Jeremiah 34-36: Little Pieces of Paper

Jeremiah Thirty-Six contains the interesting story about Jeremiah, the scribe Baruch and the king, Jehoiakim.

Jeremiah dictated the words that he heard from the Lord to Baruch who wrote the words down on a scroll and took the scroll to the temple to read to all of the people.  The officials sitting in the temple heard the words of the Lord and told Baruch to go back, get Jeremiah and go into hiding.  These were not words that the king was going to like. The officials, who feared the king more than they did God, took the scroll to Jehoiakim, who didn't fear anyone.

It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. - Jer. 36:22-24 NIV

It's pretty easy to fear nothing when you're sitting comfortably in front of a burning fire, surrounded by your friends and others in powerful positions.  It's easy to fear nothing when, even though the enemy has the city surrounded, you have everything you need.  Fear is for those who are having difficulty finding food.  Fear is for those whose houses have been burned by the enemy.  Fear is not for the high and mighty, comfortable in the luxury that their wealth and influence has afforded them.  Cut all the dire predictions into little pieces.  Throw them into the fire, they mean nothing.   It's just paper, it's just words. The enemy, who's that?  God, who does he think he is?

2010 Post - Jeremiah 34-36:  Freedom

Jeremiah 32-33: A Righteous Branch

They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. - Jer 32:33 NIV

“This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jer. 33:2-3 NIV

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
 “‘In those days and at that time
   I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
   he will do what is just and right in the land.  - Jer. 33:14-15 NIV

“This is what the LORD says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, then my covenant with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne.- Jer. 33:20-21 NIV

Mankind has not changed and neither has God.  God knows exactly how we are...how we turn our backs to him instead of our faces.  But God is steadfast when we are not.  He keeps his covenants when we do not and the covenant he made with his people is as unbreakable as his covenant with the day and night.  He had to keep his covenant, so he had to make a way for a recalcitrant people.  There was only one way to fulfill that gracious promise he had made to the house of Israel, another had to come.  A righteous Branch that would make a way, not only for the house of Judah, but with all of his creation.  The way is there, has always been there.   For anyone who will call, he will answer.

 2010 Post - Jeremiah 32-33:  The Deed is Sealed

Jeremiah 30-31: The Lord Will Ransom

“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations;
   proclaim it in distant coastlands:
‘He who scattered Israel will gather them
   and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
For the LORD will ransom Jacob
   and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
   they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD—
the grain, the new wine and the oil,
   the young of the flocks and herds.
They will be like a well-watered garden,
   and they will sorrow no more.
Then maidens will dance and be glad,
   young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
   I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
   and my people will be filled with my bounty,”
            declares the LORD. - Jer. 31:10-14 NIV

Over and over again, God tells us one thing through the prophets.  Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, will be restored.  There will be grain, new wine and oil, there will be singing and dancing in the streets.  The abundance that was once promised them will become a reality. And the most incredible thing is that we have been invited as well.  Someday, maybe even soon, those of us who have been grafted in will share in God pouring out his favor once more upon his chosen people.  There will be a new heaven and a new earth.  The king will take his place on his rightful throne.  Fighting, disagreements, wars, even all the nations will cease to exist.  There will only be the kingdom of the one we love and we will get to be part of it.  We will get to see him.  Israel will see their God.  They will be filled with his bounty.They will rejoice in the Lord, they will shout for joy. They will be redeemed.  And so will we. The Ransom has been paid.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 30-31:  God's Never Ending Love for Israel

Jeremiah 28-29: If It Prospers, You Too Will Prosper

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have- Jeremiah 29:7-8 NIV

All of us are in exile of one kind or another.  We are aliens after all, living in a realm that is not our eternal home, so we shouldn't find it strange when we the world does not agree with us or we encounter hardships; when our leaders, our neighbors, even our own bodies don't behave as we think they should.  Instead we should remember that it is the Lord who has placed us where we are, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.  Some of us are already in prosperous places, by God's design, and others in less tenable positions.  In all instances, we have but one response:  to seek the peace and prosperity of the city into which we have been carried into exile.  We are to seek peace for this planet, we are to seek prosperity for this planet.  Not just for us, not just for God's people, but for the whole of creation.  That's why God placed each of us where we are at this point in time. 

