Chapters of His Heart: Isaiah 20

Isaiah chapter 20

What an obscure chapter! I'm not going to lie to you I think my mouth hung open a little bit when I read it for the first time. It's chapters like these that give you a fantastic glimpse at God's character. When it comes to getting our attention He will literally use whatever method it takes to turn our heads. Can we just talk about the dedication of Isaiah to God's call? I mean how many of us would walk around naked for three years because The Lord asked us to? I can tell you I would have failed that assignment. Isaiah trusted his whole self to God. He had surrendered his life in it's entirety to God's call. That meant Isaiah followed wherever, however, and whatever God told him, no questions asked. Sadly enough, in our culture it probably would take a person walking down the street with "their buttocks bared" to get our attention. How scary is that? If God needed to get our attention would we hear Him? Are any of us committed enough to be the exposed prophet to our world? I don't think God is calling us to walk through our neighborhoods in the nude, however, I know he is calling us to go against the current of our culture. He has called us to stand out. 1 Peter 2:9 says it like this,

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light"

The word 'peculiar' in this verse has two different meanings. The first one is 'strange' or 'odd', and the second one is 'to belonging to'. So, God has called us to be strangers to our world, but in the same breath He quickly claims us as His own. In essence, we may be strange, but we are His. Isn't that a beautiful picture? Yes God has called us to stand out among the world, to sing the praises of the one who called us out of darkness and into His light, but He doesn't hesitate to make it known that, in our strangeness, we belong to Him.

Chapters of His Heart: Isaiah 19

Read Isaiah 19 here.

I want us to take a look at some themes we see in this chapter. We have read enough of Isaiah that these "impending punishment" chapters are beginning to sound repetitious, but if you take time to look deep enough there is something unique in each chapter. We are going to look briefly at the punishment the Egyptians are facing, but I really want us to dig deeper into how this punishment will affect their future.

God has decided to punish Egypt by creating strife, pitting Egyptian against Egyptian. They will become discouraged and confused, their idols and mediums will not be able to help them and they will be given over to a harsh ruler. God will also send a drought to cause the Nile to recede. The Egyptians depended greatly on the Nile river's annual flood to fertilize the land and water their crops. Without the flood there was a great famine and a lot of people lost work. The fisherman, farmers, harvesters and weavers all lost their livelihoods. Still the people were going to the officials and wise men for help, the ones God called deluded fools, only to be led astray again. God says the Egyptians would be helpless, the noblemen and the poor. Isaiah begins to tell us in verse 16 how broken and frightened the Egyptians are. Imagine realizing the power you believed in all your life to help you and guide you wasn't the right power. Imagine finding out there is a God but He's not any of the ones you've been worshiping, and it turns out your whole country has managed to make Him really angry.

Now as an Egyptian you are left with two choices, run from God, or run to God. You may decide that this is too much, that you didn't sign up for all this, you were fine going about your day believing in the gods of you ancestors. You memorized their names and you know their stories, you even prayed to them on occasion. That was fine, but they never did anything different. They never showed up unexpectedly and changed life as you knew it. They always sat in their temples or shrines and did the same thing year in and year out. You didn't bother them, and they didn't bother you. That, you were ok with, that was comfortable, that was easy. Now...now there is this power that you never counted on, and He's angry. He's angry at you because of your choices. Your gods never cared about your choices before. You never had to answer to them for your life decisions. This is different and scary, this is hard.

You also have the choice of the five cities. Verse 18 says that five cities of Egypt made a different choice about God. "In that day five of Egypt’s cities will follow the Lord of Heaven’s Armies." These cities saw God in a different way. They had been raised with the same ancient gods and they went through the same devastation as the rest of Egypt, but instead of turning from Him, they turn to Him. They decide to trust in the only God that is bigger than life. The only God that can change their world and their hearts. Look at what blessings come to those cites! Verses 19-25 tell us that when the Egyptians cry out to God he will "send them a savior who will rescue them", He will "make Himself known" to them. Because of their faith they are now a part of God's family and they can count on the gift of salvation. Verse 22 says "The Lord will strike Egypt, and He will bring Healing." God had to deliver the punishment before He could administer the healing. In their ignorance God could not heal their empty hearts, but in their brokenness God could pour His life into the void. We also see Assyria mentioned in the end of the chapter and Isaiah says they will also turn to God. Egypt and Assyria will be connected and Israel will be their ally, mortal enemies will become working neighbors because of one common thread, they all love God. The last few things Isaiah says are incredible,

"For the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will say, “Blessed be Egypt, my people. Blessed be Assyria, the land I have made. Blessed be Israel, my special possession!"

If there was ever a doubt in your mind that God's heart is for ALL people this should be more than enough to wipe that doubt away.  God blessed the Egyptians greatly because they opened their hearts to Him. God's heart loves to bless those who trust in Him.

