June 25, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“‘As they go forth, they will see the corpses of those who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all humankind.‘ says the LORD.”

(Isaiah 66.24)

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

I will return to reflect on Isaiah in the days and years to come. The influence of God’s Word to and through Isaiah is felt throughout the gospels. That means the disciples were aware of those teachings because they were raised in the synagogue. For many, their bar-mitzvah readings may have been from Isaiah. This would have included Jesus of Nazareth who learned about God from His mother and step-father as well as the local rabbi in Nazareth. That statement might catch you by surprise. Why do I say that? Because it is too easy to fall into the thinking that because Jesus was the Son of God He was all-knowing and already wise beyond His years before He was born. I do not refute that kind of thinking at all. Yet, to allow my focus to stay right there would, for me, lessen the man Jesus was. We dare not forget, mighty ones of God, that while Jesus was fully God and descended from Heaven, He was also fully human. He surrendered His place in Heaven where He was seated at the right hand of God to take on the role of a servant on earth. (Philippians 2.7ff) Why did He do that? If He did not take on the form of a human being then He would not have been able to take on the cross and defeat it by faith, hope and love. Jesus came to dwell among humankind. He came to listen to the people of the world talk about God. They reflected on God’s Word as I continue to do so. (I have done this kind of reflective writing for almost twenty years now.) Jesus came to listen to what people knew about God. He wanted to hear it from their mouths. He wanted to see it in their eyes. He wanted to experience it in community with their lives. He wanted to be friends with them. He did that by becoming a servant.

Imagine how much Jesus wanted to walk in the garden again with the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve! So, yes, this theme in Isaiah which promoted “God is doing a great thing” is powerful and it is real. As we reflected on the close of Isaiah yesterday with the image of the faithful, those who chose to be faithful and not merely call themselves faithful, walking past the consequences of those who chose not be faithful who suffered fatally as did those who merely called themselves faithful, we ought to be empowered to seek out the reality of the good thing God is doing. The ways of the world are dust which shall return to dust. The ways of the kingdom is life which returns to life. Isn’t that the message of resurrection? Isn’t that the testimony of the resurrected Jesus? Death could not defeat Jesus who reflected the very nature of God’s love for humanity and indeed of all creation. He walked in the ways of righteousness. He did so teaching and modelling those very ways of God in the midst of human community. As He said, “I came into the world not to be served but to serve.” (Matthew 20.28; Mark 10.45; John 13.1-17 and intimated in Luke 22.24-27) It was not a call to be identified as a life of works righteousness. No, Jesus was to be identified as one who did righteous works. His works did not save Him from sin, death and the grave. It was His faithfulness to the work His Father had given Him. He was born into the world for that very purpose. And Jesus walked through that world which Isaiah described at the end of his prophetic reflection. It was a world where death was a rotting reality surrounding the faithful. It was not their reality, however, because God was doing a great thing. He was making it known that those who walked by faith and not by sight would be in community with Him forever.

Mighty ones of God, this is our reality as well. We are seeing these prophecies take human form even now as we live in these troubled times. The difference we experience from that of Isaiah and the exiles and of Jesus and the disciples is this: there will be no more next time. We are living in “that Day” when the word shall be given and the trumpets will blast and “time as we know it” will be no more. We must take the words of the prophets seriously. In this instance, it is the words of the prophet Isaiah. What he revealed is that word of jubilee. It doesn’t matter if the nation of Israel didn’t really receive it and put it into action. Their decision to not act in “jubilee” does not change the will of God. They, nor we, are able to conform the word of God to fit our decisions. We cannot, and dare not, attempt to create God in our own image. We have been created in the image of God bearing the likeness of His Son and commanded into being by His Spirit. We are called to live into the image by which we have been created. And each one of us is created in that image. From before the moment of conception, God had already conceived us to be a reflection of who He was, is and will always be in the midst of a broken world. We can either choose to accept it, as many do, or reject it, as seemingly many more do. Those who reject it put on the cloak of entitlement. Entitlement is the belief that others must accommodate us and our bad decisions. Those who live by the entitlement motif believe they have a right to do what they choose to do at the expense of all else. What it really is at the expense of is their hope for peace. Their decision, mighty ones of God, cannot conform us to become like them. We are not entitled as believers. We are, as Jesus was and is, servants of God who do righteous works. We do them for His glory and the benefit of others…even in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death. Fear no evil! He is with us! He comforts us! He provides for us! He calls us His own! He anoints us! He sets a banquet table before us in the “midst” of our enemies and invites us to come and dine with Him! He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake (and for His namesake)! He welcomes us into His home forever! Choose, mighty ones of God, whom you shall serve and believe in. As for me and my house, we will choose to serve and worship the Lord our God forever.

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 but as righteous works leading others to call Jesus Lord in faith, hope and love. AMEN.