64:1-6 - The people are crying out to God, asking Him to act. They wonder why God is not moving...why God is not saving them from their enemies. They say, "God, please tear open the heavens and come down to earth and bring your justice!" The only problems is, they don't really want justice...because if God brought His justice, they would be destroyed along with the rest of the world. The people of Israel are crying out for God to do something, but it is their own rebellion that is keeping Him away. The people are going through all the religious rituals, but they are doing them for the sole purpose of getting God to do what they want...it is not about worship. I think this happens in churches today - people pray and go to church sometimes expecting those things to work as a magical formula for living an "easy" life. That attitude is just as unacceptable to God now as it was then...
64:7 - So what does true worship look like? True worship is to call on God...to depend on Him...to hold on to Him/cling to Him...to seek Him because He is God and you need Him, not because you need something else. That is worship as described in this verse - how does it compare to the lifestyle of worship that you live?
65:2 - "I spread out my hands" - This means that God is inviting His people to Him...He is there waiting for them to come to Him. It is an answer to chapter 64, in which the people are wondering where God is. He is saying, "I am here and I have always been here. Nothing has changed about me - you are the ones who turned away." Instead of turning to God in humility, they continue to try to use pagan rituals as a means of getting what they want out of God. We all need to take time to consider why we do what we do when it comes to our relationship with God. Do we pray and study the bible to drink in the presence of God, or do we do it in an effort to get what we want?
65:10 - Isaiah always does a good job of sprinkling in some hope when things are looking really bleak in his writings...even in the midst of judgement there is light at the end of the tunnel - there is hope. God promises that there will always be a remnant, and these remnant of His people are those who sought Him. Did you read that - they sought HIM...they didn't seek what they wanted...they didn't seek blessings...they didn't try to manipulate God...they didn't chase after the things of this world...the remnant of God's people are those who seek Him because of who He is. We need to make sure we do the same.
65:17/25 - Isaiah paints a beautiful picture of future hope for us...of what will be in eternity, but also of what can be right now if people choose to live in God's way. Just as we brought hell crashing to earth in the garden when we chose to sin...just as I have chosen to rebel against God in my life and brought the consequences of those actions into the world around me...we can choose to bring heaven to earth. We as the people of God can choose to bring a new reality to bear in the world. Yes, there will one day be a new creation forged by God...but right now believers can forge a new reality by living to worship and honor God.
66:1 - When heaven is your throne and earth is just a footstool for you, you're kind of a big deal right? God is immense and uncontainable...God cannot be contained within the boundaries of the creation that He made, right? That makes sense. So how could we ever even think that we could make a house for God? God doesn't dwell in churches...we cannot lock Him in the boxes we make whether physical or theological. This is part of the problem we have with living out true worship...too often we have a much to insignificant view of God...we think we can do things to control Him, but that is absurd!
66:3ff - All these rituals that are described here are not in an of themselves evil. When Isaiah says - killing an ox is just as bad as murdering somebody, it sounds a little shocking! Does that mean God wants us all to be Vegan? (Check out Acts 10 all you meat lovers) No - what it means is that God doesn't want anything to do with religious practices that self-centered and selfish. What disgusts God is when somebody pretends to worship Him in order to get what they want in the end. God simply wants His people to humbly love Him...that's it...to seek Him and to love Him and all the rest will fall into place.
66:19 - That "sign" that Isaiah talks about here was hung on a tree outside of Jerusalem about 2,000 years ago. That sing for all the world to see...the sign of God's glory and love walking amongst us, was Jesus. And now what this world needs is for people like you and me to live out their faiths on a daily basis and to continue to show that sign to the world through our own lives.
66:19ff - Once again, we see God's heart for the entire world. Isaiah says that God will send His sign, Jesus, into all the world and that people from every corner of the globe will come to Him. It says that God will make even non-Israelite people into His priests (Priesthood of all believers anyone?). God's plan has always been to bring everyone to Him.
66:24 - Now I have to say, this seems like kind of a downer way to end the book when you had just been talking about Jesus and the hope for all humanity. I mean it basically reads like...Jesus is coming, there is hope for everyone, and you can now go out and see the dead bodies of everyone who has rebelled...uhh...what? Why does Isaiah end his book like this? I think it is because he wanted to leave his audience with the understanding that they need to get serious about the sin in their lives. Remember, this prophecy was given because the people of God were turning away from Him and they were about to be conquered in an effort to bring them back into relationship with God. Isaiah is saying - you need to get your lives and your faith in order. He doesn't want to end the book on a hopeful note, because he doesn't want to allow that hopefulness to keep people from getting serious about their sin issues. Doesn't that make sense in some ways? I have seen people who call themselves Christians who believe they can live however they want and do whatever they want because they have the sacrifice of Jesus to take away their sins. I know thinking like that is sick, twisted and wrong (and you could argue that they don't really believe if they can live like that), but it also highlights the importance of understanding that God is still God and sin is still sin...and we should do everything we can to offer ourselves as sacrifice pleasing to God day in and day out.
No comments:
Post a Comment