Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21
I occasionally become frustrated with the book of Isaiah. Like the other Major Prophets, this book is not easily understood and the narrative thread that holds it together is not always in chronological order. Yet, just when I think I have gleaned all from the book that my weak mind can possibly untangle something new, fresh, and precious jumps from the page.
I had memorized and often drawn comfort from Isaiah 30:21, but never before wondered why the voice of God came from behind His people rather than going on before them. Guides are general up ahead forging the way, not lingering behind. When God guided Moses and roughly three million Israelites through the desert into the Promised Land, He went before them as a cloud by day and a column of fire by night. [1] Jesus said that when He put forth His sheep He would go before them. [2] Yet, here the voice of God comes from behind.
The answer to that riddle starts way back at the beginning of the chapter.
For much of his book of Isaiah is shouting out to the people telling them the exact nature of their sin. This chapter begins the same. The people are rebellious. The people are headstrong. They are sure they have a plan figured out that will keep them safe, but Isaiah shouts a warning of failure.
In verse fifteen, the tone changes and rather than scolding, the prophet relays the tender, pleading voice of God. “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; / In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.’” There was a way out. There was safety. But, it was not in the direction that the people were heading. Their safety would be in waiting yet they chose instead to scheme, plan and fight the enemy head on.
What is God’s reaction to this? Isaiah tells us: “Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you.” [3] Because the people refused to wait on God, the Holy Creator of the Universe would wait instead for them. There will come a day when they would cry out in their trouble, and what will happen then? “He will be very gracious at the sound of your cry; / When He hears it, He will answer you.” [4] But, because the people had raced ahead with their own plans, when He spoke, they would hear the guiding voice behind them.
No wonder Isaiah calls God’s actions, “very gracious’ [4]. How much more mercy and grace could He show than to both lead the way before us and when we race ahead of His leading, call us from behind? That’s double grace. The kind of grace I often need.
[1] Exodus 13:22
[2] John 4:10
[3] Isaiah 30:18
[4] Isaiah 30:19
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Voice Behind Me
Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21
I occasionally become frustrated with the book of Isaiah. Like the other Major Prophets, this book is not easily understood and the narrative thread that holds it together is not always in chronological order. Yet, just when I think I have gleaned all from the book that my weak mind can possibly untangle something new, fresh, and precious jumps from the page.
I had memorized and often drawn comfort from Isaiah 30:21, but never before wondered why the voice of God came from behind His people rather than going on before them. Guides are general up ahead forging the way, not lingering behind. When God guided Moses and roughly three million Israelites through the desert into the Promised Land, He went before them as a cloud by day and a column of fire by night. [1] Jesus said that when He put forth His sheep He would go before them. [2] Yet, here the voice of God comes from behind.
The answer to that riddle starts way back at the beginning of the chapter.
For much of his book of Isaiah is shouting out to the people telling them the exact nature of their sin. This chapter begins the same. The people are rebellious. The people are headstrong. They are sure they have a plan figured out that will keep them safe, but Isaiah shouts a warning of failure.
In verse fifteen, the tone changes and rather than scolding, the prophet relays the tender, pleading voice of God. “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; / In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.’” There was a way out. There was safety. But, it was not in the direction that the people were heading. Their safety would be in waiting yet they chose instead to scheme, plan and fight the enemy head on.
What is God’s reaction to this? Isaiah tells us: “Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you.” [3] Because the people refused to wait on God, the Holy Creator of the Universe would wait instead for them. There will come a day when they would cry out in their trouble, and what will happen then? “He will be very gracious at the sound of your cry; / When He hears it, He will answer you.” [4] But, because the people had raced ahead with their own plans, when He spoke, they would hear the guiding voice behind them.
No wonder Isaiah calls God’s actions, “very gracious’ [4]. How much more mercy and grace could He show than to both lead the way before us and when we race ahead of His leading, call us from behind? That’s double grace. The kind of grace I often need.
[1] Exodus 13:22
[2] John 4:10
[3] Isaiah 30:18
[4] Isaiah 30:19
I occasionally become frustrated with the book of Isaiah. Like the other Major Prophets, this book is not easily understood and the narrative thread that holds it together is not always in chronological order. Yet, just when I think I have gleaned all from the book that my weak mind can possibly untangle something new, fresh, and precious jumps from the page.
I had memorized and often drawn comfort from Isaiah 30:21, but never before wondered why the voice of God came from behind His people rather than going on before them. Guides are general up ahead forging the way, not lingering behind. When God guided Moses and roughly three million Israelites through the desert into the Promised Land, He went before them as a cloud by day and a column of fire by night. [1] Jesus said that when He put forth His sheep He would go before them. [2] Yet, here the voice of God comes from behind.
The answer to that riddle starts way back at the beginning of the chapter.
For much of his book of Isaiah is shouting out to the people telling them the exact nature of their sin. This chapter begins the same. The people are rebellious. The people are headstrong. They are sure they have a plan figured out that will keep them safe, but Isaiah shouts a warning of failure.
