Year 9, Day 51: Titus 1

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It is neat to turn to a book like Titus after studying a prophet like Isaiah for so long.  Isaiah was about the movement in the people, their rebellion, and God’s point that God is most interested in what lies in their heart.  Isaiah was telling the people that the person is vastly more important than what they do.

Today, we turn to Titus and Paul’s advice.  Paul speaks about what it takes to lead in the church.  At first, it seems like Paul is taking the opposite side from what we heard from Isaiah.  Paul talks about external displays in the beginning.  A leader must be above reproach and the husband of one wife.

However, when we continue through the list we understand that these outward displays are actually signs of internal spirituality.  The leader should be hospitable.  The leader should not be arrogant or quick-tempered.  The leader should not be violent or greedy.  The leader should be a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, disciplined, holy, and holding firm to God’s ways.

In short, the leader is someone who is humble.  They know their place.  They know their strengths and weaknesses.  They know when to step up in the confidence of god and when to back off because of their own failings.  The leader is humble and contrite, genuinely knowing themselves and who they are in God.

On the other hand, there are the bad leaders.  These are the ones who are after their own agenda of power or prestige or wealth or comfortable living.  They upset families and devour the people around them.  The quote this chapter, they profess to know God but their very works reveal the true character that lies within.

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Year 9, Day 50: Isaiah 66

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Isaiah 66, the chapter in this prophetic book, ends with a bang.  Remember from where we’ve come.  The Hebrew people were drifting away from God.  They weren’t keeping the Law.  They weren’t staying close to God.  They were falling away from the ways of the Lord into their own desires and their own idolatry.  These people went into captivity and Isaiah is now giving them words for when the captivity has ended.  He’s setting the record straight.

What is it that God has to say through him?  He tells them quite clearly that it is humbleness that He prefers.  Of all the traits, characteristics, and qualities that God could lift up, humbleness is the one that gets the spotlight.

What is perfection to a perfect God?  What is sacrifice to a God who can create anything He wants?  What is a big temple to a God who calls the earth His footstool?  In fact, God compares the one who sacrifices like a murderer.  He compares the one who lifts up offerings as one who commits idolatry. 

Isaiah is telling the people that it is time they mature in the faith.  Straight obedience, when it isn’t rooted in the heart, doesn’t last.  Obeying laws for the sake of obedience doesn’t lead to anything worthwhile.  It is the heart of man that God is after.  It is an understanding of what we truly are that God wants.  He wants us to know our strengths and our failings.  He wants us to understand how much we need Him.  He wants us to understand how much better life is in Him and not just with Him.

This is the natural conclusion of the Old Testament.  God called Abraham because of his heart, but as generation after generation came about the people didn’t have the same heart.  When they were oppressed in Egypt, God called them out in spite of their rebellion.  He gave them the Law, but because their heart wasn’t in it they couldn’t keep the Law.  They continued to descend further and further into depravity until another captivity was brought about.  God’s point in all of this is that it is the heart of mankind that is important, not our external displays.

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Year 9, Day 49: Isaiah 65

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Isaiah is wrapping up his message to the people.  He has 3 great points to make as the book closes.  These points pick up and summarize much of the content of the whole book.

First, notice that God says that He has proclaimed Himself to a people who are not His.  These are clearly Gentiles, as the reference to eating pigs makes clear.  The point is that God is all about revealing Himself to the world, seeing who is interested in relationship and who is not. He is wiling to invite people even though they might ignore Him and refuse the invitation. For God, He wants to give people the opportunity to meet Him.  That’s why He called forth the Babylonians and the Assyrians and even the Persians!  He is willing to make Himself known, even to people who aren’t His.

That being said, God does take rejection seriously.  He will take notice when people refuse His invitation into relationship.  He will cause judgment and wrath to come where it is needed.  Those who forsake the Lord will be met with destiny: the sword.

Note, however, that the judgment comes because of humanity.  We choose to forsake Him.  We choose to not listen.  When judgment comes, it comes at the hand of the Lord but we have nobody to blame but ourselves.  He judges us for our choices.  He doesn’t judge us because He is mean or vindictive but because we have made our rebellion clear to Him.

This chapter ends with a look at those who receive Him.  They are promised a new heaven and a new earth.  They are promised the opportunity to live their whole life without it being cut short.  They are promised the reality of reaping what we’ve sown.  They are promised a reality in which God knows our call even before we utter it!  They are promised a relationship with God that is fulfilling in ways that we can only imagine.

