Proper 9
Our Savior Announcements 7/2
Voter’s Meeting July 13th
Immediately following the service on July 13th the Building Committee will give a report based on the initial survey results. IMPORTANT: The collection of your opinions is going to continue. If you have not yet had a chance to give your view on a potential building project, you will still get that chance. The question of whether or not there will be a building project at all is also still yet to be voted on. The purpose of the Building Committee is to put together a building proposal to then be voted on. Also on the agenda: approving JonMarc Johnson as the new Building and Grounds Councilman.
VBS Registration and Poster
Attached to the email and available on the website (oursaviorperry.org) is all the information about VBS. Feel free to give the information to anyone you know who has children who might want to attend our VBS! There will be printed copies available at church as well. If you have a chance, you can also put them in local businesses if they have a bulletin board.
Isaiah Bible Study
Isiaah Chapter 11
The Third Description of Immanuel: The Branch From Jesse
A shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.3 He will be delighted with the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, nor will he render decisions based on what he hears with his ears,4 but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and he will render fair decisions in favor of the oppressed on the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath from his lips he will put the wicked to death.5 Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his hips.6 The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together, and a little child will lead them.7 The cow and the bear will graze together, and their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the cattle.8 The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand into a viper’s den.9 They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
A Remnant of Israel Will Return
10 This is what will take place on that day. The peoples will seek the Root of Jesse, who will be standing like a banner for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious.
11 On that day the Lord will reach out his hand for the second time to reclaim the remnant of this people who survive from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coasts of the sea.
12 He will set up a banner for the nations, and he will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the scattered people of Judah, from the four corners of the earth.13 Ephraim’s envy will be turned aside, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not envy Judah, and Judah will not persecute Ephraim.14 They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines in the west. Together they will plunder the peoples in the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the people of Ammon will obey them.15 The Lord will completely dry up the gulf of the Egyptian Sea. With his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and he will split it into seven streams, so that people wearing sandals will be able to march through it.16 There will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people that is left there, as there was for Israel in the day when they came up out of the land of Egypt.
Pastor’s Comment
Isaiah gives another prophecy of the Savior. In the first 9 verses of chapter 11 He depicts the Savior and the result of his work. There are two parts here. Both concern the undoing of the fall into sin. First, the restoration of the relationships between men. “With righteousness he will judge the poor, and he will render fair decisions in favor of the oppressed on the earth.” The reason for all injustice between people and any kind of social problem we experience is a result of sin. The Righteous Branch renders according to his righteousness, what is correct, not influenced by any external force or power. Second, the restoration of the harmony in creation. Scripture tells of the harm that came into the created world beyond the relationships between men. Christ’s work of restoration is so complete that every created being comes back into harmony with its Creator.
Luther’s Comment
9. They shall not hurt, etc There will be supreme peace and harmony in Christ’s kingdom, and people will neither offend nor destroy one another. They have and make peace. Christians are peacemakers “among those who hate peace,” as Ps. 120:6 says, yet in such a way that the church is not changed, but the wolves, leopards, lions, and bears are. Those who hold our teaching have peace. The true knowledge of Christ begets harmony. Later, in chapter 53:11, he says: “By His knowledge He shall make many to be accounted righteous.” It is a cause of strife when everyone defends his own opinion. Those who know Christ forsake all human opinions, rely on the Word alone, and on the life and righteousness of Christ alone. In the world and in external affairs there is indeed inequality, but in Christ’s kingdom all things are one. Laws cannot bring men into agreement. Faith in Christ creates unity and makes men equal, while every other kind of righteousness is condemned. He says, the knowledge of Christ will pervade and fill all things like a kind of deluge, and human opinions will be overwhelmed in it. Christ is our peace “and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility,” as Eph. 2:14 says.