting in our own strength and stop relying on our own ingenuity, we find that God is able to give us immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine! (see Prov 3:5-6, Eph 3:20) If we learn to trust and hope in God, we have access to a power and strength that are beyond us. Jeremiah underlined this for us (Jer 9:23-24) and there is no ‘might’ or ‘maybe’ in this promise from God!

Is 40 tips us from the misery and despair of the situation the prophet has outlined for God’s people through a barrage of questions about who God is and our knowledge of God to the place of renewed strength, faith and vigour. It’s a chapter that shouts hope from every verse. It roots us solidly in who God is: the everlasting God, the mighty God, the God who is never off duty, the God who made the heavens and the earth, the God who cares. Subsequent chapters will show us how God will work out His plan of salvation through His Son, the Suffering Servant, but for now, our attention is re-focused on God, and we have to stop and think. Either God is who He says He is or it’s all a myth and we might as well give up now.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? If you do know who God is and you have heard of His power and might, then act like you believe it, trust in Him, hope in Him and let Him lead. He can sort out your situations in ways you can’t even begin to imagine, so stop fretting, stop worrying and start rejoicing, because He’s on your side – and if God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31)

Isaiah is a mini-Bible in itself; made up of 66 chapters, 39 focus on the sin of Israel and God’s judgment and 27 of them, starting with Isaiah 40, focus on God’s great rescue plan through the Suffering Servant, the Messiah. Isaiah 40 contains a whole plethora of questions which all concentrate the mind and refocus our attention on who God is.

The cumulative effect of all these questions is rather like the pounding tenacity of waves at the seaside. We are forced to see that no one can compare to God and that He is completely different to anyone or anything we could ever know. The power, majesty and  might of God are reinforced throughout this chapter, with Isaiah asking, ‘With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him?’ (Is 40:18) 

God ‘sits enthroned above the circle of the earth.’ (Is 40:22) To Him, people are like grasshoppers: small, insignificant, puny. (Is 40:22) God is so great that He made the heavens like a canopy (Is 40:22). He is the One who is the Lord, raising up rulers and bringing them down as He sees fit. (Is 40:23) We might well feel intimidated by those in power, those with authority over us. We might feel insignificant and worthless in comparison to them, but to God, they are no more important than anyone else: ‘no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.’ (Is 40:24) If we can grasp the fact that the Lord is the Maker of heaven and earth and that He is on the throne, our perspective on life will be altered and so many of our anxieties reduced.

Is 40:25-26 remind us that God is the Creator and there is no one like Him. But even if our heads accept this, we can still feel unsure about how this affects us personally:

‘Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?’ (Isaiah 40:28)

We can never really understand what God is doing if we only see things through the lens of our time, our history. We need an eternal perspective (2 Cor 4:16-18), and this is what Isaiah gives to the complaining, troubled people of God. The Lord is the everlasting God. He is the Creator of the ends of the earth. Because of this, ‘he will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.’ (Is 40:28) God is able to give strength to the weary and to increase the power of the weak. (Is 40:29) These promises are not simply theoretical; they are the source of hope and strength to every believer.

Garry spoke tonight from John 1:35-43, when Jesus calls the first disciples to follow Him. In Aramaic, there are two words for ‘follow’ – ‘etha’ and ‘azal’, which he discussed in detail.

‘Azal’ implies following a leader or commanding officer, following their orders even to death (see Matt 10:37-39). There is a cost to following Jesus we must be prepared to pay (as the apostles did when told not to preach in Jesus’s name.) We may not face the same level of persecution as some countries, but we must still be prepared to surrender all we have. For us, this may mean being unpopular and misunderstood, ostracised and unable to do some things (China’s social credit system means that if you stand for certain values, you may be unable to travel or buy property, for example.) We may think this will never happen in the U.K., but last year has shown us how fast things can change, and the comments of some leaders (e.g. Nicola Sturgeon commenting that giving people the choice to wear a face covering or not could not be allowed because ‘that would mean people would have to think for themselves’) indicate that we may need to take a stand for what we believe. Paul had to take a stand when he refused to offer Felix a bribe to have him released from prison (Acts 24:25-26) The consequences of this choice were that he remained imprisoned, but he chose to count the cost of following Jesus.

‘Etha‘ means to follow and be fruitful. As John the Baptist told the Pharisees, they were to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. God is looking for both internal and external fruit in our lives. He is looking for our transformation (Rom 12:2) and for the fruit of the Spirit to be seen in our lives. (Gal 5:2-25) God is in the business of transforming, reshaping and remaking us. This is a steady, ongoing work. We must push away our old sinful nature with its passions and desires and embrace and keep in step with the Holy Spirit.

• God’s love in us will make us strong and resilient.

• His joy will be irrepressible, even in dark times.

• His peace will be present with us when there is no reason for peace; this peace comes from resting in God and relying on Him.

• Forbearance is a stretched-out patience which gives us the capacity for restraint in the face of substantial provocation.

• Kindness means going beyond what is expected or deserved.

• Goodness means being concerned about the well-being of other people; it’s love in action.

• Faithfulness means staying true and enduring, not faltering.

• Gentleness means acting with tenderness and humility.

• Self-control means not flying off the handle but keeping a check on ourselves.

These fruit will be developed in us as we abide in Christ. (John 15:1-16). As we seek to follow Christ, may we know what it is to trust and obey and to be productive with enduring fruit which brings glory to God.