Two Men and a Truck Aren’t Going to Move God’s Peace

“To me this is like the days of Noah,
    when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
    never to rebuke you again.
¹⁰ Though the mountains be shaken
    and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
    nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.  Isaiah 54:9-10

Isaiah is recording this passage as God speaking over Israel about their return from exile. God is promising a new relationship with Israel.  He is expressing comforting words in contrast.  Mountains can be shaken, but unfailing love will not be shaken.  Hills can be removed, but covenant of peace cannot be removed.

Why is it that we are more concerned and verbal about the temporal things that can be shaken or changed?  Have you noticed that we spend time helping God understand how dire our situation is?  How much time in prayer do we focus on God’s provision?  He is a rock in our changing world.

So speak to your circumstances that appear as a fragile glass on the edge of the table.  Tell your situation that God is on the throne and He is Lord over all.  Even if the glass falls and breaks, He makes a way for you to overcome. Speak to your problem and tell it that your God is watching you with compassion.  Speak now of God’s unfailing love that is so strong your obstinate rebellion cannot dissuade Him from expressing His care over you.  Yes, tell your mountain that God is on the scene.

Isaiah 53:3-4 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.

Jesus the man

If you were to do a word association game, what image or person would come to mind with the words, despised, rejected, suffering, pain.  If you had not just read the above passage, would you really think of Jesus?  Definitely it would be hard to associate these words with a savior or messiah.  In fact, our minds would think that he must have done something to deserve this disrespect.  But a Savior would be above reproach.  He would be loved and respected.

This passage messes with our perceptions of Jesus.  Yet, this passage reveals the depth of his humanity.  Jesus felt the pain of human existence down to his very core.  To be despised is the problem one has about our self worth.  Jesus was carrying the message of eternal life…yet he was seen as someone on the peripheral by the religious elite.  They asked can any good thing come from Nazareth?

Rejected!  Rejection. Not passive, but overtly physical, emotional and social rejection.  Jesus was rejected.  His message, His miracles, His attempts of love were all rejected.  To extend a gift in your hand and have it slapped away and trampled under foot, only begins to express the pain from being rejected.  Jesus felt this pain to his core. Alone, lonely, and misunderstood were feelings that Jesus was familiar with. 

Suffering was not a moment of pain, but the extended version.  He endured suffering.  He didn’t quit.  Jesus was acquainted with suffering when he experienced the loss of Lazarus.

Jesus can truly identify with human suffering.  He can identify with our suffering, our pain, our rejection.  His comfort is real, it is genuine, and empathetic.  He is the real deal.

Our savior understands us like no one else in the world.  He is ready to lift us up from our pain. He is the real deal.  SO, let him know how it hurts.  Feel the warmth of his embrace.

He loves you.

 Something Beautiful, Something Good

How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
    who bring good tidings,
    who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
    “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7

This verse captures some of the beauty of Hebrew poetry.  Isaiah is in the middle of recounting the joy of the exiles returning from captivity.  They had been living with mockery as a nation as one who’s God had forgotten them.  But the end of their barrenness would be gone and it was time to celebrate. 

Isaiah now begins to visualize the parade back to Jerusalem.  One path winds its way through the mountains.  Isaiah can see the vast group walking with children.  He can hear the laughter, see the smiles and smell the vegetation and dust of Israel as they draw closer to Jerusalem.

At this point he envisions encouragers on both sides of the mountains.  They began to sing and chant over those who are returning.  Isaiah with thanksgiving in his heart expresses his gratitude over their presence.  Even the feet that have brought them to this mountain are honored.  Yes, these feet that have chosen to bring these people who will now bless Israel are beautiful.

Can you hear the declarations? Good news! Shouts the witnesses from one side of the mountain. The other shouts in return…Shalom or peace over their lives.  Shalom in scripture indicates favor for the whole being involved.  They would anticipate peace over their sleep, finances, relationships, and health. Shalom was the whole package of peace that brings joy and hope to everyone who experiences it.  Good news….peace over your life.

Then the second wave of blessing begins.  Good tidings which indicates that the winds have switched to their favor.  The people on the other side shout back SALVATION.  This is the Hebrew word yeshua which means salvation or deliverance.  Joshua is a derivative of this same word and transliterated yashua.  In unison both sides declare to the people below…YOUR GOD REIGNS!