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Year 9, Day 48: Isaiah 64

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One of my favorite aspects about the prophets is their deep understanding of the judgment cycle.  Yes, there is judgment, repentance, and forgiveness.  That’s an important cycle to understand.  There is more to it than that, however.  Judgment, repentance, and forgiveness is what happens after God gets involved.  That’s what happens after He comes to judge.

The prophets always include a step we would prefer to overlook.  The prophets know that judgement only comes upon people who are guilty.  The thing that the prophets consistently get right is that we as a people are guilty.  We have sinned.  We have aroused God’s anger.  We have brought judgment upon ourselves.  We are not the innocent bystanders caught up in the wake of a great evil as we would really prefer to believe.  We are the great evil itself.

Thankfully, we serve a God we believes in what we can become, not what we are.  Isaiah reminds us that God meets those who work righteousness with joy.  Instead of scrapping the whole of creation, God anticipates when we will choose Him over our sinfulness.  He longs for when we will recognize our sin and repent.  That’s the key that the prophets all understand.  Judgment will come one way or another.  The thing that takes judgment and helps it lead to repentance and redemption is our own ability to acknowledge our sinfulness.

When we acknowledge our sin, we can cry for mercy.  We can look for redemption.  We can ask the Lord to make His judgment not last forever, but rather to pass over us quickly so that we can demonstrate our repentance to Him.

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Year 9, Day 47: Isaiah 63

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Isaiah 63 begins with a gruesome view of destruction.  Isaiah reports that a person comes, dressed in crimson.  At first, He appears rather splendid.  Then we hear why the garments are crimson.  The speaker says that He has been treading the winepress.  In other words, the person has been about destruction and judgment.  He has been treading people under His feet.  He has been doing it alone, because it has been done in righteousness.  There was nobody righteous who could be counted on to participate with Him.

In other words, everyone was guilty.  On the scale of righteous versus condemned, the entire world fell upon the side of condemned.  Everyone was sinful.  As we hear elsewhere in the Bible, all have fallen short of the glory of God.  The reality is that our sin causes us to be guilty and worthy of His judgment.

Fortunately, the words of judgment are not the last we hear.  After judgment, we are reminded of God’s mercy.  He rescued the Hebrew people out of Egypt.  He spared them from the desert.  He is not only the only person who can judge in righteousness, He is the only one who can redeem the judged and restore.

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Year 9, Day 46: Isaiah 62

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One of the neat things about a major prophet like Isaiah is that we get a chance to see the full spectrum of faith.  We started 60 chapters ago with threats of judgment.  We then watched as the threats became reality.  Now we hear words of restoration and redemption.  It’s a great perspective to hear.

When we talk about salvation, we are inherently connected to the idea of restoration.  God is giving the land back to the people to whom He promised it.  God tells them that they will reap the benefits of their own land and hard work.  God doesn’t give them a substitute.  He certainly doesn’t give them a consolation prize.  With redemption comes restoration.  When God saves, He saves true.

There’s more to it than this, though.  The Lord isn’t just about returning property, He is about restoring rights and responsibility.  The people will work for their own benefit.  When the Lord restores, human beings won’t benefit from the work of others.  People won’t steal, they won’t take, and they won’t coerce goods from others.  When God restores, there will be equity and peace among people.  We will reap what we sow.

This is an idea near and dear to the heart of the Lord.  God has always known that among humans, there would be the wealthy and there would be the poor.  He also knows that there will be those who think nothing of taking from others.  God shows more concern for orphans and widows than any other collective in the Bible.  He cares for those whom people take advantage.  When the Lord redeems, He sets that record straight.  He upholds the rights and responsibilities of those who are easily targeted by others.  God’s redemption  reaches out to the places close to His heart and it ways that are deep and meaningful to Him.

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Year 9, Day 45: Isaiah 61

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Psalm 61 is a continuation of the praise that began a few chapters ago.  We have familiar words in the opening lines.  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … to bring good news to the poor … to bind up the brokenhearted … to proclaim liberty to the captives … to open the prison for those who are bound … to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favor.  Of course the words continue, but these are the most remembered.  They are words of restitution.  They are words of redemption.  They are words the set the record straight and declare and end to oppression and exile.

