Year 3, Day 49: Isaiah 65

A Stench in the Nostrils of the Lord

In many ways, Isaiah 65 becomes a great summary of the book of Isaiah.  The Lord says that His own people have become nothing more than smoke in His nostrils.  He implies that He gives them no heed.  He implies that the relationship simply isn’t there.

Although we’ve been down this road before, it does make me contemplate again what it is that the Hebrew people have done to deserve such a pronouncement.  If we look in these first 7 verses, we can find out several answers.  First, the people disregard His Law - they eat pig’s flesh!  {As a lover of barbeque, I am really glad that Jesus tells Peter in a vision that all things are clean for eating in Christ!}  Second, they are haughty in that they look at other people and say, “Don’t come near to us, we’re too holy for you.”  Third, they were adulterous - they made sacrifices on mountains to other gods.  Fourth, they are self-centered – they follow their own devices.  Fifth, they are stubbornly rebellious – in spite of the fact that God stretches out His hand they refuse to obey Him and listen to His voice.

Here’s the thing.  I can’t say that over the course of my life that I haven’t done any of these things, either.  I’ve certainly sinned.  I’ve looked down on people to whom I should’ve instead offered a hand to help raise them up.  I’ve pursued other “gods” in my life – I’ve certainly not always lived as though I’m pursuing God most!  I’m guilty of being self-centered.  I’ve also been known to be stubborn and dig in my heels, too.  I wonder if there are days that I am myself a stench in the nostrils of the Lord.  I wonder if there are days where God would rather smell a middle school locker room rather than gaze upon the efforts of my day.

 There’s an image that’ll drive a person to repentance!

Remnant

So what are we to do?  I have no doubt as I went through that list that any self-respecting and modestly humble person was agreeing right along with me.  We’re all that way.  What are we to do?

If we look at verses 8-16, we see that God provides two answers.  First, there is the possibility of the righteous remnant.  God will not destroy everything and everyone.  To those who are willing to become like new grapes – in other words, to repent and humble themselves before God – God will remember His promise to forgive and He will start anew.  The repentant will be like fields and valleys that are retrained to be fertile pasture land.  In fact, in verse 15 God says that His servants shall be called by a different name.

But there is a second option.  Those who continue to persist in their rebellion will be destined to the sword.  Those to whom God called but they did not heed the call will be sent off for destruction.  These people persist in doing evil before the Lord.  The image is not pretty.  In fact, the word that God uses in verse 12 is simple: it will be a slaughter.  Or perhaps you prefer the imagery given in verse 15: “The Lord will put you to death.”

There’s another image that will drive a person to repentance!

Future Vision

Finally we turn to the last section of this chapter.  This is a beautiful vision of the future.  I say specifically the future here, because I do not believe that this is one of those passages that have two layers of interpretation.  Verse 17 is clear.  God will create a new heaven and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered.  Certainly God has brought about a new era through His Son Jesus the Christ.  But God has not created a new heaven and a new earth – yet.  Therefore, I believe this portion of the chapter in Isaiah is a promise on God’s behalf that we are still waiting to see come to fruition.

I love the final images of this section.  In the new age {That’s a pretty cool song from the band King’s X, by the way} God will have an answer to us before we can even ask our question.  God promises to hear us while we are just forming the words upon our lips.    The wolf will graze like a lamb – and the wolf and the lamb shall graze together.  No longer will life be about the loss of life being necessary to sustain the life of another.  All life will graze off of and be contented with what the Lord provides.  We shall neither hurt nor destroy in this new age that God will create.

On one hand, I say, “Come, Lord Jesus.”  I want that new age.  But on the other hand, I will not pray that prayer in earnest.  There are far too many people who do not know the love of God.  So yes, Lord, bring on that new age.  But before you do that, teach us how to be used by you to reach a world that is in desperate need of hearing your voice.

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Year 3, Day 48: Isaiah 64

His Name Is Praised

The opening 5 verses of Isaiah 64 are both terrible and awe inspiring.  Within these verses we have a mental flashback to Mt. Sinai: the earth shook and mountains trembled.  We have a call for judgment upon the nations.  We have a call for a supernatural event: the tearing open of the heavens so God and creation no longer need to be separated.

At the same time, however, we have a confession.  Isaiah realizes that all of these things are brought about by God’s hand.  Humanity does not deserve to see God’s presence.  Humanity has not lived in such a way to indicate that any request to live with God should be taken seriously.  Thus, all of the things God has done are not as a reward for human obedience but instead as means to proclaim the glory of God.  Again we see that it is not about us; it is completely about God.

Three Images of Humanity

In Isaiah 64:6-7 we have three unique perspectives on humanity.  Each perspective comes at the “problem of humanity” from a different angle.  Humanity is compared to unclean garments, a dried up leaf, and a substance capable of being melted.

The first comparison is to the unclean garment.  This is a spiritual analogy to humanity.  We are inherently sinful.  It is our nature.  It may not be God’s intention at creation, but because of our free-will we have chosen to walk with our sin.  Even when we repent, our nature is still corrupt.  {And unfortunately will continue to be until Christ’s return when we will be remade in Him!}

The second comparison is to a dried up leaf.  This is a physical comparison to humanity.  As we say on Ash Wednesday, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.  This point is pretty close to the point that Isaiah is making.  We as human beings are alive for a short time in comparison to creation.  We died, wither, and eventually blow away as though we never existed.  It might not be a very happy perspective on humanity, but it is a real one.

The third comparison is to a substance that is capable of melting.  This is a psychological (or even emotional) analogy to humanity. We as human beings think we are tough.  But the truth is that we melt in the face of temptation.  Our will can be stubborn at times; but truthfully we are weak until we have been trained to be strong.  It is like iron being smelted in a furnace.  Iron ore appears strong, but in reality it isn’t strong at all until it has melted and formed in the skilled hands of a blacksmith.

The Master Potter

As we understand ourselves fully, we are naturally drawn to the potter’s hand and the potter’s wheel.  If we truly believe we are spiritually sinful, physically finite, and psychologically malleable, then it makes sense that we would welcome the idea of a potter molding us and shaping us.  As the disciple appreciates the wisdom of the mentor and iron appreciates the skill of the blacksmith, so should we grow to appreciate the accomplished hand of the potter.  Only the potter can take us and form us.

