Isaiah 65:1-16.  One thing I should have mentioned in yesterday’s reading was Isaiah 63:12.  Some scholars who do not really believe in God like to tell us that Moses and the Israelites waded through some shallow marsh when they left Egypt and that’s how they lost Pharaoh and his army.   Verse 12 makes it very clear that this was a miraculous event that pumped up god’s reputation for a long time.  If you read through Joshua with us you know that 40 or more years later the Canaanites were still talking about it and Rahab became a follower of Yahweh because of it, even at the risk of destruction by her own people.  God is able and we need to not let others diminish what he has done.

In today’s reading God is talking.  In verses 1-7 we see God allowing the Israelites to have some sort of relationship with him even though they were dishonoring him with their lives.  They broke his rules and ran around worshipping false gods.  In verse seven we learn that God is going to deal with this unfaithfulness.  The language is interesting here, in one translation it says, “I will measure their former work into their bosom.”  We might say, “I’m going to dump the whole mess back in their lap.”  The idea is that we get what we deserve, or better we deserve what we get, because we don’t really get all we deserve, remember “hesed” (Isaiah 63:7), God is merciful.

We see some of that mercy in verse 8.  The picture here is of a dried out vineyard, but then a cluster of grapes is found.  Be careful they are still valuable.  God tells us that he will be careful to care for those who serve him.  In Isaiah 64:10 Isaiah talked to God about Zion (Usually Jerusalem but in this case probably talking about the whole land of Israel), about how it had become a wilderness.  Now here God refers to two places in the land of Israel, Sharon and Achor, and he tells Isaiah that he will restore it and make it a place for those who really want a relationship with him.

God is always careful to keep warning though.  In verses 10-12 he tells those who reject him that they will be destroyed.  Notice in verse 12 that he called out to these people but they did not answer, he spoke but they shut their ears, and then they even slapped God in the face by doing the things they knew he hated.  The responsibility is on us.  God does everything but force us into heaven.  It’s amazing that he calls even though he knows some won’t respond. 1Corinthians 13:7 tells us that “love hopes all things” and John tells us in 1 John 4:8 that love is an essential part of God being.  Here in Isaiah I think we ee and example of God’s great love.  He calls, he hopes, even when he knows some will reject him, now that’s a real friend, that’s real love, that’s God.

Verses 13-15 give us a contrast between those who love God and those who don’t want to have anything to do with him.  The reality is there are consequences for walking away from God.  Verse 16 describes those who chose to follow God as those who bless others and promise truthfully.  Remember the book started with God dealing with people mistreating others and perverting justice.  People were proud and selfish and disrespectful of God.  So here we return to those same ideas and we see that people who love God care for others and want people treated fairly.  The word bless has the idea of bowing down or serving, God’s people serve others “in the earth” (See Matthew 22:34-40).  Jesus told his followers that if they wanted to be great in the kingdom of God that they need to be the servant of others.  Verse 16 tells us that in the end, in God’s forever kingdom, all of the trouble of this life will be forgotten.  That is awesome.

God thank you for loving us.  Thank you for hoping all things about us.  Thank you for calling and calling and calling.  Thank you for being there when we “pick up”.  Thank you for taking the punishment for our disobedience.  Help me be faithful and caring and just.  Thank you for an eternity where there will be no more sorrow.  Thank you.

Isaiah 63:7-64:12.  Yesterday’s reading left off with God both saddened and active. He was sad that no won seemed to care about sin (disobedience and rebellion toward God) but he was also active doing his part so we could have a restored relationship with him.  Today’s reading starts out with Isaiah speaking.  At the very end of yesterday’s reading the emphasis wqs on god’s anger.  Maybe that prompted Isaiah to do a little remembering.