After all, the Lord loves justice.  He is faithful and desires an eternal covenant.  Yes, He judges when necessary.  He knows that through judgment comes purification and eventually restoration.  He knows that consequences are necessary when people aren’t self-correcting.  But His role as redeemer is everlasting, His role as judge is as needed.  He does both jobs perfectly and righteously; He mentions the redemption and restoration in terms of the eternal.  He wants relationship with us forever, choosing to judge us and give us consequences as needed in the moment.

He do we respond to this?  We should rejoice.  We should long to bask in the righteousness of the Lord.  We should desire to be clothed in His grace, love, and mercy.  We should await His righteousness and praise as it sprouts up in us.

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Year 9, Day 44: Isaiah 60

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As we approach the close of the book of Isaiah, we get a great chapter of hope.  Here is a great vision of the future.  The scattered nation will be rebuilt.  The Lord’s people will be returned from across the globe.  In fact, the nations themselves will rebuilt it.  A nation scattered will be bought together and made whole again by the very people into whom they were scattered.

As we move through the promises of restoration, I love how the reason for the restoration comes out.  Why is it that the people will be regathered?  They will be regathered for the sake of the Lord.  They will be regathered because He is righteous.  It is God who scattered; it is God who will restore.  This is done so that the people – and the whole world, really – shall know that the Lord is the true Redeemer.  He is the only one who can restore satisfactorily.

Of course, in all of this glory the warning right in the middle of the passage should not be lost.  The nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish; those nations shall be utterly laid to waste.  That is a stark warning completely.  God called Assyria.  They failed to serve Him.  Therefore, they ended up in judgment themselves.  The same is true for Babylon.

In the end, there are places of grace and places of judgment.  We will all know them, for we all ebb and flow between obedience and rebellion.  God desires us to be with Him.  In fact, he desires it so much that He will bring us into judgment when we should stray from Him.  But He doesn’t judge us permanently if He knows our heart can become contrite.  He will judge us so that we can find ourselves in a place of restoration.  He judges us, like the Hebrew people, so that we can be rebuilt in a better and stronger relationship with Him.

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Year 9, Day 43: Isaiah 59

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I love the way that Isaiah 59 opens.  Is the hand of the Lord shortened so that it is unable to save?  Of course not!  God can save.  Are the ears of the Lord so dull that they cannot hear the cries for salvation?  Of course not!  God knows all things and can hear all things.

Isaiah’s point is that God is still God.  He is omniscient and omnipotent.  God is capable of living up to His promises.  God is capable of bestows grace and mercy.  He is capable of saving and redeeming.

What is the issue, then?  If God is capable, why do people find themselves in positions of needing salvation without being rescued?  Specifically, why do the Hebrew people go off into exile when their god is more than capable of protecting them?  The answer is simple.  It is the iniquity of the people that have put up the barrier.  People do it to themselves.  We create separation from God, not the other way around.  Our sin drives us from Him, not Him from us.  We are the guilty and incapable, not God.

All of this being said – and all of the consequences of our sinfulness taken into account – there is a really neat prophecy of hope given at the end of this chapter.  In spite of the rebellion of the people, god promises that His Word will always be among them.  This goes back to what was said earlier.  We drive ourselves from God, not the other way around.  We put distance between us and God, yet God never leaves us.  His words are with us always, even when our sin forces us to turn our back upon Him.

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Year 9, Day 42: Isaiah 58

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Isaiah 68 poses a great question from the Lord.  When we claim to observe His statutes and follow His ways, what is our motivation?  At the heart of this question is the idea that motivation is every bit as important as action.  God isn’t happy when we do the right thing for outward show if there is no inward desire.  A sacrifice isn’t a sacrifice if we are doing it for the show and not because of our understanding of our own guilt.  Fasting is pointless if we put our fasting on display for others and have no inner recognition of our sin.  If there is nothing meaningful within us, then at best we have put on a show.  At worst, we have manipulated the ways of God to feign genuine righteousness.

This is a common theme throughout the prophets.  God loathes sacrifices done without meaning.  What is a burnt offering to Him, who created the world?  Can He not make His own sacrifice?

What God longs for is a broken and contrite heart.  What God longs for something that He cannot force, which is for our hearts to turn to Him and desire His ways.  He wants us to want Him!  That’s why He gave us free will in the first place!  If God wanted smooth running sacrifices that happened perfectly at the same time every year, He could have created automatons to execute the plan.  He didn’t, because He wants us to want Him in return!

God speaks to His people.  He wants them to fast because they recognize their guilt.  He wants them to care for the poor because they understand how God has cared for them.  He wants them to watch out for the orphan and the widow because they genuinely desire the pursuit of righteousness for themselves.  God wants us to want His ways, not just execute them.