One of the best aspects of verse 8 is that it is an obvious lesson on humility.  In order to appreciate the potter, we must understand our need for the potter.  But once we understand the need of the potter, we also understand the need for our work to actually be the work of the potter.  In order for the clay to take any kind of meaningful form, it must be through the potter’s hand.  In order for us to truly experience meaning in this life, it has to be at the hand of God.  True lasting meaning only comes when we humble ourselves and see God at work in us.

Humility Expressed

So now we turn to the end of this chapter.  It is a plea, simple and true.  Once we see ourselves as clay in the hands of the potter, we also see all the times that we have been something other than clay.  We see all the times we have tried to be anything but what God wants for us.  We see the times that we have been rebellious in our nature as well as in our deeds.  When we are willing to genuinely look at those times we will be drawn into a state of repentance.

I love how Isaiah ends this chapter.  “Will You, oh Lord, keep silent?”  When we are truly repentant we have the ability to ask this question of the Lord.  For only when we are we repentant do we also have the right frame of mind to listen as well.  When we are humble, we can turn to the Lord and not only see Him at work but also prepare ourselves to feel Him at work as well.

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Year 3, Day 47: Isaiah 63

The Coming Messiah

The opening of Isaiah 63 is a profound passage with respect to the coming of the Lord’s Messiah as well as the coming of His great Day of Judgment.  Look closely at the first verse and you will see that there are two quite profound questions that will be asked about the time when the Messiah comes.  “Who is this?”  “Why are your garments crimson?”

Who Is This?

The first question is jaw-dropping stunning if you think about it.  The subject of this question is the Lord’s Messiah!  This is the one for whom people have been waiting!  This is the be-all-and-end-all of people ever to come into view.  Yet the question that will be asked is, “Who is this guy?”  From the perspective of the fact that every faithful person from nearly the beginning of time has been looking for this Messiah, we should be absolutely astounded that people would not recognize Him.

Yet, is that not exactly what happened when Jesus came?  His own people did not recognize Him.  Gentiles didn’t recognize Him, either.  Very few people recognized this Jesus, God’s Messiah.  Here we have it in God’s Word that this very thing would happen.

Why Are Your Garments Crimson?

The second question is stunning, but in a much more subtle flavor.  God’s Messiah will be dressed in crimson.  His clothes will be crimson because, as we are told in Isaiah, when the time comes to tread in the winepress there will be nobody who will help Him.  Treading in the winepress is an analogy for God’s wrath.  Simply put, God’s Messiah is saying that when it came to enacting upon and enduring God’s wrath, nobody was there to help God’s Messiah.

Here’s the subtle truth that is every bit as stunning as the first question.  God is telling us in a subtle manner something we already know.  There is nobody righteous.  No human being can save themselves, much less any other.  There is nobody that can endure God’s wrath, much less who deserves to be upheld during the process.  So when it comes to dealing with God’s wrath, God’s Messiah must do it alone.  God’s Messiah must shoulder the fullness of God’s wrath because there was nobody to help.

Again, is this not precisely what happens with Jesus?  Does not Jesus come to this earth to die alone?  Does not Jesus bear the guilt of humanity’s sin upon the cross alone?  Is there anyone who could have done what Jesus did except for Jesus?  The Messiah’s garments are crimson because Jesus bears out God’s wrath upon Himself and treads in God’s winepress alone on our behalf.

Humanity Revealed

What has human history done to deserve such a reality?  Why is it that God’s wrath is upon us?  We rebelled.  However, this word in verse 10 is pretty neat in the Hebrew.  This is not the typical word for rebel.  This is a word that speaks not to an action but rather to a character flaw.  This word means to be contentious or to be rebellious.  What is the problem with humanity?  We are contentious.  We contend with God.  We struggle for our independence from Him.  {I am reminded of my teenage years and I am forced to acknowledge my rebellious and contentious spirit within me.}  God’s right.  We are a rebellious and contentious people.  We do deserve wrath.

Humanity’s Only Hope

What is the only response that we can have in the realization of our rebellion?  How can we even look to God when our contentious nature is made clear?  In whom does our hope rest?

Our hope rests upon He who has every right to dole out wrath.  But the reality is that it is this same person that hands out wrath who also promises to be our Redeemer.  He has always been humanity’s Redeemer.  The plan was for Him to always be humanity’s Redeemer.  God knows our issue.  He knows our free spirit.  He knows how we desire to abuse our free will.  He knows it all and He still promises that He shall be our Redeemer.  How great is God!  {I really struggled to punctuate that last sentence.  It is great with an exclamation point, but it is just as great with a question mark.  So read it both ways!}

He must restore us.  He will restore us.  We but need to humble ourselves to Him and then His promise is our salvation.

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Year 3, Day 46: Isaiah 62

Moody Verbs

As I read through Isaiah 62 – and no, I’m not going to talk about the first verse of this chapter – I began to focus on something that I think as a culture we all take for granted far too much.  I’m talking about the mood of the verb.  Funny thing ... verbs have moods.  LOL

Read through these opening verses of Isaiah 62 and you will see a single word repeated time and time again: “shall.”  In English, we would call this a conditional mood.  Or, if used with the word “if,” it could be the subjunctive mood.  Why is this mood important?  This mood expresses potentiality.  It doesn’t express a present reality, but a future reality that is yet to come.  When attached to a subjunctive the reality will come under certain conditions.

Of course, our brains processes this and understands it almost instantaneously.  We do it without thinking.  If a parent says to a child, “If you clean your room, we shall go out for ice cream,” then the child doesn’t sit down and analyze the sentence and say, “Oh, the mood of the verbs used here is telling me that there is a future reality and a condition to be met in order to bring about that future reality.”  No, the brain of the child hears the words and immediately jumps to: “Must have ice cream; must clean room first.”  But regardless of the work of the brain, you can see how the conditional mood is used.  It expresses a future possibility.

