Judgment Versus Grace
Having
come off of a chapter on judgment, it is good to now return to a chapter on
future promise. However, before I get
there, let’s get one thing straight.
Look at how many verses focus on the Hebrew people’s coming joy. Remember how many verses in this chapter and
the prior chapter talk about the Hebrew people’s disgrace. Look at those numbers of verses. Shoot, if you want to get specific, count the
words even!
Judgment
is coming. God will hand us all over to
our own devices if we pursue them hard enough and ignore God long enough. After judgment, once the lesson is learned,
God will restore us. Then there will be
peace and harmony and life lived according to God’s glory. But in comparing the number of verses, I hope
that my point is clear. Although we like
to focus on the joy, God knows that we need to hear the warning even more.
Keep this
lesson in mind as we move through Isaiah.
There are going to be several beautiful passages like this one we have
today. There are going to be more than a
few places where reassurance and grace are offered. But don’t ever lose sight over how many words
of warning and impending doom we are going to pass through for each snippet of
grace and forgiveness. We are a people
of grace – absolutely amen! But as
humans, we are also a people who need warnings, cautions, and even more
warnings.
A Word Of Grace
But, I’ve
made my point. So let’s move into the
joy of these five verses in Isaiah 4 (2-6).
In the great and wonderful day of the Lord – the day when God is back in
control and honestly revered by the people – then the branch of the Lord will
be beautiful. Then the people of the
Lord will be glorious. Then the
survivors of God’s judgment will be proud and honorable. In other words, when God brings about
judgment – letting people have their own way – there will be a remnant of
faithfulness that will be with God. Many
will be consumed by God’s freedom in letting them choose their own
destruction. But there will be a remnant
that will be beautiful and glorious in that they will return to God and choose
His ways.
These
people will be considered righteous. The
filth of the world will be washed through them and away from them. To mix metaphors, the chaff will be gathered
up and burned away. Those who are judged
by God and who return to Him will be called holy. Notice that the process doesn’t sound
easy. It doesn’t sound like something
just anyone can do. Isaiah talks about
this process of returning to the Lord as a process of judgment and
burning. It will not be easy to forego
the freedom to choose our own destruction and instead choose God and His
ways. The call of the world is strong.
But when
this happens, we are told that something special will happen within His
people. We are given images that should
remind us of the exodus. When we pass
through judgment and fire and return to the Lord, then the Lord will dwell
among us. Literally, we are told that
there will be a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud. God will be our canopy. God will dwell with us. God will be present among us – even in us!
Pointing To Christ
To me, I
can’t help think about Jesus and the Holy Spirit at this point. When I hear Isaiah talking about judgment in
one chapter and then hear Isaiah talking about passing through the judgment and
fire in the next, I can’t help but think about Jesus when He speaks of the wide
and narrow gates. Many find the wide
gate, for it leads to destruction. Few
find the narrow gate, for it leads to salvation. But to those few who find the narrow gate –
who find Jesus Himself – they are promised that the Holy Spirit would dwell
within them. The presence of God will be
in their midst. Oh, what an absolutely
glorious day it is, was, and shall be when we have the presence of God with us!
Oh, what
refuge we shall know from the world.
Then we will sing and mean it when we sing that the Lord is our rock and
our foundation. We shall sing and mean
it when we say that the Jesus is the chief cornerstone. How great it feels to have walked through the
judgment of this life – passed through the fire – and come through having
chosen God’s ways over the ways of this world.
Is there any better feeling in the world?
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