What Isaiah remembers is God’s faithfulness and love and action toward the Israelites.  Some Bibles use the word “lovingkindness” in verse 7, the Hebrew word is “hesed” and it is a very big word.  It’s all about how god makes a promise and is very faithful in keeping it.  But it’s bigger than that because it also involves kind actions and even sacrifice.  That is how God feels toward us, he is very devoted to us.  In verse 9 it he tells us that when things happen in our lives it affects God.  Verse 10 seems to take a kind of scary turn it says that because of rebellion that God became our enemy.  If anyone else had even half of God’s power and was our enemy we would be in serious trouble.  It’s interesting that he fought against the Israelites.  You have to wonder when the guy who spoke the universe into existence fights against you how you survive more that a millisecond.  It’s kind of like when I would wrestle with my kids when they were young or would play a game with them or race them.  As a dad I showed restraint so that they would have opportunity to grow from the experience.  Verse 11 tells us the outcome of this fight, they remembered.  They remembered how he cared for them and also how much honor he got from it all (in verses 12 and 14 it tells us that his actions made and “everlasting name” for him).

All of this remembering seems to make Isaiah sad too.  In verse 15 he talks to God and asks him to look down from heaven at him.  Isaiah then asks where God’s love and help are.  Isaiah sees God as a loving and caring father even though Isaiah’s faithful ancestors like Abraham and Israel (or Jacob) probably wouldn’t recognize their descendants (for more about the Israelites see the “Old Testament Connection”).  We need to be careful wne we read verse 17 because it seems like God is forcing the Israelites to be disobedient, for their hard to be callouse or hardened toward God.  Probably the most famous example of this sort of language is in Exodus 1-14.  In those chapters we see the story of the Israelite people and their escape fro slaver in Egypt.  God chose Moses to be the leader of the Israelites and had him ask the King or Pharaoh of Egypt to let his people go.  Throughout the story we see God describing Pharaoh’s refusal to let them go as a hard heart.  Sometimes in the story we are told that God’s hardended Pharaoh’s heart and other times we are told that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.  Sometimes I wonder if it’s like a game of chicken.  God is driving on the right side of the road going the right way and we are racing toward him going the wrong way.  The Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow ((Hebrews 13:8, see also James 1:17), he never changes, he doesn’t flinch or blink.  Instead of turning around and going the right way we swerve off the road into the ditch, then we blame God.  I think the hardening thing is the same way, God doesn’t change the rules and we refuse to obey, we have a bad attitude toward God, we are hard toward him and in a certain sense he has some responsibility for it.  But in the end his rules are the right rules and our suffering is really all on our heads.  At the end of chapter 63 Isaiah asks God to come and help, for th right reason, for god’s reputation, because God had promised to be their king.

Isaiah continues this idea in chapter 64.  Isaiah asks God to rip open the sky and come down and make himself known to everyone.  It would be like the old days according to Isaiah 64:3.  And one thing they would learn about God is that he helps those who are faithful to him.  In verse 5 Isaiah admits that they had been rebellious and that it had been going on for a long time (400-500 years actually).  In verses 6-7 Isaiah comes back around to the same kind of idea that God had in Isaiah 63:5, there is no one who really followes God.  Verse 7 ends with Isaiah admitting that God has allowed them to fall into their own trap, they were getting what they deserved.

Like so much of the book of Isaiah there is always hope.  In verses 8-12 Isaiah remembers the idea that God is like a father, he loves us.  A lot is made of verses about God being the potter and us being the clay, people like to use those verses to prove that God can do what he wants to with us.  But it seems like Isaiah’s point here is that we are a creation of God, surely he didn’t create us just to destroy us.  As a father I didn’t have children to beat and mistreat, I have children that I want to love and help and have a relationship with.  Isaiah is saying something like, “look dad, the tree house we made and sat in together is destroyed, can’t we fix all of this, you really want it all fixed don’t you?”

We are the work of God’s hands and he does want our relationship fixed, that is why at the right time Jesus was born, and lived, and died for us (Romans 5:6-8).  We can have a good relationship with god but not if we insist in playing chicken with him, then our lives and eternities will wind up a wreck.  God clearly has a soft spot for us in his heart the question is do we have a soft spot for him.  As in all of Isaiah, pride is the enemy, we need to turn our lives around and turn them over to God.  Remember who he is, remember what he is offering and honor him today.  God help me honor you each day with my life.  I do want to be a faithful son.  I don’t really want the discipline, I know I’ll get it sometimes, but help me respond quickly.  Help me be one who upholds the family name.  Help me be worth of the name “Christian”.  And let my life speak well of Jesus to the world.