Let me bring this all back to Isaiah 62.  This passage is chock full of conditional reality statements.  “The nations shall see your righteousness.”  “You shall be called a new name.”  {Aside … hello? … Why have I never focused on that verse before?  In the future reality you shall be called a new name?  God is doing a new thing!  Wow.  Can’t believe I missed that before.  I digress…}  “You shall be a crown…”  “You shall no more be forsaken…”  “You shall be called ‘My Delight is in Her’ …” “Your land shall be married.”  “So shall your sons marry you.”  “So shall Your God rejoice over you.”  “They shall never be silent.”

See what I mean?  This chapter is full of conditional mood statements – and I stopped counting them in verse 6!  But why is this important?  Why are things like grammar, verb moods, and understanding the difference between the conditional mood and the future tense important?  Keep in mind, I’m a former math teacher.  So former English teachers … please forgive my untrained attempt at explaining, here.

The conditional mood tells us that a future reality is possible, but it is not present currently.  The conditional mood is used to speak about the hypothetical or the uncertain.  The conditional mood is used to give us something to look forward to while understanding that there is some uncertainty about the future.  Remember back to the example about ice cream?  The future possible reality is eating ice cream.  But it is an uncertain reality because the child’s room is not yet clean.

Isaiah 62 is telling us the same kind of story.  There is a future potentiality for all of the things in this chapter to come true.  But what is the condition?  The condition is the prior two chapters of Isaiah.  The prior two chapters have been all about the coming of God’s Messiah.  When the Messiah comes, all of these conditional statements of reality will happen.  But the time was not right in Isaiah’s day.  The time was not even right when they returned from Babylonian exile under the hand of the Persians.  The time was not right until Jesus was born into a nation that would largely reject Him.  The time was not right until this little baby took the most humble of beginnings and came forth.  That is the condition upon which these conditional statements are attached.

This is what I love about the importance of verses like Isaiah 62:10.  Prepare the way for the people!  Build up the highway!  Isaiah knew that there would be work to be done.  There were hearts to prepare.  God would meet the condition.  The Messiah would be sent.  But we need to be ready!

The sad truth is that much of the Hebrew people were not ready.  Some were.  Blessedly, some were!  But many rejected Jesus Christ.  They rejected Him as Messiah. They rejected His teachings as divine.

This is one of the reasons why I return to my original point.  It is important to understand this chapter in the conditional that it is written.  God will meet the condition.  God has sent His Messiah to us.  But we must be ready.  We must take the time to prepare.  We must take seriously our calling to prepare the people for the coming of God’s Messiah into our lives.  God will meet His condition.  It is up to us to make sure that we do not miss out on the future reality that God is bringing forth in us.

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Year 3, Day 45: Isaiah 61

A Trinitarian Confession

Another chapter with an incredible opening verse!  Did you catch the Trinity in Isaiah 61:1?  I’ll confess.  I didn’t.  But fortunately one of the commentaries that I use in studying God’s Word caught it!

Look again.  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.”  Right there.  All three persons of the Trinity.  Okay, so you might feel like I am cheating with the “me” part.  So continue on in verse 1.  “Because the Lord has anointed me.”  The Hebrew word for “anointed” is literally mashach, which is the word that we put into English as Messiah.  So, we could literally say that the middle of verse 1 reads, “Because the Lord has messiahed me.”  Who is the Messiah but Jesus?  Therefore, we can say in a very clever and a very incredible way that Isaiah 61:1 is Trinitarian in its theology!  How cool is that?  The Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to write something that made sense in his day but wouldn’t be fully understood for several hundred years later.  I love scripture like that.  To me, it just proves God’s absolute sovereignty over life and His Word.

The Job Of The Messiah

So what is it that the Lord has messiahed the subject of these verses to do?  {I’m sorry if it annoys you, but I think today I am inspired to use the word messiah as a verb.  I know it really isn’t a verb.  Just bear with me.  I promise I won’t make too much of a habit of it.}

• Bring Good News to the poor.
• Bandage the broken-hearted
• Proclaim liberty to the captives
• Release the imprisoned from their prisons.

Do you know what I love about that list?  That list is precisely what God is currently doing within me right now.  It is a process that began almost 3 decades ago when I was 8 years old and I truly just began to grasp what God did through Jesus.  Yet it is a process that hadn’t really begun in earnest until about 5 years ago.  But I can honestly say that the more and more I consider myself with respect to the agendas of the world, God is alive and well within me with respect to bringing good news to my poor spirit, bandaging up my broken heart, proclaiming liberty to me with respect to the idols that hold me captive, and releasing the bondage of sin that so readily weighs me down.  That is what the Messiah has been called to do in this world.  It is what the Messiah is doing in me and in thousands – perhaps even millions – of people across the globe.  Behold – the Messiah of the Lord has come!

Time In God’s Eyes

Then we get to verse two.  As I read verse 2 I am genuinely struck by the comparison of time listed here.  We are told of a “year of the Lord’s favor” and a “day of the Lord’s vengeance.”  Again we see the blessed pairing of Law and Gospel.  Again we see that there cannot be forgiveness without repentance.  There cannot be … aw, shoot.  I’ll just let Bonhoeffer say it.  He says it so much better than I could ever say it anyway.  This is from The Cost of Discipleship:

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

You see?  With God, when we do things correctly there is always a “year of favor” AND a “day of vengeance.”  Forgiveness comes through repentance.  Baptism comes through spiritual discipline.  Communion comes following confession.  Grace comes through discipleship.  Grace comes through the cross.  Grace and Gospel abound, but there is always both the Law and the Gospel.

In fact, the Law and the Gospel may not be in balance.  I hope that it isn’t!  I believe God to be of the character that His grace far outweighs His judgment.  But that does not mean God’s judgment is not present.  There absolutely will be a day of judgment; there will be a year of God’s favor.  Amen!

The World’s Response

So as we look to the rest of this chapter, what is the effect of the coming of the one that the Lord has messiahed?  The nations will gather.  The ancient places of “relationship with God” shall be rebuilt.  The ruin and devastation of earlier times will be overcome.  We will fellowship and work alongside strangers and foreigners – and we shall be priests to serve our God!  Priests, I tell you!  With the coming of the Messiah we shall be priests! 

Men, women, children, people of all race and tongue – we can be priests to serve our God!

