New Year, new hopes or same-old same-old? Stuck. Stagnant. Stymied. Like the fireworks of a New Year’s Eve that shoot skywards, propelled by hope to their radiant destiny, we can wish for the same in our lives: to burn bright with some temporary glory after a huge effort to get to the right place.
Just now there may be others around you who are bursting into life and favour, burning bright against a dark sky. Has God forgotten little you?
You think you’ve done the ‘right things’: the almost-daily Bible readings, prayer, followed his still small voice, completed the 12-step programme to a fulfilled godly life in that book someone recommended … yadda yadda yadda. And yet. And yet here we are again feeling down and left out.
The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.
Isaiah 50:4-5
He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;
I have not been rebellious,
I have not turned away.
As I read these verses I wonder what comes next in your heart? If you were writing, would the following verse start with an emphatic ‘BUT’? A ‘But’ that would prefix verses about how God’s not ‘come through’ for you and the like. And that he’s forgotten little me?
So Isaiah may have been tempted to feel that way, but his upbringing and history with God (v4) tells him otherwise. He makes a choice based on what he knows about his Lord and master, rather than his wind-blown feelings.
Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
Isaiah 50:7
I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
and I know I will not be put to shame.
Isaiah decides to rely on God because God says, as much as anything else, ‘you can trust me’, and he’s seen the simplicity of God’s help. He then underlines the decision in stone. Now, flint is one of the hardest known naturally occurring materials and it is found within the midst of much softer rocks. Like flint, Isaiah decides to be resolute, determined and steadfast in his reliance upon God. He next adds emphasis that he doesn’t need to understand everything to make this decision:
Let the one who walks in the dark,
Isaiah 50:10b
who has no light,
trust in the name of the Lord
and rely on their God.
Isaiah continues to walk in the darkness of his situation, he doesn’t require the guidance of an obvious guiding star as he’s determinedly put God in that place. He may not know what’s ahead but he’s moved from walking by sight to walking by faith.
Still not convinced? Still impatient for God to ‘move’? Well, don’t force those doors that should be left for only God to open; you do believe he has ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you’ (Jeremiah 29:11), don’t you?
But now, all you who light fires
Isaiah 50:11
and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires
and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand:
you will lie down in torment.
What a warning. It reminds me of Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Surely it’s better to not build at all than to build the wrong thing in the wrong place, or the right thing at the wrong time. Doing that could well bring the shame, disgrace and torment that Isaiah knows he’s avoiding by holding fast (v7).
If you’ve felt stuck and frustrated last year, then the new one may be particularly attractive; the hope of change and fulfilment in the coming months could be just what you’re grasping for. But instead of over-reaching for something that may not actually be yours yet to take, we should follow Isaiah’s example. There’s never a wrong time to decide to hold fast to the God who has carried you this far.
Post cover photo by Amy Vosters on Unsplash
And My House 