My time in the Word

Thought I would share my time in the Word with you today.

Isaiah 30:15-26
In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, “No, we will flee on horses. Therefore you will flee! You said, “We will ride off on swift horses.” Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one: at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.
YET, the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with you own eyes you will see hem. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”
He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
Observations and encouragement:
What a strange and mysterious God He is!
Vs 15-17 says that they wouldn’t repent. Instead they ran from God. They wanted to provide safety for themselves. But God responds with care and compassion (vs 18 – 26) to their rejection and stubborn self sufficiency. Vs 18, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you,”
Thoughts,
1. I need to imitate God: longing to be gracious when people reject me.
2. I need to count on His mercy: he has good and kind intentions toward me, even when my sin has me running away from His face.
3. He responds out of HIS OWN CHARACTER not in response to my actions.
4. In verse 16 we are fleeing; in v 21 it says or implies, “even on your way fleeing, I will still guide you.” (reminds me of the verses: where can I go from God, even if I go to the depths of the sea you are there)
5. He will answer my cry for help. When I run he sends teachers with me who will make me wise enough to cry for his help – vs 20 “bread of adversity and water of affliction, your teachers.” Wise enough to throw away any foolish ideas of help from any other god (vs 22).
6. Although His teachers might bring hard lessons He will always repair what has been broken. Vs 26, “when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.”
I am so thankful for a faithful God who sends trials to bring me wisdom. I am consciously trying daily to practice the discipline of embracing my trials as my precious gifts from a loving God. It brings strength and peace.