Thy Strong Word From Kfuo Radio

Rev. Curtis Deterding, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Fort Myers, Florida, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 52. It’s Christmas and Good Friday at the same time—this remarkable chapter has both of the yearly readings, right next to each other: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news” right before “his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance.” The long winter’s night of exile finally was ending, and the exiles received the greatest Christmas present: their return home. The next time you see the magi, those “three kings of orient,” remember the Judean exiles who brought gifts back home to Jerusalem from Babylon. And remember the gifts flowing down to us from the Cross and from the right hand of God, where Christ has been lifted up.

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.

Rev. David Andrus, pastor of Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in St. Louis and Not-Alone.net Ministries, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 50. “Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” Isaiah 50 proclaims that God has not divorced His people Israel. He is faithful even when we are faithless, and the remnant of Judah will not be forgotten. Judah has been disciplined through Assyria and Babylon, and he now willingly accepts the blows and the shame. Yet even restored Judah could not overcome the idolatry of the heart. Only Christ in the flesh can awaken us to true obedience, morning by morning through baptism. Because Christ set His face like flint toward Jerusalem, we have the true torchlight of salvation to rescue us from torment.

Rev. Kevin Parviz, pastor of Congregation Chai v’Shalom in St. Louis, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 49. You haven’t been forgotten; can a mother forget her children? Isaiah 49 uses tender and compassionate language to describe God’s love for us. Even though the exiles felt like they had been cast aside, it turns out they were only hidden like an arrow in God’s quiver or a sword “in the shadow of his hand.” Now the time had come to depart from exile and strike with God’s words of purpose. Paradoxically, Israel gathers Israel. The remnant gathers the survivors who had forgotten their God. Ultimately Jesus Christ is the true remnant who gathers us all together, whose hands are engraved with our names in His blood.

Rev. Lane Burgland, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Churubusco, Indiana, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 106. “Gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name.” Christians are not thankful in an abstract sense; rather they concretely say “thank you” to God for His acts of mercy and faithfulness, even in dark times. Even in the midst of exile, God’s people give Him thanks. We are consoled that God has always been faithful in the past, even in our worst moments. When we forget God, we imperil ourselves. When we make remembrance of Him, His power can save us from the impossible, as He showed on Easter.

Rev. Chris Biernacki, pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Florence, Alabama, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 105. The story of the Old Testament is our own story. When God looked at His people Israel, He saw you and me, so He acted to protect us even before we were born. Psalm 105 says that, even in the days of Abraham, God saw all His “anointed ones” and “prophets”—He saw the whole line of kings leading up to His own Son, Jesus of Nazareth. So when we praise God, we give thanks for everything He’s done for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and all the rest. Even when He sent the famine or hardened the hearts of the Egyptians, God was directing history to bless us today. Praise God and give thanks for His steadfast love.

Rev. Matt Tooman, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Wahpeton, North Dakota, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 48. Israel stands to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. God has opened the way home to Judah through Cyrus of Persia, but the exiles have become comfortable in Babylon! In Isaiah 48, God criticizes His people for being Israelites in name only and for becoming as dense as the idols they’ve made for themselves. This is tough love: there is no rest for the wicked, and there is no peace to be had living in Babylon. If we have God’s Word, we will have a never-ending supply of peace, flowing down to us like a river even in the midst of the wilderness. From His riven side, Christ’s peace flows to us in the midst of the darkness of death.

Rev. John Lukomski, retired pastor in Darmstadt, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 47. Babylon thought she was invincible. True, she was God’s weapon of justice against His own people, but she went too far. She forgot her place, she became merciless and oppressive, and she relied on her own charms and enchantments instead of giving glory to God. Like Cinderella, she went from a princess in a coach to a servant girl in a pumpkin just like that. God defeats even His people’s most impressive enemies—but we must be humble. We too fall into the trap of Babylon, unlovingly berating people and thinking our own cleverness will solve every problem. Only Jesus Christ is the savior; our wisdom always comes second to Him.

Rev. David Boisclair, pastor of Faith and Bethesda Lutheran Churches in North St. Louis County, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 46. “Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock.” No god is like Yahweh the true God, and in Isaiah 46 the prophet names the false gods of Babylon. All they do is weigh you down: you have to carry them around until someone else carries them away from you in your defeat. The Babyonian exilers have become the exiled. God, on the other hand, has carried us from the very beginning, like a mother carrying her child in the womb. The God that carried us around in Abraham is the same God that carried us out of Egypt. He is the same God that carried us out of exile and the same God that carries us out of the grave and into the glorious presence of God in Christ.

Rev. Joel Shaltanis, pastor of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Plano, Texas, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 45. After five chapters of preparation, the cat is out of the bag: Cyrus of Persia is God’s messiah, His chosen king sent to free the exiles. How can this be! Isaiah 45 lets this bomb drop amidst objections and misunderstandings. In the end, it’s not so different from Abraham and Moses. God has done this to reveal Himself to the nations, although He remains hidden apart from His Word. Persia will only partly grasp the reality of Yahweh, confusing Him with the Babylonian god Marduk and their own god Ahura Mazda. Yet some will come to the Temple and hear the Scriptures, and ultimately, as Isaiah says, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Yahweh, the true and only God.

Rev. Steven Theiss, retired pastor in Frohna, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 44. When Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon, the exiles from Judah didn’t know what to make of it. Isaiah speaks clearly in chapter 45: this is all God’s doing. This event only proves that the gods of Babylon are useless. Why would you cut down a tree and burn one half for fuel and worship the other half as a god? Idolatry is madness! We too waste so much time, effort, and resources on imitations of ourselves, what we make in our own image. Only the Creator can snap us out of it. Like Moses and Cyrus, God has sent our Lord Jesus to rescue us from alienation and guide us to new life.

