August 1 - Isaiah 50-52
The Old Testament Prophets were truly remarkable in their ability to hear from God and to proclaim His Word to the people in a meaningful way. It shows how much God believes in revealing Himself to us. Now that the focus of the book of Isaiah had turned to redemption, I hope God will be able to speak to your heart in many ways about how much He loves you, and how He wants to bless you. This is surely what He was trying to get across to Israel.
Chapter 50 begins in verse one with a word picture that gets to the heart of God for His people. The Lord asks Israel to explain why they think God has divorced them. Where is the certificate of divorce that the law requires? It is not there, because God has not divorced His people, and God would never divorce His people. He told them their sin, and He told them their punishment in advance, but He never told them that He did not love them any more. He was seeking to restore their relationship not to dissolve it. Then, He gives a similar word picture about His ownership of Israel. To whom did He sell them? He is their Lord and Master through the covenant He established with them, and He has not terminated that covenant by selling them to another god. He would not sell them. He loves them, and He knows that all other gods are false idols. God inspires Isaiah to use these two word pictures as an extended metaphor through the rest of Isaiah and in the other prophets, too. He wants them and us to see that when God gets angry, He does not put away the person with whom He is angry. He is seeking reconciliation. He hates the sin, but not the sinner.
Then, the other remarkable feature of the Prophets is their ability to speak about Jesus. Isaiah 50:4-9 and 52:13-15 are examples of very specific revelations about Jesus. They not only tell us facts about His life and death many hundreds of years before these things happened, but they are saying that God cares for Israel and for us. He cares enough to send His Son to receive the punishment for sin. Did He cast away His own Son? No, but He did carry out the punishment for sin upon Him, so sin could be forgiven. Was it a terrible punishment? Yes; Jesus quoted the Old Testament on the Cross saying, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?" He may have felt forsaken during the punishment like Israel did, but He was not cast away, and neither was Israel. The point is that God hates sin, and it takes drastic actions to deal with sin. God takes those actions out of love, not hate. He wants to redeem, not to destroy. Please, don't think that God wants to destroy you or His relationship with you, even if you are experiencing His punishment. He chastens those He loves, so the relationship can be made whole.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Isaiah 53-55.
Chapter 50 begins in verse one with a word picture that gets to the heart of God for His people. The Lord asks Israel to explain why they think God has divorced them. Where is the certificate of divorce that the law requires? It is not there, because God has not divorced His people, and God would never divorce His people. He told them their sin, and He told them their punishment in advance, but He never told them that He did not love them any more. He was seeking to restore their relationship not to dissolve it. Then, He gives a similar word picture about His ownership of Israel. To whom did He sell them? He is their Lord and Master through the covenant He established with them, and He has not terminated that covenant by selling them to another god. He would not sell them. He loves them, and He knows that all other gods are false idols. God inspires Isaiah to use these two word pictures as an extended metaphor through the rest of Isaiah and in the other prophets, too. He wants them and us to see that when God gets angry, He does not put away the person with whom He is angry. He is seeking reconciliation. He hates the sin, but not the sinner.
Then, the other remarkable feature of the Prophets is their ability to speak about Jesus. Isaiah 50:4-9 and 52:13-15 are examples of very specific revelations about Jesus. They not only tell us facts about His life and death many hundreds of years before these things happened, but they are saying that God cares for Israel and for us. He cares enough to send His Son to receive the punishment for sin. Did He cast away His own Son? No, but He did carry out the punishment for sin upon Him, so sin could be forgiven. Was it a terrible punishment? Yes; Jesus quoted the Old Testament on the Cross saying, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?" He may have felt forsaken during the punishment like Israel did, but He was not cast away, and neither was Israel. The point is that God hates sin, and it takes drastic actions to deal with sin. God takes those actions out of love, not hate. He wants to redeem, not to destroy. Please, don't think that God wants to destroy you or His relationship with you, even if you are experiencing His punishment. He chastens those He loves, so the relationship can be made whole.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Isaiah 53-55.