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Year 9, Day 41: Isaiah 57

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Yesterday we started with a message of hope for the people and ended with a verdict of judgment against the leadership.  Today we do the opposite.  Today we start with a message of judgment against idolatry and end with a message of peace to the lowly in spirit.

This is a very stylistic approach in ancient writing.  It is called a chiasm, and is named after the Greek letter chi (X).  If you think about how an X is written, it starts in one place (high or low) and goes to the other place (low or high).  The next stroke starts at the same height as the previous one ended (low or high) and then goes back to the same height that the first one began (high or low).  It is a stylistic type of writing that is geared towards making contrasts.  Start with an idea, state it’s opposite, continue with the opposite in a new direction, and return to the original idea from a new perspective.

Yesterday we heard the great contrast between the hope of the people and the corruption of the leadership.  Today we start again with corruption.  Instead of talking about the corruption of the leadership, however, Isaiah speaks to the corruption of idolatry.  The idols are unable to provide the same kind of peace and prosperity that God can.  They were unable to deliver the people from Assyrian or Babylonian oppression.  They were unable to free the Hebrew people from exile.  Idolatry is corrupt because it is unable to deliver on any promise!  Idolatry is corrupt because it steals us away from God, promises lies, and then walks away letting us hold the bag of deceit!

Then we move to the end of the chapter.  Once more we hear about hope.  Those in this world who are contrite – or low in spirit – will find God’s restoration.  Those who wait upon the Lord will know what it is live to have Him build up, have Him revive the spirit, and have Him invite us to dwell with Him.  It is not the perfect who get this opportunity.  It is not the powerful, the wealthy, or the popular who get this experience.  It is the low in spirit, the humble, the contrite who get this opportunity.  It is the contrite who will hear God declare His peace and feel His healing.

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Year 9, Day 40: Isaiah 56

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Isaiah 56 is a chapter in contrast.  In the beginning we have a message of hope to the people who are oppressed.  Their redemption is coming.  They merely need to stay the course and they will know God’s rescue.  That’s a really cool thing with God.  He is a master at doing the exceptional.  While He is doing the exceptional, all we need to do is the normal.  He can take our normal and make it into His exceptional.  He does it all the time.

There’s more, though.  This isn’t just a message to the Hebrew people.  God has a message for the foreigners, too.  The foreigners who have come to know Him during the exile of the Hebrew people will not be abandoned.  When God takes His people and brings them back to the Promised Land, He will remain with them.  God will remember their faithfulness, because God is the God of all people who come to Him, not just the Hebrew people or those we think are right.  God is the God of all people who turn to Him.

At the end of the chapter, we get contrasting verses to the initial verses of hope.  God speaks to the leaders of the Hebrew people.  He speaks to those who should have been setting the example, who should have been encouraging His people into righteousness, and who should have been upholding justice.  He admonishes them, reminding them that instead of behaving the way He expects they have been seeking their own gain.  They have been selfish, abusing their power to make their lives better.  Instead of leading people to God, they were filling their own bellies and growing lazy in what should have been righteousness.

Leadership is an interesting thing.  Leadership comes with power.  Most people seek the power, notoriety, and prestige.  Leadership also comes with responsibility.  Many who seek the power of leadership actively shirk the responsibility and expectations that come with the position.  This is God’s point as we end this chapter.

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Year 9, Day 39: Isaiah 55

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What a phenomenal chapter of the Bible!  It is filled with great hope and joy.  It is filled with familiar expressions.  This chapter is like sitting beside a warm fire with a good book and a cup of fragrant tea.  It is like food for the soul.  There is much to love here.

Look how this chapter opens.  “Come, everyone who thirsts.”  People may make the case that there is an implied Hebrew audience to these words.  I, however, choose to read them as written.  God desires that anyone who thirsts come to Him.  Anyone who seeks His restoration and refreshment can come to Him.  I feel this is especially appropriate when considering Isaiah 55:5.  “You shall call a nation you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you.”  God desires that all – anyone, anywhere – come to Him should they desire to come.  God is exceptionally inclusive in His desire to be found by anyone who truly seeks Him.

The grace and the mercy listed in the opening verses has a bit of a footnote, though.  We are to seek the Lord while He is to be found.  This verse can be taken several ways.  The most obvious way, and I also to believe an incorrect way, is that there is a time that God does not want to be found.  I don’t believe that a God who desires that anyone who wants to come to Him would intentionally hide so it is impossible to find Him. 

