Isaiah’s Promise Of A Listened-To People

What if the most radical act of power is to listen first? We step into the closing vision of Isaiah and meet a people who have finally come home from exile, only to find that old wounds can resurface in new forms. The prophet refuses easy comfort, naming how neglect and hierarchy can grow inside our own circles, even as we celebrate a fresh start. From the aching line before they call, I will answer to the startling image of wolves and lambs feeding together, Isaiah sketches a future where justice sounds like attention and peace looks like restraint.

We unpack the historical backdrop—Israel’s golden years, the split, the conquest, and the long road of return—and then follow Isaiah’s promises into everyday life: houses kept by the families who build them, vineyards whose fruit is finally enjoyed by the planters, lifetimes that are not cut short by hardship. Along the way, we confront a hard truth: sometimes the wolves were not foreign oppressors but neighbors who forgot to listen. That is why the reversal matters. A community becomes new when those with power practice empathy, when the remnant are honored, and when plans are shaped by the voices once pushed to the margins.

For us as Christians, this hope takes on flesh in Jesus. We talk about Christ not as an abstract answer but as presence—love that draws near, attention that heals, and a way of life that refuses to siphon the work of one for the comfort of another. We share how imperfect churches can still be faithful by making listening a discipline, counting tears as data, and turning belief into practices that protect the vulnerable. And we celebrate how moments like baptism mark a public pledge to become a people who answer with care, even before the words are formed.

If this conversation moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with one way you plan to practice listening this week. Your stories help this community grow in hope.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Prophetic Journey
• 1:04 Israel’s Split And Exile Recap
• 2:08 Return Home And New Tensions
• 2:47 Isaiah’s Promise To Be Heard
• 5:15 Wolves, Lambs, And Inner Oppression
• 6:26 No More Weeping Or Shortened Lives
• 7:25 Houses Built, Fruit Enjoyed
• 8:40 Christ As Fulfillment Of Hope
• 10:25 Imperfect Church, Perfect Love
• 11:05 A Community That Truly Listens
• 11:26 Baptisms And Amen