Rev. Matthew Wurm, pastor of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Brookings, South Dakota, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 43. God poured out His anger against Judah, and the Babylonians destroyed them. The exiles felt like God had abandoned them, like He was no longer their God—like He no longer loved them. Isaiah 43 presents us with the only instance in the whole Bible where God utters the Hebrew word for “I” followed by the Hebrew word for “love you” to refer to the whole of His people. He tells them that the exile was not due to any lack of love on God’s part; it was only because of their sins and the sins of their fathers. No other power in heaven or on earth created us, will save us, or loves us as God does in Christ Jesus.

Rev. Brian Davies, pastor of Lord of Glory Lutheran Church in Grayslake, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 42. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.” Matthew quotes these words from Isaiah 42 to show their ultimate fulfillment in Christ: powerful but not self-seeking, just but not unforgiving, holy but not arrogant. The Judean exiles had been deaf and blind, receiving God’s punishment but not learning their lesson. We today are even worse, falling into sin despite the full revelation of Christ and the Scriptures. Yet by grace we are all transformed into God’s Christ-like servants, albeit imperfectly for now. We deal gently with the lost as ones who relate all too well.

Rev. Nathan Meador, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Plymouth, Wisconsin, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 29. At first glance it may seem strange to praise God for floods, earthquakes, and thunderstorms, as David does in Psalm 29. As destructive as these things can be sometimes, more often they are God’s way of renewing and preserving His creation. When God strikes the trees, floods the rivers, and shakes the mountains, He preserves and enriches life on earth, like the peaceful lullaby of a thunderstorm. Faith is audacious to call on such a powerful God, before whom even the spiritual powers tremble in fear. In the flood of baptism however, our sin has been washed away and we have been made true sons of God in Jesus Christ—sons who know God’s peace in the midst of the storm.

Rev. Darrin Sheek, pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Anaheim, California, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 41. The idols of the world are silent. The nations of the earth tremble in fear. The true God has called Cyrus of Persia to conquer Babylon and to set His people free. Like Abraham, God has called someone from the east who did not know Him to serve His righteous purpose. Cyrus would not come to faith the same way Abraham did, but he would call on God’s name by supplying the exiles and asking them to pray to Yahweh on his behalf. God uses a foreign power to transform His people from worm to sledge. Later, He would use a Roman cross to transform His Son and us in the resurrection.

Rev. Thomas Eckstein, pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Jamestown, North Dakota, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 40. The voice of God calls out to His people exiled in Babylon. They have suffered for their sins, but now they will be restored by God’s grace. This is Isaiah 40’s message of comfort, from the perspective of over 100 years after the previous chapter. Compared to God the Creator, Judah’s enemies are like dust and grass. The one who oversees the ways of the stars will guard the way for His people’s journey home. Centuries later, God would prepare the way for Christ the true Temple, and one day, He will lift us up on eagles’ wings to the life of the world to come.

Rev. John Shank, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Edwardsville, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 39. “Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon.” This final and ominous prediction concludes the first part of Isaiah in chapter 39; the rest of the book will deal with God’s rescue from the Babylonians. Hezekiah had repented and had been healed, but he failed God’s test. He still trusted in princes, not God. Yet God still grants undeserved peace to him and his son Manasseh, peace which hints at God’s future restoration. We constantly falter like Hezekiah, but God still promises us future hope in Christ.

Rev. John Lukomski, retired pastor in Darmstadt, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 38. “Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.” Thus Isaiah delivered God’s harsh judgment against Hezekiah. His administration had made an idolatrous alliance with Egypt, and his heart was full of pride. Isaiah 38 gives us not only the history but also Hezekiah’s psalm of repentance. The king laments how his life has been cut short, and yet in faith he still appeals to God, even against God’s own sentence. God gives a sign that He will heal not only Hezekiah, but all of Judah as He fights for the city against Assyria. God “adds” years to Hezekiah’s life and Similarly, when God brought His own Son back to life, He saved all of us His people from destruction.

Rev. Nabil Nour, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Hartford, South Dakota, and Fourth Vice President of LCMS, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 37. The Assyrian Rabshakeh shouted threats of destruction at the gates of Jerusalem. Now what was King Hezekiah to do? He humbles himself before God and His servant Isaiah, trusting in the Creator of heaven and earth. Isaiah predicts that God will turn back King Sennacherib like a tamed horse. When the Assyrians later return to Judah, God works His miracles. Like with Pharaoh of Egypt, God works on Sennacherib’s heart and mind. God makes him worried when he hears a rumor about the homefront, and Yahweh sends His angel to strike down thousands of Assyrians. The combination puts the Assyrians into panic and disarray. They return home, and Jerusalem is saved from the siege.

Rev. Scott Adle, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Collinsville, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 36. After 35 chapters of predictions, the Assyrians have finally come. Chapters 36 to 39 seem to quote from 2 Kings, proving that Isaiah wasn’t just speaking fanciful words of theology in poetic flourishes; theology is God’s real-life plan for human history. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib of Assyria came and destroyed the whole country of Judah, except for the capital of Jerusalem. Walled up with no allies, not enough men, and not enough food, with their own God angry at them for their sin, the situation seemed totally hopeless. It was the Red Sea all over again—no way out. Yet, nothing is impossible for the Creator of heaven and earth. Who will you trust in?