Rather, I believe that this is a warning to seek the Lord while we can still find Him.  There are many ways that we will be unable to find Him.  The most obvious is upon our death.  Once I am dead, I will no longer be able to seek the Lord.  My time will be done, I’ll have breathed my last.  I need to seek the Lord before that point.  However, I don’t think death is the only interpretation here.  The further I go away from God, the harder it is to turn to Him.  The further into my own rebellion I go, the more difficult it is to retreat out of it.  It is certainly not impossible, but it does become more and more difficult.  God will always be found to those who want to seek Him, but if a person grows too engrossed into their own pursuit of sin they may not be able to overcome the difficulty associated with repentance.  God’s warning is clear.  We need to seek Him while He is to be found.  It is not His desire to hide but our inability that keeps our relationship with Him from being discovered.

We can be confident in this, because we know that the words of the Lord do not return empty to Him.  His words come to us, feed us, and bring about His will.  If we but turn to Him, He has the power to bring us to Him.  He has the ability to bring us into joy and gladness.  He has the ability to take a broken and contrite heart and turn it into an expression of joy and splendor.

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Year 9, Day 38: Isaiah 54

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Isaiah 54 is a great word from the Lord.  In fact, it speaks to the subsiding anger of the Lord.  The Lord was angry, but He is getting over it.  The Lord executed judgment, but He is getting past it.  It sounds rather like God’s judgment of the flood and Noah, doesn’t it?  In fact, God thinks so, too.  In fact, He makes the comparison Himself in this passage.

This goes to two great points.  First, it reminds us that the Lord is consistent.  We can be sure that He moves past His anger.  We can be sure that He does forgive and continue to seek relationship once He moves past His anger.  He got past His anger with Noah.  He got past His anger in the Exodus.  He now gets past His anger here.  The anger of the Lord is fleeting compared to His search for love and grace.  That is consistent throughout the ages.

The second great truth is that God is truly a God of love.  Some people accuse God of being vindictive and judgmental.  If that were the case, He would not continue to seek love and put aside His anger.  Instead, God demonstrates that He is love.  It is love that stays consistent with God.  It is love to which God returns when His anger subsides.  His nature is love.

In the end, God wants the best for us.  He wants to claim us for Himself.  He wants to make sure that our choices lead to His ways and what is best for us.  He does not leave us in our despair or to wallow in our sins.  He calls us in love.  He restores us.  He redeems.

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Year 9, Day 37: Isaiah 53

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Isaiah 53 is a neat passage through which Christians can read the work of God.  It is next to impossible to read these verses and not hear Christ.  These verses find an absolute fulfilment in Christ, His coming to Earth, His teaching, His rejection, His death, and His resurrection.  Each and every verse has a very intentional meaning into the life and work of Christ.  This lens for Christ is an exceptionally important – likely the most important - lens for these words.

It is not the only lens for these words, just the most obvious for Christians.  It is possible to ask the question: To whom is Isaiah literally referring in his own day?  Sure, from the Christian lens these words find their ultimately fulfilment in Christ.  But to whom goes the first fulfilment?  Who is the servant of the Lord in Isaiah’s day about whom Isaiah pens these words?

Many people say that these words are designating a collect servant.  In Isaiah, there are four main “servant passages.”  They are Isaiah 42:1-9, Isaiah 49:1-13, Isaiah 50:4-11, and Isaiah 52:13 – Isaiah 53:12.  These passages collectively seem to indicate all of the Hebrew people – or at the very least, a righteous remnant within the Hebrew people – as God’s servant.  The Hebrew people were the ones called to do God’s work, therefore they are His servant.

This should make sense.  Abraham was called by God to be in relationship with God.  In effect, he was the father of all who are in relationship with Him.  Moses, the bringer of the Law, was called God’s servant.  Hebrew kings were called God’s servant, specifically David.  More generically, we know that the people of God in general bear the responsibility of revealing God to the rest of the world!  God came to the Hebrew people so the world might come to know Him through them.  In effect, that brings us back to Christ and His disciples and the people of God who have followed them.

When we think about it that way, this becomes a very important reading of this passage for Christians.  Yes, this passage certainly points us to Christ, who died for our sake so that we might know the grace and redemption from God.  But this chapter is a call for all of us, not just Christ.  We all can be God’s servant.  We all can know the rejection of the world.  We can all know what it is like to be bruised for His sake.  We know what it feels like to be pierced by the sinfulness of the world.  We can continue going on with these comparisons.  This chapter is a calling for each of us, beginning with the Hebrew people themselves, to bear our God out to the world.

