Isaiah 46
I wonder what people are counting on for peace and clarity in a world of confusion? Probably many people look to personal achievement, or the accomplishments of their children. Others hope for that special relationship that will cause all of the rough edges of existence to finally fall into place. Some are especially helped by the right kind of physical surroundings that say something to their hearts about goodness and light – a sense of arriving home at last. Others hope to feel better through impressing people with humor, intelligence, kindness, or beauty. These things are not bad in themselves, but what can one do when the old gods just don’t deliver?
This kind of religious catastrophe can happen in two ways. Occasionally we actually get what we want and then discover that we still have a familiar emptiness – even feeling strangely worse because the old goal is now gone. More often we just don’t get what we seek. It turns out that we are not all that beautiful or intelligent, or we just can’t get the kind of house that would whisper “home” to our hearts. The gods we worship seem to be absent, and we may not know how we can ever get what we feel that we need. Who will ever be able to fix us?
Today we may think about peace and security as largely a personal matter. In most cultures it was a communal matter. How were the gods of our nation serving our people? Could they deliver us from danger and bring us prosperity? The idols of
The true God of heaven and earth is the only answer for all of us. If what we need is cradle to the grave care, there is simply no other god who will do. Everyone else is an imposter. God took care of His nation from birth to old age. He alone could carry them and save them.
How sad when the people of God, who have the one real god, decide that the pretty idols of the nations are the answer for them. Is there anything more foolish or pitiful that this? God speaks about this in this chapter. By the way, this is one of the many things that lifeless idols cannot do – speak. They can be carried about on the shoulders of those that they are supposedly protecting, but they cannot answer you in your day of trouble. They will not direct you with language.
We should regularly meditate upon the wisdom and power of God. How do we know about these attributes of God? He has revealed them to us in His actions, and especially in His written Word. So very many times in these chapters that we have been reading, God makes the all-important and obvious point that there is none like Him. This is clear from the past, and it is clear from any spiritual meditation upon the present. It will also be the case in the future. We should look around us and think about where everything has come from. Chief on our list must be this: Where have you and I come from? Don’t we know that God made us?
Yet our hearts are stubborn until they are broken by the true God – the God of mercy and comfort. He breaks us with fatherly discipline and then He builds us up again – this time even more in the image of Christ. His Son led the way for us through death to resurrection. He tells His disciples in John 16, “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” This was the way for Him, and it is the way for us as well. No matter how safe and pampered we may wish to be, in this world we will be sorrowful. But we will also find joy – sometimes now, but more often on the great Day of Resurrection for God’s servants.
Resurrection day seems too far off, but God knows the end from the beginning. With the strength that comes today from the Savior who endured the cross, we do need to keep on going. Do not miss the true God because your pockets are too full of idols. They cannot help you. They will only distract you and deaden you. Take action today to send the lifeless voiceless hopeless stumps of wood back to the fireplace for false gods. Invite Christ into your life and into your home again, and feel the peace and the power that only a risen Savior can bring.
Consider the events of redemption that we know about that lead to the cross and the resurrection. From Adam to Jesus and all the way to our lives, so much has been perfectly accomplished! God brought His righteousness so near to us, but He also brought our sin so near to His beloved Son. This was our salvation. Now the people of God have become a glorious inheritance for the Son of God. One day we will be without spot or blemish. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will flawlessly accomplish the fullness of our salvation. No other God will do. For all who would call the house of the Lord our home
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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