Jeremiah was thought of as a doomsayer.  While his contemporaries were promising the return of those in exile to a crumbling Jerusalem, Jeremiah told the exiles to settle where they were, to build houses and families, to live their lives as if they were truly home.  We have to do the same.  We know this is not our final destiny, but we have to live our lives as if we were truly home.  We have to bring prosperity, healing, the hope of redemption to the alien world around us.  If it prospers, we will prosper as well.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 28-29:  Surrounded by Voices of Hope

Jeremiah 26-27:

The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD.  But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. - Jer. 26:  7-9 NIV

We all have a tendency to want to hear only those things that tickle our ears.  We want to hear how good, how charming we are, but we don't want to hear of our faults.  It's one thing to have exclusive hearing in our personal lives, but when it comes to things of God, especially in the house of God, there should be no doubt as t whether or not it is his voice that is being heard.  In Jeremiah's time, it wasn't the politicians so much as the priests and prophets who didn't want to hear or wouldn't believe that God was going to do anything bad to his people.  They were his chosen after all, they could do what they wanted with no consequences. 

God's word, his prophecy has never been for the outsiders.  He has always spoken to his people, they are the ones he holds accountable, no one else.  Perhaps we should stop looking at the world and look closely at ourselves and see if God is speaking to us about changing our ways.  Perhaps if we would, it would change the course of history and the lives of those who don't hear the voice of God.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 25-27:  The Cup of God's Wrath

Jeremiah 23-24: Peaceful Meadows Laid Waste

Weep and wail, you shepherds;
   roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.
For your time to be slaughtered has come;
   you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
The shepherds will have nowhere to flee,
   the leaders of the flock no place to escape.
Hear the cry of the shepherds,
   the wailing of the leaders of the flock,
   for the LORD is destroying their pasture.
The peaceful meadows will be laid waste
   because of the fierce anger of the LORD. - Jer. 25:34-37 NIV

Those who would be in leadership need to be mindful of this one thing.  God has a high standard for those who influence and watch over his flock, whether it be politicians, the head of world banks, media moguls, pastors, or televangelists.  Whenever those in leadership abuse their power, God will call them to account.  The verdant green pastures where they eat their fill at the expense of those they are supposedly representing will be destroyed and they will have no means of escape.  God will never let anyone live in peace at the expense of another. 

2010 Post - Jeremiah 23-24:  Two Baskets of FIgs

Jeremiah 21-23: It's Still His Story

“So then, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”  - Jer.23:7-8 NIV

We love to visit Israel, something I never thought I would say.  Once you set foot in that land that was promised to the descendants of Abraham, you experience something different, your perspective changes.   It becomes a historical perspective of promise.  You see something that God is doing for his people in the land he chose for them centuries ago.  You see the intertwining history of a people with their God and the land; people who have not forgotten their God and a God who has not forgotten the land or his people..  You see something that is alive, still living.  What is taking place in that land and among that people is real.  The relationship between God and his people is not dead, it is not finished.  You see the story as it is being told in this century.  You see God's hand at work; bringing his people out of all the countries where he had banished them.  It's still His land.  It's still His people.  It's still His story.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 21-23:  Beyond Hope

Jeremiah 19-20: Our High Places

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. - Jer. 19:3-5 NIV

Lovely homes built on mountainsides, towering office complexes, even cell towers and fire lookout stations, any and all of these structures that rise above can be cut down.  All that we trust in, all that we worship, can fall in an instant.  The ancient Israelites trusted in the gods of the high places.  Perhaps some of us are doing the same thing.  From our perches high above the masses, we think we are immune, yet God can smash all of those high places in an instant.  There is and always has been only one who is worthy of being exalted, only one who is high and lifted up.  He is a jealous God.  He will not share his glory with another.  Look around at all of the things that we lift up or that lift us up.  None can equal the Lord God and he will bring low all the high places and those that revel in them as well.

 2010 Post - Jeremiah 19-20:  Jeremiah's Predicament

Jeremiah 18: Blessing or Curse?

If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,  and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. - Jer. 18:7-19 NIV

With God there's always a second chance.  Even kingdoms and nations destined for destruction can be brought back from the brink if they humble themselves and repent.  The same is true for us.   In fact, none of the paths we choose have to be our final destination.  And, no matter how righteous we think we are, we can still lose our way; we can forget the God who brought us to life in the first place and reap the consequences.  Obedience versus confession and repentance, both lead to God's favor, both come out of recognizing that we are nothing without our creator. Most of us learn the hard way.  Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven.  We could be even more blessed if we would learn that without going astray in the first place.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 18:  In the Hands of the Potter

Jeremiah 15-17: Does It Matter?

