He Knows Our Limits

“For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.” (Isa 57:16 AV)

 

Verse fifteen is well quoted.  The LORD tells Isaiah, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Isa 57:15 AV) We often apply verse fifteen to teach a precondition for walking with God.  That precondition is to be contrite over one’s sin.  This is a proper application.  God seeks to walk with those who are honest about who and what they are before the holiness of God.  He does not wish to dwell with the proud and deceptive.  Then we see the verse above.  Because the saint is contrite over his sin, the LORD will not contend over that sin forever.  Even if it is well deserved.  The reason for the promise is found in the second half of the verse.  If the LORD were to contend equal to our sin, then our spirits and souls would fail.  We would faint.  We would be dissolved.  In other words, what we see above is the balance between God’s justice and mercy.  He knows our limits.  Even though our limits are less than our sin deserves, in His mercy, He shows grace when He could show justice.

Over the years, we have had several type of dog breeds.  Our first dog was a chocolate springer spaniel.  We had to give him to a junk yard because whatever that dog was mixed with made him extremely unstable.  We replaced him with an elderly retriever mix that ended up passing away two months later.  Then came our first real dog.  He was a small beagle mix.  We called him Philo after a shortened Greek word in the book of Acts that meant kindly affectionate.  He loved to lick faces.  We had to move so we gave Philo away.  When we were able to have dogs again, my son wanted a hunting dog.  We got a fox hound pup.  That dog was fixated on anything living that moved.  He would set in front of our glass patio doors and watch the birds, squirrels, and rabbits.  A bit high strung, we decided to get a second dog to see if he would calm down.  Along came our black lab mix.  He was terrified of everything.  Kimber never did effect Camo in a positive way, but Camo was able to give poor neurotic Kimber a bit of confidence.  Now, we are enjoying our last dog.  He is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  The perfect lap dog.  The thing about all these breeds is their response to correction.  The chocolate springer never did heed correction.  The Cavalier, on the other hand, doesn’t need a whole lot of stern correction.  We have to be very careful with the Cavalier lest he become afraid and not respond to our correction.  Our black lab, Kimber, had a broken spirit.  He spent the vast amount of his time hiding in is cage.  He rarely interacted with his human pack.  He was a rescue so we can only surmise what might have happened.  It is sad to see an animal whose spirit is broken.  The Cavalier has that potential.  So, knowing his limits is extremely important.  It would be very cruel to chasten him to the point he ceases to be a Cavalier and is nothing more than an animal without personality.

We are not dogs.  But we are God’s creation.  He is our Master.  But of a different kind.  The mercy which a conscientious dog owner shows towards his dog is somewhat similar to the kindness and mercy God shows towards His creation.  He does not desire to break us beyond our capability to have a relationship with Him.  That would be unkind.  It may be justified, but it undermines the very purpose for our creation.  God created us to walk with Him by faith and obedience.  If we are broken, then we will have no desire to walk with anyone; let alone God.  Our gracious Father knows this.  He will correct us to the level we can endure it.  He is looking for a contrite heart and spirit.  Not a broken one.  This truth should bring great comfort to our hearts.  In our lifetime, we probably had an authority figure or two who didn’t understand this principle.  A parent, teacher, coach, spiritual leader, etc., who may have had in his or her heart the objective of breaking the spirit.  They can be cruel.  But God is not.  He is not after our dissolution.  He is after a softened heart that will love Him and desire to walk with Him.  He is not looking for a beleaguered heart.  He is looking for a heart that understands one’s failures and appreciates the grace of God which restores it.  This is the mercy of God.  This is the grace of God.

He Feels When We Feel

“In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” (Isa 63:9 AV)

 

This is speaking of Israel and the Father.  We often limit the empathy of God to the incarnation of Christ.  We rightly teach one of the reasons for the incarnation was that Jesus might empathize better with the human experience having existed in the limited form of a man.  When the writer of Hebrews speaks of a High Priest that was touched with our infirmities, this is exactly what he is referring to.  What we want to consider this morning is the affliction God feels that is different than what Jesus felt.  Our LORD and Savior felt what it was like to be hungry, thirsty, in pain, and not being able to be in more than one place at a time.  He limited the exercise of His divinity that He might empathize with us by experience our human existence.  The Father, on the other hand, is afflicted in the same way as a parent is for their child.  The passage above is referring to Israel’s beginning, the traveling in the wilderness, and God’s hand in carrying them to the land of Canaan.  They had gotten themselves in the predicament of slavery to Egypt because they disobeyed the LORD.  Yet, in their self-inflicted bondage, God the Father was also afflicted.  He felt for them.  And, to the same degree as their suffering.

