To See...
What does it look like when you really see? When those on the street have as much importance as the people who are making the food as they serve dinner? When Brother Joe who sells the newspapers with a smile in front of Starbucks on the corner gets as much of your time as your friends who you are meeting for dinner? How does your sight change when you expect to see with God's eyes or a sense of wonder? When your voice is spent crying like one in the wilderness, crying hallelujah? (Gabriel and the Vagabond) Or in a moment of surrender to trust again?
How much does your heart ache when God opens your eyes? The paradox of beauty, joy, pain, compassion, and what you hope to be righteous frustration and anger.
In the first nine verses in Isaiah chapter one. Isaiah tells us what he sees. What God has shown to him.
He looks upon Jerusalem, upon Judah. Anger and heartbreak mixed into two.
Isaiah calls for all of creation to testify to who Yahweh is and to these people whom He has dared to name as His own nation. Of the affliction that has come to His people. For the people of God are unlike all other nations---born out of a some illegitimate hoaring of the gods with humans. Israel was God's choice and He has brought them out of slavery time and time again.
But they no longer wish to know God (vs 3).... Not just to "know" with head knowledge but with the deepest most intimate way of "knowing" that the Hebrew word brings to distinction. God's chosen people have chosen to revert to the status of aliens and foreigners.
But even in the worst of the worst (for example being compared with Sodom and Gomorrah), there is still mercy. Yahweh has not forgotten his people. The reflecting of this "relationship which exists between God and man--whether the thorns and thistles of Genesis 3.18 or the Messianic abundance of Amos 9.13." (Motyer 43).
"Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness--only wounds and welts, and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil." (Isa 1.5-6) As the disease of sin has ravaged the entire body, the entire community of God's chosen people.... These words point us directly to what will happen in Isaiah 53.5-6 as these who are "beaten, injured, and covered with welts" will be transferred to the suffering servant who is "smitten, taken up our infirmities and wounded" for our sake.
May the mercy of God open your eyes today. May you realize that you are no longer an alien or foreigner but loved by the God who has dared to draw near to know you and claim you as His own. And may your life proclaim this unspeakable truth and ruin your heart.
How much does your heart ache when God opens your eyes? The paradox of beauty, joy, pain, compassion, and what you hope to be righteous frustration and anger.
In the first nine verses in Isaiah chapter one. Isaiah tells us what he sees. What God has shown to him.
He looks upon Jerusalem, upon Judah. Anger and heartbreak mixed into two.
Isaiah calls for all of creation to testify to who Yahweh is and to these people whom He has dared to name as His own nation. Of the affliction that has come to His people. For the people of God are unlike all other nations---born out of a some illegitimate hoaring of the gods with humans. Israel was God's choice and He has brought them out of slavery time and time again.
But they no longer wish to know God (vs 3).... Not just to "know" with head knowledge but with the deepest most intimate way of "knowing" that the Hebrew word brings to distinction. God's chosen people have chosen to revert to the status of aliens and foreigners.
But even in the worst of the worst (for example being compared with Sodom and Gomorrah), there is still mercy. Yahweh has not forgotten his people. The reflecting of this "relationship which exists between God and man--whether the thorns and thistles of Genesis 3.18 or the Messianic abundance of Amos 9.13." (Motyer 43).
"Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness--only wounds and welts, and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil." (Isa 1.5-6) As the disease of sin has ravaged the entire body, the entire community of God's chosen people.... These words point us directly to what will happen in Isaiah 53.5-6 as these who are "beaten, injured, and covered with welts" will be transferred to the suffering servant who is "smitten, taken up our infirmities and wounded" for our sake.
May the mercy of God open your eyes today. May you realize that you are no longer an alien or foreigner but loved by the God who has dared to draw near to know you and claim you as His own. And may your life proclaim this unspeakable truth and ruin your heart.
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