March 27, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you! The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away. But whoever takes refuge in Me will inherit the land and possess My holy mountain.” (Isaiah 57.13)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

I don’t know about you, but it is hard to read Isaiah. I do not mean it is difficult reading. The words are clear. The images concise. The message is understandable. All of that makes it “hard to read” because it might as well have been written for our own time and place, our own culture and climate. Isaiah’s transcription of God’s prophetic word was written seven hundred years (700) before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, dwelt in Egypt, lived in Nazareth, ministered in Israel, died in Jerusalem and was and ascended back to Heaven to await His glorious return. The Word of God to Isaiah was for all of that time. It laid open the truth of the world as it was and as it would someday be. That truth remains a constant now two thousand years later after Jesus was on earth bringing the image of God into full view for all the world to see. That includes the horrors of indignity and the call to integrity. Surely you have seen, heard or read of the atrocities of the ancient world and the modern age and asked yourself “How could it be that bad?” It is hard to hear, see and read of such times as are recorded just in the first half of Isaiah 57. What depths will the depravity of the human condition sink to when the integrity of faith has proven to be so satisfying? The extremes seem so distant that whatever middle ground may exist appears to be as “nothing.” There is that word again- nothing.

How does it show itself in the first thirteen verses of Isaiah 57? God is seen as nothing. Verse 11b speaks of an interesting revelation by God “Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear Me?” Why was God silent? God had spoken so much in word and actions to so many generations, even when some of those generations refused to receive it, listen to it and follow it all the days of their lives. Why now was God silent? There is a scripture that is used in both the Old and New Testaments which declares “You have eyes to see but do not see; you have ears to hear but you refuse to hear.” Perhaps we are being told in that simple truth that the problem did not exist because God was silent and invisible but more so because the people refused to see and listen. They declared “plausible deniability.” That would sound like this: “If say I did not hear it or see it, then I will eventually believe it never happened and never will again.” I wonder if Satan, the cast out Lucifer, ever had that moment. Perhaps in the moments which led up to his insurrection against God in Heaven, he considered such “plausible deniability.” It couldn’t have lasted long; although we do not know the true sense of time in Heaven. I say it couldn’t have lasted long because Satan fought against God on earth from the Garden to today. If he believed that there was no God simply because he refused to hear, obey and live out the purpose of God for his life on earth as it was intended in Heaven, he would not continue to lead his rebellion on earth as he did in Heaven. And what is the problem he faces? It is the problem of the faithful, those who choose to live with integrity and not with indignity or depravity. Does it mean that only perfectly obedient people will be blessed by God with that sense of eternity? That would be a small number of individuals if it were true. The chief of those would be, of course, Jesus the Christ. The decision to affirm the “Joshua principle” for their lives [“…choose this day whom you will serve; as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.“] must be like a gnat in the ears, heart, mind and soul of Satan and his followers. No matter how much they choose to ignore, the voice of Heaven just won’t go away. Perhaps it is like the word of the Resurrected Jesus in His revelation to John the Presbyter intended for the Seven Churches but spoken to and through the word for the community of faith in Laodicea. Revelation 3.20 says this, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Each testimony of the believer in word and deed is a knock on the door of one who “needs” to hear the invitation to let Jesus come in to their heart, mind and soul. Even believers need to hear that knock as well because there is none of us perfect enough to stand on our own before the world or before God. God has not stopped speaking nor revealing His presence nor His Word. It is like those who say on a cloudy day or at night “If only the sun was shining.” If the sun was not shining in those times, we would most certainly be dead. Of course, we can excuse ourselves and say “that is not what I meant.” But the truth remains the same. It is our intention for saying it that cannot override the reality of what it literally says. We can insert the word “SON,” meaning the Son of God who is Jesus the Christ, into the place of the “sun.” Are we not guilty ourselves of saying in times of indignity and depravity “If only the SON was shining”? Is He not? In the words of that same writer John the Presbyter we hear “In the beginning was the Word…it was light of all people and the darkness could not overcome it nor consume it.” He is shining. He is speaking. He is leading, guiding, directing and revealing the life of integrity called righteousness.

Will we hear it? Will we listen to it? Will we obey it? Will we walk the walk, talk the talk, talk the walk and walk the talk? Until Jesus returns, the depravity and indignity created by sin and used by Satan to divert our attention away from God will continue to speak. We must know that the closer the truth is to us the louder the distraction. We cannot overcome “loud with louder,” however. We must speak the truth in love with a voice that “stills and quiets” just as Jesus spoken into the storm and over the waters to bring calm into the disciples’ lives that “dark and stormy night.” The SON still shone. They thought it was death approaching, an angel of death, until they saw it was not. They recognized Him even then in the midst of the storm because He was the same for them at all times: consistent, persistent and filled with integrity. Their refuge was in the Word of God revealed to them as a living truth. It was the same refuge in the days of Isaiah which had to be sought. It is the same refuge for us in these days which must be revealed for all the world to see. These are evil times. Evil times call for righteous people to live with integrity even if God seems absent and silent. He is not nor will He ever be.

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.