So, what is a ‘herald?’ According to the dictionary, a herald is a ‘bringer of news’—literally, somebody who brings or announces important news. A ‘herald’ can also be a ‘sign of what will happen.’ A good example for us at this time might be … the robin. (I saw my first robin this past week.) The robin is the herald of spring! The robin is one of those signs that let us know that spring is coming…
Our OT prophets are ‘heralds.’ And, they were ‘heralds’ with a purpose—excited to share the news they were delivering because it was news from God (as they were God’s commercial); this, I believe, is why people would come to listen to them!
How excited would they get? Let me tell you. The Hebrew word for prophecy is: hittiph. Its common translation would be ‘to bubble’ or ‘to gush’ (fountain)—a reference to the excited or frenzied speech of the early prophets. Have you ever got so excited about some good news you had to share that you could hardly keep it in? (“I got an … ‘A!’”) It would just ‘bubble’ over/‘gush’ up out of you as soon as you got your chance to share! Literally, the word hittiph means ‘to let drop,’ as in the saliva dropping from the mouths of God’s prophets as they got excited about and delivered the messages of God! That’s how excited they got!
Now, when was the last time you were so excited about something you had to say that you were ‘bubbling’ or ‘gushing’ in your speech, saliva barely able to stay in your mouth? Is it any wonder people would come from miles around to go into the wilderness to hear these prophets or ‘heralds?’ It was a message from God; they were convinced of it … and determined to convince others (with God’s help), too…
Folks, long before John the Baptist came, it was prophesied that he would come. He’d be one who would make a way for the coming of the Messiah. He would pave the way, so to speak. And the prophet, or ‘herald,’ who would let us know about John, was a man by the name of Isaiah. Let’s see what he had to say about John (Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11, NLT) … and other things:
“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the LORD has punished her twice over for all her sins.” 3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! 4 Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. 5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The LORD has spoken!”
9 O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!” 10 Yes, the Sovereign LORD is coming in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.
Here’s a question for you: If the prophets or ‘heralds’ were so excited that they were ‘frenzied’ in their speech, with saliva flying, what were they so excited about? What kind of message could possibly draw people from miles and miles away?
Folks, ‘heralds’ were always a sign that God was coming. In some way, shape or form, God was going to enter into the story! And, just as Isaiah was an OT prophet or ‘herald,’ so John was the NT prophet or ‘herald’ that would be a sign of God’s coming. People knew that when these prophets or ‘heralds’ spoke, they’d better listen, for the message would affect their lives in significant ways…
You just heard one of those messages, didn’t you? From our perspective, the Messiah has already come. Remember, though, that he hadn’t yet in Isaiah’s day; they were still waiting. So, this was exciting news to them. But, why would this message be exciting to us today? What’s in it for us? Here’s Isaiah’s (and John’s) GOOD NEWS:
One Who is [ALL] POWERFUL Will Come… Verse 10, once again, says, “Yes, the Sovereign LORD is coming in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.” How many of us have ever faced a difficultly in life that seemed too big for us to handle? Possibly, we’d been a part of the Church for years, but in the midst of the crisis, all we could do was worry! Where was the POWER?
It’s kind of like a car that doesn’t start. If you look under the hood, you’ll likely find a wire that is not connected to the power of the battery. Once that wire is reconnected, there the power will be!
So, where was the POWER in your life when you needed it? It was there all along… But, the key to tapping into that power is … we must stay connected! That is our part…
Folks, I’m here to tell you today that God is One who is bigger than any problem or circumstance you are facing today … or will ever face in the future! We can count on the One who is ALL POWERFUL… He will be there for us, in our times of trouble, if we will but take the time to stay connected to him… Are we doing that? ALSO…
One Who Will Be a SHEPHERD Will Come… I LOVE THIS IMAGERY!!! Verse 11 reminds us of who the Messiah—the Savior—will be when he comes: “He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.” So, Jesus is one who will be…
- A Shepherd – Doesn’t that sound nice? Not always, because Jesus will also be…
- The Good Shepherd – What does that mean?