This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers. - Jer.17:21-22 NIV

I don't have the answer for this, but I wish I knew.  Does the Lord take lightly what we as a society and a church have taken so lightly?  Does his word about obeying the Sabbath still hold true, or has it gone the way of the horse and buggy?  I can remember honoring the Sabbath, at least in a fashion.  I remember the days before the blue laws were overturned, when no businesses were open on Sunday, when Sunday was a day of worship, rest and more worship. 

Now there is no difference between Sunday and any other day of the week.  You can shop anywhere you want.  You can work, you can play.  Are we better off or are we missing something?  Does it matter?  Does it matter to God, does it matter to us? 

2010 Post - Jeremiah 15-17:  Why Do the Wicked Prosper?

Jeremiah 11-14: God Is Light

Hear and pay attention,
   do not be arrogant,
   for the LORD has spoken.
Give glory to the LORD your God
   before he brings the darkness,
before your feet stumble
   on the darkening hills.
You hope for light,
   but he will turn it to thick darkness
   and change it to deep gloom. - Jer. 13:15-16 NIV

Sometimes when we think it can't get any worse, we don't realize that a greater darkness lies just around the corner.  Jeremiah could see it although his compatriots and others around him thought he was daft and even plotted to kill him because of what he heard from the Lord.  But Jeremiah's word were not without hope.  'Give glory to the Lord your God,' he told them. 'Give him glory before the darkness comes.  Give glory to the one who is light.'

Give glory to the only one who can turn darkness into light, who can turn mourning into dancing.  Give glory to the one in whom there is no darkness at all.  Give glory to the one who instead is an island of light in a sea of darkness.  Give glory to him and the darkness fades away.  Even today, there is an antidote for all of the darkness that we see around us.  There is hope.  There is the truth as proclaimed by one who walked closely with God's son, the truth of one who had seen God in the flesh.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. - 1 John 1:5

2010 Post - Jeremiah 11-14:  Why Do the Wicked Prosper

Jeremiah 9-10: It is God

But the LORD is the true God;
   he is the living God, the eternal King.
When he is angry, the earth trembles;
   the nations cannot endure his wrath.
“Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’”
 But God made the earth by his power;
   he founded the world by his wisdom
   and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
   he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
   and brings out the wind from his storehouses. Jer. 10:10-13 NIV

It's six o'clock in the morning and still dark.  We were sitting on the porch having coffee when all of a sudden there was a change in the air.  It was almost imperceptible at first, then what was a breeze began to stir and out of the corner of my eye, I saw what looked like a flash of lightening.  A storm is coming.  Now I hear the thunder and the beginning sounds of rain.  Where does this all come from?  Where was all of this rain stored during the last few weeks of searing sun and heat?  Scientists can look at the signs and predict with occasional accuracy what the weather will be, but they cannot bring it into being.  It is God who thunders.  It is God who sends the lightening with the rain. It is God who saves and who ultimately will destroy as he sees fit.  It is all God.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 9-10:  If You Are Going To Boast

Jeremah 7-8: Is the Harvest Past?

“The harvest is past,
   the summer has ended,
   and we are not saved.”  - Jer. 8:20 NIV

What final and frightening words:  "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved."  They contrast sharply with a time of bounty, when the abundant crops have been gathered in and there is plenty to see one through whatever winter lies ahead.  The people of Jeremiah's time could not see what was on the horizon.  They thought they could do whatever they pleased and then go stand in the sanctuary and proclaim they were safe.

Even the stork in the sky
   knows her appointed seasons,
and the dove, the swift and the thrush
   observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know
   the requirements of the LORD.  - Jer 9:7 NIV

It's one thing for the ungodly, to trust in their own devices, in their wealth, their cunning, their relationships to save them, but it's another thing entirely for God's people to be blissfully unaware of the surrounding season.  Is the harvest past?

2010 Post - Jeremiah 7-8:  False Religion

Jeremiah 5-6: What Will You Do In the End?

