July 9 - Isaiah 42:18-25

July 9 – Isaiah 42:18-25

“Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the LORD? You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.”

It pleased the LORD for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, “Send them back.”

Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to come? Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways; they did not obey his law. So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

As the Israelites (who are, by the way, the blind servant and deaf messenger) lived in the world, they were called by God to be servants to the world and messengers of God’s Law.  They were to bring hope to the entire world.  But, they kept the glorious things that they saw to themselves and the words of God that they heard, they refused to share.  They ignored it all.

By the time they were exiled to Babylon, they couldn’t believe what had happened to them.  Isaiah tried to warn them a hundred years prior to the exile that they needed to change their ways.  They hadn’t listened to the prophets before, why would they listen now.  And they didn’t.

They became plunder.  There was no way for them to return to Jerusalem.

God … through Isaiah … continued to beg them to listen to the words of warning!  Who will listen?  Who will pay attention?  God was going to have to hand them over.  They wouldn’t follow His ways, they wouldn’t obey His laws.  When war came, you might think that would soften their hearts to the Lord, but it didn’t.  They went into exile not fully understanding what had happened to them.

Are we, as Christians, following the same path as the Israelites did thousands of years ago?  We are to bring hope to the entire world, yet we keep it to ourselves, believing that God will bless us because He sent His Son to die for us.  He calls us to be salt and light in this world, to reach beyond ourselves to share the Good News.  If we don’t do this – who will? 

When the Israelites refused to do this, the life they had known for hundreds of years was stripped away.  The Messiah returned to bring them back to their God and He opened the Holy of Holies to the entire world.  We, as Christians in today’s world don’t have a lock on God’s grace.  He has extended it to everyone … everyone.  Everyone.