New Year’s Day, 2000
Isaiah 9:6
Welcome
to the new millennium!
For
the past 20 years or so, all we have heard is “by the year 2000…” And now, here it is!
Leading up to this day have been hundreds and even thousands of predictions. Some have been simply demographics. It was predicted for years that by the year 2000, the world’s population would hit the 6 billion mark, and it did, just a few weeks ago. Other predictions were more dramatic – predictions of catastrophe, Armageddon and global collapse have caused even the most skeptical of us to face a very basic truth. Regardless of how seriously we have taken such alarmist predictions, I believe it has caused a bit of a shake-up in our confidence in our selves. How could we have allowed something as simple as a two-digit change in computer chips to get to be such a problem? How is it that the fear of this very real mistake cost our nations businesses millions and millions of dollars to correct and prepare for. In fact, the government reported that spending to correct the Y2K problem in the United States alone will top $114 billion dollars, going back as far as 1995, and continuing into this new year.
While
for most of us, Y2K seemed to be a lot of hype about nothing it is obvious that
for a lot of people, it was a real concern, enough to invest billions of
dollars. And even with all the spending
and preparation, we can not be sure that there will not be some problems as we
enter into this new century. Even most
of us who didn’t take it seriously were urged to have a few gallons of drinking
water on hand, and some candles, extra blankets and ready to eat food, just in
case.
Even
if you don’t realize it, this has caused our confidence to be shaken. For some, it has been a crisis in
confidence, and they have taken wild steps to make themselves more secure, and
for those who took no such steps, even in their confidence, they have to admit
that there is a little bit of concern.
Our confidence is perhaps not so strong as it once was. We have created a world that is so
technologically advanced that a seemingly small problem can have devastating
consequences.
But
this is only one cause of our crisis of confidence. The last 30 years have been some of the most traumatic in our Nation’s
history. While enemies from without
have been defeated, and the triumph of democracy over communism has been great,
there has been a terrible loss in our confidence in our own government. We have seen once great leaders brought low
by scandal, forced to resign in the 70’s and effectively left powerless in the
last year. We have seen our technology
take us to great heights, even to put a man on the moon, and we have seen it
fail us. Our Nation, once heralded as
the defender of the defenseless, now shamelessly murders millions of its weakest
citizens every year. We have witnessed
situational ethics reach to such heights that our president has stood before
us, pointed his finger at us and lied to our face, and was permitted to do so
because the economy is in such great, and no body was really hurt, so it’s OK.
While
evolutionists insist that our society is getting better and better with time,
we have witnessed violence of unprecedented nature in our public schools and
churches. As we enter the 21st century, more people are seeing
counselors, turning to mystics or taking their own lives out of the desperation
that is sweeping our world. Beneath the
façade of strength and economic prosperity, we are a people of shaken confidence.
In
his first Inaugural Address, Ronald Regan spoke to the American people from the
west portico of the Capitol Building.
It was the first time a President had done so. He said these words…
This is the first time in history that this ceremony has been held, as you have been told, on this West Front of the Capitol. Standing here, one faces a magnificent vista, opening up on this city's special beauty and history. At the end of this open mall are those shrines to the giants on whose shoulders we stand. Directly in front of me, the monument to a monumental man: George Washington, Father of our country. A man of humility who came to greatness reluctantly. He led America out of revolutionary victory into infant nationhood. Off to one side, the stately memorial to Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence flames with his eloquence. And then beyond the Reflecting Pool the dignified columns of the Lincoln Memorial. Whoever would understand in his heart the meaning of America will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln. Beyond those monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery with its row on row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom.
“At the end of this
open mall are those shrines to the giants on whose shoulders we stand.”
A few years earlier, a picture of another president was published for the first time. It showed a young John F. Kennedy, silhouetted against a backdrop of windows in the oval office, his hands on the table in front of him, his head dropped, seemingly with the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. And at times during his 1000 days in office, I’m sure it felt as if the whole world was on his shoulders.
And that is the problem.
You see, we have become a people who stand on the shoulders of other people. Our confidence has been placed in mankind. We turn to medicine to heal us, science to feed us, government to protect us, schools to raise our kids, television to inform us. We have become, in this 21st century, people who stand on the shoulders of people. Our hope, our security, our destiny, is wrapped up in what we can be, what we can do, what we can dream, and we have left God out of the picture, and that is why our confidence is on such shaky ground. For people will always let us down. Dreams along the way to reality become corrupted and twisted. When our future rests on the accomplishments of humans, and when our security rests on the shoulders of men, we are sure to be disappointed.
This crisis of confidence is nothing new. In fact, the nation of Israel faced it quite often. It seems that they regularly began to take on the attitude that their past accomplishments and success had been built on the shoulders of great leaders like David and Solomon. The fact that David and Solomon had been faithful to God seemed to be lost to the later generations. King David was called “a man after God’s own heart.” And Solomon was so blessed by God that
God made him an offer to grant any wish he would make. Both of these men lived lives that pleased God, and they were blessed by them, but they also made mistakes and allowed sin to enter their lives, and paid dearly for them. The people of Israel had forgotten that, however, and had begun to believe that they were in control of their own destinies. They began to put their faith in strong leaders, and military might. They forged alliances with other nations in the middle east to provide for their security, and for centuries they went along becoming more and more confident in their own strength, while forgetting God.
