Readings for today: Isaiah 59-63
I don’t know about you but when I opened my Bible this morning and began reading chapter 59 of Isaiah, I could not help but read it as a Word from the Lord to our nation today. Yes, God’s hand is not shortened. God’s ability to save has not diminished in the slightest. God has not grown hard of hearing. His eyes are not blind to our suffering. So what is He waiting for? What stays His hand of salvation? What keeps Him from stepping in? God is waiting for repentance. He is waiting for us to turn to Him. Waiting for us to relinquish our wicked ways. Waiting for us to stop embracing sin as a means to our own selfish ends.
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede…” (Isaiah 59:1-4, 7-10, 12-16a)
When will we tire of the petty games we play? When has outrage, anger, hate, or violence ever produced anything positive? When has wealth and power not corrupted the human soul? When have all the lies and conspiracies and falsehoods and deceit led to truth? When has anything manipulative or controlling or underhanded or abusive ever served the common good? And why - after thousands and thousands of years - have human beings not progressed beyond such things? We are morally deformed. Spiritually bankrupt. Hypocrites one and all. And the never-ending social media news cycle simply reveals the darkness that lies in every human heart.
So where can we find hope? Only in God. Listen to how God responds to the evil in our world. Listen to how He describes the Redeemer who is to come. “Then the Lord’s own arm brought Him (the Redeemer) salvation, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, so will He repay, wrath to His adversaries, repayment to His enemies; to the coastlands He will render repayment. So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; for He will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.”
One would think we should cower in fear. Tremble at the coming of the Redeemer. This passage, along with many others, convinced many in Israel that the Redeemer would come in power to execute judgment on the enemies of Israel. This is what was so confounding about Jesus. He came as the Suffering Servant. He took God’s vengeance on Himself. He turned aside God’s wrath at His enemies. He repaid the debt of humanity. He satisfied God’s justice once and for all. Such amazing grace! It is why the name of the Lord is lifted up from the East to the West! It’s why His glory rises like they sun! And one day soon He will return. Like a rushing stream. Like the winds that blow. He will come to Zion and He will sit in judgment over the earth. On that day, every knee will bow before Him. Every tongue will confess that He is Lord. All the games we play will come to an end and He will render to each according to His sovereign will. Those who love Him will be saved. Those who hate Him will be destroyed. The Kingdom will come to earth and all things will be made new.
If you have yet to place your trust in Jesus, friends, now is the time. Today is the day of salvation! Don’t let another moment slip by for we do not know the time of the Redeemer’s coming! Though He has tarried thus far, it may be that today is the day of His return. Spread the news! Share the gospel! Tell everyone you know about Jesus!
Readings for tomorrow: Isaiah 64-66