Wow.  I feel myself getting caught up emotionally a good bit in this chapter today.  But why shouldn’t I?  With the coming of the Messiah is also a coming of righteousness.  I can feel it within me.  I can feel Him within me.  Can you?

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Year 3, Day 44: Isaiah 60

Another Smashing Opening Verse

I’m going to make a really obvious comment to begin this blog.  Again we have another incredible verse with which a chapter begins.  It’s almost like the authors of the Bible knew what they were doing!  {I know, I know…}

In all seriousness, how often as I write this blog do I comment on the very first verse of every chapter?  This chapter is not different.  “Arise, shine, for your light has come.  The glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”  This is such an incredible verse at it helps us frame faith perfectly in our worldview.  We do not do anything to earn the presence of the glory of the Lord.  The glory of the Lord rises upon us. God sends His glory.  We have all fallen short of the glory of God, but He sends His glory to rise and shine upon us anyway.  This is such a humbling verse that leaps off of the page as a demonstration to God’s gracious nature!

The Return To The Lord’s Hand

As we move through the pronouncements in the following verses, we can hear how these words so clearly speak about the restoration of the Hebrew people after the Babylonian captivity.  They will return to the land.  There will be great joy among the people.  The wealth of the land will be returned.  {This is probably an obscure reference to the temple furnishings being returned, which the Babylonians had plundered from the temple.}

When we get to verse 6 the message in verse 2 suddenly takes a whole new meaning.  Yep, you’ve guessed it.  Here comes another one of those double-interpretation passages!  In verse 6 we hear about the nations bringing gold and frankincense.  We hear about them bringing praise to God.  And then we look back to verse 2 and read the words in a new light.  “The Lord will arise upon you.”  Not only will the glory of the Lord arise, the Lord Himself will rise among the people!  Suddenly this passage is not just about the return of the people out of exile but this chapter is about the coming of God’s Messiah in the form of Jesus.  The gold, the frankincense, the Gentiles coming and bringing praise to God’s name – this passage ultimately finds it’s fulfillment in the gospel story of Jesus!

It is hard for me to not read the rest of the chapter through the lens of Christ now that Jesus is so clearly portrayed in the opening section.  So I will surge ahead in interpreting this chapter through the lens of Christ.  The next dozen or so verses have much focus upon the nations and their relationship with the Hebrew people.  The nations will continue to praise God.  The glory of the nations will come and bow in the presence of the Hebrew people.  The wealth of the nations will pass among God’s faithful.  I can’t help but see these verses coming true in Christ as well.  As Christianity spread through His disciples, the nations have come and given glory to God in the presence of the Hebrew people. 

The truth is that God’s Messiah was a Hebrew.  We have the Hebrew people before us to thank for bringing forth this testimony to God’s grace and glory.  It is out of God’s relationship with the Hebrew people that we find Jesus emerging into our lives.

It Is The Lord Who Works

I’m going to close these reflections with an intentional focus on the last two verses.  In a sense, these verses bring us back full circle to where we began in this chapter.  It is the Lord who does the planting of His righteous branch.  It is the Lord who does the work.  It is the Lord who shall be glorified.  He deserves the praise.  He deserves the glory.

Then we hear that the least one shall become a clan and the small one a mighty nation.  I can’t help but hear this again as a prophetic verse that is fully true only in the light of Christ.  Here we have Jesus, born into a stable – laid in a manger, even – to a man who wasn’t even fully married to Jesus’ own mother.  You don’t have much more of a humble beginning than that.  You aren’t much more small in life that that.

However, out of this least of beginnings shall come the Messiah.  Then, out of Christ comes His mighty nation – a people of grace.  What a great thought to reflect upon for the rest of the day.  God’s hand is at work.  God’s Messiah has come out of the lowliest of beginnings.  But He has come nonetheless!  He deserves the praise.  And we are a part of His mighty nation.  Thanks be to God!

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Year 3, Day 43: Isaiah 59

Some Things Never Change

I know it’s really not funny.  But I had to laugh as I read the opening section of Isaiah 59.  You see, a few days ago I was sitting in my living room with some young ladies from my congregation.  We were talking about the relevance of the Bible.  One of my spiritual friends said something to the effect that “what makes the Bible so cool is that the Bible speaks to the basic needs of all people.”  In other words, while the form of life may change, the underlying principles of life do not.  We all want to be loved.  We all want to feel like we belong.  We all want to feel connected to the lives of other people.  Sure, we may do it over Facebook, iPhone, and Skype instead of slipping on our sandals, running down the dirt path, and slipping into our neighbor’s mud hut.  But the basic tenets of life are still the same.

So I read these opening verses.  And what do I read?  “Your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.  No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.”  Are these words not appropriate for Western culture of the 21st century?  Yes, they may well have been true for Isaiah.  They have probably been true over and over again throughout the course of human history.  They are true now and will likely be true again and again and again.  The circumstances of life may change, but the basic tenets of life do not.

How many absolutely stupid lawsuits do we hear about people twisting the law to suit their needs?  How many public figures say words that manipulate the truth so that it is a version of truth acceptable to their own ears?  How many empty pleas for help are out in the world – people who don’t truly need help but rather just want a free ride?  Does not many of our cultural “pastimes” really just promote mischief and iniquity?  Do we know a way of peace?  Do we even recognize justice when we see it anymore?

We all say we long for love – but what do we do as a culture towards achieving that goal?  We say we want justice, but what do we do as a culture to strive towards it?*  We say we long for some kind of salvation, but where do we as a culture turn to try and find it?

The Humans Stumble

So I continued reading in Isaiah 58.  Here’s what I read when I got to verses 14-15: “Justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.”  Truth has stumbled in the public squares – uprightness cannot enter.  Again I feel as though we hit another set of verses that demonstrates the continuity of human existence.  Is that not a theme that runs throughout the whole of the human collective?  Those who depart from evil makes himself a prey.  How many warriors for good have you seen fall as a victim to our culture – or any culture?  The circumstance of life may change with time, but the basic tenets of life do not.

