May 13, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage. For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary. We have become like those You never ruled, like those not called by Your name.” (Isaiah 63.17-19)

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

Let’s put the posits on today’s spectrum as Isaiah presents it to us. On the one hand, we have the Lord God who “made the people stray from Word of God and the Law of the Lord with hard hearts.” On the other hand, we have the people who deny His leadership and who act as if the calling to be His people appears as non-existent. What is the “middle ground” on this spectrum? Would it not be that as the people heed the Word of God and the Law of the Lord instead of fearing it, they would “draw near to Him”? Would it also be that when the people focused less on the tangible to represent God’s rule and calling and focused on the Word of God and the Law of the Lord, they would “draw near to Him”? To proclaim, as we did yesterday with Isaiah the primacy of God in all things, that our focus should be on God aligns our lives with Him. We join together in the process of redemption, reconciliation and renewal. We become the agents of change in the world instead of being changed by the world and thus have a desire to change “the Unchangeable One.” We have become a people of symbols and symbolism in order to validate our views and decisions for self-worth. Another way of saying that is “we put our hope in things.” Doing so runs the great risk of living idolatrous lives. For Isaiah, those things were the Temple, and its religion as defined by the interpretation of the priests, and the monarchy, which claimed the authority to rule as ordained by God. What happens when our symbols fail us? What happens when the Temple is dark and deconstructed? What happens when the monarchy is unjust, unrighteous and (as in the days of the exile) non-existent? The people become like “sheep without a shepherd.”

Funny thing about that “shepherd.” A good shepherd, as Jesus taught, has specific characteristics which tend to structure and guidance. The flock, while every sheep is known, is seen as one flock with a singular purpose. If “one” of the flock becomes missing, then the shepherd does not abandon the flock to seek the “one” but put the flock under the care of another shepherd who is trusted. The shepherd is fitted with a rod and a staff which are used to lead, guide and protect. The shepherd does not cry “wolf” but is ready to defend and lay down his life for the sake of the sheep. There are rules and guidelines which must be learned, followed and perfected. One does not deviate from the obvious, the practical and the commanded. It is this very nature of the shepherd which can help us to understand the complaint in the verses presented today. Strange that the sheep of God’s pasture, Israel in the Promised Land, believe that perhaps God has forsaken His duty as the Great Shepherd and actually allowed the sheep to stray. Worse, that the Great Shepherd has revoked favor of the flock and driven them out. The phrase “hardening the heart” is heard throughout the Old Testament. What I have not heard much in the teaching about this phrase is its connection to “the Word of God and the Law of the Lord.” The “hardening of the heart” is the human response to God’s unchanging presence, will and favor. In other words, God doesn’t give in! Just because the human beings want to get their way (make God in their own image or worse make of themselves a god in whose image others are to accept and conform to) doesn’t mean that God will or should comply. We can see this tenacity in David, the Shepherd King of Israel. He defended the name and the namesake of God. His “father’s” flock in the moment was his “Father’s” flock, Israel. His way, His word, His will was made known. It would not change. It could be challenged but it would not be defeated. Of course, we see the same tenacity of faith, hope and love in Jesus of Nazareth. His Father’s flock, once thought to only be the people of Israel as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was, in fact, the whole of the world. How did the others wander from the flock and become established unto themselves? That is a reflection for another day. Let us just understand that when Jesus said He was giving His life for all sins, He meant for the sins of the world and not merely Israel in whatever configuration it was found as a people, a nation, a kingdom or a state.

And this is the message which has passed through the ages and generations to the modern-day reality that God remains the same “yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13.8) God is not silent. God is not removed. He is an everpresent help in times of trouble and an abiding reality in times of distress. God is not limited to being revealed in only times of challenge. God is always at hand. As Jesus declared, “The Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” The true challenge is our recognition of it and our willingness to believe it and to abide by it. Are we right in blaming God for the trouble we are in and the lack of assistance we “should” be getting to step out of trouble or to have trouble pushed back from us? God has made the way. God has made the way known. God has also allowed us to “go our way.” It doesn’t mean God abandons us to the way in which we will go. He remains present. He may seem quiet but His presence is felt and experienced if we would but acknowledge it. Is He ready to assist and help? Yes, of course. Are we ready to go in the way He would have us go? That is fully up to each one of us. Are we left without promise or help to fend for ourselves? God is ready to provide and makes provision for us if we would claim it for His glory and not our accomplishment. This is the rugged story of humanity seeking spiritual truth and reality. It is the gaining of that proper perspective which, like the North Star, remains fixed so that we will never be lost and can always be found.

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.