Isaiah, Chapter 55

One of the many beauties of Christ is that He is unique among major religious figures. The God of the Bible is the only God that constantly seeks us. In Islam, one must ascribe to a daily regimen of prayer, fasting, and devotion. In Buddhism, one searches for Buddha and inner piece. Christianity is the only religion that, at its root, has its God constantly seeking us. The manifestation of that search is seen very clearly in chapter 55 of Isaiah. We still have to do our part, however. It is not an automatic salvation just because God is coming to us to make things easier. Our part of the transaction is simple: we must only accept His gift and welcome Him when He comes.

1 "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.

 2 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.

 3 Give ear and come to me;
       hear me, that your soul may live.
       I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
       my faithful love promised to David.

 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
       a leader and commander of the peoples.

 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
       and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
       because of the LORD your God,
       the Holy One of Israel,
       for he has endowed you with splendor."

 6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;
       call on him while he is near. – Isaiah 55:1-6

The very first verse here illustrates beautifully that this gift is free. We do not have to pay for this salvation. It is available for rich and poor alike. It is God's gift to us through His Son Jesus Christ. He is constantly seeking us even when we are not seeking Him. At all times, God is knocking on the door of our heart, separating Himself from other beliefs because He is an active participant in wanting us as His. Whenever His Word is shouted, it does not return void because it is constantly seeking. If He does not find one person, He will find another. Imagine this repeated billions of times every second as He is seeking the hearts of every human on earth. That is something I simply cannot get my mind around.

9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
       so are my ways higher than your ways
       and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 10 As the rain and the snow
       come down from heaven,
       and do not return to it
       without watering the earth
       and making it bud and flourish,
       so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
       It will not return to me empty,
       but will accomplish what I desire
       and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. – Isaiah 55:9-11

The poetic vision of the power of God throughout this chapter is incredible. I don't think it is something we can even begin to comprehend. This past fall, I attended a football game at Michigan Stadium. At the time, it was the largest football stadium in the United States. That day, there were more than 110,000 people in the stands. It was an overwhelming sight to see that many people in one place. Consider that God was knocking on the hearts of every single person there at that time, asking them to come to Him. Undoubtedly there were some there that had already accepted this gift, but some that had not. Now imagine if there had been someone preaching the Word of God that day? From this verse we are guaranteed that it would have bore fruit. In the grand scheme of things, 110,000 people is still an incredibly small fraction of the 6,500,000,000 people currently on the planet. Still, God is working on all of those hearts at the same time. To me, that is nothing short of astounding.

TODAY'S QUESTIONS:

1.       How do you perpetuate the Word of God?

2.       How do you see God knocking on the door of your heart?

3.       Where do you see the Word of God bearing fruit in your life?

Isaiah, Chapter 54

It has been an intriguing journey this week. Of the past few chapters of Isaiah, we have seen the suffering and glory of Christ foretold. We have seen why there was a need for this suffering, and why this suffering occurred as a voluntary act of God reaching out to a lost and broken world. Many people do not attribute perseverance as a trait high on God's list of characteristics. When you look at the past few chapter of Isaiah, however, it is easy to see that perseverance may be one of God's greatest traits. Through these past chapters, indeed through this entire book, we have seen how God is ultimately patient. Even as he disciplines, He still knocks on the door of our hearts. There is not one time as long as we draw breath that He turns away from us. Not once does He say, "I am done with you. You're on your own."

Here in chapter 54, we begin to see some of the reward for that perseverance. We know that it must go both ways as we must do our part to meet him and open that door He is knocking on. We see the reward for persistence on both ends, our own as well as God's end, in chapter 54 as the author speaks about the future glory of Zion. Here God promises that even in a time of great trouble there is hope because God will deliver us. At the time this was written the time of great trouble was interpreted as the Babylonian exile. Currently, this time of great trouble could be happening now, or individually it could be any number of things. Trouble is different for each person, but in the end we will be delivered.

5 For your Maker is your husband—
       the LORD Almighty is his name—
       the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
       he is called the God of all the earth.

 6 The LORD will call you back
       as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
       a wife who married young,
       only to be rejected," says your God.

 7 "For a brief moment I abandoned you,
       but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

 8 In a surge of anger
       I hid my face from you for a moment,
       but with everlasting kindness
       I will have compassion on you,"
       says the LORD your Redeemer. – Isaiah 54:5-8

God's promises are ever-enduring. If He says something, it WILL come to pass. Even in His anger He is righteous and just as he shows here. We also see His patience and perseverance in His anger here because He promises that He will come back for us after we have been punished. It is because we have free will that we are allowed to make our own mistakes, but like a loving parent he does not completely abandon us in these mistakes. We have the free choice to follow Him, so it is up to us to make that choice.