“A horrible and shocking thing
   has happened in the land:
The prophets prophesy lies,
   the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
   But what will you do in the end? - Jer. 5:30-31 NIV

I have wondered for a long time, as I look around at all of the mega churches and mega ministries, why our nation is not being changed as a result of their influence.  Who is really being served, God or the ego of both those in lofty positions and the people who follow them.  Most of those ministries contrast sharply with a solitary naked man wearing a crown of thorns and carrying a heavy cross up a hill to his death.  We can't hold these spiritual leaders entirely to blame, because as Jeremiah so aptly noted, 'my people love it this way.'  Still the question remains, for all of those who would seek comfort, security, and position from their God, "What will you do in the end?"

2010 Post - Jeremiah 5-6:  Stand at the Crossroads

Jeremiah 3-4: The Lord's Fierce Anger

I looked at the earth,
   and it was formless and empty;
and at the heavens,
   and their light was gone.
I looked at the mountains,
   and they were quaking;
   all the hills were swaying.
I looked, and there were no people;
   every bird in the sky had flown away.
I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert;
   all its towns lay in ruins
   before the LORD, before his fierce anger. -Jer. 4:23-26 NIV

We fear all the wrong things.  We fear famine and pestilence.  We fear the enemy with the dirty bomb.  We fear the young misguided terrorist.  We fear our president.  We fear those who don't look like us.  We fear those who have more money than we do.  We fear those who have less.  We fear those halfway around the world.  We fear our neighbor.  We fear everyone and everything but the one we should fear.  We have very little fear for the one who formed the earth from nothing and who can once more turn it to nothing should he desire to do so.  In a heartbeat, all we see as being so powerful, so mighty can disappear.  The mountains, even the sun, could disappear at his command.  That being the case, what should we be doing now?  How should we be living?  We should be quaking in fear, but not over the petty issues that we think are so critical to our survival.  Nothing that happens to this nation or the world can be as catastrophic as one sweep of the creators hand.

2010 post - Jeremiah 3-4:  The Sound of the Trumpet

Jeremiah 1-2: Bitterly and Utterly Disappointed

You will be disappointed by Egypt
   as you were by Assyria.
You will also leave that place
   with your hands on your head,
for the LORD has rejected those you trust;
   you will not be helped by them. - Jer. 2:36-37 NIV

Over and over again, God tells us the same thing through the voice of his prophets, and over and over again, we ignore them and go on our merry way.  These words ring especially true.  "You will be disappointed."  Not, "You will be slaughtered, "you will be annihilated", or even "you will be abandoned."  No, the result of chasing after any and all other means of escape is that we will be disappointed.  Whatever we're casting about for, looking to for salvation, will just be another bitter disappointment.  Nothing else will save us.  We can't trust another country, another leader, another job, another boss, another doctor, another medicine, another church, another pastor.  Nothing, no place, no one, is ever going to give us what we need.  We may get what we want, but we will not get what we need and that achy empty void we are trying to fill will not go away.  The nagging fear we carry around will not be erased.   Another this, another that...it doesn't matter what it is, if we're not looking to God for our every answer we will be bitterly and utterly disappointed.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 1-2:  Just a Child

Isaiah 65-66: The Former Will Not Be Remembered

“Behold, I will create
   new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
   nor will they come to mind. - Is. 65:17 NIV

Everything we know now will someday be lost; lost to our remembrance and even to our imagination.  God is going to do something so stunning, so different that nothing that has gone on before will be of any consequence.  All the wars that have been fought, all of the nations that have risen and fallen, all of the kings presidents and heroes that have ever been born will be forgotten.  Just like our sins have been covered over in a sea of forgetfulness, all that we have ever known or loved will be erased from our consciousness. 

All we will see and all we will want to see is God in his glory, in the new city that he will bring about.  Just as in the beginning he created the heavens and the earth, from something that was without form or void, so he will create a new heaven and a new earth from this present earth which is a poor model of what is the come; of the earth as God intentioned it to be at the very beginning.  Someday, that kingdom, with all of the promise that was there in the garden, will become a reality.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

Isaiah 63-64: Are We Ready?

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
   that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
   and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
   and cause the nations to quake before you!
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
   you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
Since ancient times no one has heard,
   no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
   who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
   who remember your ways. - Is. 64:1-5 NIV

Listen!  What is that sound?  Is it the cry of God's people begging him to come, to come as in days of old, to make his presence known., to judge the earth and judge us as well.  Do we really believe that he is coming, that he will rend the heavens and come down; that his coming will cause the mountains to tremble and nations to quake before him?