The Lord Takes Action

But then we hit another blessed verse.  In verse 15b we hear that the Lord has looked upon the world and realized that nobody can bring about salvation.  So what does the Lord do?  The Lord Himself prepares for battle.  He puts on righteousness.  He puts on salvation.  He puts on vengeance.  He puts on zeal.  And then He does something about the human condition.  He does it because we cannot.  Those verses speak loud and clear to the coming of God’s Messiah in Jesus Christ!  As verse 20 declares, “A Redeemer will come to Zion, to those who turn away from their transgression.”  Oh what an absolutely sweet verse.

Then we hit a small but beautiful section of prose at the end of this chapter.  Much like in Jeremiah 31:31-34, the Lord promises to make a new covenant with His people.  This new covenant will be based on the fact that God’s own Spirit will rest upon us.  Because the Spirit of God will rest upon us, His Word shall never depart from us.

If that paragraph isn’t talking about Christ’s ultimate work here on this earth I don’t know what is.  Jesus Christ comes to earth.  Jesus dies for our sake.  To those who turn away from their transgression God provides the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit keeps the Word of the Lord upon us day in and day out.  Because the Holy Spirit dwells within and among us, God’s Word does not depart from our midst.  Such a beautiful ending to a chapter that began so darkly.

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*As an example of how we “appear to want justice” but really don’t want justice: I saw a really neat picture on Facebook that struck a chord with me.  I’m going to make a stand for the sanctity of life here.  Here’s what the post said:

• Piping Plover (it’s a bird) eggs – protected by federal law.
• Loggerhead Sea Turtle eggs – protected by federal law.
• Humpback Chub (it’s a fish) eggs – protected by federal law.
•  Human fetus – not protected by federal law.

Is western culture really concerned with justice in this case?  Is not the statement that is being made that the federal government considers the human fetus “expendible?”  Where is the justice in that?

Year 3, Day 42: Isaiah 58

The Bold Proclamation

As I often do, I pause at the first verse of this chapter.  “Cry aloud.  Do Not Hold Back.”  Gulp.  This message is going out to the heralds.  God wants the heralds – the proclamation experts of the society – to not hold back as they declare the sinfulness of the people.  Let your voice be like a trumpet.  {Just for the record, the trumpet is not a quiet instrument in the orchestra.}  Who are His heralds?  Priests?  Pastors?  Sunday School teachers?  Council members?  Anyone who reads God’s Word?  Anyone who claims to be in a personal relationship with God through the grace which comes to us by blood of Jesus Christ?  Yeah.  That’s right.  The heralds are you and me.  Cry out, people.  C’mon.  Don’t hold back.

The Bad And The Ugly

The next four verses in Isaiah 58 tell us quite plainly what the people are doing wrong:

• Verse 2 – from an outward appearance, they look as though they are seeking the Lord.  They sound like a nation that is righteous and doesn’t forsake the judgments of God.  But it is all a façade.
• Verse 3 – Yet, the people complain that they’ve gone through all the work of fasting and sacrifice and God doesn’t see it.  They believe that they’ve humbled themselves and God seems not to care.  However, God’s opinion is that when they fast they only do it in a way that pleases themselves.  While they try to appear as righteous, they are still oppressing the people around them.
• Verse 4 – Their fasts are done just to be able to prove who is better or more righteous.  Their fasting leads not to spirituality but to human argumentation.  Going through righteous motion in an unrighteous manner will do nothing with respect to God desiring to hear their voice.
• Verse 5 – God asks the people if He really wants them to “fast” for only a day.  Does He only desire the appearance of righteousness as they spread out sackcloth and ashes underneath them to look like they are in mourning?

Here’s what I’ve gleaned from those first five verses.  God doesn’t want a show.  God doesn’t want us to do something short-term.  He doesn’t want us to fast for a day and then go back to our old way of life.  He doesn’t want us to mimic true faith.  He doesn’t want our motions.

Rather, God wants our hearts.  {Oh, how I love letting scripture interpret scripture.  Stop, right now, and flip to the book of Joel.  Read Joel 2:13 – especially the first third of the verse.}  God wants us to rend our hearts.  He doesn’t want meaningless action.  If God wanted meaningless action He would have created automatons with no free will!  The very reason God created us with free will is because He desires meaningful action.  He wants us to rend our hearts.  He wants our practice to become who we really are inside.  He wants us to fast and sacrifice because it is who we are, not because we think we have to do so in order to appease Him.  God wants us, not our resentful capitulation!

So as long as we’re talking about what God really wants, let’s move on into verse 6 and the verses that follow.  God really desires that we free people from their bondage.  {Caring for orphans and widows, anyone?}  He wants us to resist wickedness.  He wants us to share with the hungry.  He wants us to clothe the naked and cover them in their time of need.  He wants us to bring the homeless into our lives.  {Huh.  Jesus must have read these words prior to preaching to His disciples in Matthew 25:31-46.  LOL.  I love when the Old and the New Testaments come together so neatly!}

I’m going to be cliché.  But does anyone really hear God in this passage?  Isaiah is telling us that God wants people who can talk the talk AND walk the walk.  God is looking for true faith, not some lip service with no action behind it.

The Good

It is then that we hit the beautiful words of Isaiah 58:8 and following.  Then shall our light and healing break forth.  Then shall our righteousness go before us and then we shall know what it is to have the Lord as our rear guard.  Then we shall call out to the Lord and He shall answer.

If we would just take away our oppressive human yoke and free people from bondage we would know the grace of God. If we would pour ourselves into the care of the orphans and the widows we would know true love and true blessing.  Then the Lord will guide us continually.  Then our darkest moments in life will still seem like the brightness of noonday.  Then we shall be rebuilt.  Then we will be known as a people who restore and rebuild and repair.

Wow.  What an absolutely incredible chapter.  I am absolutely charged with excitement having read these words.  I want to live the words that conclude this chapter.  I want to bear God’s love to the orphans and the widows.  I want to be known as “God’s repairer of the breech.”  Don’t you?

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Year 3, Day 41: Isaiah 57

A Dark Culture

Isaiah 57:1-2 gives an incredible cultural perspective.  Let’s take a good look at what the author says in these two verses.  First, Isaiah comments that the righteous are dying and nobody seems to notice at all.  Nobody is taking their death to heart.  Although the author doesn’t say it, it is likely that the righteous person’s death may even be appreciated by the unrighteous!

