19:18 - The Lord always maintains a remnant of faithful people - always works out a situation, no matter how dire, so that people will turn to Him...people of every country. In this passage, the people are Egyptian - not Jews - that God is drawing towards Him. There are pockets of people in every area of this world who are being drawn to the person of God...we must never forget to keep our brothers and sisters in belief in our prayers. We are one body and we need one another - and God is at work even in the unlikeliest of places...don't forget.
19:25 - God calls the Egyptians, His people. He calls the Assyrians, the work of His hands. He calls the Israelites His inheritance. I love passages like this from the OT because it shows us once again that God has always been a missional God who cares for all people of the world. Yes, He called the Israelites to be His chosen priest-nation...but He called them so that they could be a light to draw the rest of the world to Him. He did not choose them so that they could be an exclusive group of people that rejected everyone else. Today's Christians must understand this concept, because we have not been called to be closed off from the secular world - we have been called to live in this world as God's priest nation and to draw people towards God.
20:2 and 4 - This says that God told Isaiah that he was supposed to walk around naked for three years - NAKED! Now there is some discussion as to whether this meant totally naked or that he was walking around in a loincloth that still exposed his buttocks for three years (Some scholars believe that the conservative Hebrew community would probably not allow even a prophet to walk around fully naked for that long), but that is not the point - talk about committment to God! Talk about making a powerful illustration (I don't plan on using this one in a sermon any time soon!)! The thing about this that challenges me is that Isaiah is so committed to the representing God to the world that he was willing to do anything...ANYTHING...THREE YEARS! Most times it seems like Christians in our culture will do basically nothing uncomfortable, even if God has called them to it...what have I been running from? How about you?
21:10 - The process of threshing grain was pretty extensive. They would throw raw grain on hard ground and have cattle drag huge blocks of stone across the grain. This would crush the grain and get the husks off of it. After this, the people harvesting the grain would throw it into the air and allow the wind to blow the chaff away. This is what the Israelites felt like. They had been crushed under persecution and military oppression...they had been tossed about and were feeling rejected by God. Unfortunately, they did not understand that it is through the threshing process that the pure grain is retrieved. God was allowing the Jews to experience trouble so that they would come through the experience purified and focused on being His people again. Instead the Hebrews chose to put their trust in the people of Babylon and so God is telling them in this passage - the Babylonians are not the answer...they are going to fail just like every other human source of power...they are no the salvation you are hoping for - I AM! Isaiah is trying to get them to understand that through the trials God is drawing them to Him and that they need to only put their trust in God. Good reminder for you and me as well.
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