Matins Devotion: December 11, 2024

Isaiah 28:14-19

Our reading from Isaiah this morning gives us not a historical conversation between Jerusalem and those who have crushed the city, but a theological conversation. That is, there is no person who spoke these words to anyone in Jerusalem. Nor is this what the scribes of those nations wrote down when they explained why their leaders invaded Jerusalem and oppressed the people. But rather, this is the theological motivation. This is what these nations were seeking to do, even if they didn’t realize it. They made a covenant with death, as the prophet tells us. They worshiped death and its father, the devil. They relied on the power of death to destroy the people of life, the people of God. That’s why they took the city. That’s why they overpowered whomever they wanted. They pledged themselves to death and death, in return, promised to give them the world.

Ah, well, here’s the problem: death is dead. And what good is your covenant when the one who signed it is no longer alive to honor it? God let you crush His people for a little while to bring them to repentance, but He will send His Son, the one who will slaughter death and incinerate every one of that false god’s promises to ashes. So it was then. So it is today.

When the enemies of the Gospel persecute Christians, when they threaten them, imprison them, kill them, why do they think they can do this? Because they’ve made a covenant with death and they want their reward. When the godless, the vile, the wicked pollute this world with filth, with bitterness, with cruelty, why are they so brazen? Covenant with death. When sin erupts in your heart and tells you to take everything God has denied you, when sin takes over your heart and claims it for the kings of lust and greed and anger and pride, why does this happen? Covenant with death.

Ah, well, death is dead. And every promise it made to you and the world is no more. So come find your peace in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who lives and who promises a far better covenant. Come find forgiveness for your sins in His arms. Come find protection from the sins of the world in His arms. Come hear the word. Come receive the sacraments. Come hear the living promises of the living God, the one who silenced death when He rose from the grave and who will silence it forever when He returns to give you the kingdom of God as your inheritance.