Second, notice that Isaiah tells us that in death the righteous are taken away from calamity and into peace.  Isaiah’s point cannot be clearer.  Life in the Hebrew land at the time of Isaiah is so corrupt that death is an escape.  There was so much frustration among the righteous with respect to living that death was seen as a celebration of escape among the faithful who were left behind!  That paints a pretty vivid image of what life was like.

Then we move into verses 3-6 and find an opposite message.  Here there is the contrast to the first few verses.  Here we hear Isaiah speak to the children of sorceresses – offspring of the adulterers and the “loose.”  What are their main characteristics?  They live in a society that promotes rebellion, deceit, and lust.  In this specific case, they offer their children up as sacrifices. 

This makes me wonder … is it possible to fill a child’s life with so much stuff that there’s no room for God?  Of course it is.  If we do that, are we not offering up our child as a sacrifice to whatever it is that fills their schedule?  I digress…

Isaiah is telling the unrighteous Hebrew people that God is not pleased with their choices of “bedfellows.”  God desired them for Himself.  God wanted the relationship to be true.  God wanted them to know genuine righteousness – a righteousness that can only come from Him.  But the unrighteous Hebrews chose the ways of the world instead.  They have gone to other high places to sacrifice to other gods.  They have barred God from coming within their doorposts while they invite other gods in freely.  They have walked away from the covenant God has made with them and instead opt for the covenants they make with the rest of the world.

Then we arrive at verse 13.  This is a really scary verse for me to read.  “When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!”  Whoa.  That verse really packs a wallop.  Do I have idols in my life?  Sure, I do.  We all do.  What would it look like for me if God turned and said these words to me?  Do I think any of the idols that I worship could save me in my trouble?  Will the television programs I watch do anything for me in my low moments of life?  Will the computer games of an earlier life ever come to save me?  What about the prideful things in my life – will they come to my aid?  When I am down, where will the source of my help be?  How painful it would be to hear God say to me, “Let the idols that you love come to your rescue!”

The Culture of Light

In contrast once more, we come upon verses 14-21.  I was especially struck by verse 15.  The Lord is high and mighty.  The Lord dwells in eternity.  But He also makes a point to dwell with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit.  He may be dwelling in the high places, but His desire is to revive the spirits of those who are in Him – even in the deepest and darkest moments of their life.

No Peace For The Wicked

Then once more we come full circle in the chapter.  Now it is back to the warning against evil.  God has contended with those who lived in such a way so as to ask for it.  He fought against those who lived in iniquity.  God even compares the wicked to the tossing of an angry sea.  It cannot help but rage.  It turns up the dirt and sediment over which an angry sea resides.  Those who contend against the Lord are turbulent by their very nature.

Finally we come to the last verse of this chapter.  This verse will bring me no peace this night.  “There is no peace for the wicked.”  The sounds like another double-edged sword.  First, it is a statement of fact.  There is no peace for the wicked.  However, it is also a promise.  God knows what lies ahead.  God knows what is stake with respect to salvation and eternal life.  There is no peace for the wicked.

Why will this verse bring me no peace tonight?  Certainly I believe my salvation to be secure in the Lord.  However, there are many in this world who need to hear about the Lord.  How can I rest peacefully when I know there are people out there who are in the category of people to whom God declares that there is no peace for the wicked?  How can I rest in peace when I know there is work to be done?  Like the righteous who found peace once they died, so shall it be with me.  I will have eternal peace in God.  It’s time to bear a little unrest so that the Gospel can be proclaimed!

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Year 3, Day 40: Isaiah 56

Some Difficult Teachings

Isaiah 56 starts off with a really neat set of passages.  First of all, you have the passage about honoring the Sabbath and not doing evil.  These are verses that sound so simple, don’t they?  I mean, if you really think about it, how hard is it to say, “Honor the Sabbath” and “Don’t do evil?”  After all, the Sabbath only comes by once a week, right?

Ha!  Honoring the Sabbath is difficult enough.  But then refraining from evil?  No, there is a challenge indeed.

But then we get to verses 3 and 4.  God tells His people to make sure that the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord doesn’t feel separated.  Or perhaps more accurately they are to never feel as though they are separate from God’s people.

There’s a reason that this is such a neat verse.  The theology behind the verse is really pre-Gospel.  God is saying to the foreigner, “Once you become mine, you are mine.”  Or, think of it this way, “When you become mine, your genetics are irrelevant.”  From a New Testament perspective we would say it another way.  It is the faith of Abraham that is important, not his DNA.  And that is a really cool thought when you consider the scope of what Jesus did and what he called His apostles (and Paul) to do.

Then we come to the line about the eunuch.  This is cool for all the same reasons but on a different line of thinking.  Remember that under the Law eunuchs were forbidden from entering into the presence of God.  They were “deformed males.”  They had no ability to produce offspring, so under the Law they had little reason to exist.

Yet, here in these verses we can see that God is telling the eunuch that there is something in life more important than one’s offspring.  {I know, that’s a pretty blunt statement right there.  Sorry.} The eunuch who is obedient to God and who proclaims such obedience through his actions in life will bring a testimony to the glory of God that is even greater than children.  The eunuch who lives according to God’s ways can know eternal life with God, which is something that under the Law seems difficult at best for them to achieve.  In this passage, we see that grace surpasses the Law.  We also see that one’s walk with the Lord surpasses one’s walk with one’s children.  {Although please don’t hear me saying that parenting is irrelevant.  Good parenting is absolutely important!  It is just penultimate to one’s relationship with God.}

A Switch In Subjects

In Isaiah 56:9 we completely change the tenor of this chapter.  No longer are we talking about future restoration.  No longer are we talking about the righteous remnant returning.  No longer are we singing the praises of the faithful.  We are back to Isaiah’s reality.  We are back to the calling of the Gentiles (the dogs) to destroy and devour the Hebrew lands.

If we think about the prophet Isaiah, he lived in a time prior to the Babylonian occupation.  He did live to see the Assyrians flee to their own home, but he died prior to the Babylonian assault upon Jerusalem.  So if we read these verses through the lens of Isaiah, these verses could well be again returning to the coming threat of the Babylonians.  Of course, as I have documented alot in the past few chapters, even after the return from the land under the Persians there will be the coming of the Greeks and the Romans and eventually the Muslim forces.  There are many waves of Gentiles who will assert themselves over the Hebrew people.