The traditional story of the Good Shepherd (John 10) has forever changed in my life, since taking trips to the Holy Land and being taught by a good teacher about the reality of that story. We have all seen the statue, haven’t we … of the Good Shepherd? (If you haven’t, it looks like this…)
Here, we have a Good Shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders. At first glance, this statue and the image it conjures up in our mind looks so serene, so peaceful. But the reality is anything but… Here are Jesus’ words from John 10:11, 14-15, 17-18 (NLT):
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. … 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. … 17 The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again….”
Now, that’s power, isn’t it? The story has been told time and time again about how the Good Shepherd would leave the entire flock to go & retrieve just one lost sheep. They belong to him; they’ve been entrusted to his care. He would give his very life to save all of them (and he did)…
What we don’t see in this very serene picture of the shepherd with the sheep on his shoulders are the sheep’s broken legs. You see, if there was an unruly sheep who was continually wandering off and not following the shepherd (for their care & safety), the shepherd would leave the others and go and find them. Then, he would often break their legs (so that they couldn’t run away again); they would then nurse them & care for them … all the way back to good health…
The question is this: What would that unruly sheep remember? The few moments it took to break their legs … or the weeks spent intimately nursing that sheep and loving that sheep back to good health? I think that you know the answer … and, if you don’t, let me tell you a modern-day version…
Nate Thompson was one of my youth at Cargill United Methodist Church in Janesville. He was the kid that everyone warned me about. He was in Junior High when I got there and into his high school years when I left. Nate was a trying child … to say the least. His parents didn’t know what to do with him a great deal of the time, so they sent him on mission trips (and other things) with me…
As an adult in charge of youth, especially when I had anywhere from 20-40 together for any given event, there had to be a certain amount of discipline in play … or there would be chaos. (Anyone who’s ever been a teacher understands this.) I didn’t mind doing what I had to do, but when you had to repeatedly get on to certain individuals, disciplining got pretty old, pretty fast…
Here’s the bottom line: Nate Thompson was one of those kids that I honestly thought was going to hate me, once he grew up and realized how often I had to sit down on him! It was bad. And, it got worse on one particular mission trip, where before we were even at our destination, I had to announce to him that he would be sitting beside me on the bus for the remainder of the trip! (Although I’m not sure who was actually punished by that move…) I thought, folks, that he was going to absolutely come to hate me once he’d grown up and realized all that had happened…
But, he didn’t. Instead of remembering those times that I had to sit down on him at youth group functions, he remembered:
- Me remembering things like his birthday … out of love…
- Me visiting him & supporting him through his times of recovery from various things, even during high school…
Through this experience, God was teaching me who he had to be sometimes as the Good Shepherd… And we still have this Good Shepherd who wants to work in and through our lives today, too! Isaiah also refers to him as…
- The Great Shepherd – A shepherd of all shepherds…
- The Chief Shepherd – The shepherd in charge…
This was the message of the prophet and ‘herald,’ Isaiah. And he was saying that this would also be the message of one John the Baptist in NT days. This is why the people of their day—without a great deal of hope in their lives—came from miles around to listen… It was GOOD NEWS like they’d never heard before! Here’s the NT fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy from Matthew 3:1-3 (NLT). Listen:
“In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, 2 ‘Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.’ 3 The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, ‘He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the LORD’s coming! Clear the road for him!’”
It strikes me that we live in a day where people are ‘in captivity,’ too. Just as Isaiah’s listeners were in captivity in Babylon … and just as John’s listeners were suffering under the captivity of Roman oppression, so we today are also held captive by:
- Sin – those things in our life that are not of God, but we continue to hang onto and to be held captive by … even like attitudes that are unloving or ungodly, or habits, etc.
- Our Economy – constant financial stress … family stuff, consumerist attitudes that seem to have taken over our world, concerns about retirement, etc.
- Relational challenges…
- General worry about tomorrow—a lack of resolve with many things in this world (as people are polarized over issues); we seem to be in a constant state of ‘limbo’…
You know what? We do have HOPE … and his name is Jesus. He is the ALL POWERFUL ONE whom Isaiah said would come … and he did. He is also that GOOD SHEPHERD who is there to steer us, to correct us, and to protect us … in this ol’ world that he has allowed us to be a part of. Do you believe that? (If you don’t, I haven’t ‘gushed’ or ‘spit’ enough today…) HE IS THE GREAT SHEPHERD—OUR SHEPHERD—WHO HAS COME… There’s the Good News of the prophets … for all of us!