Tag: Gratitude

On Who Would Have Thought

Isaiah 53:1-12 MSG  Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?  Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.  There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.  He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.  One look at him and people turned away.  We looked down on him, thought he was scum. 

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.  We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.  But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!  He took the punishment, and that made us whole.  Through his bruises we get healed. 

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.  We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.  And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.

7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word.  Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence.  Justice miscarried, and he was led off—and did anyone really know what was happening? 

He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.  They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.

10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.  The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.  And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.  Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins.  Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—the best of everything, the highest honors—Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Observation

“Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?…it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!  He took the punishment, and that made us whole.  Through his bruises we get healed…He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people…Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.  Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.  The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.”

 The popular image of Messiah in Jesus’ time was a warrior king who would set His people free from the oppression of Roman rule.   This chapter was obviously ignored and/or misunderstood.  How often do we do the same thing?  We look for scripture passages that reinforce our fix for the  circumstances we deem need to be changed, telling God how we think He should move in a situation, and ignore the ones we don’t understand, don’t fit our plan or might be taxing emotionally or physically.   I am sure the followers of Jesus would not have understood or agreed with the Savior-On-A-Cross plan as a way to salvation and deliverance.  Because their insight, like ours, is limited (temporal, short-sighted by eternal standards), they (and we) often forget that God has an eternal perspective and a plan that is not shaken or adjusted or challenged by circumstances or what people might think.  

Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross was the pivot point of history.  How difficult it must have been for His disciples to be faced with the enigma of a crucified Savior, something so incongruous, so mutually exclusive.  Yet, this was and continues to be God’s one and only plan carried out to perfection.

Impact on Me

Good Friday, the day we commemorate the sacrifice in this chapter of Isaiah, is such a holy day for me.  I am so grateful, forever grateful, that God made a way to restore the relationship He established in the Garden of Eden through paying a price none of us could pay.  I am overwhelmed by the love, the undeserved grace and mercy available because of Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die for all those who embrace this sacrifice! 

It is so astounding to me that God’s plan made Jesus the sacrifice – the innocent dying for the guilty.  My mind cannot fathom the depth of that kind of mercy.  Then, to add to the staggering nature of His grace, He adopts me as His child rather than holding me as His servant until I could pay the price of my freedom.  All for free because Jesus took the redemption price on Him, on Him.  Will I be asked to sacrifice, to change, to leave my sin habits behind, to walk by faith into unknown places with unknown consequences, YES, but I will also know that Jesus goes with me always.

I know that you cannot separate the Crucifixion from the Resurrection, the crucified from the risen Savior, because both are key to God’s plan to redeem, restore and reconcile humankind to Him.  However, if you are looking for me, go to the Cross.  I want to embrace the Cross in such a way that I become bloody so that when I hug someone else, they become bloody, too.  I want them to be changed and redeemed, forever grateful as am I.

Prayer

Father God, You are so merciful, so wise, so loving, so gracious.   How many times I have questioned Your ways, Your response in desperate and destructive situations, Your seeming slowness to respond!  Forgive me for thinking that I can fix anyone or any situation without getting in sync with Your plan first.  Help me to understand and surrender to Your will and Your purpose for me so that You can use me as an instrument of redemption.  Thank You for the Cross and the Resurrection.  May I always be grateful and respond in kind with Your mercy and love.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

On Remembering

Deuteronomy 24:18-22 (MSG)   18 Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there. I command you: Do what I’m telling you. 19-22 When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare—what’s left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape—leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.

Observation

“Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there.”  In Scripture, Egypt is representative of the life of sin.  The Promised Land is meant to be like our life in Christ.  God is commanding His people to remember when they have plenty that they were delivered from slavery and bondage so they will have grace and mercy on those who are not yet free or have suffered loss.  He wants the foreigner, the widow and the orphan to be blessed by the generosity of His people so that they will find rest, sustenance and, hopefully, belonging.  

Their is a tendency for us to forget what our lives were like before embracing Christ.  We like to think that we weren’t that bad, just a little lost, slightly wandering, but basically good people.  Lost is lost regardless of whether we are a rule follower or a rule breaker.  We were all born in Egypt.  We were all foreigners, fatherless and orphaned.  Some choose to live all their lives in slavery and bondage, chasing after the wind of knowledge, pleasure or accomplishment.  Then there are those who brave the wilderness to find the Promised Land, finding grace, redemption, healing, peace and blessing – because “God got you out of there.”    He wants them to remember t what was freely received should be freely given.  

Impact on Me

I overheard a conversation by two young men while I was sitting in a public place.  They were talking about the best bars for partying. What was of so much interest to them was completely foreign to me.  I realized that these young men were culturally different from me in so many ways, like foreigners in my land.   I then thought about those who are aware that God exists and are willing to talk with me about Him, but have really surrendered nothing into His care; to me, these, too, are foreigners in my land, sojourners just traveling through, leaving nothing, taking nothing.

I have a Father God and, as a member of His body, am the bride of Christ. To me, the fatherless and widows of this passage are those who travel through or live in my land, but have not yet understood and fully embraced the riches available to them in Christ. They are those who need love, support and comfort, those overwhelmed by circumstances, symptoms or loss.  Now that I have come into the land promised to me and been blessed, adopted and married to the Lord, I am commanded to remember to be generous to all of these because I was once a slave in Egypt (sin) and came to my land as a foreigner or sojourner, fatherless, a widow and orphan.  I survived because of the generous grace extended to me. Should I not do the same for these others?

Jesus commands me to remember that His body was broken and His blood shed so that I could possess the land promised to me, an inheritance so rich that I can never spend it all. He reminds me that I should not hoard those riches or greedily gather them, not judge who is worthy to glean after my harvest, not count the cost or fence my fields; rather, He commands me to leave behind – be willing to share from my abundance – enough for those who may not be much like me now, but so like me before this became my land of promise – the strangers, sojourners, fatherless, widows and orphans who do not yet understand or embrace the One Who desires to bless them in the same way as He has blessed me.  If I truly love Him, truly trust Him, truly remember where I was before He brought me into this land, truly live like He is my source, my provider, my redeemer, I will leave a more generous portion behind so that they can eat their fill and know that the Lord is good.

Prayer

Father God, the One Who delivers and redeems us because You love us so, I want to be ever grateful for my freedom from my Egypt and careful to share Your goodness and grace with others who may not yet be free or are not yet experiencing the fullness of Your grace, mercy and peace.  Break my heart with what breaks Yours!  Give me compassion and grace for those who are so unlike me now but so like me before I knew Jesus and embraced Him.  I ask this all in Jesus’ name.  Make it so.