Saturday, April 13, 2013

Why reward the rebel?

Isaiah 65:1-2, 12b NLT
The Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name. All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes...
... For when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not listen. You deliberately sinned—before my very eyes— and chose to do what you know I despise.”
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Is your face turning red? I suppose you are like me and you read those lines penned by Isaiah so long ago and you can't help but feel like a person in family court but all alone. There is your Dad explaining to the judge how all his Fatherly love and overtures of help were ignored. It's not like you didn't need any help either, so you feel like slinking into your seat until you are absorbed by the oak bench. Oak would suit us because were as deaf as a stick when it comes to hearing God's still, small voice We'd make a fine pair there, you and I, hearing how we'd stubbornly tried to make it on our own, spurning the vital assistance offered. We both know it would not be so bad for us two insubordinate siblings if it were not so many other people we have hurt by turning our backs on our Dad in heaven. And really it isn't even the oppressed and people racked with pain that we snubbed--it's Dad. How could we ignore our own Father? And not just any run-of-the-mill papa either. We'd been hand-picked for adoption into the most royal family the world has ever known and then spent most of our life trying to run away. We wanted our own street cred, we wanted to make it on our own. But we are utter failures. When I look in the mirror with you I'm ashamed of us. You know we knew better. You know our Father expressly warned us how we'd hurt him and so many others if we were to disobey him. So we turned around and blatantly publicly went our own way and we were proud to tell and show everyone we were our own person and we weren't fettered by Dad's ideas.
Shame, embarrassment, self-loathing and the hot salty tears of repentance well up in our eyes. We love Dad. We have hurt him so often, but here he is again coming after us. And furthermore, he endangered our older brother by having him face our enemies. Our brother has had to trawl through all our filth to make it possible for us to be here. We've dragged the whole family into it, and they have the scars to prove it.

So what is going on?! Wasn't this a funeral? Weren't we dying on the inside? So where did all this good news come from?

Hallelujah!!! This is freaking amazing! You won't believe what your Dad and brother are saying now! Somehow they've worked it out at their great expense to make it right again. We are saved! Listen to what's being said now!

Isaiah 65:17-25 NLT
“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore. Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. “No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only the cursed will die that young! In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards. Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains. They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the Lord, and their children, too, will be blessed. I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers! The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the Lord, have spoken!
https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following-reward

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