TODAY'S QUESTIONS:

1. Does God allow bad things to happen for a reason?
   
2. How has this promise been fulfilled in your life?
   
3. What do you do when you feel abandoned?

Isaiah, Chapter 53

My wife is a wonderful source of spiritual strength. Yesterday, I wrote about how I felt that once you receive Christ in your heart, it is impossible to be a lukewarm Christian. In my estimation, God won't let you be one because you have become His. Matthew 7:17-19 states that good trees will bear good fruit. Once we accept Christ into our hearts we become good trees, therefore, we must produce good fruit. My wife yesterday was a little concerned about my stance on being a lukewarm Christian though. As with many things in life, it is not a black and white issue. Even the best of Christians can go through lukewarm periods where we don't accomplish what God wants us to accomplish in our lives. It is in these times that we feel distant from God. Over time, however, He continues to call to us because we have committed ourselves to Him. These periods can be short, or they can be long. I would even say I have had a period in my life that lasted about six years, or longer, of being lukewarm. God continued to knock, as I mentioned yesterday, however. Now I know He is accomplishing a wonderful thing in me, and all the glory is due to Him.

We see the epitome of that glory today in Isaiah 53. This chapter is one of the most complete chapters in terms of outlining the coming Messiah for the Jews. We have seen allusions to Christ's coming in previous chapters, but this entire chapter is essentially one giant prophecy. It also explains why a Savior like Jesus must come. Inside us, we are not worthy of God's grace. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves, so God Himself chose to suffer and die so that we might live. This is merely the culmination of a centuries long love story between God and humanity. God has loved us as His creation for ages, so much so that only He can save us.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
       a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
       Like one from whom men hide their faces
       he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 4 Surely he took up our infirmities
       and carried our sorrows,
       yet we considered him stricken by God,
       smitten by him, and afflicted.

 5 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.

 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to his own way;
       and the LORD has laid on him
       the iniquity of us all.

 7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
       yet he did not open his mouth;
       he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
       and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
       so he did not open his mouth. – Isaiah 53:3-7

Have you ever taken the blame for someone? In that case, you know you are innocent, but you take the fall so that someone else does not have to suffer. That is what Christ does for us with our sin. Think of Christ like a Secret Service agent. We are like the President and He is there to take an assassin's bullet. The bullet in this case is sin. As we know, the wages of sin is death. Only God can erase sin, and here He pays the penalty of that sin through Christ.

The first part of this chapter depicts an inglorious fate for the innocent One that must suffer for us. It is appropriate, during Easter, to remember that the story is not in the suffering though. The real story is in the resurrection. Up until Christ's time the system of sacrifices that Israel carried out was only temporary. Once a sacrifice was done, it was only good until the next one was necessary. In Christ, we have an everlasting sacrifice because He rose again. He is therefore glorified where He has been shamed. We see this glory at the end of the chapter in verse 12 where He takes his rightful place atop the great.

TODAY'S QUESTIONS:

1. How does this chapter fit in with the Bible being God's love affair with humanity?
   
2. Why did Christ have to suffer and be disgraced at the same time?
   
3. What is the significance of Christ being silent in His suffering?

Isaiah, Chapter 52

At my church yesterday, we had a lesson in what it is to be a lukewarm Christian. We have recently been in a sermon series dealing with the seven churches that receive letters in the book of Revelation. Yesterday was the last church in that list, the church in Laodicea. This entire series has been fascinating, so much that I am considering it as my next topic after Isaiah. This final letter to Laodicea is a warning against being a lukewarm Christian. It is Revelation 3:14-21, and paints a pretty ugly picture for how Christ feels when we do not have our entire hearts attuned with him. Basically, we can do many things for Christ, but what matters most is where our hearts lie in tune with what he wants. One of the worst things we can do is simply "play Christian" while not being totally consumed by Christ. He asks us to be hot or completely walk away, not to sit in the middle. The beautiful thing is that even as He rebukes us here, He is knocking, asking to come fully into our hearts and change our lives.

I feel this relates to today's chapter 52 in Isaiah because it feels like a lukewarm type of chapter, but I am praying this morning that God will work in my heart and reveal its truth. Friday's writing was short because I felt the message clearly stated what God wanted us to get out of it. Today's chapter is not as clear, but it is a continuation of Friday's theme of everlasting salvation. I call it lukewarm because I am not exactly sure what to do with it.

 3 For this is what the LORD says:
       "You were sold for nothing,
       and without money you will be redeemed."

 4 For this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
       "At first my people went down to Egypt to live;
       lately, Assyria has oppressed them.

