November 20, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City. Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness. Both rebels and sinners will be broken, and those who forsake the Lord will perish.” (Isaiah 1.26-28)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Most of us have heard “Those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” But what if we said, “Those who embrace the past are blessed to receive it.” Of late, we have heard people calling more than ever for those “good old days.” It is not the younger members of the human family but those who are older. They are remembering a time of peace and prosperity where everything seemed to be in harmony. It was a moment in time which existed in a long sequence of events which were not peaceful and prosperous but filled with world wars and global angst. We even have a part of our political culture who have bound themselves together under the MAGA banner (Make America Great Again.) Have we asked ourselves exactly at what point in time America was truly great and for whom? It is true that we as a nation have overcome some significant “life” obstacles. Beyond those obstacles was a sense of tranquility. How long did those moments last before the next obstacle was encountered. I believe it is too easy to view those seasons for a particular people and for a particular time. Were they universal? Did they engage everyone? What was their genesis?

Speaking of genesis, how many people would look back and long for a world like that which existed in the Garden of Eden? To see the world new and vibrant, unstained by the evil we know was coming into the midst of it. Isn’t that the point, however? Do we look back to “pre-Genesis” and see what was there before that beautiful world? The biblical word for that season was “chaos.” Before God intervened and brought into existence the heavens and the earth there was nothing that made sense, had meaning or exhibited purpose. “Stuff” just existed. In this “stuff,” God saw the building blocks of something “good.” That “good” became meaningful, purposeful and made sense. It made so much sense that God blessed it and shared it with those who could enjoy it and benefit from it. There was a plan, a design and an implementation which worked. That plan, design and implementation is a part of who each of us are. It exists within us because the Creator God breathed His life spirit into us, our DNA and invokes it with love (Even if our sense of love is broken there is still that “deep calling unto deep” love which exists and we MUST remember this.) When we see that beautiful sunrise or sunset, do we remember when morning first broke and the light of day literally dawned on us? When we see pictures of vistas and wonders of nature never before known to us, do we have a desire to be in that moment and absorb the beauty of it all? Does it call us to go further, dive deeper and live more simply and completely? I dare say that is a part of that essence of life which God has given us to remind us we are His and that we are not Him.

And now we can read in the midst of the chaos which existed in the days before and during the time of Isaiah (and they do not seem unfamiliar to us even today) and hear that same longing and promise of a season of peace, tranquility, prosperity and settled-ness where life is not threatened but thrives. It is a promise of a coming future where the Messiah will rule and reign. It is a promise of a time when living will seem neither easy nor hard but just living free from the burden of sin and the worry of sin ever dominating our seasons and the moments of our lives again. What is it that God says to Isaiah and desires for Isaiah to share with the nation of Israel and through them to the rest of the world? It is a promise of restoration according to God’s standards and God’s plan. The verse is unequivocally clear: “I will restore your leaders as in [the] days of old, your rulers as at the beginning.” Will we be transported back in time? Will we go back to the beginning and given an unchangeable do-over? Will God revive and restore those leaders of old who “got it” for their time and then passed without the “got it” passing on to the next generation? There is a sense of that, I believe, at Mount Tabor, called The Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter, James and John were privileged to see Jesus in all His glory together in the presence of Moses and Elijah. So inspiring was the moment that Peter boldly declared that they should build booths for themselves and these holy dignitaries and remain “in the moment.” The purpose of that “transfiguration” wasn’t to capture history into that moment, however. Rather, the purpose was to reveal what made for that moment and take ownership of it. Didn’t happen. At least it didn’t happen right away. They still argued among themselves about “who was the greatest” and who knew best and did the best. It would be those same men who would ask Jesus at the dinner table in the Upper Room “Is it I, Lord” (wondering if one of them was a traitor to the cause.) Have we not felt that question burning in ourselves? Have we forgotten what we have learned about our past enough to try and avoid it in our present day and for the future? Are we dooming ourselves to repeat it and bring suffering consequences to another season of life? And not just for ourselves but for others who happen to cross into our sphere of influence!

God HAS a plan. It is the same as it was when God HAD a plan. God NEVER changes. His faithfulness endures through all our generations. His hope remains the same. The course of that “good” life has not deviated. His eyes remain on the prize and that prize is us. We are of such value to Him that He would even ask His Son to sacrifice His own life for our sake. Given that spiritual “do over,” we have the opportunity to embrace the changeless plan of success and implement it in our present day. It comes by trusting and believing in the Word of God alone: its way, truth and life. God doesn’t worry about trying to overcome the problems which exist. God never did. What does does is implement the plan of restoration, reclamation and rejuvenation. God didn’t clean house to make a clean slate and then “made the heavens and the earth.” God looked at what was there and “made a way with the truth for a life.” That life was ours, is ours and will always be ours; if….

If we trust, believe and follow the plan of salvation. It will divine and divide the “good” from the “bad” and abide in the sovereignty of God forever. I think we need to stop trying to do the “new and improved” version of life as if we know better than God. What it seems that we are doing is trying to fix the consequences of our mistakes along the way to not trust the process which God initiated “…in the beginning” with the “Word that was with God and was God.” What will serve us best is remembering that God never changes and in spite of our efforts to the contrary, God’s will shall be done. We will not change His course for what He has done and is going. What He has started, He will see through to its finish. The question is “Are we with Him, against Him or without Him?”

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.