Keep in mind, though, that the ultimate fulfilment still lies in Christ.  Only He can take away the sins of the world.  Only He can be the perfect sacrifice.  But we are called to be like Him, that is a theme throughout the New Testament.  This chapter lays the framework for that very thought.  God wants us to be the bearers of His will to the world, much like Christ bore His ultimate will for us to see.

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Year 9, Day 36: Isaiah 52

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In Isaiah 52 we have a glimpse of restoration.  There are songs of praise to be sung.  There are vessels to be brought in and out.  There are broken places to be built up.  There are things to be purified.

This is what it feels like to know the Lord.  When the Lord bares His mighty arm, none shall be strong enough to resist.  When the Lord comforts us, we will know peace.  When He publishes peace and salvation we will proclaim that our God reigns.  The world can come against us and fight against God, but when our God comes to the world and fights against them He will win.  When the Lord comes, we will know His restoration.

In saving the last few verses of this chapter for tomorrow, to which they rightly belong, it is good to end with a discussion of where the first section of this chapter ends.  When the Lord comes, what will be our response?  When we know the salvation of the Lord, what shall we do?

We will go out and remain pure.  What the Lord purifies we cannot undo.  What He makes clean cannot be made unclean.

We will also go out slowly and not hastily.  When we are with the Lord, we can know His surety.  When we are with the Lord, we can know His confidence.  We will act in the Lord’s will, not our own human uncertainty.  There is a confidence that comes when we meet the redemption of the Lord.

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Year 9, Day 35: Isaiah 51

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In Isaiah 51, the Lord seeks to comfort His people.  They have been judged.  They have been exiled.  They have known oppression, enslavement, relocation, warfare, hunger, and all kinds of other hardship.  They are tired and beaten down.  Their resolve is failing.  In a word, they are humbled.  They are right where God can use them.

I love the passage in this chapter that says, “Who are you that are afraid of man who dies?”  In that verse, there is an eternal perspective.  What can mankind to one another?  Truthfully, a great many things!  We can inflict all kinds of pain and misery upon one another.  But we cannot do anything eternal to each other.  The worst we can do is to kill, but that only ceases life in this world.  No person who has ever lived, who is alive, or who will live can affect us beyond the grave.  Is there much to fear among mankind?  Of course there is!  Yet there is nothing eternal to fear among mankind.

This is God’s point.  Yes, the Hebrew people have endured a great many hardships.  They are greatly looking forward to the promised end of their exile and the return to their promised land.  In the end, though, all of these things are temporal. 

The reality is that God is still their God.  Forgiveness is still possible.  Redemption is still an offer.  Eternal life with our creator is still something that is unchanged.  No amount of temporal hardship can alter the reality that we know in God.  Yes, life can be tough.  But every hardship, even death, is at most temporal.  God is our God of the eternal.

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Year 9, Day 34: Isaiah 50

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Isaiah 50 starts with the Lord making an inquiry.  The Lord wants to know where the faithful are.  He wants to know why after all the provision that He gave to them, nobody was there to answer His call.  That is why there was judgment and condemnation.  This is why the exile into Assyria and Babylon happened.  God came looking for righteous people and He found rebellion instead.

However, we then get to the position of the second half of the chapter.  All is not lost.  There are some who can teach properly.  There are some who can uphold the righteous banner.  There are those who choose to be sustained by a word of the Lord instead of live for rebellion.  There are those who do not turn when the Lord calls.

How do these people live?  They set their face against the world, knowing that in the end they will not be put to shame.  These are people who will stand knowing that vindication will come from the hand of Lord.  There are people who will stand because they fear the voice of the Lord and obey Him.

The challenge from today’s chapter is simple.  Kindle our fire for life in the Lord and walk in His light.  Equip ourselves with His ways.  Live in the Lord, stand firm, knowing that in the end He will redeem.

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Year 9, Day 33: Isaiah 49

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Isaiah 49 gives us perspective on the redeemer.  I love how this chapter ends.  It speaks about the prey being taken from the mighty and the captives being taken from the tyrant.  These are strong images.  They are also counter-intuitive examples.

When we think of the tyrant, we think of a person who has incredible power to dominate and enforce their will.  When we think of a mighty person, we think of a person who is capable of taking what they want and keeping it.  Intuitively speaking, both of these scenarios are about people who do what they want and get what they want.