For me, the key here is why.  Why are the Gentiles (the dogs) being called to come and devour the land?  Unfortunately, the answer is all too simple.  The Hebrew people have no leadership.  Their shepherds no longer shepherd.  Their shepherds are interested in strong drink and wine – not actually leading people in God’s ways.  They are interested in the fun parts of life rather in the challenge of leading people towards God.   Each one has turned to their own ways and their own understanding.

This is really a painful set of verses for me to read.  As a pastor, I know the temptation to stop caring about God’s ways and just try to get people to like me.  I know how easy it is to get sucked into the popularity race and step out of the journey with God.  I know how fast that transition can happen.  I know how blind any leader is to that temptation.  I’ve fallen upon that sword more than once.  It happens in a scarily fast manner.

Spiritual leadership that is strong and faithful is vital to Christian life with God.  But leadership will eventually fail.  What is important is to remember just how fast leadership can fail so that none of us are blind when it happens.  When we hold our leaders accountable, we will help them stay strong.  When they are strong, they can hold us accountable.  It is always a give and take.  But strong spiritual leadership is a necessity for any and all of us.

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Year 3, Day 39: Isaiah 55

The Message Depends On Circumstance

I can only imagine how these words would have sounded throughout the Hebrew history from when Isaiah wrote them.  Historically at the time of the writing, these are a people who have just come through the Assyrian assault.  They don’t realize it yet, but they are headed into Babylonian captivity.  But then there will be a faithful remnant that reads these words in the light of being allowed to return to Jerusalem.  Then there will be those who read these words under the Greek occupation and especially the blasphemies under Antiochus Epiphanes IV.  Then there will be those who read this under Roman occupation.  Then there are those who read this through the light that Jesus sheds upon it.  Then there are us, who read them now in the light of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Listen to these words of incredible promise: “Come! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters!  He who has no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price!”  Imagine how these words affect all kinds of people in a vast multitude of circumstances.  Imagine the hope and the peace that these words can bring upon a world thrown into the chaos that humanity establishes upon it.

Challenge In The Midst Of Compassion

But as only God can adequately do, do you hear the challenge that comes through the declaration of peace?  Note that there is always a challenge when God speaks – even, perhaps especially, when God speaks words of peace.  Look at verse 2.  “Why do you spend your money for that which cannot sustain you and why do you labor for that which does not ever satisfy?”

Wow.  Talk about a line written almost three millennia ago that can still shatter the cultural mindset of today!  When I read these words, I cannot help but be rocked to the ground.  How much of my own life is spent pursuing things that can neither sustain me nor satisfy me?  How much of my life is spent fighting off the ways of this world and its death grip upon my ability to find true joy and happiness?  God has made each of us relational people sent to proclaim Him to the world.  How much time do I spend doing anything but that!

Talk about a time to need to hear verse 3.  “Hear, that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant.”  Of course, this verse is not just spoken to the individual hearer but also to the communal hearing.  God is calling us as a community to incline our ear to Him.  God is calling us as a community that we might collectively as His church have an everlasting covenant.  He is calling us collectively to come and enjoy His food which does satisfy and sustain.  This is a collective call for us to come together and base ourselves in Him.

Seek The Lord

In verse 6 we get another very famous passage.  “Seek the Lord while He may be found.”  I love the double-edged nature of this line.  First, there is the edge of encouragement.  We are encouraged to find the Lord!  We are encouraged to come to Him and turn our lives to Him!  But then there is also the edge of warning.  We are to seek Him while He may be found.  This implies that there will be a time when it is too late for us to find Him.  If we waste enough of our lives, we might just end up in a place where we can no longer find God.  If we ignore God our entire life, we may find ourselves in the place of the dead awaiting our time to stand before a God that we never took time to know.  What a sad and tragic reality that would be!

So I join with the prophet Isaiah and exhort you now, seek the Lord while He may be found!

How do we do this?  Well, let’s take the words that end this chapter seriously.  Let us forsake our wicked ways.  Let us leave our unrighteous thoughts.  Let us seek repentance so that the Lord may have compassion upon us.  The first step to seeking the Lord is humble repentance.

We Are Not The Lord

Then we arrive to verse 8.  Oh, how I love the absolute brutal honesty of verse 8.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are my ways your ways.”  Seeking the Lord involves acknowledging that God is absolutely foreign to us.  We are not little gods.  Our culture would have us believe that because we are a part of creation we all naturally contain a little essence of God within us.  What a load of … rubbish.

Absolute rubbish!  We contain no essence of God within us on our own!  We were made in the image of God, yes.  But our sinful nature separates us from God!  It utterly and completely separates us from God.

However, when we acknowledge that His ways are not our ways and that His thoughts are not our thoughts then we can repent.  We can cast away ourselves.  As Paul says in Galatians 2:19-20, we can crucify ourselves with Christ so that it is no longer we who live but He – the crucified Christ – who lives within us.  We can put aside this immortality and God can send His blessed Holy Spirit within us.  Then – and only then – can we say that we have the spark of God within us!  We can indeed have a relationship with the Creator of this world, but it must come through the valley of repentance.  We can have God within us, but not naturally.  We can have God within us once we have received His Holy Spirit.

Again, seek the Lord while He may be found!  Repent and receive the Holy Spirit!

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Year 3, Day 38: Isaiah 54

Bearing Fruit

I’m going to risk going out on a fairly controversial platform as I begin this blog post.  In the beginning of this chapter we have frequent references to “the desolate one” and the “one who did not bear.”  Now, I know that originally these words were words spoken to a people who were in captivity.  Because they were in captivity, life was more difficult and there was a greater likelihood that babies born would not make it to adulthood.  That is the original context; that is to whom Isaiah is trying to bring comfort.

However, I think there is a deeper and more subtle undertone to these words.  Throughout the Bible, God’s biggest complaint about the Hebrew people is that they were not active about telling the world about God.  They were simply not interested in sharing with the world their special relationship with God.  In fact, one could even say at times they weren’t interested in their special relationship with God themselves!  I think it is quite possible that the Holy Spirit is speaking through these words to remind us that spiritually, the Hebrew people are the desolate one.  They are not out inviting Gentiles into a relationship with God at all!

