There is so much from studying Isaiah that I want to write about but it's all backing up and today school restarts so there's going to be even less time- but I'll try! It's great to be back to a better routine in the mornings and back into studying Isaiah again.
We've been having to deal with the sadness of our very close friends leaving our city. It leaves our three oldest with no expat friends. I've been questioning why the Lord has chosen to do this. Another passage earlier on in the summer really helped me walk through this (I'll try to 'back blog' if I have time) but today I have been rebuked and also helped from Isaiah 44 and 45.
God has just revealed his plan to his people that he will use pagan King Cyrus to restore his city and temple. He has powerfully stated his total control over history (44. 24-28). But in 45.9-13 you come down with a crash. Barry Webb (BST commentary on Isaiah) puts it like this:
I feel so rebuked. I have been like the clay, questioning the potter. I cannot see past the fact that our friends are leaving: I'm living by sight, not by faith. This narrow vision is shutting me out from oneness with God and from joy. The Lord has been pressing on with his good plans to the sounds of my complaints, not my praise. I'm thankful for this verse (Isaiah 44.22):
We've been having to deal with the sadness of our very close friends leaving our city. It leaves our three oldest with no expat friends. I've been questioning why the Lord has chosen to do this. Another passage earlier on in the summer really helped me walk through this (I'll try to 'back blog' if I have time) but today I have been rebuked and also helped from Isaiah 44 and 45.
God has just revealed his plan to his people that he will use pagan King Cyrus to restore his city and temple. He has powerfully stated his total control over history (44. 24-28). But in 45.9-13 you come down with a crash. Barry Webb (BST commentary on Isaiah) puts it like this:
"Sadly, though, God's people do not share his enthusiasm. They cannot see past the fact that Cyrus is a pagan, and because God's way of working does not fit their own notions of what is proper they cannot rejoice in it.......God, we sense, can scarcely contain his exasperation with them: does it make any sense for clay to question the potter or for a newborn babe to question its parents (45.9-10)? How absurd their narrowness of vision is! And how tragic, for it shuts them out from oneness with God and from the joy that should be theirs.....It is often hard to move beyond the theologizing to trusting, but we must do so if we are to exercise the kind of faith which God requires of us and without which we cannot please him (Heb 11.6)....but how sad that God has to press on with his good plans for his people in the face of their complaints instead of to the joyful strain of their praise!"
I feel so rebuked. I have been like the clay, questioning the potter. I cannot see past the fact that our friends are leaving: I'm living by sight, not by faith. This narrow vision is shutting me out from oneness with God and from joy. The Lord has been pressing on with his good plans to the sounds of my complaints, not my praise. I'm thankful for this verse (Isaiah 44.22):
I have swept away your offences like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you.
No comments:
Post a Comment