Chapters of His Heart: Isaiah 18

Read Isaiah 18 here.
I'm not ashamed to say I had some help with this chapter. That is the purpose of all this isn't it, to grow and to learn together? If you read the chapter (which I hope you do every week) then you know how abstract and....different this chapter was. I began digging through some bible commentaries and I found out that I wasn't the only one who thought this chapter was difficult to comprehend. Commentators have been calling Isaiah 18 "One of the most obscure prophecies in Isaiah." (-Homer Hailey pg. 156) since the seventeen hundreds. One modern preacher/theologian coined this "the most difficult chapter encountered thus far." (-Robert Lowth's Commentary pg. 234).  Well that made me feel a little bit better. So this is how chapter eighteen translates; The people of Ethiopia approached the Israelites with the offer of an alliance. The major power of the time was, as we've read, the Assyrians. An alliance between Israel and Ethiopia would mean Assyria would no longer pose as a threat to either country. As you can imagine this was an immensely attractive offer. So why does Isaiah advise the Israelites to tun it down?

I want you to pay close attention to verse 4, which is God's response to the Ethiopian's offer.

For the LORD has told me this:
“I will watch quietly from my dwelling place—
as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day,
or as the morning dew forms during the harvest.”

God doesn't need allies. He looks from His place in heaven and sees all the plans being made but He does't need to run out and seek an alliance to be sure of His future. He calmly looks on and waits. God will protect His people and He will do it Himself. He will cut down the threat before it has time to mature. Those threatening Israel will be left to be feasted on by the birds of prey.

We are so quick to panic when faced with threats. We feel the need to search out the best plan, the best ally, the best escape from our trouble. We forget that with God on our side, we need no other ally. God does not panic when threats arise, He looks calmly on and waits for the perfect time to step in. When a threat arises in your life, to your job, your health, your pocket, or maybe your relationships, don't panic. Look calmly on and wait in faith for God's perfect timing. Trust Him, the 'perfect timing', it's kind of His thing.

God's heart is for His people, we know that. God's heart has a plan and that plan is steadfast and unchanging, we know that too. In this chapter we learn that God's heart does not fear the enemy in times of trouble, so, neither should ours.

A Beautiful Mess

I have to share this little life moment with you.

The other day I was standing in my classroom just having one of those days. (Just like the night before that and the day before that...I was a mess. Like, lucky-I-remembered-my-pants, kind of mess.) I'm rushing around cleaning not-so-washable marker from the tables (for the third time that morning), setting out cots for nap time, trying to coax the class into cleaning up, reminding boy1 that we aren't allowed to shoot the girls (even in pretend), taking a toy from girl1 and returning it to girl2 who had it first, getting boy2 out of the bathroom sink and girl3 into the bathroom to go potty, reassuring girl4 that her boo boo isn't terminal, and rescuing boy3's little nose from being punched by girl5's little fist because 'he said a bad word to me' (something horrible like 'poopy' or 'banana head'), all while maintaining an "appropriate Teacher vocal level". Which is supposedly somewhere between nun and fairy princess...or so I'm told.
 At this point I've decided that I was completely insane when I signed up to teach eleven, three year olds (the jury's still out on that one) and that I'm way under qualified for the job.  Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I stopped and was pulling up my, desperately-needs-cut-and-I'm-about-to-use-safety-scisors, hair. I turn around and one of my little girls is looking up at me smiling and says "Miss Rebek'o (she's three give her a break) you're beauuuteefull!" and then she thought about it and adds, "Just like me!" In the craziness of the moment I smiled and said "Yes, you are very beautiful!", but as I was thinking about that moment later that day God showed me how honest and raw that image of my three year old really was. I'm rushing around doing my 'grown up' things, with my 'grown up' worries, and 'grown up' stresses, and the little pressures of my day are adding up to make me feel completely inadequate. In my eyes I was a mess and I was making a mess of my job, but in the innocent eyes of a three year old I was beautiful, we all were. I realized that's exactly how God see's us. No matter how much of a mess we've made, or think we've made, of things God only sees us as beautiful. It's so easy to get distracted by the daily grind that sometimes we forget whose we are. We are God's and He made us beautiful. He doesn't see the mess in us, and that's beautiful.

Update to a Blog Bug

Hi y'all!