One of those times was during the reign of King Ahaz. After Solomon’s reign as king of Israel, the
kingdom fell into civil war, the north was called Israel, and the south Judah. Ahaz was the leader of the southern kingdom. In Isaiah chapter 7, Isaiah the prophet was
sent to Jerusalem in 741 BC to speak to King Ahaz when his city was surrounded
by the armies of Syria and Israel. Isaiah told the king to ask God for a sign
that would convince him and his people that the God of Israel still loved them
and would protect them from their enemies. But Ahaz refused the offer, because
he hoped that Assyria would protect him. So the Lord gave his own sign, telling
them that a deliverer would come out of the house of David, and meanwhile Judah
as well as Syria and Israel were marked off for destruction. Isaiah 8 predicted
the downfall of the ten tribes by Assyria.
Ahaz typified the confidence the people of Israel had placed in human
leadership. He scoffed at the words of
God. When God told him to ask for a
sign of His faithfulness, Ahaz refused, placing his faith instead in military
alliances. Ahaz felt he could stand on
the shoulders of other people, on the shoulders of his nation’s history, on the
shoulders of military strength. Isaiah
was given the task of telling him that as a result, Judah, Israel, and Syria
would all fall. Not only would his
enemy fail, but his allies and his own nation would be crushed.
But in the midst of this pronouncement from Isaiah, God gave a promise. A promise that He would not leave His people without hope nor destroy them completely. It is a promise that we have heard several times during this Christmas season. It is found in Chapter 9, and verse 6 of Isaiah’s prophesy. It reads,
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Did you catch that?
“…And the government
will be upon His shoulder.”
In Isaiah’s day Judah’s leaders were incompetent in governing the people. They were standing on the shoulders of men. But the Messiah is promised to come and place the government on His shoulders.
Now those are some shoulders!
These words were a promise of the Messiah. A promise that one day, people on earth would not have to stand on the shoulders of other men in order to be secure. A promise that one day, they would not have to look back to the days of King David and Solomon to find confidence in their nation. That they would not have to look to their current king for security, or that they would have to depend on the well being of other nations for their prosperity. No their government, their security, their prosperity would rest firmly upon the shoulders of God Himself – the Messiah.
In many ways, we have become like Israel of the 8th century BC. We have placed our hope in the ability of men. We have found our security in our technological might to overcome even the most dangerous of circumstances. Our peace, we think, is found in alliances and promises made between nations. But when we stand on the shoulders of men, it is a shaky foundation.
But the promise of God has been fulfilled.
Jesus Christ came to this earth, and he said, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, and you will find rest for your weary souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
A yoke was a piece of wood that was made to straddle the shoulders of a set of oxen. With a set of ropes it was firmly attached to the beasts, and they would pull together to drag a plow though the dirt. Jesus says, “come and be joined to me, and I will help you with your burden.” But there is more to it than that. Notice that Jesus says his yoke is easy? An easy yoke was one in which the carpenter came out to the farm, and took measurements and fitted the yoke personally to the shoulders of the team of oxen, so that they were comfortable, and the oxen were then able to pull harder because the wood of the yoke fit them perfectly.
Do you see the point? These shoulders, upon the whom the whole of the world has been placed, have also been fitted personally to be matched up with you. Those great shoulders, that Isaiah said have the governing of the whole world resting upon them, are the same shoulders that are available to you to help you in your daily struggle. They are shoulders upon which Mary and Martha wept when Lazarus died. They are the shoulders around which Peter clung when he was sinking beneath the waves of the Sea of Galilee. They are the shoulders that over which the Roman soldiers draped a purple robe after they had beaten Him. They are the same shoulders that were so physically abused that they could not bear the weight of the cross to the top of Golgotha’s height. The same shoulders over which now a royal robe is fitted, with the name written upon it, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!
They are the same shoulders that are described by Jesus Himself as the shoulders of a shepherd, who, when he has lost a lamb, leaves the others behind, and searches until He finds it, and when He has found it, He lays it on His shoulders, rejoicing.
Those are big shoulders.
Those are shoulders big enough to lean on.
Tell me, this first Sunday of the new millenium, upon whose shoulders do you stand?
Do you stand on the shoulders of man, trusting humanities ability to deal with whatever may come? Do you trust in medicine, technology and human goodness for your security?
Or do you rest on the shoulders of Jesus Christ, upon whom all of creation rests. Have you come to him, spent and weak, realizing your own inability to make it alone, and clung to his shoulders? If you will allow Him, He will lift you up, and place you on His shoulders, and carry you home as His own lamb.
Samuel Coleridge, who lived from 1772 to 1834 once said, “A dwarf sees farther then the giant when he has a giant’s shoulders to stand upon.”
I believe that a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant still can’t see far enough to know what tomorrow holds. But when we rest on the shoulders of Jesus, we know no fear of the future, we know no crisis of confidence. For we rest firmly on the shoulders of God himself, the one by whom all thins are created, and by whom all things are held together.
And those are shoulders big enough to lean upon!