Thy Strong Word From Kfuo Radio

Rev. Ben Ball, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 57. Judah has become a mess in the wake of the Babylonian devastation. Their religion has devolved into sexual immorality and sacrificing children to idols. In chapter 57 Isaiah says that the people are sorceresses and adulterers by their very nature. Isaiah speaks this way to offer repentance and forgiveness. There is still a way out! Those who repent will find healing and rebuilding: God is about to reunite the survivors with the exiles. And the faithful who die are “taken away from calamity” and enter into peace. Although we have found new ways to be guilty of the same old sins of idolatry, God makes us the same offer of repentance in Christ Jesus.

Rev. Thomas Eckstein, pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Jamestown, North Dakota, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 56. God will make His barren people fruitful! That’s been the message of the last two chapters, but now in Isaiah 56, the foreigners and eunuchs are wondering about their place in the people of God, since bearing children with a good Hebrew name is a sensitive topic for them. God is not fooled by outward religious practices, but He sees the faith behind them. It is the spirit of the law, not the letter, that is the way of faith. We only fulfill the law in Christ, who fulfills it for us. Our pastors are meant to be watchmen who bark like dogs when the danger of idolatry comes near, that nothing would avert our eyes from Christ.

Rev. John Shank, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Edwardsville, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 55. Yahweh’s word came down like rain. It gave the exiles water and bread in the wilderness of exile—it gave them what they had hungered and thirsted for. In Isaiah 55, the idea of being “fruitful” ties together powerful words about what God does for us. Only His Word gives us true identity, purpose, hope, and salvation. We’re not going to get these things from the peoples around us. The return from exile was a sign of the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It seems strange that God should work through means as brutal as the Babylonians or the Cross, but God says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.”

Rev. William Foy, pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Valparaiso, Indiana, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 53. “Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” These are the words from Isaiah 53 that we hear read at Good Friday every year. When the Ethiopian eunuch asked about this passage, Philip used these words to tell him “the good news about Jesus.” Jesus Christ was crucified to forgive the sins of the whole world, including yours and mine. We should not assume that we are without sin just because we aRev. John Lukomski, retired pastor in Southern Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 54. Ruth and Orpah tragically lost their husbands so quickly that they had been left childless. Isaiah 54 describes Judah in similar terms, the exiles feeling abandoned and hopeless, like their story was left without purpose. God says to the exiles, “For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you.” He speaks to t

Rev. William Foy, pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Valparaiso, Indiana, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Isaiah 53. “Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” These are the words from Isaiah 53 that we hear read at Good Friday every year. When the Ethiopian eunuch asked about this passage, Philip used these words to tell him “the good news about Jesus.” Jesus Christ was crucified to forgive the sins of the whole world, including yours and mine. We should not assume that we are without sin just because we are not severely punished by the government. The survivors of Judah wrongly assumed that the exiles were worse people than they were. No, the exile happened because of the sin of the whole nation, and now God was bringing the exiles home to resurrect His lost and wayward people, pointing ahead to Christ.

Rev. Chris Biernacki, pastor of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Florence, Alabama, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 32. This psalm is called a “maskil.” David wanted us to use it in worship, and he also wanted to teach us from his life experience: if you try to bury your sins and forget about them, they’ll eat you from the inside. We’re lying to ourselves if we think we can deal with them on our own. The only real solution is to confess and ask for God’s forgiveness. And at the end of the day, forgiveness is what makes life worth living. Psalm 32 was one of Luther’s favorites. He called it a “Pauline psalm”—not just because Paul quotes from it in Romans 4, but because it teaches grace through faith. Christians around the world are familiar with Psalm 32, particularly the second half of verse 5: “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

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.