The Struggle Of Righteousness
I have to
say that the opening of Isaiah 48 resonated with me quite a bit. I don’t know if it is my natural legalism
within me or what. But the opening of
Isaiah 48 seems to absolutely nail humanity from my perspective. Just so I am clear: being a human, I am counting
myself among humanity.
In the
opening verses, God clearly says a few things.
First, God says that He is aware that people swear by His name. {True
about me? Check} He is aware that
people use His name to confess things that should be taken seriously. {Check} God is aware that people think of themselves
as holy and righteous in their own eyes.
{Check} But what is really telling is the end of
verse 1. Humanity – specifically God’s
own people! - does all of these things while not being in truth or righteousness.
Ouch. That line hurts. The veil is dropped. The emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. We as human beings make all these grand
statements and incredible promises of faith.
What do we base them on? Our own
filthy rags?
As if that
isn’t bad enough, we get to verses 3-4.
Here God tells us just how blind we are.
God tells us that He knew we cannot see His hand at work in this world
so He told us what He was doing. He
announced His work through the prophets and His special messengers. Then He did His works! He followed through on His promises and His
warnings. They happened! Yet why is it that God announced His work
beforehand? He knew we were stubborn,
stiff-necked, and obstinate. He knew we
would miss His hand at work and we would give the credit to some uninvolved
thing such as one of our idols.
Again,
ouch. Not only do we suffer from an
over-exaggerated sense of righteousness but we are also blind. In fact, we are worse than blind. In verse 8 God gets to the heart of the
matter. He nails the problem. He gives humanity a serious vocabulary term:
rebel.
God’s Response To Our Struggle
Yet how does
God respond to this? In His
patience. Rather than discard us, He
refines us. He tries us through our
affliction. He doesn’t want His glory
going elsewhere – He wants His glory to shine upon and through us! Such is the nature of God’s love.
God’s Proclamation
The second
half of this chapter is a proclamation to God’s own people. This passage is both declaration and
lament. Listen to the words.
“I am the Lord
Your God, who teaches you to profit and leads you in the way you should
go.” God is the redeemer. God is the instructor. A right mind and a right spirit begins with
Him.
Then comes
the lament. “Oh, that you would have
paid attention to my commandments!” God
bemoans the fact that He had to punish His own people. Even today I think it pains God that His own
followers do not pay attention to His commandments as they should.
Isn’t it
amazing how quickly things get messed up when we start to focus on ourselves
and our agenda? When we lose sight of
God’s desire for our lives, things go south pretty quickly! It is really sad that we know the secret to
success and we still ignore it because we want to do it our way.
In fact,
listen to how God bemoans the circumstance that the Hebrew people find
themselves in. If they had just obeyed
God and followed His ways, then their descendants wouldn’t be scattered. If they had just obeyed their names wouldn’t
have had to be destroyed before God’s presence.
If they had just obeyed, captivity wouldn’t have been necessary. Interestingly enough, as I live in a culture
that is taking people into a social and emotional captivity right and left I can’t
help but wonder how true these words are for us as well!
Verse 22
will haunt me for the rest of the night – as it is already late while I post
this. The Lord says, “There is no peace
for the wicked.” I can’t help but wonder
…
Is God
speaking of the wicked as those who know better but who do not obey Him?
Is God
making a temporal or an eternal statement in this closing declaration of Isaiah
48?
Do I really
want to risk being on the wrong side of the answers to either of those
questions?
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