May 28, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“This is what the Lord says, ‘But you who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all kneel down to be slaughtered, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not listen; you did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.’” (Isaiah 65.11-12)

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

All those who cry out for justice, do they truly want justice? Do they want to enter into a judgment with full accountability? Or do they wish to step into the place of God and command vengeance which, as God declared, is His sole providence? As Isaiah listens to both God and the people, these tenuous questions must be considered. The questions are important. Their implications are equally if not more important. The question for us, as mighty ones of God, becomes “Are we willing to seek out the truth and abide by it?” The answer to that question comes in the application of “justice.” We dare not consider “vigilante justice,” which I fear is what many people really are asking for with their cries for justice. There are far too many examples of such a “seeking of justice” to list just within the past two years here in the United States. Two stand out, such as the cases for Brianna Taylor and George Floyd. There is no justification for such violence and violent responses. The cry of foul, especially as the issue of race is included, we see in far too many other arenas of life such as the WNBA between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. As I said, there are far too many public examples across all media presentations. I say that knowing there are exponentially more that are “public” but not publicized. It is one of those “signs of the times” we talk about without engaging the dialogue of resolution except to “cry out for justice.”

As we are immersed in Isaiah 65, the call for justice is tempered by the experience of the Hebrew exiles, both foreign and domestic, who call themselves “children of God” by heritage as descendants of Abraham. I find it a curiosity that we will assume those from whom Abraham was descended would align with Noah and he with Adam and Eve. The curiosity is only by means of wrestling with geography. We do not know the exact location of the Garden of Eden. Could it have been in the middle of the desert land between the Tigris and Euphrates and even as far as the Jordan rivers? Is this the story legends are made of knowing now that modern-day Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan and northern Arabia may have been the lush expanse as some consider was the same for the Sahara Desert? What caused such cataclysmic change in one different from the other or is there some connection beyond simple geology? Why is this germane to this reflection on Isaiah 65? The clue of consideration for me is found in the verses presented today. There are representative of other such verses within the major and minor prophetic works which speak of “desert places” as the result of God’s judgment brought about by the faithlessness of those who call themselves “children of God.” Who deserted who? God is accused of “turning His back” or “averting His eye” based on the lack of blessing the “children of God” are experiencing. We have considered those who would blame God or others for their unfortunate circumstances and to that they “cry for justice.” It is the voice of God, through the prophets, which reminds them of their own accountability. Without confession of sin and a decision to reform and be transformed, the lack of blessing continues as does, then, the decrying against God or any of those who are “against them.”

What does it mean “to be against them”? Does it mean they do not enable a sense of entitlement for those who are “children of God”? Does it speak to a lack of capitulation to “become like a child of God” based on their own standards of interpretation? We hear our own kids cry out, as we may have done to our own parents, “I hate you” and “You don’t love me” because there was a late of “agreement” between the two which limited the child’s desire to “be who they want to be.” Sin certainly has many voices and one of them is the “cry for justice” that is rooted in a false understanding of “judgment against them.” I submit there is no justice where mutual accountability is not empowered. For example, a person who commits a crime and is injured in the process cries for justice against the party by whom they were injured. “It isn’t fair” I got hurt breaking into someone else’s property! Really? Why would we think it is unfair if the party whose property is being threatened responds in protecting it? The “criminal” wouldn’t have been injured if they hadn’t committed the crime; at least not in that “scene of the crime.” And so, God speaks out against those who called themselves “children of God” who believed that though it was in name only, it excluded themselves from God’s “injustice” which God would define as “justice.” Solomon spoke to the people upon the blessing of the Temple with the truth of God which said, “If those people who are called by My name would humble themselves, repent and turn away from their wrongdoing, then I will hear their cries and answer their prayers.” Justice is a two-way street. Jesus is the evidence of it. He was the image of God’s redeeming grace for the sake of the people. He was also the image of humanity’s injustice against God and humanity for which He alone could bear the brunt of God’s justice. It adds to the truth of “God has done this; His will to make known.” Are we willing and ready to be accountable? Are we confessing and professing the will of God and His call to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly“? This is the full identity we should be seeking when we seek God’s blessing and favor! If we do not, then the consequences of God’s justice which includes the judgment of the righteous and unrighteous become our own.

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. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and be gracious to us in the name of Jesus. Amen.