July 23 - Isaiah 51:1-8

July 23 – Isaiah 51:1-8

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many. The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

“Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.

“Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts: Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.”

The Lord cries out three times, “Listen to me!” 

He is calling the righteous, those who seek the Lord.  Look back to your past, to your beginnings, O Israel.  You came from one man and one woman.  The Lord blessed them and made a nation of many.  Why would He not continue to bless them.

Can you create this image in your mind as you read these words?  God wants nothing more than to give Hi people – whether it’s Israel or each of us individually – good things, to turn deserts into Eden, wastelands into a garden of the Lord.  Imagine the unadulterated glee He feels as we are filled with joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

If you ask many people what they believe is the difference between the Old and New Testaments, one of the first things they will point to is that God seems so much angrier in the OT, punishing His people time after time, slaughtering nations who get in the way of Israel, all they see is His anger.

But, while those portions can be found in the Old Testament, more often we see God pleading with His people to return to Him sot that He can give them every good thing.  He doesn’t want to discipline them, He wants them to find joy and true, visceral joy will be found only in Him.  It requires setting aside the idols that draw us away from Him, no matter what those may be.

He calls us to set aside our worry over what people think or the whimsys of the earth.  God’s salvation is forever.  His joy will last forever.  He reminds us that we know what is right. 

Joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.  God would do anything to hear that from us.  Jesus Christ is proof of that.