Unlocking Isaiah

I've heard the book of Isaiah described as the key to the Old Testament, and it is one of those beasty books that is pretty hefty and takes up a lot of Bible space! If you've been put off reading it before, then I really want to encourage you to try reading it from beginning to end, systematically, to really get the sense of the whole book. I think that the book of Isaiah really shows vividly the story of God's salvation, so hopefully this post will give you some helpful handles to grasp onto as you read the book.

1. Creation
The fact that God is the LORD and Creator of everything is emphasised repeatedly in this book, and for good reason! Israel were in a time of chaos and disobedience, and God's judgement was coming upon them; they were going into exile. But Isaiah's message to them as God's prophet in this time was a message of ultimate hope, because they were not simply flies to be squashed, but God's own chosen people whom He was planning to redeem. With big super-powers like Egypt and Babylon looming over them, the Israelites lost confidence in God. Isaiah reminds them that the reason these foreign nations have power over them is because of their sin, and that God is in control behind the human military events that were taking place. Instead of being afraid of other armies, they should be more afraid of God!

'who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die... And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth' (Isa 51:12-13)

2. Sin
Isaiah points out to the people the problem of their sin, from fake religion (trying to impress God with rituals yet not really, in their hearts, loving and trusting Him) to open corruption. The first 39 chapters are pretty hard-going, because there is a constant emphasis on Israel's sin and how God's judgement is coming. But these chapters are in our Bibles for a reason. They show us how seriously God takes sin. They show us that God sees our hearts and motives, and that's what matters more than any outward appearance:

'this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men.' (Isa 29:13)

Note that Jesus Himself quotes this passage in Matthew 15 and Mark 7 when teaching and warning people about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The more you get familiar with Isaiah, the more you can see the connections with the ministry of Jesus.

3. Saviour
There are several key passages in Isaiah about a 'servant' of God, who will be instrumental in bringing salvation to His people. These are clear prophecies about Jesus Christ, and Jesus Himself was very aware of them, and how He fulfilled them in His own person and ministry. Read Isaiah 42 and 52-53 and I'm sure you won't need to look too far to see the clear parallels. If you've got a reference Bible as well, look at how the New Testament uses Isaiah's prophecies and teaches that they are about Jesus (eg. Mt 8:17). In fact, the account of Jesus praying in Gethsemane 'remove this cup from me' (Lk 22:42), doesn't make sense if you don't know the picture in Isaiah 51:17 of the 'cup of His fury' (that is, God's wrath against sin and His judgement upon it). Jesus knew that on the cross, He would drink that cup, fully bearing the punishment for our sin, so that we could be restored to God. The picture in Isaiah of a Saviour help us to love and worship Jesus with more richness and depth than ever before.

4. Restoration
There are so many wonderful passages in Isaiah about a forthcoming time of blessing and peace:

'For the LORD shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.' (Isa 51:3)

When Jesus returns and God's people are raised to life in the new creation, we will experience Eden restored, a closeness with God that we could never have on earth, and a joy of forgiveness knowing that Jesus drunk the cup for us, and has won for us an eternal salvation.

'My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation from generation to generation.' Isa 51:8)

Rest in time of need- some more thoughts

I'm coming back to this theme of rest; I looked up all the times 'rest' is mentioned in the KJV and I was really struck at the story of God and God's people it showed me. From the rest of God in Genesis 2:2 to the pattern of rest He created for His people as shown in the Law (Ex 20:11, Deut 5:14), God knew that man would always be searching for rest. One of the biggest things that stood out to me is that biblically, rest is not found in not working per se, but in God Himself. So in the laws and commands about keeping the Sabbath, the reason for those commands was so that people could take time to draw near to God, rather than simply stop working and put their feet up. Look at Ex 33:14:

'...My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.'

As Moses communes with God, whose holy presence has filled the tabernacle, God gives him this assurance of His ongoing presence with Israel even though they are a 'stiffnecked people' (v5). This promise is fulfilled as in Numbers it says 'At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents' (Num 9:18). They physically rested from travelling when God's presence filled the tabernacle, but I wonder if that is also a picture of a spiritual rest. They knew God was close to them; they had nothing to fear.