I have received a couple message from you telling me there was a bug with the comment box. Apparently Blogger has not been posting your comments unless you have clicked the 'Preview' button previous to posting your comment. I apologize for the bug, but I think I have it all worked out now and your comments should go through without any problem. So if you have posted a comment previous to this post and did not preview you comment, sorry, but it was never posted. Please let me know if you are still experiencing problems with the comments, and thanks for reading. :)

Chapters of His Heart: Isaiah 17

Read Isaiah Chapter 17 here.
At first glance this chapter seems to start out pretty similar to how a lot of Isaiah has sounded so far. Isaiah is delivering a message to Damascus and Israel about God's coming punishment. However as the chapter progresses I found a couple of nuggets that make the repetition of the chapter become a stepping stone into some great glimpses of God's heart. God has plans of punishment in place. He says everything that makes Israel glorious or beautiful will waste away. The people who are left after the destruction will be scattered, and the harvest will be desolate. Then, God's heart shows through all the darkness. Previous to God's intercession of their lives the people of the Northern Kingdom were worshiping Idols and were involved in some pretty horrible stuff. God desperately wants His people to return to Him. He was willing to do whatever it took, even if it meant He was going to have to punish them to get their attention. Verses 7 and 10 say this,

"Then at last the people will look to their creator
and turn their eyes to the Holy one of Israel."

"Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you
You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you."

God does not punish us for revenge or to slaughter the sinners. God is not full of malice or anger waiting to exact His perfect plan of destruction on us. When God decides He needs to punish His children you had better believe it is to remind us of His love and is a last resort to get ahold of our hearts. God punishes us to remind us that He is where we should be. To show us that the path we have chosen is going to hurt us. To open our eyes to realize we have turned away from our Rock and Salvation, only He can protect us, only He can hide us and we are not safe until we are with Him. In His love He brings us back to the God who saves and the Rock that hides.

The second nugget I pulled from this chapter begins in verse 12. Here is what verses 12-14 say,

"Listen! The armies of many nations
roar like the roaring of the sea.
Hear the thunder of the mighty forces
as they rush forward like thundering waves.
But though they thunder like breakers on a beach,
God will silence them, and they will run away.
They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind,
like a tumbleweed whirling before a storm.
In the evening Israel waits in terror,
but by dawn its enemies are dead.
This is the just reward of those who plunder us,
a fitting end for those who destroy us."

We have seen the paternal love of God as He teaches us a painful lesson to protect our hearts, and now we see His love as a big brother. Yes God was going to teach Israel a lesson, yes it was going to be painful, but no one was going to do it for Him. God would not let anyone in hatred and greed do to His people what He was going to do in wisdom and love. If God was out to punish us just to see us suffer He would let the first opposing army that came by get the job done for Him. God intended to teach His people a lesson in love to win their hearts, not destroy their lives to punish their sin. That is my God. That is the beauty of His complex, unconditional, Abba Father, Big Brother love. That is His heart.

Chapters of His Heart: Isaiah 15 and 16

Read Isaiah fifteen and sixteen here.

We are going to look at chapters fifteen and sixteen together because they are two parts of one prophesy. We know that these two chapters focus on the coming destruction of Moab, but what do we know about Moab? To fully grasp the heart of what is happening here we need to step back and read the story behind the story.

"Moab was East of the Dead Sea. The Moabites were descendants of Lot through his incestuous relationship with his older daughter (Genesis 19:31-37). Moab had always been Israel's enemy. They oppressed Israel and invaded their land (Judges 3:12-14) fought against Saul (1 Samuel 14:47) and against David (2 Samuel 8:2, 11, 12) Moab would be punished for treating Israel harshly." 

-Life Application Study Bible Notes on Isaiah 15

From the first verse of chapter 15 we can tell that Moab is facing some of the most devastating destruction Isaiah has yet to prophesy. A whole town will be leveled and a city completely destroyed in one night. By the end of Chapter 16 Moab's fate is sealed, three years will see their total downfall.

After reading Moab's story it is easy to think that, 'Moab is getting what they deserved.' 'They messed with God's people and they're paying for it.' 'They were sinners, born of sin.' Let me humbly remind us of our own beginning. We were born of sin, we are sinners. We are God's people and every time we make a decision to sin we are, technically, messing with God's people. So then, what do we deserve? Honestly, to die. To be punished eternally for our sins. Because God is just and He judges fairly.

However, (don't you love that word?) however, we are also dealing with a God of mercy and grace. In His unmatched mercy He doesn't give us what we deserve; death, but in His amazing grace He gives us what we don't deserve; life. One of the most humbling pictures of this love is shown to Moab in it's time of distress, and it comes from somewhere unexpected. After Moab's gods couldn't help them (because they were blocks of wood) the refugees turned to the people they had attacked and plundered for years. They turned for protection to a people who they had killed in battle and Israel willingly opened it's borders and offered to protect their enemies. The Moabites deserved the punishment that was coming to them. No one would have blamed Israel for turning them away. But instead they chose to become a flesh-and-blood example of God's love here on earth. They put aside their pride and stepped away from bitterness, they chose grace and mercy, they chose God. If God's heart is gracious and merciful then so should ours be. When opportunities arise to chose between holding on to a grudge or letting go and loving those who hurt you, ask God to let His heart beat through your heart. Let His Devine love overtake your heart and pour out into the relationships around you. Let His heart live in yours.