Days 171&172: Isaiah 27-35

Have I mentioned that I find Isaiah difficult to read? Much of the imagery is very foreign to me, plus he seems to skip back and forth in time like one of those movies that flash forward and flash back and keep you confused...you never know for sure the time he's referring to.

However, in the midst of all that there are some verses that you read and they just sort of jump out at you...like they're already highlighted in your Bible and they seem to say something about God or about people that isn't restricted to any time at all.

Things like...

So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
   Do this, do that,
   a rule for this, a rule for that... (28:13)

Isn't that the truth? Isn't that the mistake so many people make today when they come to God's word. They're looking for rules and laws and commands and guidelines, when really what God wants, what He's been pleading for all along as I've been reading the OT, is a relationship with His people...a committed love relationship.

The same theme continues in this bit that was quoted by Jesus when He confronts the Pharisees in Matthew 15:8 and Mark 7:6...

The Lord says:
   “These people come near to me with their mouth
   and honor me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
   is based on merely human rules they have been taught. (29:13)

 It's not a question of doing all the "right" religious rites and following all the rules...it's a question of who we love.

Here's a famous passage that also seems to describe a very contemporary attitude:

You turn things upside down,
   as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
   “You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
   “You know nothing”?   (29:16)

Or then there's this:

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
   “In repentance and rest is your salvation,
   in quietness and trust is your strength,
   but you would have none of it." (30:15)

We like to do things for ourselves. We make a big deal of our independence and self-reliance and consequently try to carry the responsibility for things that we simply are unable to bear. We work hard to be accepted by God...who has already accepted us. What He wants us to do is rest...in Him...in quietness and trust. I don't think that means we simply sit around and do nothing. I do think it means we stop trying to earn something that's already been given. Often, however, we "would have none of it." I think we have a pride issue.

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
   therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
   Blessed are all who wait for him! (30:18)

Again with the stopping and trusting...and waiting.

LORD, be gracious to us;
   we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
   our salvation in time of distress. (33:2)