What went wrong?

The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95:

'Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.' (Heb 3:7-11)

Rest was only to be found in God, but instead of drawing near to Him and listening to Him, they grumbled and let their hearts grow hard against Him. They were denied rest, because they would not find it in God. They wanted just to have their temporary needs met of a varied diet and a permanent home (see Numbers 11).

The writer of Hebrews argued that since Israel failed to enter God's rest, then there 'remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.' (Heb 4:9) How do we enter it? He then goes on to write about our 'great high priest... Jesus the Son of God' (v14). Jesus was a man who entered the rest of God and so could offer it to others (Matt 11:28-29). He kept the Sabbath in the way it was intended, by using it to draw close to God and others rather than simply following some legalistic rules about not picking corn (Luke 6). Isaiah prophesies about a Branch, a root of Jesse, who will come and 'the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him' (v2). This seems to be shown in John 1:32 when the Spirit rests on Jesus at His baptism, and Jesus Himself referred to similar prophecies in Luke 4:18 (Isa 61) and said they were fulfilled in Him.

Isaiah 11 goes on to talk about the new creation where the wolf shall dwell with the lamb (v6), and it says that 'in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.' (v10). So this must refer to Jesus, standing as a flag or banner of God's people, the One the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious because He has brought salvation to the nations. And this will be our rest too!

What about now?

Well, going back to Hebrews 4, after pointing us to Jesus as our high priest, the writer reminds us that he was 'in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' (v15) What deprives us of rest in God? Sin. But if we come to Christ, we can share in His perfect rest in God, because He was sinless.

'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.' (Heb 4:16)

This is the real key for us as Christians. There will be times of trouble for us, sometimes because of our sin and mess-ups, but also from sickness, or persecution, or other factors beyond our control. How do we find rest in all these circumstances? By going to the throne of grace, seeking God for His mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. The answer to our frantic busy-ness, to our despair, to our desperation, is found not in retreats, finishing tasks, new possessions, relationships or entertainment, though I know I have tried to find it in all of these things. It's only in God Himself that we can find the rest we crave.

Comfort in suffering: 2 Corinthians

Going through suffering is never easy. I've found it so helpful to find books to navigate my way through it: what to think, what to pray, what to sing. Matt and Beth Redman's 'Blessed be your name' (the song and the book) have been very helpful but today I'm going to focus on one of my favourite Bible books: 2 Corinthians.

I've been reading a book of daily devotionals called 'Contentment' by Lydia Brownback. Again, this is an amazingly concise but incisive book that has really challenged me. She wrote today's devotion on Paul's experience of 'the thorn in the flesh' as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12. We don't know what it was, but Paul was experiencing some form of suffering and asked God three times to take it away. Instead, the words Christ spoke to him were:

'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' (v9)

That verse really kicks against what we want to believe. Surely not, God? Surely I'm more useful to you when I'm 'sorted', when I've got it together? But that's not what Jesus says.

Brownback puts it this way: 'Our thorns are opportunities to cling to Christ... There are things about our union with Christ that we just cannot know apart from the thorns that spear our lives. You'll never know Christ's sufficiency if you spend all your energy seeking to pull the thorn out of your flesh.'

This really ties in with the whole letter of 2 Corinthians. Paul's message to the church is that suffering isn't some inconvenient truth which just has to be avoided so we can look like 'real' Christians. Actually, God uses suffering in our lives: to comfort us Himself in a way that no one else can, and to equip us to comfort others (see chapter 1 v4).

Suffering makes us see ourselves for what we really are: jars of clay (chapter 4 v7), so we trust in God not ourselves (chapter 1 v9).

We know God's salvation as a present reality, but also as a future one too:

'we trust that He will yet deliver us' (chapter 1 v10)

We hang on to the physical historical reality of Christ's resurrection as the source of our hope in our own eternal future:

'knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus... we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.' (chapter 4 v14,18)

Suffering reminds me that I haven't got it all together. I haven't figured out answers to all of life's questions. But what I do know, and what I have come to know more in suffering, is that God's promises of comfort are true. May you know His comfort today whatever your suffering is.