It's all considered ancient history and few really believe that there is a God with the power to flood the earth, to speak from a burning bush, to part the sea, to heal the blind and raise the dead.  There is no record of any other god who has done these things throughout history.  There is only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who is credited with these miraculous works.  And it is only that same God that has the power to do awesome things today.  All we have to do is wait for him.  Oh, that he would come, we cry.  Are we prepared to wait?  Are we prepared for him to come?

2010 Post - Isaiah 63-64:  The Work of His Hand

Isaiah 60-62: No Other Choice

 I delight greatly in the LORD;
   my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
   and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, - Is. 61:10 NIV

I do delight in the Lord.  I have no choice.  He has taken me, claimed me, changed me as no other could.  There have been many times I have struggled with this Christian walk, many times when I knew I could not do it, it was too hard, I was too imperfect.  But like that old-time hymn, I have always had to say, "Where could I go but to the Lord?"  Where could I go.  There is no one else who could free me from the burden of sin and guilt.  There is no one else that could give me the promise of any future.  There is no one else that sacrificed for me as he did, that cares for me as he does, that challenges me as he does, that corrects me as he does, there is no one else that loves me as he does. All so I can stand here, clothed in a garment of salvation and arrayed in a robe of righteousness that I never deserved.  I have no choice but to delight greatly in the Lord and rejoice in my God.

2010 Post - Isaiah 60-62:  The Savior Comes

Isaiah 59: The Spirit and Word of God

“The Redeemer will come to Zion,
   to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,”
            declares the LORD.
 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,” says the LORD. Is. 59:20-21 NIV

There are two sides to any covenant, both sides have to give something.  This one is often overlooked, but is perhaps the one we need to remember most in these days.  For our part, we have to repent.  Repent of all the sins that we have commited against God and our brothers and neighbors; repent of all the selfishness and self-centeredness that has become our lives.  It's all an illusion and so empty anyway.  When we give that up, when we truly repent, God will give us in return what we really need but are not wise enough to ask for.  He will give us his spirit and his words. 

I have been thinking a lot about the difference between image and substance.  We live in a world obsessed with image alone.  We're obsessed with the lives of those who project a flashy image.  Our leaders are elected on that basis and we often even choose our churches based on the same criteria.  .  We get what we deserve.   How different our lives would be if we were guided by God's spirit and his words.  How needy we will always be without them.  How empty our deeds and phrases. 

Isaiah 58-59:  A Rebellious People (con'5)

Isaiah 58-59: What About Us?

It's interesting when you read these chapters, that God is cataloging the sins of his people and throwing them in their faces, but the sins he holds against them are not the sins that we as a church most readily decry or confess.  These are not the sins that get you pulled over by the police or shunned by the religious right.  These are the sins that we are easily guilty of ourselves:  finger pointing, malicious talk, ignoring the hungry and oppressed, letting the needy fend for themselves, worrying about our own future at the expense of others and the one we all ignore anymore, breaking the Sabbath.

No good is going to come of this.  We can whine and wale about all of the sin around us, the lasciviousness, the crime, drugs, and violence, but until we clean up our own act, nothing good will ever come of it.  Even our prayers and fasting  will fall on deaf ears until we become obedient as God asks us to be.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
   he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
   and will strengthen your frame. - Is. 58:9-11 NIV

2010 Post - Isaiah 58-59:  A Rebellious People

Isaiah 56-57: An All Inclusive God?

And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD
   to serve him,
to love the name of the LORD,
   and to worship him,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
   and who hold fast to my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain
   and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
   will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
   a house of prayer for all nations.”  - Is. 56:6-7 NIV

God has always been a more inclusive God than we would have him to be.  Even though Israel was his chosen people, they were often alienated from God by their disobedience..  God still saw.  He saw the hearts of those who were supposed to be his people and he saw the hearts of those who chose him even though they were not the chosen.  Foreigners, those who loved God, who worshipped him, even though they had no claim by birth, were accepted by God as if they were part of the tribe.