Yet, the Lord comes along and says that He will be able to take from the mighty and free from the tyrant.  The Lord is able to usurp the status quo.  The Lord is capable of doing that which seems impossible.

To put this in literal context, remember that the Hebrew people of Israel had been taken by Assyria and scattered to the Assyrian Empire.  The Hebrew people of Judah were taken by Babylon and scattered to the Babylonian Empire.  From the perspective of the Hebrew people, these Empires were insurmountable.  They executed their will and won.

Into this context comes the Lord, who promises restoration.  He can bring back the exiles.  He can restore the Hebrew people who have been scattered to the foreign empires.  He can do that which human intuition says is impossible.  He redeems.

Now, look more deeply at the process of redemption.  Earlier in the chapter, the Lord speaks about the redeemer as one who is despised among the nations, who is deeply abhorred, and who seems but a servant.  Naturally, Christians hear this description and can’t help but think of Christ, who is the exemplar of this passage.  However, I think that these verses are actually a call to all those who are in relationship with God.  God calls the outcast.  He calls those who are despised.  He calls those who seem abhorrent.  He isn’t the God of the pretty, popular, and accepted.  He is the God who can work with anyone and everyone.

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Year 9, Day 32: Isaiah 48

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Isaiah 48 evokes a myriad of emotions.  We have love.  We have sorrow.  We have hope.  We have regret.  We have forgiveness and redemption.

At the beginning, God speaks to the Hebrew people about their stubbornness and their love for idols.  He reminds them that He has spoken truth across the ages, something they attribute to their idols but the idols can’t actually deliver. 

Yet in spite of the obvious irritation that the Lord has, there is hope in this passage.  The Lord tells the Hebrew people that He is deferring His anger.  The Hebrew people have largely turned their back on Him, still His response is to invite them into relationship.  He still refines them regardless of their attitude towards Him.  He works in them even if they are unwilling participants!  This is love.  This is genuine unconditional love.

God genuinely wishes that they had not rebelled.  He wants a relationship untainted by rebellion.  He knows this isn’t a reality, however.  We, like them, are sinful.  We are rebellious.  We will go our own way.  God desires that our lives would be lived in His provision and not within our sinfulness.  Therefore, He continues to call us.  Like the Hebrew people, He calls us to go forth and proclaim our redemption.

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Year 9, Day 31: Isaiah 47

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Isaiah 47 gives us words against Babylon.  I’ve personally always thought that the study of Assyria and Babylon in the Old Testament is underdone.  We can learn so much from God’s relationship and use of Babylon, especially with respect to God’s understanding of righteousness.

We know that both Babylon and Assyria were brought onto the scene when the Hebrew people became rebellious and turned to foreign idols.  God called them out of their land to conquer the Hebrew people.  He wanted to show the Hebrew people that their foreign gods cannot save them.  He wanted to show them that they could not save themselves.  He wanted to show them their need for Him and His redemption.

However, look at what the Lord says about them.  He says the same thing about Babylon as He said about Assyria.  Although they were called to be implements of judgment, the were merciless.  They were ruthless.  They were cruel.  They took pleasure in beating other people down.

God may have wanted to judge His own people, but there isn’t a need to do the job without mercy.  God’s point is clear here.  Someone has to be judge, jury, and executioner.  But we don’t have to relish the task.  We don’t have to enjoy watching other people go down.  We certainly don’t have to enjoy benefiting at their expense.  We don’t need to look for ways to take advantage of other people’s circumstances.

The Assyrians and the Babylonians did more than what was called for.  They took God’s calling and turned it into their own scheme for glory.  They abused God’s provision.  Therefore, God gives us chapters like this where he speaks about punishing them in turn.  When we take God’s call and turn it into our advantage, we invite God’s judgment onto us as well.  That’s a fairly significant lesson to learn.

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Year 9, Day 30: Isaiah 46

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Isaiah 46 is a hidden gem of a chapter.  At first, it seems like a simple chapter against Babylon.  It seems like a small chapter bemoaning the Babylonian love for their false gods and their inability to know God.  There’s more to this chapter, however.

This is a chapter where God is fighting for His people.  He knows that the Hebrew people are captive and in a foreign land.  They are presented with all kinds of different thinking.  They are tempted into false worship.  They are tempted to think that God has abandoned them.  In this chapter, God presents a case against all of these things.

