God’s Word Accomplishes His Higher Purpose!

God created plants with seeds. Seeds allow the next generation of plants to grow, but seeds do not produce life all on their own. A seed grows when it is planted and watered, and without water a seed does not come to life. If a seed goes without water, it runs the risk of being eaten, crushed, burned up or getting too old to sprout. There is an expiration date after which even the best soil, water, etc. will have no effect because the seed is dead.

At the time of the prophet Isaiah, the future was not bright for Israel. By the time Isaiah served as a prophet Israel had been a divided nation for centuries. The two nations of Israel to the North and Judah to the South struggled in their relationship with one another and with God. During Isaiah’s time, God allowed the Northern Kingdom of Israel to fall at the hands of the Assyrians. Isaiah was a prophet to the Southern Kingdom of Judah and warned them that God was going to allow Babylon to do the same thing to them. Isaiah faithfully spread God’s message to Judah as a warning to repent and turn back to God, but they did not listen. God’s Word was like life giving water for a seed, but Judah refused, and it cost them dearly in war, exile and separation from God.

God’s purpose for giving his word is not what humanity expects. Judah did not understand God’s message to them through the prophet Isaiah. In our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 55, God gave Isaiah these words to share,

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God reminded Judah that they think differently than God. God has a different and higher purpose than sinful human beings. Judah would have liked God’s message through Isaiah to them to be an affirming message that approved of their sinful behavior, even idolatry, along with the good news that he would keep protecting their country from all enemies, and that God would throw in eternity with him in paradise. Of course, a paradise of their own design, not the glorious place God designed. Since, the people of Judah had a different idea of what God’s Word ought to be, they did not listen to God, which also meant they did not receive all the blessings God intended for them.

God’s thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Your sinful thoughts get in the way of what God wants you to have. God’s purpose for his Word is to give you life. God shared this truth in a beautiful picture in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 55,

10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

God paints a beautiful scene of rain and snow coming down from heaven to water the earth. This God given water from heaven allows seeds of all various kinds to bud and flourish. These plants provide more seeds for the next harvest, and they provide food. In multiple ways, water from the heavens provides us with life. God says the same about his Word, but for his Word to accomplish this gift of life, it must remind us that we are dead. Judah on the whole was spiritually dead, so much so that God was willing to have a foreign nation destroy them and carry then into exile to wake them up. It was a glimpse of what life would be like without God. But God had warned them through his Word. You need the constant reminder of your sinfulness. You need to be called to repentance. You need to hear God’s law. All the ways you have not loved God and others is an unpleasant, harsh and hopeless message, but it is the truth. It is part of what God desires to accomplish through his Word. He desires that you see your wicked unrighteousness and empty way of life that leads to hell.

His purpose then continues with the gift of life. Again, we read in Isaiah 55, 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. God’s purpose for his law is not for us to see something we need to work at to gain his love or a place in heaven, but to show us our need to be saved. The rest of God’s thoughts that are higher than ours is his mercy as we read in Isaiah 55,

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Rather than leave us hopeless and helpless in our wicked unrighteousness and keep detailed documentation of all the things we have done against him and others until the time when he could put it in our face and punish us for our sins, God shares his higher purpose. God wants to show us mercy. He wants to freely pardon us. He wants us to believe in him before it is too late. He wants the water of his Word to give life to us so that we sprout, grow and live. God connects us to his mercy, free pardon and life through his Word because there he shares Jesus. In our New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians 3, we read, 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. It was God’s higher purpose to hand over the detailed documentation of all the things you have done wrong to Jesus. Jesus then suffered and died for your sins on the cross, so that you would be free from sin and death. He also took the detailed documentation of all the good, the perfect, righteous life of Jesus and gave it to you to keep as your own. When you face God on Judgment Day, it is the record of Jesus you will point to as your own that will bring you into heaven to enjoy the glorious paradise God has planned for you. Jesus is the foundation of our faith and what all of God’s Word points us to.

You need God’s Word like a seed needs water. If you tell your friend, “I’m planting a garden,” and after a few weeks your friend comes to see your garden, but it is dead, then your friend might ask, “Did you water it?” If your response is, “Well, I watered it the first day I planted it,” then your friend will tell you, “It is your fault the plants died, they need water every day.” God does not want you to read and hear his Word once. He does not want you to read and hear it sparsely. He wants you to hear it every day so that through it he will keep your faith alive. In our Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus told a parable about the Word of God being shared. He taught that the Word of God is meant to be shared with all people saying, 9 “Whoever has ears, let them hear.” He also taught that not all will believe because of the troubles or worries of life, but some will believe and for those Jesus said, 23 “But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” God wants you to hear his Word each day to produce life in you. Again, in Isaiah 55, we read, 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. There is a warning for you in what happened to Judah. Isaiah faithfully shared God’s call to Judah to repent and put their trust in God’s mercy, but they did not listen. God allowed Babylon to defeat them and take them into captivity. You do not know how much time you have in this world, but God has given you his Word to keep your faith strong until you are taken home to heaven. God also shows us his mercy in how he treated Judah because he also promised deliverance for his people through Isaiah. God delivered Judah after only seventy years in captivity. More than that, God promised deliverance to Judah from their sins through the Savior. In our Old Testament reading today we heard God’s promise of forgiveness in Isaiah 55, Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. Two chapters before in Isaiah 53, we hear the promise of God’s mercy in Jesus’ suffering and death that brought us free pardon, peace and healing,

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Without water a seed will not grow, with water it springs to life. God’s purpose for his Word is to give us life. His Word first shows us our sins calling us to repentance, and then he points us to his mercy and free pardon in our Savior. As you continually seek the Lord in his Word may he fill you with thanksgiving for his gift of life for God’s Word accomplishes his higher purpose. Amen.