a sermon for Sunday 27th January and the commissioning of Erin Pendreigh as Intern Minister. Read Isaiah 43:8-21 and Luke 4:14-21

I will do something new among you – now it will spring forward will you not be aware of it, I will even make roadways in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, I will do something new.

These are familiar words first declared by Isaiah to the people of Israel and now spoken to us.

As we begin to look at this we need to keep in mind the situation they were written for. There is some debate about who actually wrote this part of Isaiah: no one seriously doubts he wrote the first 39 chapters – the events described here took place during his ministry, 740BC to possibly as late as 681BC or thereabouts. A long ministry.

The problem is that the events described in chapter 40 and following took place after his death – roughly 200 years after his ministry began.

So either Isaiah was shown a glimpse of the future, maybe like John the writer of Revelations, or another author alive at the time penned these words under Isaiah’s name. Continue reading →

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