 5 "And now what do I have here?" declares the LORD.
       "For my people have been taken away for nothing,
       and those who rule them mock,"
       declares the LORD.
       "And all day long
       my name is constantly blasphemed.

 6 Therefore my people will know my name;
       therefore in that day they will know
       that it is I who foretold it.
       Yes, it is I." – Isaiah 52:3-6

What does it mean to be sold for nothing? This is easily a metaphor for sin. In the end, sin is nothingness. It is worthless, yet it is what keeps us in bondage and separates us from God. It is worthless because it has no value in God's economy. Here, we see a correlation with the passage in Revelation 3 because the people of Laodicea were wealthy and proud of it. Their wealth meant nothing, however, because we cannot be redeemed through wealth. Even though we suffer and are ridiculed for being God's people, we are redeemed only through the blood of Christ.

This is why I believe that if you truly have God in your heart, it is impossible to be just a lukewarm Christian. We see here that following God means we offer ourselves to persecution because we separate ourselves from the world. Here in Isaiah, we have seen the Israelites deal with both the Assyrians and the Babylonians, yet those that stayed true to God were delivered through this suffering. Those that tried to adapt and welcome the invaders are the ones that suffered the most. They were being lukewarm when they tried to play both ways against the middle, and God cast them out.

From my personal experience, however, I have seen that accepting this redemption is truly a life-changing event. Once we do this, I think it is impossible for us not to grow further and become lukewarm. God won't let us because we have made the decision to ask Him into our hearts and redeem us. When that happens, it is almost like a physical transformation takes place. I think of the scene at the end of The Matrix Revolutions where Neo finally accepts the piece of himself that he lost to agent Smith. It is like fully accepting God into our hearts. When it happens, the Spirit just pours out of us in an explosion of light like it does with Neo in the real world. Once we accept the Spirit of God, it consumes us totally and we cannot contain it.

TODAY'S QUESTIONS:

1. What does it mean to be a lukewarm Christian?
   
2. How do Isaiah's warnings and the warnings from Revelation relate?
   
3. Do you feel you are lukewarm?

Isaiah, Chapter 51

This has been a great week for God revealing His Word through the book of Isaiah. Yesterday was one of those rare powerful experiences where I felt as if the Word of God was breaking me down inside and putting me back together with a message of hope. Today we see the manifestation of that hope in Isaiah 51. Chapter 50 yesterday showed us how sin separates us from God. It showed that the separation is total and complete, and only the blood of Christ on the Cross can bridge that separation. Today we see that once that bridge has been crossed, the salvation is everlasting.

5 My righteousness draws near speedily,
       my salvation is on the way,
       and my arm will bring justice to the nations.
       The islands will look to me
       and wait in hope for my arm.

 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
       look at the earth beneath;
       the heavens will vanish like smoke,
       the earth will wear out like a garment
       and its inhabitants die like flies.
       But my salvation will last forever,
       my righteousness will never fail.

 7 "Hear me, you who know what is right,
       you people who have my law in your hearts:
       Do not fear the reproach of men
       or be terrified by their insults.

 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment;
       the worm will devour them like wool.
       But my righteousness will last forever,
       my salvation through all generations." – Isaiah 51:5-8

I honestly don't feel like I can add a thing to the power of God's words here, so I will leave today's entry very brief at this. Feel free to add any of your thoughts on this week's entires in the comments section.

Isaiah, Chapter 50

It is hard to understand in human terms what sin does. In chapter 50 of Isaiah we get a better picture of that sin, as the prophet Isaiah outlines how that sin separates us from God. This chapter also delves into the servant's nature of Christ and how He obeyed His mandate to take away that sin. When we sin it may not seems like much. A white lie can end up hurting no one. A minor discretion can only hurt us temporarily, but we are quickly able to get over it. In a spiritual sense, however, it removes us from God. It separates us from the person that God wants us to be. Without Christ's sacrifice there is also no way for us to mend that separation in our own ways.

1 This is what the LORD says:
       "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce
       with which I sent her away?
       Or to which of my creditors
       did I sell you?
       Because of your sins you were sold;
       because of your transgressions your mother was sent away. Isaiah 50:1

Sin is a form of bondage. It is something that we have no hope to escape from except in the person of Jesus Christ. Every single person that is currently living or has ever lived, except for Christ, is bonded by this sin because it is inherent in our human nature. We cannot absolve it through ourselves because of our nature. It has tainted our souls to the point we are separated from God because of it. Because Christ was perfect, because He was both fully God and fully man, and sacrificed Himself on the cross the penalty for that sin has been paid. Through this sacrifice the price has been paid and if we accept this gift of salvation Christ pays our way out of bondage through His blood. It is literally hard for me to sit here and write these words without breaking down. Isaiah saw the need for this more than 800 years before the sacrifice and was called to write it down so we would know today that it was true. He even goes further in this chapter by removing all doubt there is only one light to search for in this darkness.