It is a hard thing to watch one’s children go through hard times.  Regardless of how those times came to be, it isn’t pleasant seeing your children suffer.  Even if it was self-inflicted, as a parent, we still hurt when they hurt.  One of my sons was diagnosed as a type one diabetic.  This was after we had noticed several symptoms and almost forced him to go to the doctor.  I was at the church working and my wife called to tell me I had to come immediately to the clinic.  She sounded very concerned.  When I arrived, I was whisked into a room where my wife was waiting.  Still in the diagnosis stage and not getting a firm result, our nurse settled our nerves and told us what she suspected and what their actions would be.  She had worked for an Endocrinologist and was very familiar with the symptoms of diabetes.   She told us that if his blood sugar came back as high as she suspected, they would transport him to the hospital (which was right next door) by ambulance so that he would get right in.  Sure enough, his blood sugar was very high, and off we went.  Quickly admitted with all the necessary IV’s in place, the doctor told him he would have to be admitted to the ICU.  He was in ICU for three days with a slow insulin drip to bring us sugars back down.  Then to a regular room for a few more days to keep his sugars in balance.  It wasn’t easy going through all that.  We had more appointments with other doctors and dieticians.  In an instant, his life drastically changed.  What loving parent wouldn’t feel anxiety, empathy, fear, or deep compassion for a child who is suffering so?  I didn’t have to have diabetes to understand all that he was and would be suffering.

Sometimes we think of the LORD as merely and authoritarian.  We think of Him as a distant ruler of the universe whose greatest concern is conformity to His law.  He certainly does care about compliance with His law.  But our heavenly Father is a compassionate Father who feels when we hurt.  The context above is the hurt we inflict upon ourselves by living in sin.  It speaks of loss after loss because of our wrapped humanity.  Like a Father who would pity a child taken be drug addiction, He can be displeased or angry for only so long.  Eventually, compassion takes its place and He is compelled to do something about it.  This is why He sent His Son that we might be saved from our sin.  But this is also why He gives us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we might live free from sin.  It hurts Him that we fail Him.  Yes, it affects His glory.  More than that, He sees us suffer because we do not trust Him by living according to His word.  When we are afflicted, He is afflicted.  When we hurt, He hurts.  When we suffer, He suffers.  We worship a God who cares!

He Took The Father's Wrath

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa 53:5 AV)

 

Isaiah chapter fifty-three is one of those precious chapters in all of God’s word.  It is prophetical regarding the all-sufficient offering of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.  The verse above speaks specifically about the wrath of the Father over our sin being laid upon His own Son that we might have peace with Him.  I may have written on this verse before, but the Spirit impressed me this morning that I don’t reflect on the details of salvation nearly as much as I should.  This morning, the Spirit wishes me to meditate on the preciousness of having peace with God and the cost by which that peace came.

To understand the impact of the truth above, we first must understand our relationship with God prior to Christ’s offering.  The Bible tells us that no matter how righteous we think we are, we are all woefully sinful in the sight of God.  The word of God says, “How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?” (Job 15:16 AV)  This filthiness is an offense to the very God who created us.  “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Ro 8:7 AV)  This enmity, or being an enemy of God because of our sin, results in the wrath of God resting upon us.  Listen to the Bible again.  “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Joh 3:36 AV)  When Jesus Christ died for us, He took upon Himself all our sin; past, present, and future.  “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2Co 5:21 AV)  By virtue of this offering, if we trust in, and only in, what Jesus has done for us as our substitute, then we gain peace with God.  “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” (Ro 5:1 AV)  What is even more blessed is that this eternal peace cannot be broken.  One Jesus died, it satisfied the wrath of God forever.  There is no more sacrifice for sin.  Listen to the author of Hebrews. “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;…For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Heb 10:12, 14 AV)

When Isaiah speaks of our chastisement of our peace, he is saying the chastisement we deserve for the establishment of peace with God, was upon His Son.  I have seven brothers.  We all love one another.  Yet, in all my childhood, I cannot remember one time I took the punishment a sibling had so rightfully earned.  It might have happened.  But I cannot recall.  In my nineteen years under my father's house, I cannot remember one time one of my siblings took upon them the experience of my father’s anger which I have earned so that I didn’t have to.  It may have happened without my knowledge.  But I cannot recall.  In fact, if the truth be known, my father’s anger was a bit uncomfortable, to say the least.  So much so that if he was angry, we would just as soon throw our sibling under the bus than to take it upon ourselves.  It was not pleasant.  Praise the LORD that our Savior is nothing like us.  The wrath of the Father was so severe, it literally changed the visage of His dear Son.  As the Psalms tell us, from the cross Jesus thought the thought that He was a worm and no man.  In other words, he was so disfigured his remains could not even be recognized and human.  This is what Jesus took upon Himself that I, and you, might have peace with God.  For this, I need to be far more grateful than I am and manifest it by daily meditating on the grace that saved my soul.  I pray you can do the same.

There Is A River

“There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.” (Ps 46:4 AV)

 

This river mentioned here is one of three.  The Gihon Spring, originating in the valley of Kidron was the major water supply for the city.  The Siloam Channel was cut from the Gihon spring and circumvented most of the city.  Then there was Hezekiah’s impressive system of aqueducts that diverted water into the capital city.  The point of these systems was to supply the city with an endless supply of freshwater in times of siege.  In fact, some believe this psalm was written during the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah.  This is not the case because we know, based on Psalm seventy-two, the first seventy-two psalms are David’s.  This river that comes from streams is the source of life for the city of God.  In good times and in bad times, this river is always flowing.  The city may be walled up and besieged without.  But within, because there is a source of life, there is also gladness.  This is our thought this morning.