If this is true, then the end of verse 1 can take on a really cool twist.  The children of the desolate one will be more than the one who is married.  If the Hebrew people are the desolate one, then Christians can be seen as the “children” of the desolate one.  The desolate one didn’t do anything to bring about the children, but the children are here nonetheless! 

Jesus Himself was a Jew.  Jesus picked Jewish disciples.  Those disciples made more Jewish disciples at first.  But eventually Christianity really took off when it became a Gentile movement.  When Paul and His disciples began to preach among Gentiles – we see an explosion of faith around the world!  The traditional Jews would have nothing to do with Christianity, but in one respect we can certainly be called their children!  And we can certainly say that Christianity as spread far and wide and there are Christians in most (if not all) nations!

The Love Poem Of Isaiah

The rest of this chapter reads much like a love poem.  A scorned lover forgives and embraces His love once more.  The author of the love poem does not forget the manner in which He was scorned.  Rather, He reminds the Hebrew people how He has been scorned in ages past and how He has forgiven in the past.

I think this is one of the great aspects of God.  As unfaithful as we may be, God does not turn Hs back on us.  God does not forsake us.  He doesn’t move along to the next person and abandon us.  Sure, we may utterly abandon Him should we desire it, but He never abandons us where we repent and turn back to Him.  But no matter what we have done, where we have been, or what we have said there is always the option of grace, forgiveness, and restoration.

What’s really neat is the joy with which God speaks about this process of forgiveness and restoration.  So often we as human beings are bitter about forgiveness.  We are angry when we have to “be the bigger person” and forgive.  We are bitter because God has called us to take the high road and model forgiveness when we’ve been hurt.  But that is not the attitude of God!  If anyone should be allowed to adopt an attitude of bitter forgiveness it is God!  But no.  God shows a better way.  He opens His arms wide and embraces our return.  With everlasting love He has compassion upon us.

How sweet is the sound of amazing grace indeed!

In this, God makes two very bold declarations.  The first one is that He promises to rebuild the forgiven.  He doesn’t simply forgive.  He doesn’t simply welcome us back but keep us where we deserve to be in our lowliness.  No, God forgives and then helps to rebuild!  He takes us and helps make us into something great – something we have no right to become!  That’s amazing.

And then God gives one more incredible promise: no weapon fashioned against you shall succeed.  Again, on a worldly scale this seems like such an empty promise.  We know the Greek Empire utterly enslaves the Hebrew people.  The Romans do the same.  Christian martyr after Christian martyr is slain all throughout human history.

But on a spiritual level – the only mindset that matters -  this promise is absolutely true.  Who shall separate us from the love of God?  Read Romans 8:35-39.  Nothing shall separate us from the love of God.  No weapon formed against us shall succeed.  Amen!

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Year 3, Day 37: Isaiah 53

The Bringer Of Peace

Isaiah 53 – and the last 3 verses of Isaiah 52 – may well be one of my favorite sets of verses in the Bible. I know I’ve said that before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again.  After all, with so many sides to spirituality, it is certainly possible to have multiple favorites for each dynamic of spirituality.  But when it comes to understanding what length’s God’s Messiah would go to bringing peace between God and His people – these verses are simply a classic.  I do believe that this passage should be read through the double-interpretation lens about which I’ve often spoken in this blog.  But for this passage, I’m going to jump straight to the interpretation that focuses on the work of Jesus Christ.

It really begins with Isaiah 52:13.  “My servant shall act wisely.”  That last word can also be translated as prudently.  Think about this for a second.  We know what Christ did.  We know His act on the cross.  I doubt you will find very many people at all who would consider going to the cross as prudent or wise.  After all, if someone looked at you and said, “God told me to tell you that He wants you to be crucified,” how many of you would be quick to volunteer to die?  No.  From the perspective of the world, what Jesus did was in no way prudent or wise.

But from the divine perspective, it was incredibly prudent!  Jesus was bringing reconciliation between God and His creation!  Jesus was bridging the gap between a righteous God and a people who have no hope of being righteous on their own.  From God’s perspective, there is no more prudent act that God’s Messiah could do!

Let’s now look at what this passage says about the actions of God’s servant.  “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance.”  Jesus would be abused and beaten so much that it would be painful for us to look upon Him.

“He grew up like a root out of dry ground.”  We know how faithless humanity can be.  We know that Jesus Himself accused the world around Him of being utterly incapable when it came to faith in God.  Jesus even praises a Roman Centurion for having faith unlike anything else found among the Hebrew people.  God’s Messiah came among a Hebrew culture that had no reason to expect Him to come among their midst.  Of course, they don’t really have the corner on faithlessness, do they?

“He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, no beauty that we should desire Him.”  When Jesus was on the earth, you wouldn’t have known it by outward appearances.  He didn’t look like a king.  He didn’t act like royalty.  Jesus came as a servant.  He was the son of a carpenter.  People who judge Him based on outward appearances simply miss what He has to offer.

“He has borne our grief.  He has carried our sorrows.”  “He was pierced for our transgressions.  He was crushed for our iniquities.”  “He was oppressed, He was afflicted.”  The death of Christ was not easy.  He endured physical torture.  He endured psychological suffering.  He endured relational rejection.  He endured spiritual abandonment.  In every way possible Jesus experienced the pain of living and dying for a people who did not deserve it.

“Yet he opened not His mouth.  Like a lamb lead to the slaughter … so He opened not His mouth.”  Jesus knew the plans of God.  He knew He was on a higher agenda.  He accepted God’s plan and submitted to it without complaint.

“With His wounds we are healed.”  None of us can save ourselves.  None of us can do what He did for us.  We could never accomplish in a whole lifetime what Jesus accomplished in a single moment of death.  Through Him – and only through Him – are we healed.

“Yet, it was the will of the Lord to crush Him.”  All of this happened because it was God’s will.  All of this happened for our sake, by God’s own hand.  He bore our sin because God knew it was the only way.  He died because God knew it was the only option.  God provided a way.  All we need to do is humble ourselves, follow the leading of Christ, and submit.

Are you ready?

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