Thank God for that, for his love that stretches to all nations, for his all inclusive love to those who hold fast to the covenant.  Throughout the Old Testament, there were always those who were not chosen, but were used and accepted because of their reverence for the God of the Israelites.  Then God opened the floodgates and made a way for all of the Gentiles to come to him.  Come, all ye who are weary.  Those words still apply day.  Just come.

2010 Post - Isaiah 56-57:  All Are Welcome

Isaiah 54-55: Can't Get No Satisfaction

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
   come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
   come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
   without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
   and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
   and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
   hear me, that your soul may live. - Is. 55:1-3 NIV

I get thirsty sometimes, parched in fact.  And poor, so poor.  Then I realize that Jesus promises the same thing as Isaiah.  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.  Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

It's in times of want that we realize the inability of any external source to provide true satisfaction. The most abundant supply of food and water can not fill us up.  All the money in the world cannot buy what we need.  We must be emptied out and impoverished before we are able to receive that which can truly satisfy.  It is to the thirsty and poor that the promise is sweet.  The rest will never be satisfied.

2010 Post - Isaiah 54-55:  Random Thoughts

Isaiah 53: Who Would Believe That?

Who has believed our message
   and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  - Is. 53:1 NIV

Who would believe Isaiah's message?  Although it was one of hope, it was too far fetched to believe.  One could believe that a king would sacrifice his life for his child, for the child's future.  It's a little harder to believe that a king would be willing to die for his constituents, especially when we see the opposite today:  dictators, leaders of every kind, who would sacrifice their people in order to stay in power.  So the mere promise of someone who would sacrifice their life for ours, is contrary to our experience..

Then Isaiah adds another twist to the promise.  He would die, not to save the innocent, but to save the guilty.  

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
   and by his wounds we are healed. - Is. 53:5 NIV

To paraphrase Paul, There are those who would sacrifice their life for those they loved,:  taking the hit for a good buddy in wartime, bodyguards throwing themselves on the one they are paid to protect, a father covering his child as the tornado approaches, but with God it was different.  While we were yet sinners, with nothing to look forward to, no reason to live, nothing to offer, Christ died for us.  Who would believe that?

2010 Post - Isaiah 53: Surely, Surely

Isaiah 48-52: He Will Be Exalted

See, my servant will act wisely;    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
   his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
   and his form marred beyond human likeness—
so will he sprinkle many nations
   and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
   and what they have not heard, they will understand. -Is. 52:13-15 NIV

Someday, all of our ideas of what is great and what is beautiful will be turned upside down  Beauty will lie in one that was disfigured, whose form was marred beyond human likeness.  Power will lie in one who was a servant.  The one who was bent low, beaten and bruised, will be lifted up and highly exalted.

The nations, those who have turned their eyes away because he doesn't fit their idea of beauty, even those who have not been told, will see.  Those who have not heard, who have never heard any good news, will understand.  All the standards of this upside down world that we inhabit will be turned upright.  Righteousness, justice and love will reign.  The trees will burst into singing and ;

The ransomed of the LORD will return.
   They will enter Zion with singing;
   everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
   and sorrow and sighing will flee away. - Is. 51:11 NIV

The ransomed will return, overtaken with gladness and joy.  The one who paid the ransom for us will be raised and lifted up..  Life will be as it was meant to be from the beginning.  He will be exalted.

2010 Post - Isaiah 48-52:  Our God Reigns

Isaiah 46-48: He Will Not Yield His Glory

See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
   I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
   How can I let myself be defamed?
   I will not yield my glory to another. - Is. 48:10-11 NIV

"I will not yield my glory", God says,  "not even to those who would call themselves by my name.  I will not be defamed."  We cannot cut God down to our size and any time we try to do so, we bring disaster upon ourselves.  He is God.  He is holy.  He is mighty.  He is our creator.  He is our redeemer.  He is not our buddy.  He is not one we can approach lightly.  He is not one who's name we can sprinkle throughout our conversation as if it has some magical power.  His name has power. 

The ancients could not even utter his name. They were in fear and awe of God and his name;  that same name that we approach with such carelessness.  His name is Jesus.  His name is power.  His name is life.  For his own sake, not for our own, if we  fail to understand just who he is and how he is to be revered, he will bring us down to size.  He will try us in the furnace of affliction until we really understand who he is.  He will not and cannot yield his glory to any other.

2010 Post - Isaiah 46-48:  God Will Sustain