Remember Where You Came From

Have any of you ever used a service like 23andMe – these genetic tests to see where your ancestors came from? I did this a few years ago. I’ve always been curious about my grandparents and the generations that came before me. As I expected, my DNA is mostly human … largely Germanic, but a really heavy mixture of Irish, English, Scottish, French, Slavic, and even a little Mediterranean.

Okay, curiosity satisfied about where I came from … what does this mean? Why do we care about such things? Why do we care about family trees and whether or not our great-great-great-grandparents were … well, great, or whether they were scoundrels? And what difference does it make if they were European, Asian, African, or some kind of tribal nomad? What is the value in knowing something of your ancestry?  

Well, it turns out that knowing about our families’ pasts gives a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. We get swept up into the stories of the past, and, whether we like it or not, they often form how we respond to the present. And knowing about your families’ pasts can give a sense of history and home for a person.

This is important for us today, because whether you know about your earthly ancestry or not, as Christians you are part of something bigger than yourself; you are children of God! You’ve been swept up into a great story; the story of God’s love for the world and His redemption of sinners. And you have a history and a home. Your history is intertwined with Jesus’ Cross and the Kingdom of heaven where God seeks and saves people. Your home is a coming new creation – sometimes we call it “heaven” – where we will live with God sinlessly in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

In Isaiah 51, God says to his people four times – “listen to Me.” We got two of those times in our reading this morning in v. 1 He says, “listen to Me,” and then in v. 4, “give ear to me.” And then God speaks to them about their history and their future. And, friends, because you have been redeemed by Jesus and you have become children of God, this message is about your history and your future, too.

God says through Isaiah, ““Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. ² Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.”

Look to the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug. He’s saying, remember where you came from. He’s saying, “Look, I chose you. I swept you up into this story. I came. I redeemed. I made you mine.” Rocks don’t get themselves out of quarries. God brought you out of sin. God redeemed you from death.

But you are not the beginning of the story. God says, “Look to Abraham. Look to Sarah.” This is the couple that God chose to form the family that would fulfill the promise to bring a savior into the world. These are Jesus’ great-great-great-etc.-grandparents. God blessed them in order to bless the whole world – because everyone who believes in Jesus is now a child of Abraham.

And God takes this dead rock, these dead people, and He restores the Garden of Eden. He re-establishes the sinless, perfect relationship He desired when He created all things. “For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.”

God is saying, “This is your story! Just as I chose Abraham, I chose you. I called you. I redeemed you. I saved you.” Jesus blesses us by bearing our sin and shame and everything that brought us death and separated us from God. He bore it to the Cross and atoned for our sin – and in the place of everything that gave us death, He gives us life – His life. And because He did this we are people with a future.

God says, “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.”

Now, this word – law – “a law will go out from Me,” – our understanding of this word is shaped by how we understand legal systems, constitutions, and codes of law. But the word here is, perhaps, familiar, it is torah – which has at its core the idea of instruction. God is going to instruct all the people of the world. And, yes, some of this instruction is about how we should conduct ourselves, but it is also instruction about justice and that means it is a revelation about Jesus’ cross where God both administers justice against sin, but also justifies us – that is brings us back into alignment with Him.

“My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.” Whose righteousness? Whose salvation? God’s! For the original hearers of this message, Isaiah is pointing them forward to Jesus. But there is something else here, it says, “the coastlands hope for Me.” The coastlands were not traditionally Israel – they were the lands of the nations, like the Philistines.

There is a new righteousness that has been revealed – it is the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus, and it is not dependent upon you. This righteousness is for all people – no matter where they came from, no matter who their ancestors are, no matter what they’ve done, no matter! And this is our reality!

The coastlands – those of us who are not Israel by our DNA – wait for the arm of the Lord. Now Jesus has come and extended his arms on the cross to give us His righteousness and salvation.

One of my favorite parts of every baptism is when I tell the story about when people were bringing little children to Jesus to have him bless them. Do you remember? It says that the disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for anyone who does not receive the kingdom of heaven like a little child will never enter it.” Then he took the children in his … arms … and He blessed them. His arm has embraced you, and he will again extend His arm one day to bring you safely home – to the eternal home He has prepared for you in glory when He raises the dead to everlasting life.

So here you are now, and God says, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner …” This world with all its suffering, trials, struggles (and its celebrations and joys which are too few and too far between) this world will end. But, He says, “my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”

Because his salvation will be forever and his righteousness will never be dismayed … because you have a blessed past and a certain future … this means that you have a hopeful present. Look back at what God has done! He will never abandon you! Look ahead to what God has promised! You have nothing to fear!

I don’t know what your DNA says about you, but I know what God says. He says, “You are mine. I have stretched out my arm to save you.” He says, “Look back! I have redeemed you.” He says, “Look to the future! I promise you an eternally blessed home with Me.” So now we can look at this world with hope, peace, and joy because if Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, has given us a history and a future. Amen.