February 1, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Come near me and listen to this: ‘From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.’ And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit. This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I AM the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains.’” (Isaiah 48.16-19a)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Let us be clear as God’s allies in battling against spiritual darkness and the willfulness of sinful people: we speak as individuals spoken to singularly by the One God and we speak collectively as spoken to in community by the One Christ. We do not dare lose our identity as mighty ones of God. As Paul wrote to the Christ community in Galatia (recorded in his letter to them recognized as Galatians 3, here verse 28) “In Christ there is no male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile; for we are all as one in Him.” Further, as Christ Himself said to the disciples as remembered by John in his gospel (17.21) “…that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” Let there be no doubt that going “rogue” is not a ministry called into being by God nor His Son. We are in this together!

So, we can hear in the declaration presented in today’s Word from God according to Isaiah 48 the very same truth. What do we hear but the singularly combined voices of God, Isaiah and Cyrus. Isaiah and Cyrus speak as the emissaries and ambassadors of God’s Word to the people, leadership and nation of Israel. It is the voice of accountability which God had given from the very first. What we hear in today’s verses is a recalling of the covenant made with Abraham. Abraham, by faith, accepted the word of God in Babylon, the Ur of the Chaldees, being a Chaldean himself. We do not know the background story of Abraham’s beliefs and how he, and probably his father before him, came to accept the voice they heard to be that of the One True God. But he, they, did and the rest is our history. Now, the circle is being drawn back round again as Cyrus, a Mede from the south of Babylonia and capitoled in Babylon, seeks to deliver the word of freedom to the descendants of Abraham that they might go home. They are allowed to go with the knowledge that they never had to endure exile in the first place. If they had stayed the course of faith as Abraham before them, then the land of their forefathers would have remained undefeated and their children and children’s children would inhabit the whole earth. Such habitation, mind you, did not mean that they would have all been “Jewish” by birth or by blood (the covenant of circumcision) but of faith.

The lesson is clear for those of us within the body of Christ. It is in our unity and our fealty to God’s word that we have our place, our promised land, secured. Our wandering and our battles happen more because we choose to be less faithful not more. The word is clear, “In this world we will suffer hardships but do not fear them for Christ has overcome them all.” How? By suffering even death on the cross for our sake and for the glory of God. His faith and faithfulness have made it possible for us to have life with an eternal abundance that can never be taken. We measure His overcoming by the end result: the glory of Heaven where the resurrected shall live forever. That we have been less faithful only means there are worldly consequences we must endure. But to do so faithfully and giving all glory to God and praise to Christ who has delivered His Holy Spirit to us allows us to keep the faith, share the faith and abide in it regardless of our worldly and earthly circumstances. Even in exile, we must be faithful.

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

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.