Tag Archives: Isaiah 65

On being gagged…

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But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: people knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life.

(Rom 1.18-22)

“I’ve made myself available to those who haven’t bothered to ask. I’m here, ready to be found by those who haven’t bothered to look. I kept saying, ‘I’m here, I’m right here’ to a nation that ignored me. I reached out day after day to a people who turned their backs on me. People who make wrong turns, who insist on doing things their own way…

(Isa 65.1-2)

Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost . He’s giving everyone space and time to change.

(2Pet 3.8-9)

If our message is obscure to anyone, it’s not because we’re holding back in any way. No, it’s because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention.. They’re stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get.

(2 Cor 4.3-4)

Jesus commissions his followers to go and make disciples, to share the good news to the ends of the earth and bring glory to God as the kingdom is established. And we know it is the best news that could possible be given! We know how desperately humanity needs to find hope, peace and forgiveness; to find its place in God’s great purposes and to know the deep satisfaction of being fully what we are made to be – God’s people, made in his image to know and delight in him and what he has done for us!

But what do we do when faced with friends and family and colleagues whose lives are without Christ, and who appear unaware of sin, confident in humanity’s potential to improve and overcome challenges, or else despairing of anything beyond this mortal sphere and sure there is no eternity to consider in their life-choices? We remain silent, we defer to their preferences and speak platitudes – why? Because they have made it abundantly clear that they will not even consider the possibility of the gospel being true, or that God exists and has revealed himself in Christ. Their determined assumptions act like a gag, and we are silenced by their confidence.

In this frustrated silence, we surely gain some insight into the grief of God as it is expressed in Isaiah’s prophecy – the inexpressible pain of the rejected parent, watching precious children embrace folly with all its bitter consequences because they will not hear the parental voice of love calling them to safety and hope. And how are we to react? It is not for us to let anger dictate our actions, but love, that love which is to desire the best for the other – God’s sacrificial and bold love which paid the highest price for our salvation. To love those who do not want to hear is to be humble, patient and persevering; to be loyal, and respect their opinions even though we do not agree; to be true friends and to speak honestly of God’s care for them, as the basis for all we do and say. It is only by God’s power at work in their lives that people come to faith in Christ – and we cannot persuade or cajole them into accepting him. What we can do is to speak gently and persistently of our own faith, of God’s work in our lives, of our belief that he is working in the world and powerful to fulfill his purposes which are good.

Heavenly Father, thank you for letting us share in small measure the grief which is yours over the determination of so many people to have nothing to do with your love, to reject Christ in all his glory, and to do life their own way – with all its dark consequences. Let this grief not drive us to despair, but rather to persistent prayer and humble, trusting faith. You call us to bear witness in word and deed; Lord help us to obey and to leave the consequences in your hands. Let us never become numb to the pain of unbelief in others, but let it keep us tender-hearted, and dependent on your Spirit to direct our service. Let us be generous in sharing our faith, and genuine in valuing each individual as your precious child, known and loved and welcome if they will only receive the gift you offer so freely in Christ. For his name’s sake we pray, Amen.

when the heart breaks…

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All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations – people who continually provoke me to my very face..

(Isa 65.2&3)

How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

(Hab 1.1-4)

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Saviour; my God will hear me.

(Mic 7.7)

‘..But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’ ‘”If you can”?’ said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the boy”s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’

(Mk 9.22&23)

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation..The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish..But the day of the Lord will come…

(2Pet 3.3&4,9)

Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. May he judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice…For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.

(Ps 72.1&2,12-14)

I believe that I am made by God for a purpose – perhaps several purposes – and that my character, temperament, strengths and weaknesses are deliberately crafted by my maker. I therefore choose to accept what may feel like weakness, vulnerability, even what some might call ‘over-sensitivity’ as part of my calling. I believe that as a creature made for a specific time in history by God, made in his image and reflecting his character, I can be an instrument for his glory and the blessing of the church.

At the moment, I am aware of a strong, even an overwhelming urge for lamentation. I find myself echoing the words of psalmists and especially of the prophets, who were commissioned to speak God’s truth into particular situations.

As I consider the plight of our world today – politically, economically, socially, environmentally, morally…in every way, we are in an almighty mess of our own making. Every day brings fresh evidence of what happens when humanity deliberately chooses to abuse the gifts of God in creation and in ourselves. We were formed by God to be his stewards – to exercise authority in his name and on behalf of the good of all creation. Instead, we have consistently chosen to exercise authority in our own name, and in our own way – inevitably at the expense of others.

I believe that God has not abandoned us, that he is as good and powerful as when he first formed our universe, and that his purposes remain – to create a place where heaven and earth meet, where he can live in fellowship with his people. I also see that in his providence, God is choosing to allow many days to pass before he finally returns in Jesus to judge all humanity, to deal forever with evil, and to inaugurate that full realisation of his perfect kingdom.

Christians have wrestled with this ‘waiting time’ ever since Jesus ascended into glory; we long to see the end of suffering, pain, degradation and destruction. We long to see God glorified and Jesus exalted, but instead the world around increasingly and aggressively rejects and mocks the very idea of an Almighty. We long for justice to be done, and seen to be done, but instead we watch as evil wreaks havoc over and over, cycles of violence and corruption are repeated, and it seems the cry of pain going up from our planet to the throne of God must be unbearable.

I have no easy response to my situation; I believe that God calls us to feel and see in some small measure that he is troubled beyond our imagination by the mess of the world, so that we might also share the urgency of his commission to us to share the good news while we can. I should not rush to silence the spirit of lamentation, but like the prophets, bring it to God and sit in his presence with my pain, frustration and doubts.

We live in a broken world, how can we begin to really offer good news unless we are willing to see the extent of the brokenness (including our own)?

May God grant us courage to accept the pain of sharing his love for this beautiful and broken world, and its millions of people – each one made in his image, for an eternal destiny, and desperately needing to embrace the hope he offers for life in Jesus, the true King and royal son…