10 Who among you fears the LORD
       and obeys the word of his servant?
       Let him who walks in the dark,
       who has no light,
       trust in the name of the LORD
       and rely on his God.

 11 But now, all you who light fires
       and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
       go, walk in the light of your fires
       and of the torches you have set ablaze.
       This is what you shall receive from my hand:
       You will lie down in torment. – Isaiah 50:10-11

This is a great poetic metaphor. Isaiah is telling us that when we light our own fire we are trying to find our own way out of darkness. This is foolish because we know from verse 10 that Jesus is the only light of the Lord. He is the only way we can properly find our way out of the darkness. When we light our own fires we are relying on ourselves to find our way. Since "our way" was what got us into the darkness in the first place you can easily see the folly in this.

6 I offered my back to those who beat me,
       my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
       I did not hide my face
       from mocking and spitting.

 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. – Isaiah 50:6-7

Again we see Isaiah looking to the future here. This is an apt description of the way Christ suffered before the Crucifixion. Through it all, though, he is not disgraced, but glorified. He did not back down from what He had to do. It is a wonderful, unspeakable act of humility that Christ lowered Himself to this role of servant so that we may be set free from the bondage of our own sin. It weakens my knees just to think of this.

TODAY'S QUESTIONS:

1. How is Christ the light in your darkness?
   
2. How have things turned out before when you have tried to create your own light?
   
3. How can we serve to honor this sacrifice?
   

Isaiah, Chapter 49

This next chapter in the book of Isaiah is the first in a long line of chapters that has a strong Messianic tone. When looking at the life of Jesus, I find it amazing how His life was contradictory to the human expectations placed before Him. The Pharisees thought that their Messiah would be a conquering king that would lead the people of Israel away from Roman rule. They clashed with Jesus when He did not do this immediately. He contradicted their expectations because Jesus knew He had a more important mission. He was also contradictory because His own disciples tried to constantly raise him up to an exalted place, yet Jesus was the ultimate servant. This shocked them because they knew Him to be the Son of God. One example of this was when He washed Peter's feet at the Last Supper. In that time period, to wash someone's feet was the ultimate supplication to that person. When Jesus did this, he blew the minds of everyone in the room because, to them, it was beneath the Son of God to perform in such a lowly, subservient role.

Christ, however, was the ultimate servant. If we study the Scriptures, specifically this passage in Isaiah 49, we see that this servanthood was foretold long before He came to earth in human form. I love that Jesus is a man of paradoxes. If you read His words throughout the four gospels, He often preaches that if you want something, you must do the opposite of that. If you want to be rich, you should give your money away. If you want to be exalted, you must serve. If you want eternal life, you must give your life in service to Him. Chapter 49 here deals with being the servant of the Lord, and how Jesus, as that servant, will restore the nation of Israel.

3 He said to me, "You are my servant,
       Israel, in whom I will display my splendor."

 4 But I said, "I have labored to no purpose;
       I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.
       Yet what is due me is in the LORD's hand,
       and my reward is with my God."

 5 And now the LORD says—
       he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
       to bring Jacob back to him
       and gather Israel to himself,
       for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD
       and my God has been my strength-

 6 he says:
       "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
       to restore the tribes of Jacob
       and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
       I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
       that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

 7 This is what the LORD says—
       the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—
       to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
       to the servant of rulers:
       "Kings will see you and rise up,
       princes will see and bow down,
       because of the LORD, who is faithful,
       the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." – Isaiah 49:3-7

These words are beautiful prophesy because it tells how Jesus, who is certainly the Holy One of Israel, will be hated by His own nation, yet He is raised up. Since Jesus was both fully God and fully man, He had the ability to do whatever he wanted. He did not have to submit Himself to the whims and laws of man, but He chose to. He did this out of His desire to serve man as the bridge over the chasm of sin. Even in these verses, Israel is more than a nation in the Middle East. It is a metaphor for the nation of believers in Christ, both Jew and Gentile. In verse six, Isaiah specifically says that He is also the light for the Gentiles, which is a concept that many in Isaiah's time struggled to understand. In that light, you could say that Isaiah's words mean even more now because they are easier to understand in the entire context of the Bible. This is further proof that it is indeed the living Word of God.

TODAY'S QUESTIONS:

1. In what other ways did Jesus serve?
   
2. Can this passage be interpreted in other ways?
   
3. Why would Israel struggle to understand this?