When I was a kid, the doctor recommended to my mother I have my tonsils removed.  Way back then, it meant an overnight stay at a hospital.  In fact, it required I spend several nights in the hospital.  I was ten years old at the time.  My mother had eight or nine other children and a husband to tend to, so she could come for a visit, but she had to leave to keep house.  What made this experience worse were several things.  I had a roomy who loved to whip me with a plastic rubber snake.  That is until I grabbed it and broke it in pieces.  Then there was the fact of being in a hospital thirty minutes away from the city where I lived.  If the surgery was in the hospital of my home town, I could have looked out the window and recognized neighborhoods.  The only view I had was facing rural farmland which made the distance to home seem all the more.  But what made this experience all the worse was my mom could not see me until the afternoon and had to leave and get home to make dinner for the rest of the family.  For four or five days, I felt all alone.  The second day, after I had dissected that rubber snake, and I was particularly upset that my mom couldn’t come around like everyone else’s mom, the nurses moved me to a private room with a fully functional T.V.  That was back in the day the patient had to pay extra for a T.V. in their room.  For the next three or four days, the nurses paid a little more attention to me and brought me all the ice cream I could ever eat. 

We can do little to change the circumstances of our lives.  At times, these circumstances seem to entrap.  Yet, the LORD has left us sources that should bring gladness in an otherwise overwhelming and seemingly hopeless situation.  These sources are the word of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of the believers, and prayer; to name a few.  This is why the river is singular.  A source that comes from God. The streams are plural.  They come in many forms.  What is interesting about the Siloam Channel and Hezekiah’s aqueducts was how deeply they were dug.  For the most part, they were dug very deeply into the limestone of the area.  It was said of Hezekiah’s aqueducts they were so well hidden, it took almost two millennia until the source of water for the aqueducts could be found.  In other words, they were so deep and well hidden, the enemy could not stop them up.  This is also true of the rivers of life God has provided for us.  There is nothing that can stop them up.  That is unless we refuse to drink from them.  Salvation in Jesus Christ provides far more than an eternal home.  Salvation in Christ provides a source of life by which we can rejoice, even in the toughest times.

It Really Does Have a Purpose

“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.” (Isa 45:18 AV)

 

If you are like me, watching the world in turmoil right now we wonder if there is any point to creation at all.  We wonder if when the LORD is coming back and putting an end to it all.  We quantify all that is going on and we see more bad news than good.  We see a world coming apart at the seems with no real value to it all.  There is a web site which I frequent from time to time.  The design of which is to keep people in the same demographic area informed and inter-acting with one another.  There was a major disturbance in our city and someone asked what was going on.  One of the replies simply referred to it as the revolution.  What is sad about all this is people are up in arms but they do not realize the consequences of such a revolution.  We wonder between the riots, the virus, and financial hardships shared throughout the world if the purpose for our existence has well passed its usefulness.  But the Bible tells us God did not create the world in vain.  He knew all that was going to happen in 2020 and He still says we do not exist in vain.  There is a purpose for all of this and the divine mind has a benevolent outcome.

I taught bible class in a Christian school for a few years.  It was ninth and tenth grade bible.  In that class we had a myriad of students.  We had several who were not of our doctrinal base.  In any class, there are different types of students.  There were serious learners.  There were those who needed it to pass.  And there were those who were there to cause problems.  The school in which I taught was not very good at discipline.  There was inconsistency in applying corrective measures.  The more strained a home life from which a student came, the more lenient the administration seemed to be.  If a student acted out in class, the administration seemed to undermine the teacher’s efforts in getting control of the classroom.  Too much liberty abounded there.  There were several of my friends who also taught there.  They didn’t make it long.  The school was out of control and one fella lasted a year while the other didn’t last six months.  I don’t blame them.  I wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for my own children.  From time to time, I would be asked why I committed to such a tenuous undertaking.  Why bother when many young people would rebel and reject the very truth I was trying to instill?  Why bother if every day I would be taking a risk that might cost me my ministry?  Was it all one big waste of time?

God does not do anything without purpose and objectives.  If He does all things for a purpose and has an objective in mind, then it is never in vain.  We must believe this when we watch the news and look out our windows.  Even though we see a great waste of humanity parading through the eras of time, it is not in vain.  Even though we hear of wars and rumors of wars, pestilence, or discontentment beyond control, it is not in vain.  Even though the planet will experience seven years of unimaginable horror, it is not in vain.  Even though humanity is self-destructive, evil and beyond the hope of self-reclamation, it is not in vain.  Even when they burn churches, God’s creation will not have been done in vain.  All that God created, even though mankind has done all they could to destroy it, was not and will not be in vain.  The LORD will save those who seek Him.  He will transform His creation back to the righteousness and holiness He intended.  The flower will bloom again.  The morning will break.  The clouds will be rolled back.  No matter how bleak it may look, the LORD did not do all this in vain!

