Year 3, Day 34: Isaiah 50

Here in Isaiah 50 we have several interesting thoughts.  There isn’t any particular need to take them in the order that they come, so I’m not going to.  In fact, I’m tempted to actually take them in reverse order.

Challenge And Rebuke

If we look at the end of this chapter, we have a challenge and a rebuke.  Isaiah knows that there are people who continue to turn their backs on the Lord and walk in darkness.  Isaiah tells us that there are two options when we consider how to handle the fact that we walk in darkness.  We can either accept that we must fear the Lord and listen to His messengers or we can light our own torch and walk according to what we think is right.  As I wrote that last sentence, I couldn’t help but to once more remember the famous saying from the book of the Judges.  “Everyone did what was right in their own sight.”  What a tragic way to live.

However, Isaiah knows that these are the two legitimate options.  Either we are humble or else we navel-gaze.  Either we submit to God or we live to ourselves.  Every life that has ever been lived has resulted in one of these two conclusions if you think about it.

What I find really scary about this reality is the conclusion that Isaiah reaches when he gets to the end of the chapter.  To everyone who kindles their own torches and who walks by the light of their own reasoning Isaiah gives one promise: you shall lie down in torment.  That’s a pretty harsh statement.  In truth, I don’t think that it really gets any more honest than that, though.  Either we are humble and accept God’s ways or we shall lie down in torment.  Now that’s blunt.

The Benefit Of Humbleness

Now let’s back up into the middle of this chapter.  There are a few verses that are really striking {pun intended} now that we’ve studied how this chapter ends.  Isaiah has chosen to humble himself to the Lord.  In return, he has been given a tongue as one who has been taught.  Notice the humbleness demanded by such a statement?  In order to be taught, one must submit to a teacher.  Because of his humbleness, Isaiah is able to sustain those who need sustaining.

Also, notice Isaiah’s attitude when people come against him.  When they desire to strike him, he offers his back.  When people desire to humiliate him by pulling out his beard, he offers his cheeks.  Because he is willing to be humble before God, he is able to consider disgrace in this world as nothing to be feared.  I am impressed by Isaiah’s willingness to receive rejection and persecution simply because of His relationship with the Lord.

Isaiah recognizes that if we are humble to the Lord, then the Lord is our strength.  The Lord rescues us.  The Lord redeems us.  The Lord gives us courage and vindicates us.  When we remove ourselves from the center of our life and allow God to occupy that space, we can be sure that God will not abandon us to those who would ultimately seek to do us harm.  For who in this life can ultimately harm us when God is in control of eternal security?

We Bring Judgment Upon Ourselves

So then we look to the beginning of the passage.  Here God is complaining to His people about their “certificate of divorce.”  If we take what we’ve already learned from the earlier chapters, we recognize that it is we who make decisions like this.  It is we who write God certificates of divorce, not He who writes them for us.  We are the ones who choose to walk away from Him, not the other way around.  It is our sinfulness and our iniquities that bring God’s hand of judgment upon us.

When God comes looking for us and we have turned away, then there is nobody to answer Him.  When He comes calling for us and our back is to Him, then we cannot run to Him.  It is not He who abandons us to our ways.  It is we who abandon His ways to pursue our own.  We are the ones who issue certificates of divorce to God.  Thankfully, God is slow to anger, quick to forgive, and willing to forget those times that we behaved as though we have divorced Him.  Thanks be to God!

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