May 2, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep still, until her righteousness shines like a bright light, her salvation like a blazing torch. Nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.” (Isaiah 62.1-2)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

Committed to the task at hand. That is a good description of Isaiah. It might also be said that Isaiah was dedicated to “keep first things first.” As a priest and prophet in Israel, we might say it should have been easy for him to do his job and live his life. Do we really believe that? Having a closeness to God also means there is a distance from the world. That is what we would ought to think is a good thing, right? We are called to be “in the world but not of it.” That is a good summary of what Jesus was promoting when He said, “For they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one.” (John 17.14b-15) In His prayer following the Seder feast on that fateful night, Jesus confirmed for His disciples their position on earth as being “in the world but not of it.” To be of the world was to be in sin, bound by sin and under the influence of that which would divert them from their true meaning and purpose. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ meant to be nothing further from the truth. To be “in sin” would be “further from the truth.” He would also say that being one of His disciples would also create a hardship including hatred by those in the world, persecution and even execution. History reveals such hardships for those who called themselves “people of God as disciples of Christ.” If you think it wasn’t easy to be Jesus, you must know it wasn’t and shouldn’t be “easy” to be one of His disciples. In that regard, we must consider Isaiah who saw and foretold the truth and the glory of the One who was coming to break Israel out of her bondage to the world (and the subsequent burden of the suffering caused by sin). That bondage was broken by bringing her back into right relationship with God. The image of the godly marriage was one of being in that right relationship. Isaiah was making that commitment to be in such a relationship. He was an example of “being in the world” as a “man of unclean lips dwelling in the midst of a people with equally unclean lips” and then called out of it. His redemption by the power of the Holy Spirit, the purging fire of salvation, did not take him out of the world. It did make him a force to be reckoned with while he was in the world but not of it.

Now, Isaiah could truly speak. He was given the privilege of seeing the perfect will of God. He did not see it in the words of men passed down from generation to generation. He probably should have just as we should even now. We ought to simply believe in “the word of God, the Law of the Lord.” We should be able to take it at face value to be precious, rich and worthy. It should be a commodity of great price and a treasure we would hide in our hearts, mind and souls. It should move us in ways of righteousness for His name’s sake. We should revel in the revelation of who we are in the eyes of God just as He said, just as He revealed to the generations before us. We should but we rarely, if ever, do. What we desire is to have some personal moment where we “really see God” so that we can reward our faith with an actual believing. Isn’t that what Philip said when he told Jesus, “Show us the Father and that will be enough [for us to believe in You.]” (John 14.8) Maybe that is what Isaiah was doing and thinking when he went into the Temple to pray on behalf of Israel in that time of mourning following the death of King Uzziah. How long had it been before Isaiah had actually gone in to be honest with God? We are told “in the year that King Uzziah died.” When did Isaiah’s appointed time come? Did it come at the start of that year immediately following the king’s death, sometime in the middle of the year or perhaps as the year drew to a close? How long had Isaiah been “in the world” and become so much a part of that world of grief, sorrow and hopelessness? We don’t know. We all know that feeling, right? We get so caught up in the throes of the world, we might as well wear them as clothing and promote them as our identity. We become as Isaiah “a person with unclean lips (saying the words but not meaning them) who dwell in the midst of an entire community of people who are doing the same thing.” What is that old saying, “Misery loves company.” If that is true then shouldn’t it be equally true or an even greater truth, the one which Isaiah was given that “joy makes better company.” I think Isaiah carried his burden of the world into the Temple as a lament. He did not go thinking he would find an answer or a healing. He went in doing his job as it was expected. His job was made heavier because of the lament in grief. Then the unexpected happened. He saw God. In answer to that inward prayer, “if only I…,” God revealed Himself to Isaiah. He established Isaiah’s worth, value and purpose.

Now, Isaiah speaks with renewed confidence and hope. He completes his lament which the entire writing encompassed from the start. In the traditional lament, we find the following elements: address/praise; complaint/problem faced; request/God’s intervention; trust/God; praise/personal commitment. Here in chapter 62, we hear the expressions of that commitment. In a marriage ceremony, this is the “till death us do part.” How vital it is to see this mirrored commitment of God to Israel and Isaiah to Israel. With the voices of two, a perfect witness, there should be a positive response by the people to believe, trust and obey “the word of God, the Law of the Lord.” As we know, however, these vows have to be renewed from time to time. Such would be the function of the sabbath and festival celebrations (Old Testament) and “the first day of the week” gatherings for the breaking of bread, the instruction of the apostles and praise/worship (New Testament.) Is it any wonder why litanies and liturgical seasons were promoted by those with “high church” traditions? Are they merely a reflection of the “Jesus” way of worship, praise and instruction which the Messianic Jews/Christians conducted themselves. Of course, we can get too “churchy,” if that is what you want to call it. But moving away from them because they seem too formalized and not appealing to those “in the world” may present problems as well. This is the challenge which modern worship fellowships/churches ought to be dealing with. The forgetting of such “remembrances” and biblical calls to life, worship and service with the hope of capturing the attention and imagination of those seekers, may well begin to neuter the depth of that experience with God everyone desires “in good times and in bad.” I have experienced the joy of the community in celebrating baptisms while the time of “communion/the breaking of bread” is given little connection to “this do in remembrance of Me” with a pass of toreador’s cape over the “bull” offering. (I wonder how many might be struck by that illustration with ancient world traditions and religions.) These moments of connections are not asides in our discipleship. They are pronouncements of our commitment and God’s response to our need in life “in the world and not of it.” Let us, like God and like Isaiah, not keep silent! Let us be truly committed to the authentic task at hand!

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 in whose name we pray. AMEN.