Overwhelmed Nut Not Overcome

“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” (Isa 43:2 AV)

 

The first thing to note here is the waters, rivers, fire, and flame are not removed.  They are still part of the experience.  What is significant is the LORD is with those who go through these things and there will be no permanent harm done.  The rushing water may still cause fatigue.  The flame may still impress its heat.  The rushing rivers may still sap warmth.  The fire may still leave its stench of smoke.  What the LORD promises is when we pass through these things, He will be with us and we will arrive on the other side.  The fear of being overwhelmed is genuine.  We are used to being in control of the events of our lives.  This fear is what keeps us from making some very foolish decisions.  The fear of being overwhelmed keeps us within the range of our capabilities.  However, like a flash flood, life has a way of putting us in circumstances that we could not have foreseen.  These circumstances, if allowed to, can overwhelm us to the point of destroying a life.  In such a situation, the promise is given above.

The house we have recently moved from had a propensity for flooding.  Build on sandy silt, if it rained very hard and fast, then the drainage system could not keep up and the basement would flood.  This was common in homes of the same area.  It was not out of the ordinary to hear of church folk who could not make it to church because their basement had filled with water.  This was something new to me.  I had never grown up in an area that was concerned with flooding.  Snowstorms that could bury a house, yes.  An instant indoor pool, no.  I remember the first such occurrence.  The weather brought seven inches of rain in less than an hour.  The thing about flooding is that you don’t know when it will stop.  The sump pump couldn’t keep up a supplemental pump was dropped in the pit. This didn’t stop the water from coming in.  We were frantic with wet vacs and mops.  Anything to stop the damage to property.  As we worked, it seemed the harder we worked the more the water seeped in.  Over time and with a lot of effort, the mess was contained and the damage held to a minimum.  A funny thing happened the next time such a storm blew up.  We didn’t panic so much.  The first time, we were overwhelmed.  Consequent times, we knew what was coming and were prepared for the commitment.

The point is, we cannot control the events of our lives which will overwhelm us from time to time.  But we do not have to let them drawn us.  In fact, they will not do as much.  The reason we know this is because of the promise given above.  If we are overwhelmed to the point of surrender and destruction, we have placed our faith and hope in the wrong thing – ourselves.  We cannot get overwhelmed if our faith is in the LORD.  He has promised to keep our head above water.  He has promised to clothe us with fireproof garments.  The overwhelming events of life have little power over us because God is always there.  He will not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able.  Again, we may get wet.  We may smell like smoke.  We may get really tired fighting the current.  We may cough a bit as the smoke enters our lungs.  But what will not happen is the LORD will not forsake us.  He will always be there to be our strength and hope.  That is what a loving God does.

Freshness

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter. The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.” (Pr 25:2-3 AV)

 

This morning was kind of different.  I read my devotions and the Spirit gave me more study notes to add.  So, the LORD was definitely showing me more wisdom from His word.  However, part of me knew the LORD was speaking to me about something else.  That something else was not found in the passages regarding Hezekiah.  So, I prayed and asked the LORD what it was that He wanted of me.  With what did He wish to challenge my heart?  Then He spoke to me about freshness.  Not the kind of freshness one looks for in the produce section.  Rather, the freshness of that which you are sharing with others.  We can get stale over time.  We can share the same truths or have the same remarks.  We can study different passages of scripture and come up with the same applications.  We can relate the same anecdotal evidence to prove a point.  In short, we can get in a rut.  This isn’t just for preachers.  This is for anyone who is tasked to influence others.  If we are not careful, we will share nothing fresh for consideration.  The reason we have nothing fresh is not complicated.  It is revealed above.

These two verses are intended to teach as the heart of God is unsearchable to a king, so too is the heart of a king to his subjects.  In other words, just like a king cannot know all that God does and why or how He does it, so too those who live or serve under another cannot possibly know all their superior knows.  But there is another truth here.  The king is to search out that which is in the heart of God and to do so is an honor.  He searches the heart of God for the purpose of effective government on his part.  As he understands the wisdom of God, he can translate that into his own responsibilities of governing a nation.  Each set of problems requires a fresh input of truth.  Life requires the king to stay in the word of God so as situations arise, he has the wisdom from God requires to meet those challenges.  If we are not fresh in our offerings to those who follow, it means we have ceased to search out a matter that is fresh and new.  In other words, we have ceased to grow in all areas.

Studying our favorite topic or doctrine over and again does not keep us fresh.  If we are a prophecy nut or a doctrine junky, we can read and study books on those topics all day long.  But the information is the same.  Perhaps written in a slightly different way, but it is basically all the same.  This keeps us stale.  There needs to be a variety of subject matter that keeps us fresh.  God’s mind is infinite.  When the king searches the heart and mind of God, he is searching an infinite mind.  The offerings of such a mind are more diverse than the one searching could possibly appreciate.  The older I get, the more I realize just how many holes there are in my knowledge of the word of God.  There are subjects I am extremely familiar with.  Others, not so much.  Those holes are indications of where one’s attention should be focused.  It would be wrong to fall back on what we know so well and ignore the holes that exist.  To search out matters of which we have never searched keeps us fresh.  It keeps us relevant.  It keeps our ministry worth much to others who need all the truth they can get.  If we are stale, then we are not growing.  If we are not growing, then we cannot feed those who need the truth for their own walk with God.