Paul quotes this passage in Romans 10:16 for those who share the gospel about Jesus.  He believes that people need to GO and DECLARE the good news about Jesus.

Let’s bring it all together.  This is a verse about testimony of what God is doing in the lives of people.  To declare peace and salvation is to be in agreement with how God is already at work in people’s lives.  When we share good news we want to help people focus on the changes that God has already made in a person’s life.  This may be your own testimony or it may be sharing how God changed another person.  But the end result is focusing on how God brought about the transformation…to GOD BE THE GLORY.

When we have the privilege of sharing about the deliverance that can come from a commitment to Jesus…we are declaring Good News about the work that has already been accomplished.  God really likes it when we exalt what he is doing on the earth.  Salvation and people being born again is something worth shouting about from the mountain tops.  It is something that we have the privilege to engage in sharing.

Who do you know that God has transformed and delivered?  Maybe it is you?  Share with others how God is able to deliver.  Share how He has brought peace, shalom, to their world of chaos.  Shout that God still Reigns.

More Than Just A Man

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
    and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
² look to Abraham, your father,
    and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was only one man,
    and I blessed him and made him many. 

 Is 51:1-2

I start with an assumption at the time of writing. I understand in context that Isaiah is speaking first to the people of Israel.  I also understand that He is speaking to the coming Messiah.  But as a Christian, all the promises fulfilled in Christ concerning the blessings that are due to Abraham are ours also.  Knowing all of this, I start at the point that 

the writer is also speaking to those who are born again.

He sets a hook in the first verse that grabs the hungry hearted.  Those that are pursuing righteousness and seeking God, LISTEN.  All those who are thirsty, LISTEN.  All those who are longing for more, believing that God satisfies the hungry, LISTEN.  All those who long for justice for the oppressed, LISTEN.  All those who are taking your first steps in believing that God wants to speak to you, LISTEN.  All those who know that Jesus found you when you were broken, unworthy, and with nothing to offer, LISTEN.  You see, no matter  how unique and varied your background…we are equal with our opportunity to LISTEN.  He has given us ears to hear His Spirit speaking to our spirit.  So we need to make sure that we listen.  And then Solomon would tell us to then gain understanding.

He then tells us to LOOK.  There is a connection between LISTENING and LOOKING.  He asks us to look at the rock from which we were cut.  This verse is about our identity.  Where did we come from?  Most of us would spend our time focusing on the rock and not it’s origin.  We talk all about it’s shape, clairity, and density.  We focus on it’s imperfections and compare it to other rocks.  The author is telling us that it’s origin is the important factor to keep one’s focus.

Now he uses Abraham and Sarah as the focal point of the text.  Israel originated from their “father” Abraham and “birth” from Sarah.  What made them special? He says there were just mere people.  Until God blessed them.  Then they became many.

Encouragement for today.  God says He is the rock of blessings that Abraham was cut from.  If God found Abraham he can find us to.  He chose to bless Abraham, he will bless us also.  Abraham’s faith was credited as righteousness, ours will be also.  Remember our creator, our God, our loving master.  He has made all things new in our lives.

Hey, Rock that was cut

Where did you come from?

Do you remember your name?

Who made you special?

You hold value in __________’s eyes

Do you have the ear of a good disciple and the tongue of the wise?

The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. Isaiah 50:4

This is my prayer for you and me all year long.  Trust that God will rivet this promise and desire to your heart.  God can awaken you each morning, speak to your spirit, and then allow you to speak words of life to those that are weary.  And then God repeats this interaction for us every day.  Anointed words originate in hungry, listening and responsive ears.  Let him who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying.  What is He saying to you?  Your words today can change a life for eternity.   Preach boldly and walk humbly.  

Set my face like flint  

Isaiah 50:7

Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.

Definition of Flint         

From Oxford online Dictionary

A piece of flint, especially as flaked or ground in ancient times to form a tool or weapon.

The idea is that flint is a hard piece of stone used to make other tools sharp or to strike something hard against the stone and it becomes the immovable object that other things flail against it.

