Reading in Isaiah this week, I was struck by the force of a passage in which Isaiah issues a challenge to Israel from God:

6“You have heard; now see all this;
and will you not declare it? Is. 48:6

Obviously, this is lifted out of context, so let me place it into context for you. God has been telling Israel for 47 chapters how he will judge idolatrous people and ultimately provide salvation through his Servant. Over and over again, he references idols of wood and metal that people fashion for themselves and then bow down to worship. God sets himself over against all false Gods as the one who has created all things and has the fate of nations under his control. In subsequent chapters, he is about to reveal in even more vivid detail the coming Servant who will bring salvation to all God’s people – Jew and Gentile alike.

Within such a message as this, God asks the question, “After everything you have a heard and are about to see from me, will you not declare it?” Even though this was not written to me personally, the text shot out from the page like it was in 3-D – as if the question was being directed to me.

Will I not declare the mighty works of God?

This begs the question: What is there to declare? Sometimes we may feel at a loss for what to tell people. We may feel like the news we bring is bad. How do you tell people they are sinners? Or, maybe we may think we have to give everybody an exhaustive list of things they must do to be right with God.

What we are called to declare is the same thing declared through Isaiah: Look what God has done!

Through the cross work of Christ, God poured out his wrath for our sins. Through faith in this reality, we are “credited” with righteousness – the perfect righteousness of Jesus. He takes our sins; we take his righteousness.

This message has the power to save (Romans 1:16) and to melt a heart, reshaping it into a heart ready to live in grateful service to it’s savior.

This is the news the world waited for over all the years before the birth of Jesus. Peter said angels had longed to know the full revelation of the gospel (1 Peter 1:12). Paul described God’s ultimate deliverance as something the “whole creation” had awaited and that it had “groaned” like a woman in labor (Romans 8:22-23).

Jesus taught this same thing in Luke 19:40, when he said if the crowd of people who welcomed him into Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna!” were silenced, “the stones would cry out”.

One way or another, the gospel will be declared. Why not be part of that? Do you and I believe it? Will you and I declare it?