Revelation In Adversity

“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” (Pr 24:10 AV)

 

This proverb is a statement of fact not necessarily meant as a criticism.  Adversity is the way of life.  Sometimes we bear up, sometimes we do not.  In fact, the majority of times we do not completely bear up under the weight of what we are going through.  Adversity has a way of showing us our limits.  It has a way of building strength through testing that strength.  The oft used analogy of weight training is a good example. Muscle can only be built if it is strained to its maximum capacity.  This causes discomfort and residual pain.  No pain, no gain.  But it is through the endurance of hardship that strength is grown.  The verse can be a subtle form of rebuke if we have neglected the opportunity to grow our strength.  If we have not physically exercised or ate well, when illness comes it will take a greater toll.  If we are challenged on what we believe and we have not spent time in study, then we will lose the debate or worse, lose our faith.  However, no amount of training or preparation can overcome all adversity so there is no adversity at all. 

Looking back on life, I can recall numerous times of adversity.  Paper routes were a great experience that often pushed us to our limits.  Bad weather and customers who didn’t like to pay their bills are two that come to mind.  Dogs, too.  Then there were the scouting trips.  Building life skills through tests or pushing us to our limits with outdoor skills helped us to learn we can overcome and figure things out.  High school was fraught with adversity.  Especially if you were not in with the popular crowd.  There was subject matter that did not come easy.  Then comes college or training in the trades.  More adversity.  Athletics has its share.  Pretty soon marriage and kids come along.  Now we have to feed more mouths than our own.  There is the factory that closes, the power company needs their money, or the child has to be rushed to the hospital.  Some of these times we were pushed to our limits.  A potentially fatal diagnosis in a child is not a pleasant experience.  Now that we are getting up there in age, any appointment we have with a doctor could come with the news of our unfortunate mortality.  Adversity is the way of life.  It will always be there.  But these times are designed to make us stronger.  They reveal our weakness like a muscle that aches after a workout.  Adverity will reveal our weakness.  That is their design.

I came across the following quote that sums our thoughts up pretty well.  “Although men often “faint” in the day of adversity, or find their resources insufficient to meet their needs in the hour of trial, it is not necessarily the case, nor is it always so. Indeed, the intention of [a] trial is not to take away our strength, but to increase it. If the day of adversity proves too much for our strength, the encounter may leave us morally weaker than we were before; but if we bear it courageously, and do not allow it to drive us to despair, or even to doubt, we come out of the ordeal stronger than when we entered into it.” – Rev. W. Harris, The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic, Commentary on Proverbs.  So, when we are faced with hard times and feel like calling it quits, remember this is the way of life.  These times are not meant to defeat us even though, at times, we feel defeated.  They are meant to make us stronger.  The only choice we have to make is how we decide to respond.  Do we call it a day and check out?  Or, do we go to our knees and ask the Spirit for the wisdom and strength to endure.  If the former, then we will never overcome future adversity when it will inevitably come.  If the latter, then we can face the same intensity of adversity and then some.

All The Blessings Possible

“Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.” (Isa 32:20 AV)

 

Isaiah chapter thirty-two starts with a prophecy of the prosperity under Hezekiah.  Then beginning in verse nine, the nation comes under judgment.  Verse fifteen may be in reference to the Spirit being poured out on the Gentile nations.  The result of this outpouring is then described in verses sixteen through twenty.  Some writers assume verses sixteen through twenty are referring to the church age.  In doing so, they tend to spiritualize the passage.  What the Spirit impressed upon my heart was two little words.  ‘all waters’.  The passage is speaking of the custom of sowing flooded fields and river banks during the wet season.  Then the waters would recede.  The ox and ass are needed for harvesting the crops that would grow as a result of the sowing.  The blessing comes is sowing and reaping.  It is implied when the Messiah comes and blesses, then there will be boundless opportunity and strength to produce all the fruit which the land can provide.  In doing so, people will be blessed.  Again, we want to consider all water as opposed to some or most.

Have you ever had to throw our food because what was left went bad?  Or, looking at it a different way, have you ever had the pleasure of extracting as much as one could out of an offering without leaving anything to waste?  My wife and I had a unique ministry.  We called it ‘last life car drivers’.  We would get these cars that others would destine for the scrap heap.  I know I have relayed stories of the past.  They included a station wagon that had a cooling problem.  A Ford Taurus had a transmission problem and lost the driver’s side door because of it.  Then there was the sedan that split in two.  It was interesting, to say the least.  We had a Ford Escort wagon that couldn’t make it up a hill of any kind.  There was the conversion van a friend allowed us to drive that handled like a house.  There was the two-door thunderbird with a family of five.  The experiences go on and on.  Most of these experiences were hoisted upon us because of life’s circumstances.  There is a certain satisfaction in knowing you have done all that you could do and got the maximum life out of an experience.  This is the meaning of our passage.  When the LORD reigns and we are living in His perfect will, there will be maximum blessings experienced.  Every water will be seeded.  All the fruit that is possible will be reaped.  Life will be as fulfilling as it possibly can be.

