Isaiah 51: Babylon’s World up in Smoke, Pass the Cup of Wrath -- 2019/12/04

Rev. Doug Nicely, pastor of Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Collinsville, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 51. “The heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment.” What is this scary-sounding end-of-the-world prediction doing in Isaiah 51? Reading in context, the Babylonian empire must have felt like it was never going to end. They had re-shaped a vast region; it was their world. Isaiah’s message is that their world was coming to an end: the Persians were going to wipe it out. God uses disaster to rescue His people. Like the way He multiplied Abraham and rescued us from the Red Sea, so He rescues us today through His Son. And Jesus isn’t merely the next phase of the plan; He is the one who drains the cup of wrath, who ends the cycle of judgement to bring us real righteousness.