Imagery synonyms – resolute, determined, immovable, fixed, resolved, focused, cast iron, steel, hardened,

This messianic psalm pictures Jesus being unmoved in his determination to complete his mission to die.  Ultimate victory overcame the initial shame of death on a cross naked. So the question is where and how does someone gain the character to finish the course?  How does someone learn to stay focused amidst great resistance?  How does one learn to persevere when so many quit before finishing the course?   

At least in the verse there is a hint given that explains how this individual received encouragement to be resolute.  It is more than just the assurance that the Lord would be there to help him.  We grow weary when we think we are all alone.  Knowing that he would be receiving help can strengthen his resolve in the midst of loneliness.

But there is another word that puts all other events into their proper context.  Sovereign - One who is over all reigns or kingdoms.  Nothing is happening in his life that is out of bounds for God.  No circumstance or event is so terrible that it baffles, clouds or misdirects God’s plan and purposes.  It does not mean that every event is good.  But every event is filtered through God’s ultimate purposes.  He will be there.  He will make things right.  He makes all things beautiful in His time.

Do you know God like that?  Can you draw strength from a Sovereign God?  One who loves and declares that he will be there to help you?  Therefore, let us fix our eyes on the prize and run the race of endurance.  Throwing off the sin that so easily entangles, throwing off the miscued priorities that suck away our time, taking every thought captive that leads us into uncertainty and doubt, and finish well.

Are your efforts in VAIN?

He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
⁴ But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.”  Isaiah 49:3-4 NIV

This is a messianic passage about the servant whom God will choose to help Jacob. There are two parallel tracks running in this passage.  Isaiah may perhaps believes that he is the servant that God desires to display His splendor.  But the circumstances look as if he had failed.  He preached that they should repent or judgment would come. They did not repent and now they had been taken from their country.

Israel was given the choice to obey God and be fully devoted to Him, but they refused.  And they refused repeatedly.  What good come ever come through judgment?  Many lost their lives immediately.  They were separated from their children.  Isaiah knew this and felt like a failure.

Even the imagery in the passage includes one of the most emotional expressions of our human existence.  Carrying a child for 9 months and the labor and delivery.  Only those who have lost a child at this point understand the pain accompanied by the death of the child and the grief of the parents.  Can you feel the full extent of failure that Isaiah feels?  He was looking for transformation, for new birth, for a God inspired outcome.  But it was not to be.

The second track is experienced by Jesus our Messiah.  He read the scriptures.  The Holy Spirit breathed on the Hebrew Scriptures and resonated in Jesus heart that He truly was the Messiah.  He had a mission to accomplish. 

Follow the Messiah to the last night before His death.  He was about to be betrayed to His death by one of his own disciples.  By one that He had chosen to eat, laugh, and minister miracles with, Judas.   Earlier that week the crowd had shouted over and over that He, Jesus, was king.  But now He knew he would die.

The imagery in the garden of Gethsemane captures the emotion of this passage.  His closest friends could not even stay awake to stand with him in his darkest moment of labor, pain, delivery.  He was alone.  Even God was silent…not absent…just quiet.  Jesus was feeling our human pain of failure.  The pain of work that ends with no profit…nothing to point to for success…no person that represents the struggle as fruit of His obedience.

Yet there remains hope in God.  The outcome is in HIS hand.  The plan has yet to be fully revealed.  And when it comes forth, all can see the wisdom of God’s actions and the righteousness of His ways.

Israel would be restored and Jesus would rise again from His death.  The full payment for sin would be accomplished on the cross through the shedding of His innocent blood on our behalf.

We are not promised to be exempt from the pain of failure of efforts in our work for the Lord.  Our charge is to follow in obedience.  God orchestrates the outcome.  Don’t stop and focus on one picture of experience demanding that God explain His purpose.  God’s timing is a moving picture, a video.  His plans and ways are yet to be revealed in the next scene.  Then we see how our obedience and failure is grafted into God’s plan for His Kingdom.  Even our disobedience, like Israel, works its way into God’s purpose for our lives.

It is important to verbalize our trust in our pain.  “My reward is with my God.”  Even when we do not see the reward or even have a glimpse of what that reward would be…say it again and again.  “My reward is with my God”

May the winter in your life give way to the beauty of spring.