The older I get, the more and more I find myself contemplating how much missed opportunity I allowed to slip by or regret that I haven’t done more than I could have.  There is a song written by Grace Reese Adkins entitled, I’ll Wish I Had Given Him More.  The first verse goes like this:  “By and by when I look on His face, Beautiful face, thorn shadowed face; By and by when I look on His face, I'll wish I had given Him more. More, so much more, More of my life than I e'er gave before By and by when I look on His face, I'll wish I had given Him more.” The song speaks of regret.  Regret over missed opportunities.  Our passage above, siting a positive motive, chooses to look at the blessings enjoyed rather than regret that is felt.  And that is what we want to remember today.  As long as we are in the perfect will of God, then we will sow on all the waters He has destined for us and reap the fruit thereby.  What an encouragement to stay faithful!

End of Crying

“For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.” (Isa 30:19 AV)

 

There is so much in this verse.  This verse comes in a chapter that appears amid rebuke.  The LORD is rebuking Judah for their eventual failures.  He warns them they will suffer for their wickedness.  At the hands of their neighbors, Judah will go into captivity.  They will return after seventy years to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.  Then, there would follow four-hundred silent years of no new revelation from the LORD.  After these four-hundred silent years, the Messiah arrives only to have Israel reject the promises made to their forefathers.  They would choose the peace and control of Rome over the promise of a kingdom by Jesus Christ.  This would thrust the nation into two-thousand years of irrelevancy.  In 1948, the nation would begin their in-gathering only to have them go after the AntiChrist for the seven years of tribulation.  But after all this, a remnant is brought out who will follow the LORD.  This small remnant will be the germ of a seed needed to realize the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and David.  When all this comes to pass, then the promise above became a permanent reality.  As New Testament believers, we don’t have to wait so long.

One of my sons, who will remain nameless, had a hard time processing the anxiety and stress he felt.  Trying to pry it out of him was a major chore.  There were several times when dad knew there was something major bothering him and would find dad sitting by this son’s side, refusing to leave until his son opened up.  Sometimes, these events included tears of anxiety, frustration, or fear.  On one such occasion, this episode took over four hours.  In those hours, dad would continue to ask of the nature of what was tormenting his son.  His son wanted to be left alone and expressed as such.  But dad would not leave.  He kept telling his son that he wasn’t going to leave until he knew of the horrible thing that was tormenting him so much.  There were words of anger as this son tried to push his father away.  Dad wouldn’t budge.  There were even tear laden shoves off the bed or chair and towards the door.  At times, dad would hug his son and state the determination he had to help his boy.  After four hours of this, the son finally told his father what it was that was bothering him so much.  They worked through it and the torment was over.  As the father who helped his son, I can say it was one of the greatest privileges I would ever share with him.  All of my sons are close to me in different ways.  In his case, our natures are similar in that we bottle things up and don’t let others help us through hard times.

Our Father does the same.  Unlike Israel, we don’t have to wait.  In this life, there will be sorrow.  This sorrow does not have to be permanent.  We can go to the Father, but the blood of Christ and the intercession of the Spirit, and pour out our hearts to the LORD.  We don’t have to wait for Zion.  We don’t have to wait for the city of our God resting on the mount of God.  Our Father is ever-present.  Yes, we will have hard times.  Expressing a temporary good-bye to my mother was not a joyful experience.  But this lasted but for a brief time.  All the others whom I have loved who are not here were difficult.  There was much weeping.  Saying goodbye to my son and his family as they went off to the foreign mission field was not fun.  There was much weeping.  Saying goodbye to a church I had fallen in love with was not fun.  There were many tears all around.  Although we can apply the promise above to eternity, which is a sound application, we can also trust those same words for today.  God is ever-present.  He is not leaving.  Through our most difficult times, He can wipe away all tears.  He can encourage through all sorrow.  He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

Freely

“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” (Ho 14:4 AV)

 

It is a great comfort to know that no matter how much we mess up, as long as we are willing to repent from our sin and return to Christ, He will gather us back to Him without any reservations!  The Hebrew word for ‘…freely…’ means spontaneously and abundantly.  The book of Hosea is written primarily to Ephraim, or the northern ten tribes of Israel.  This promise above is to those ten northern tribes.  The LORD was gracious to them in allowing them to split from Judah and Benjamin.  However, their response to God’s grace was to embrace Baal worship and worship of the gods of their neighbors.  Consequently, the LORD brought Assyria against them and allowed them to be brought into captivity.  From there, they were scattered throughout the world.  Yet we know, according to the book of Revelation, the LORD will gather them back to Palestine.  We know the LORD will restore Israel as a nation so He can honor His covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and David.  What we want to consider this morning is the love of God in comparison to our failures to honor Him.