The neat part about this chapter, though, is how God goes about the task.  God doesn’t use His power to force the people to obey.  God doesn’t snap His fingers and make the people obey.  God doesn’t remove their free will.  He doesn’t even impinge upon their free will.  God doesn’t use His incredible power against His people.

What God does is to appeal to their rational nature.  He argues His case.  He gives reasons why they should worship Him. He reminds them of how He carries them through life.  He talks about what He can do for them in their times of need.  He appeals to them rather than forces them.

I think this is one of the most profound attributes of God that many people in the world get wrong.  People think of God’s omnipotence, but they don’t often credit God with how often He doesn’t use His omnipotence and instead allows people to have free will.  People attribute all kinds of things to His power without also crediting Him with the times that He lets us be ourselves.  God doesn’t want to force us into relationship, He wants us to choose it for himself.

I love this aspect of God and to be honest I believe that I could benefit from emulating it more.  In many places in my life I have power over others.  Life is best lived, however, when instead of using my power over others I mentor and teach people into good decisions instead of force them into the right way.  God understands this, I should employ this tactic as much as possible, too.

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Year 9, Day 29: Isaiah 45

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Chapter 45 begins with a look at the Lord’s anointed.  There is something interesting about the Lord’s anointed, though.  The name given is Cyrus.  Cyrus is a Persian king.  The Lord’s anointed – His messiah, quite literally translated – is a Persian king.

It’s important to remember that much like the word “antichrist,” the word for anointed and messiah are used generically and specifically.  Anyone who does the will of the Lord is anointed.  Anyone who allows the Spirit of the Lord to be within Him is His anointed.  That doesn’t make a person the Anointed or the Messiah.  God’s Anointed, God’s Messiah, is the one who will save humanity once and for all.  That would be Jesus.  Don’t confuse the issue here.  There are many people whom God anoints; there is one Anointed.

A powerful subtheme comes through this point about Cyrus.  Cyrus is anointed by God and he is a Persian king.  Once more God demonstrates that he is the God of all people.  He is the God of the Gentiles as well as the God of the Hebrew people.  God will call and use a Persian king.  He will continue to call and use Gentiles after Christ’s work on the cross as well.

God continues this theme in the second half of the chapter.  He speaks to the nations and reminds them that He has always been there speaking truth.  He wants them to realize that He has been with them, too.

This is an important point to consider.  God acknowledges that they have truth in their communities.  Their wise people have found some wisdom.  The problem isn’t that they are ignorant of the truth, the problem is that they are attributing the truth to the wrong thing.  They think their wisdom is coming from other human beings or false idols of their own making.  They are missing the source of all truth.

I love the fact that Isaiah informs us that other cultures do have truth within them.  So often, it is all-to-easy to think of truth as something “we have” and therefore “others don’t.”  That simply isn’t the perspective of God here.  The nations have access to truth just like the Hebrew people do.  The issue isn’t that they don’t know truth, the issue is that they’ve missed the genuine source of the truth.

I have that same problem from time to time.  I occasionally think I’m wise when I should be giving the glory to God.  I occasionally think other people are wise when I should be giving the glory to God.  I occasionally judge other people foolish instead of looking for where they might have access to truth.  I have much to learn from Isaiah’s perspective.

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Year 9, Day 28: Isaiah 44

Theological Commentary: Click Here

This chapter gives us a very honest look at humanity.  I love the middle section that talks about a human being who plants a tree.  The worldly rain waters it.  Humans tend it.  Eventually human beings cut it down.  Part of it they cut up to throw in a fire and bake bread.  The other part they cut and shape into a god.  They then bow down and worship it, thinking it has some special power.

This is a hysterical thought!  If the wood had special powers, why would it let itself get chopped down, cut up, and burned?  In converse, it the wood that was burned had no special power, why do people think that the wood that wasn’t burned has any different power?

This sounds very common sense.  However, we are all guilty of the same thinking.  How many of us worship the very money that we slave over to earn!  How many of us worship the cars and clothing that we spend our own money to possess?  How many of us worship our own children, kids that we brought into existence?  The truth is that human beings excel at worship that which we make ourselves.  We love to worship the fruit of our efforts.  We should be worshipping a God who can create out of nothing; we end up worshipping a god of our own creation.

As I said yesterday, the neat part about this is that God knows this. He gets us, even though we sin.  He provides redemption for us.  It’s not like our sinfulness catches Him off-guard.  He redeems even as He plans to judge our sins.  He can judge us because He also knows our redemption.

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