July 6 - Isaiah 41:17-29

July 6 – Isaiah 41:17-29

 “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

 “Present your case,” says the LORD.  “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.  “Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable.

“I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes— one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay.  Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’? No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’ I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good tidings. I look but there is no one— no one among them to give counsel, no one to give answer when I ask them. See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion.

One of the things I love the most about the Old Testament is the poetry around the power of God.  It might be enough to say that God will provide everything for His people, but it really isn’t.  Our hearts and minds thrill to the words that we read.  We see the details that the prophet wants us to see, all the while reinforcing the images of dry and thirsty being transformed into streams, pools and lush forests.

God will provide.  Since water is so necessary to life, God wants us to know that He will always provide for us, to the very basic necessities.  But, God even goes further than that.  The driest desert will be transformed so that people will understand that it is God who did this. He is the one who creates.

The next section deals with mankind’s continued reliance on idols.  Bring them forward to remind Him of the past and predict the future.  Do something!!  Do anything with them.  But, no … those idols are less than nothing and those who trust in them are worthless. 

On the flip side, God knows all of time.  He knows what the future will bring and promises that a leader will come from the north.  No one has told of this until God’s prophet, Isaiah, spoke these words. 

Cyrus would come from the north.  And a messenger would come to Israel bringing good news – they would return to Jerusalem.

The false prophets carrying their idols are nothing but wind and confusion.

In our lives, God refreshes and restores us.  When the world promises us things that we can’t trust, that is simply wind and confusion.  We can trust God, Who sees everything from the beginning to the end.