The understanding of the meaning of the word above is hard to explain.  The reason is, we have very few examples of it.  In human relationships, there is a natural quid pro quo involved in our love.  Perhaps we don’t notice it, but it is there.  For example, we welcomed our newest grandchild into the world about eight weeks ago.  When you have a newborn, it is hard not to love them abundantly and spontaneously.  It is what we do as parents and grandparents.  However, when Mom and Dad have been sleep-deprived for more than a month, it is hard to love them abundantly and spontaneously at three in the morning.  Our spouses are a blessing from the LORD.  We love them abundantly and spontaneously.  That is until they fail to follow our desire in a matter for the ten-thousandth time.  Loving them abundantly and spontaneously while we are out on a date is easy.  Loving them abundantly and spontaneously while we pick up clothes thrown on the floor – not so much.  I have a puppy.  He is the best dog I have ever had.  His breed was created for the express purpose of companionship.  He loves people.  Our morning routine is to get him out of his house, take him outside, feed him, then we say our good mornings.  He will jump on my lap and lick my ears.  Nine hours apart was way too long for him.  I look forward to those greetings.  It makes it easy to love him spontaneously and abundantly.  However, as he barks for the fifth time in the same hour to go outside – not so much.

When we speak of God loving us freely, we can come close.  We can understand what it means to love abundantly and spontaneously.  But not from His respectiveve.  He is our God.  He is our creator.  We are the work of His hands and we owe Him everything.  In His grace He has created us and saved us to love Him and obey Him by faith.  We constantly fail.  We rebel.  We mistrust.  We insult Him more than we please Him.  The moment He sees our hearts turning back to Him, His response is to love us freely.  What a wonderful and merciful God we worship.  When we have done nothing to warrant any patience, mercy, or grace from Him, He bestows it without reservation or limit.  He heals our backslidings and rejoices that we have returned.  This promise is not to the obedient.  They need it not.  It is to the rest of us who find ourselves out of the perfect will of God and wonder if He will ever forgive us for all those times we have turned our back on Him.  He will!  He will love us freely!

Maintaining Faith In the Obvious.

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” (Ho 6:3 AV)

 

The phrase “is prepared as the morning” when speaking of the LORD going forth is stating the predictability and certainty of God’s going forth.  Prophetically, our seer is speaking of the LORD’s return.  Practically, he is speaking of the hand of God in the life of the believer.  The former and latter rains speak of the rains which come before the sowing and just prior to the reaping.  Moist soil is necessary to plant seed that will grow.  The latter rains are necessary to wash and rehydrate the crops before harvest.  When or sage speaks of the believer knowing the coming of the LORD like a former and latter rain, he speaks of the nature of His coming.  That is, God’s hand will be there to provide all the believers would need in order to grow and become fruitful.  The first illustration is the knowledge of the certainty of God’s hand, the second, the nature of His hand.  The condition for knowing the certainty and nature of God’s hand is to follow on.

There are many lessons one can learn while observing God’s creation around us.  No one would debate the certainty of a sunrise.  Unless we are a radical alarmist and think the universe can come to a sudden end, there is no reason to believe the sun will not rise tomorrow.  Sitting in the pitch-black darkness waiting for the purple and yellow hues of the early morning is a great experience.  Especially sitting at the base of a large tree, listening to the gobbles of a distant turkey.  I would have to admit though, I have been in the deer woods and heard the calls of wild wolves and wished for the morning!  One particular season, I was in a ground blind with two young men when the wolves seemed to be getting closer.  You knew the sun was going to rise.  But you wished it would rise sooner.  The former and latter rains are also a welcomes sight.  The former is self-evident.  Crops will not grow in the parched ground.  In one of my former habitats, spring was usually a soaker.  Summer was often hot and dry.  The success of the crops lays squarely on the spring rains.  If spring was not a wet spring, the crops would suffer.  Then there were the times when the later rain fell on the harvest still in the fields.  The beans and corn were dried and ready to pick.  But, along came the later rain  It cleaned off the dust, kept the dust from gathering during harvest, and often re-hydrated the corn.  The greater the former and latter rains, the larger and more fruitful the harvest.  But to know these things means one would have to be out int the woods and fields to see them.

We know of the LORD.  But do we follow on?  It takes more than one trip to turkey woods at three in the morning to get over the fear of what might be out there when the sun isn’t up yet.  Morning after morning of seeing a sunrise soon erases all fears.  The early morning songs of the birds is a pleasant sound.  Other than concern over a snake or two, being in the woods at three in the morning is more than a delight.  It takes years of seeing the former and latter rains and what they do to the crops to understand just how needful and refreshing they can be.  A wet spring is not something we truly enjoy.  Unless we are a farmer, that is.  It takes experience and being in the right place and time to truly be grateful for the appearance of the sun and rains.  We are filled with anxiety over what should be predictable.  We are because we are not following on the know the LORD.  We don’t allow ourselves to be placed in circumstances that might draw the conclusions into question.  I hear the wolves.  Will the sun rise in time?  It has been raining the entire month of March.  Will all that rain be necessary?  We seek temporary comfort at the expense of long term faith.  Follow on!  And the hand of God will grow much more certain and His provision much sweeter.

Guiding Until The Sun Sets

“For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” (Ps 48:14 AV)

 

According to the reading plan I am following, this Psalm was written sometime around the reign of Hezekiah.  This may not make sense.  Hezekiah was a king of Judah and Benjamin who was the most righteous of all kings since David himself.  Under Hezekiah, Judah experienced the greatest revival they would ever experience.  A complete rejection of all idol worship came to pass as well as a rededication to Temple worship and the Passover.  Yet, in the back of their minds, they had the prophecy of Isaiah which foretold eventual captivity into Babylon.  Assyria was very close to taking the north.  Even though they were going through one of the greatest of all revivals, the possibility of an end loomed on the horizon.  In a lot of ways, the cycle of Israel mirrors the life of the new testament saint.  We have our successes.  We have many failures.  But through it all the comfort we can take is that God is always there.