In verse fifteen, the tone changes and rather than scolding, the prophet relays the tender, pleading voice of God. “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; / In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.’” There was a way out. There was safety. But, it was not in the direction that the people were heading. Their safety would be in waiting yet they chose instead to scheme, plan and fight the enemy head on.
What is God’s reaction to this? Isaiah tells us: “Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you.” [3] Because the people refused to wait on God, the Holy Creator of the Universe would wait instead for them. There will come a day when they would cry out in their trouble, and what will happen then? “He will be very gracious at the sound of your cry; / When He hears it, He will answer you.” [4] But, because the people had raced ahead with their own plans, when He spoke, they would hear the guiding voice behind them.
No wonder Isaiah calls God’s actions, “very gracious’ [4]. How much more mercy and grace could He show than to both lead the way before us and when we race ahead of His leading, call us from behind? That’s double grace. The kind of grace I often need.
[1] Exodus 13:22
[2] John 4:10
[3] Isaiah 30:18
[4] Isaiah 30:19
Waiting, Just Like Me
I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Luke 12:50
Have you ever thought of Jesus as being forced to wait? The notion may seem strange, but this verse is a quote from His own lips. Our Lord was clearly struggling and longing for some future event to be finished. And, as He waits He is “distressed” about the situation.
This shouldn’t surprise us because Jesus came to earth to live as we live and feel what we feel. He was God, but also fully human and as a human He was forced to wait.
It is commonly thought that Jesus was crucified and resurrected at age thirty-three, but did you ever wonder how scholars know that? The Bible only mentions His age once and that was at twelve years. The next time we see Him, He is an adult launching a preaching career with no mention of how many years stretched between those two events. To find that out, we turn to Jewish tradition and history.
Jesus taught as a rabbi [1] and by Jewish law He could not take that position until past His thirtieth birthday. Assuming He started preaching then and counting the yearly feast recorded until His death, the result is thirty-three years.
Between age twelve and thirty the Bible is silent. We assume Joseph died for he is never mentioned again in scripture although Mary is. If so, that meant Jesus, as firstborn son, would have become responsible for supporting a large family at a very young age. If at twelve He felt the urgency to be about God’s business [2], what must it have been like to wait eighteen more years before He could officially take steps that direction?
By the time Luke 12:50 is recorded, Jesus has been ministering slightly less than three years and the “baptism” He refers to is a metaphor for His fast approaching crucifixion. Step by step Jesus has followed the path His Father laid before Him, but now He can see the end of the journey and is distressed as He waits for the trial to be past.
In the Greek, our Lord described His feelings as “sunecho.” That means to be pressed down, constrained, kept in or compelled. While Jesus waited the emotions He faced were very similar to what we might feel and this is why the writer of Hebrews could say, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. [3]
Are you being forced to wait today? Do you feel the days crawling by one at a time and wonder if you have been forgotten by God? Lift up your head! God is not asleep. Jesus knows exactly what you feel and how hard it is. After all, He waited, too.
[1] John 20:16
[2] Luke 2:49
[3] Hebrews 4:15
Have you ever thought of Jesus as being forced to wait? The notion may seem strange, but this verse is a quote from His own lips. Our Lord was clearly struggling and longing for some future event to be finished. And, as He waits He is “distressed” about the situation.
This shouldn’t surprise us because Jesus came to earth to live as we live and feel what we feel. He was God, but also fully human and as a human He was forced to wait.
It is commonly thought that Jesus was crucified and resurrected at age thirty-three, but did you ever wonder how scholars know that? The Bible only mentions His age once and that was at twelve years. The next time we see Him, He is an adult launching a preaching career with no mention of how many years stretched between those two events. To find that out, we turn to Jewish tradition and history.
Jesus taught as a rabbi [1] and by Jewish law He could not take that position until past His thirtieth birthday. Assuming He started preaching then and counting the yearly feast recorded until His death, the result is thirty-three years.
Between age twelve and thirty the Bible is silent. We assume Joseph died for he is never mentioned again in scripture although Mary is. If so, that meant Jesus, as firstborn son, would have become responsible for supporting a large family at a very young age. If at twelve He felt the urgency to be about God’s business [2], what must it have been like to wait eighteen more years before He could officially take steps that direction?
By the time Luke 12:50 is recorded, Jesus has been ministering slightly less than three years and the “baptism” He refers to is a metaphor for His fast approaching crucifixion. Step by step Jesus has followed the path His Father laid before Him, but now He can see the end of the journey and is distressed as He waits for the trial to be past.
In the Greek, our Lord described His feelings as “sunecho.” That means to be pressed down, constrained, kept in or compelled. While Jesus waited the emotions He faced were very similar to what we might feel and this is why the writer of Hebrews could say, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. [3]
Are you being forced to wait today? Do you feel the days crawling by one at a time and wonder if you have been forgotten by God? Lift up your head! God is not asleep. Jesus knows exactly what you feel and how hard it is. After all, He waited, too.
[1] John 20:16
[2] Luke 2:49
[3] Hebrews 4:15
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