Transcript

Pastor Darren: 0:00

Well, friends, uh, we are taking a journey in November here. Uh our journey is uh uh going through just three of our Old Testament prophets. We had Haggai last week, and uh today we're talking about Isaiah. Next week it'll be Jeremiah. Uh and it again is uh the idea that these are some of the prophets that started pointing towards what we are grateful for when we think about Christmas and what it means to us as Christians and the birth of Christ. Uh and so I'll remind you as we dip into these prophets again, as we dip into Isaiah, some of the history is helpful to remember. Took me four and a half minutes last week, but now that I already did it, I tried to shoe away a charger score, and I almost lost my whole lost the message. You were about to get a sermon on a on a ball game here in a second. No, but uh remind you it took me a little while to say it. I think we can do it really, really quickly this week since we laid it out last week. But you'll remember the Israelites were a people that had a high time with a couple of kings, especially David and Solomon, who were really effective, but after they passed away, the kingdoms split. You know, the Israelite kingdoms split, and eventually uh in their splitting even became conquered. And in the conquering, all their good people and all the resources were just taken away for a couple of generations, even more. Uh eventually uh the conquerors were conquered themselves, and the new conquerors let the Israelites go back home. And so there's this uh uh um energy uh around the coming back home that is filled with some hope uh but also some challenge. Isaiah is a prophet who was preaching through uh a length of that time. So he you can understand uh the different times where parts of Isaiah were written down. We're at the very end of Isaiah, so he's preaching about this being able to go back home. So there's this hopefulness, this this new uh future that is on its way. Uh um, and interestingly, in this new future, what we're learning, what's being implied here, is that the oppression that they faced when they had been conquered and and all of the resources and people have been taken away, that oppression now sort of changed. But what's interesting is there's this new oppression that has found its way, this new disappointment. You'll see it in verse 24, and it points to the crux of the pain. Before they call, I will answer. While they are yet speaking, I will hear. This is something that the the Israelites were were really craving. Being able to be listened to was so important. And Isaiah is naming it here, and he's saying, in this new future, that will no longer be true. You will be listened to. Think what we're what we're hearing, what's implied in all of this, is there's this lack of empathy in the world, in this oppressive existence that the Israelites were feeling, this sense of nobody really cares about us, not even enough to listen to us. Clearly, this would be felt after you've been conquered. There's not necessarily a lot of uh good feelings and a lot of good heart over the people that you have conquered. But what is um interesting in this rebuild now as the generations, and it's been a few, the generations of people who are now returning back to the homeland are now creating kind of their own world of oppression, their own world of not listening to who was there, and that remnant that weren't taken away, that basically had to kind of survive without the drive, without the leadership, without the resources, but managed to survive, now has what might feel like older brothers, older sisters coming back and saying, All right, here, we're gonna do this and do that. You can probably imagine how that might have felt. There's this joy that they're back, but now they're telling you all what needs to happen, all that you're gonna need to do. In the midst of that, Isaiah is pointing to a new future in which some of that feeling that came off apparently, like some heartlessness, even from those who were coming back, from their own compatriots that were coming back. There's a feeling that even some of that heartlessness there would be a new hope away from that. Another verse, verse 25, talks about the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the oak, but like the ox. Right? We see that and we think, oh, those conquerors, they're the wolves, we are the lambs, and in this new future we're all gonna live together. But as you read Isaiah, you start to realize, well, not all the wolves were the conquerors. Sometimes they were the people who were coming back and not treating each other super, super well. In the midst of that, this is the message that Isaiah is trying to get across, this sense of hope for a future. It's grounded in this reality that they've been allowed to go back home, but it's a picture that he is painting that is more full than just being able to go back home. And you can hear the heart of the Israelites in the future that he paints, the prophecy of hope that he wants to deliver to these people. No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it or the cry of distress. Can you hear the heart of the Israelites in just that prophecy? It's implied that that's what they're going through now. And you can guess why they would be so hopeful for this new future. No more shall there'll be in it an infant that lives but just a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime. We can fill the story in there a little bit. The Israelites were probably a people who lost infants. They were probably a people who uh for whom didn't get to live out their full lives through hardship or even something worse. You can hear Isaiah's prophecy and how much it probably meant to them. They shall build houses and inhabit them, they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Sometimes you look at that and you think, well, yeah, I mean, isn't that kind of how the world works? Well, not when you've been conquered, not when you're being oppressed. Often all your work is going towards somebody else. So this prophecy of hope from Isaiah really is is one would guess, really speaking into the hearts of the Israelites. They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant, and another eat. For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Again, you can hear the pain that the Israelites have been going through when it talks about all their work going to help other people and not them. We can imagine how frustrating that would be for us, how heartbreaking that would be for us, and how hope-filled the message might come to the Israelite people as Isaiah preaches it. The crux of this painting that Isaiah is is creating is that at least for us Christians, the crux of the picture, the crux of the message to us foretells Christ. This is what Christ is looking to bring for us. This reality is what Christ wants us to know. It's the hope that he brings that that is literally embodied in Christ and in his life, his very presence amongst us. We understand as Christians that his presence is evidence of the love that we have from the creator of the world. Our world may be imperfect, it may be broken, but the creator, the one who created it, loves us. Listen to us, wants for us to flourish, wants for us to be able to thrive in this world that God created. God wants us to know a love so deep that it is evident in God's being willing to send Jesus to be here amongst us. Jesus who comes with this message of love, and he in his own existence among us is evidence of that love. People are still awakening to this reality of the presence of love in our world, and they're seeking to be part of that in whatever complicated way that might come to them. We know we're not perfect as Christians. We know our churches, our institutions aren't perfect, but we're here doing our best to rest and live out the reality of our belief that God is here and God is love, and that love is real, and that love matters. We want this to be a place where all God's children live together peacefully, dare I say, even in appreciation for each other, a place where all of God's children are heard, listened to, and respected as God would have them be respected. I was able to celebrate that today with the baptisms. I hope that you were able to celebrate that too. Amen.