I have many memories of days on the lake with my father-in-law.  He fancies himself as an amateur fishing guide.  Actually, he is very good at it, so it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if one of these days he guides for a hobby or living.  I remember a Saturday or two where we would be at the launch at first light.  We would get the boat in the water, park the truck, then set out for deeper water.  We were after lake trout, steelhead, or browns.  Finding our spot, we would set the downriggers and planer boards.  Then the best part of all.  Slowly trolling the lake while enjoying a good cup of hot black coffee and the company of another whose heart was with God.  I can’t remember if we caught anything worth bragging about, but I do remember the company.  After a bit, we would bring in all the trout equipment and change over to largemouth bass.  On one particular outing, after we had caught our fill of largemouth, he took me over to to the other shore and a few miles north of where we had been fishing.  There was a small little diner on the lake.  We enjoyed a fresh-cooked lunch.  Then it was time for the smallmouth.  As the afternoon was stretching into the evening, we decided we had had enough.  Back to the launch and on our way home.  The thing is, through all this excursion, Larry never jumped ship.  He never left me alone to tend to the boat.  Which is a good thing.  I don’t know anything about boats.  He never left me to fend for myself when it was time to work the downriggers or planer boards.  I still don’t know how to work them.  Being a guide is far more than being there.  It is knowing what to do when something needs to be done.  It means to tend to the success of one’s charge.  It means meeting their needs, but also, being a companion.

The promise above isn’t something that we tend to reject.  At least right-out rejection.  We know the truth of the promise.  We are confident it will come to pass.  That which we have a problem with is the details.  Our future is unpredictable.  Our future is out of our control.  Even if we planned right and were well disciplined in our youth, life can still throw a curveball.  And it probably will.  What encourages me is one little word above.  Unto.  Not up until, but unto.  This means, there is not a moment when the LORD will not guide us all the way into eternity.  Just like docking that boat.  Just like getting home and pulling the drain plugs, going into the house, cleaning our fish, and sitting down for supper, my guide did was with me from the time the task started until the experience was complete.  God is the same.  He will not abandon.  He will not neglect.  He will not reject.  My God is always there and will be unto death.

Our Great Hope

“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” (Isa 26:19 AV)

The hope of the resurrection of which Paul spoke of is, among other paces, right here!  In the context of the chapter, Isaiah is speaking of Israel’s hope amidst the judgment of the Gentile nations around her.  The prophet is saying, unequivocally, that no matter what they perceive, the hope of Israel will come.  Of this, there is no dispute.  The LORD will return.  The dead in Christ shall rise.  We shall dwell with the LORD eternally and the events of this world will fade like the night sky.  This is the hope of all who believe in Jesus Christ.  Israel is in for more hard times.  The first Battle of Gog and Magog is still on the horizon.  Then comes the seven years tribulation which ends in hiding out for three and a half years being sustained by the hand of God.  Then comes the battle of Armageddon.  Not to mention all the trouble Israel has endured because they rejected Jesus Christ the first time.  If I lived in Israel, I would lose hope.  It seems like all news is bad news.  However, the hope of Israel is our hope, too.  That hope is the final resurrection and eternal life which follows.

To get the full power of the verse above, one must read it in context.  Then, apply it to our world today.  I use an app called Feedly.  It is an RSS feed news gatherer and reader.  The user can sign up for RSS feeds from their favorite sites.  I have many!  The thing is, almost all the RSS feeds are negative in one way or another.  There is one crisis after another.  Even the sports feeds I receive are not encouraging.  No matter the story, it has a negative spin on it.  Let’s face it.  We have a lot which is discouraging right now.  We are living amid a virus that seems to have no end.  If there is any good news, and there is plenty, it is put way down on the list of articles because dire news sells more than good news.  Some riots threaten to turn our nation into another Marxist country.  Now that police morale is at an all-time low, crime is on the rise.  We see our leaders who have clearly committed crime getting off because justice is not quick or even present.  Our economy is not what it was a mere four months ago.  Some are even calling it a depression.  Add that to the rise of other nations who see a weakness growing in the United States, and it is a wonder we are not all jumping off the bridge.  What hope do we have?  When will this all end?

Our hope is in this verse.  The grave is for the keeping of our bodies until the judgment of the world is accomplished.  For the N.T. saint, this will happen at the Rapture of the church.  For Israel and the rest of the world, this will happen at the end of the Millenial reign of Christ.  Now, there may be some disagreement over the when, but the eventuality can not be disputed.  That is, when we have risen with Christ, we shall reign with Him.  There will be an end to all this.  The world will be recreated in holiness and true righteousness.  No more troubles.  We may be ‘asleep’ for a while, but we shall rise again.  We shall rise to a new and glorious hope.  One which the world, the devil, and the flesh cannot mare.  One where they are non-existent.  An eternity with nothing but peace and joy.  What a day that will be!