Final Thoughts
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Don’t go through the motions
Don’t go through the motions
This is what the Lord says: Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house could you possibly build for Me? And what place could be My home?
My hand made all these things, and so they all came into being. This is the Lord’s declaration. I will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at My word.
One slaughters an ox, one kills a man; one sacrifices a lamb, one breaks a dog’s neck; one offers a grain offering, one offers pig’s blood; one offers incense, one praises an idol— all these have chosen their ways and delight in their detestable practices.
So I will choose their punishment, and I will bring on them what they dread because I called and no one answered; I spoke and they didn’t hear; they did what was evil in My sight and chose what I didn’t delight in.
You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the Lord: “Your brothers who hate and exclude you because of Me have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified so that we can see your joy!’ But they will be put to shame.”
A sound of uproar from the city! A voice from the temple— the voice of the Lord, paying back His enemies what they deserve!
One writer said humanity’s problem is that we are bent toward self-exaltation.
Contrast this with what God says he wants in verse 2. a humble, submissive spirit… someone who takes God’s word seriously. DO YOU?
God is not against their sacrifice or ours (He tells us to present our bodies as living sacrifices), but he is against empty, half-hearted, or wrong hearted sacrifice. In God’s relationship to the Jews, he strictly forbade them from eating pork, and certainly from sacrificing pig’s blood. But verse 3 shows people were doing what ever in the name of worship.
In verses 4-5 God contrast the care he gives to those who tremble at His word, and those who will not heed his call. and again he promises judgment to those who are not genuine… those who are just going through the motions.
Don’t think you can make it without grace
Don’t think you can make it without grace
Before Zion was in labor, she gave birth; before she was in pain, she delivered a boy.
Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day or a nation be delivered in an instant? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her sons.
“Will I bring a baby to the point of birth and not deliver it?” says the Lord; “or will I who deliver, close the womb?” says your God.
Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her, all who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn over her—
so that you may nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breast and drink deeply and delight yourselves from her glorious breasts.
For this is what the Lord says: I will make peace flow to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flood; you will nurse and be carried on her hip and bounced on her lap.
As a mother comforts her son, so I will comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
You will see, you will rejoice, and you will flourish like grass; then the Lord’s power will be revealed to His servants, but He will show His wrath against His enemies.
Remember that much of Isaiah is written in poetic form.
And much of Isaiah is judgment. But Isaiah can’t go long without offering hope in the midst of the judgement. Such are these verses.
And he uses pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and nursing as an illustration.
He tells Judah and Jerusalem that their return to their land will be an act of His grace.
He does so to remind us of grace....
Look at it.
Birth without labor.... God’s people, a humble, submissive people receive what we cannot earn. We don’t LABOR, God GIVES grace.
What does a baby do to satisfy its needs? Nothing but reach out to the breast of the mother. A Baby is dependent on the care and nurture it receives.
We are to be that dependent on God’s care and grace in our lives.
We can’t be right with God on our own… we can’t live God honoring lives on our own. We can’t forgive our sins against God. God has to do that.
God goes on to promise two things I think our hearts often long for… Peace and comfort.
Don’t dismiss the twin realities of hope and judgment
Don’t dismiss the twin realities of hope and judgment
“Those who dedicate and purify themselves to enter the groves following their leader, eating meat from pigs, vermin, and rats, will perish together.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
All mankind will come to worship Me from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another,” says the Lord.
Just like most of the book of Isaiah, he ends his prophecies with a back and forth between judgment.
On the one hand, he promises that the unrepentant will perish.
On the other hand, he promises that everyone who is left will worship the Lord.