God’s people are in exile and it was tempting for them, as it is for us, to measure God according to their circumstances. Israel despaired that God even knew their name, much less cared.
Almost reflexively they began to compare God with the gods of the nations around them that seemed to be more prosperous.
Read More God’s faithfulness, idols, eagles’ wings, waitingGod’s people are being mocked by their enemies and find themselves in captivity in their homes. Is this just? Will there ever be justice?
God convenes his court. The “coastlands,” Israel’s perennial enemy, are on trial and Israel is invited to watch or listen in. God is raising up Cyrus, King of Persia, to judge the nations and the coastlands are next.
Read More reality, worm, God’s plansJustice! Justice for God’s people who feel like a “faintly burning wick” or a “bruised reed.” Where will this justice come from? From God’s servant.
Remarkably this servant will open the eyes of the blind and bring prisoners out of dungeons, but he will not be like an invading army. He “will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,” he will be careful of the “faintly burning wick” and the “bruised reed.”
Read More justice, downtroddenSpiritual blindness and deafness are self-inflicted conditions. God’s people suffer with both. They are blind to the glory of God, and they refuse to hear and obey his voice. God says that it is in this condition that he “gave them up” to the looter and plunderer. This is why they find themselves in exile. Even though God’s people were “set on fire all around,” they “did not understand,” or “take it to heart.”
Read More restoration, deafness, blindness, cross
Read Reflect The themes of forming and creating come up over and over in Isaiah. People in rebellion against God form and create idols. God, here, forms and creates Israel. When people create idols, they turn to them for salvation. When God creates his people, his people need to turn to their creator for salvation. […]
Read More trials, God’s presence, idols, forming, creatingRead Reflect Remember. Remembering is the spiritual discipline that builds faith in God’s promises. God is telling his people about what seems to be an unlikely future: There will be a way back through the wilderness and streams there to quench their thirst as they go. How can this be? God reminds them how he […]
Read More worship, faith, rememberingRead Reflect This passage is about forming and there are two kinds of forming going on. First, God is forming his people. The passage begins and ends with God telling his people to “fear not” because he has formed them, and as such they “will not be forgotten by me.” The second forming was Israel […]
Read More technology, salvation, Possessions, idols, formingRead Reflect Knowing someone’s name in the Bible is not just a matter of gathering a piece of data. It implies an intimacy and even a mastery over the person. Jews to this day do not pronounce the name of God, but instead refer indirectly to “The Name.” It is significant that God says to […]
Read More conflict, name, government, chasteningRead Reflect “New and improved” are an unassailable pair fortifying each other in our modern culture. We take it so much for granted that new is better that it’s difficult for us to understand that the Bible assumes what is old and enduring is better. The potter comes before the clay, and the virtues of […]
Read More wisdom, idols, new, pots, God’s goodness, designRead Reflect We all run up against burdens that we can’t carry. Israel and the nations around them faced the burden of war and captivity that they couldn’t carry and their response was to create idols to help them. Gods in the ancient world were often carried into war, creating a ridiculous situation where people […]
Read More burdens, our own solutions, carrying, remembering