{"id":25783,"date":"2023-04-03T22:00:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T05:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-49_1-13-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-03-21T19:59:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T02:59:42","slug":"isaiah-49_14-50_3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-49_14-50_3\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019re Never Beyond Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 49:14-50:3\u00a0 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 49:14-50:3.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

To me this passage reflects the genius of the LORD and Isaiah working together.\u00a0 In Isaiah chapters 40-48, not only does Isaiah predict future events and write down messages for a people not yet born; even more, Isaiah anticipates how this future people might complain and object to those messages and addresses those complaints and objections in advance.<\/p>\n

In particular, Isaiah addresses three complaints that he expects the Jewish exiles in Babylon would have when they hear the news that the LORD will deliver them from their captivity.\u00a0 I wonder if the Jewish exiles in Babylon, upon reading Isaiah\u2019s messages, must have felt like Isaiah and the Holy Spirit had read their minds, or that they were carrying on a debate with someone who lived 150 years before.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?
\n–\u00a0\u00a0If we are not careful, suffering can cause us to have a distorted view of reality<\/strong>, causing us to think things about God and about ourselves that are simply not true.\u00a0 As Pastor David Pawson writes: \u201cWhen you suffer\u2026your mind gets twisted, unless you are very careful.\u00a0 If life has treated you badly, if you are bruised and broken by the experiences through which you have passed, your thinking about God can get distorted.\u00a0 You might begin to doubt or question him.\u00a0 People who are suffering sometimes say things about God that they would never say if they were not suffering.\u201d (Pawson, David. Come With Me Through Isaiah.\u00a0 Travelers Rest, True Potential Publishing, 2010 at page 269)
\n–\u00a0\u00a0God is proactive and pre-emptive in His ways.<\/strong>\u00a0 God will anticipate the questions, objections, concerns and complaints His people will have about their situation and does something to address them in advance.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 49:14-23 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Zion said, “The\u00a0LORD\u00a0has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Lift up your eyes and look around; all your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the\u00a0LORD, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these–where have they come from?'”
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This is what the Sovereign\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: “See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the\u00a0LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On 49:14-23:\u00a0 The first complaint that the Holy Spirit and Isaiah anticipate the Jewish exiles making is: \u201cThe LORD has forsaken us and forgotten about us.\u00a0 So don\u2019t tell us that He is going to come and deliver us now\u201d (see v14).\u00a0 In response to this complaint, God says, \u201cHow can I forget you?\u201d He compares Himself to a mother who cannot possibly forget the children that she bore. (v15)\u00a0 (It\u2019s interesting that God compares Himself here to a mother instead of a father.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because God knows that people often experience more disappointment from their fathers than their mothers.)<\/p>\n

To show that He can never forget His people, no matter where they are, God says in verse 16, \u201cSee, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.\u201d<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When we are going through difficult suffering, we can fall into the trap of thinking that God is not there and that He doesn\u2019t care.\u00a0 But God promises that never will He leave us or forsake us, no matter how difficult the circumstances may seem<\/strong>\u00a0(Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5).\u00a0 Like the Jewish exiles, your name is tattooed on the palm of God\u2019s hands and your entire life is always before Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In verses 17-23, God goes one step further in His comfort of the Jewish exiles who feel like they have been forgotten, forsaken and rejected.\u00a0 After telling them that they have a heavenly Father who cannot forget them and who is always thinking of them (v15-16), God says that these same people who felt forgotten, forsaken and rejected will themselves become parents with many children (v17-23).\u00a0 Where will all these children come from?\u00a0 These children will be people from other nations who, through God\u2019s people, will join the family of God as well.\u00a0 God is promising that not only would the Jewish people be blessed, but the world would be blessed through them.\u00a0 God reminds His people: \u201cthose who hope in me will not be disappointed\u201d (v23).<\/p>\n

Isaiah 49:24-26 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce?
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But this is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the\u00a0LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On 49:24-26:\u00a0 Here the Holy Spirit and Isaiah anticipate the second objection that the Jewish exiles might make when they read that the LORD is going to deliver them from captivity.\u00a0 That second objection is expressed in verse 24, where the exiles are basically saying: \u201cThat\u2019s impossible.\u00a0 The LORD can\u2019t deliver us from this.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to this second objection, the LORD assures them that the Jewish captives will certainly be rescued from their fierce captors (v25).\u00a0 He tells them that their captors will be defeated, for as strong as their captors may seem, God is greater still.\u00a0 He is \u201cyour Saviour, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.\u201d (v26)<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Your situation may be incredibly difficult, but nothing is impossible with God.\u00a0 When God promises to do something, no matter how impossible it may seem, you can bet that He is strong enough to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 50:1-3 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On 50:1-3:\u00a0 The third objection that the Holy Spirit and Isaiah anticipate the Jewish exiles making is: \u201cWe have behaved too badly to expect any deliverance now.\u00a0 We\u2019re beyond hope.\u201d Though the objection is not expressed explicitly here, it is implied by what the LORD says in this section.\u00a0 God\u2019s response to this objection: \u201cAs long as you have Me, you\u2019re never beyond hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

God does not deny the fact that Judah\u2019s sins separated them from God (\u201cBecause of your sins you were sold\u201d v1).\u00a0 But God invokes images that recall His past miracles like how He made a way for the Israelites through the Red Sea in Exodus (\u201cBy a mere rebuke I dry up the sea\u201d v2), and through the Jordan River in Joshua (\u201cI turn rivers into a desert\u201d v2).\u00a0 In other words, it\u2019s not about the Jewish exiles deserving God\u2019s help because of their performance; it\u2019s about them trusting in the unfathomable kindness and power of God to save and redeem.<\/p>\n

Likewise,\u00a0as long as we have the LORD, you and I are never beyond hope.\u00a0 Our hope is not anchored in our performance or how good we are.\u00a0 Our hope is anchored in who God is: His kindness, His love, and His power to save.\u00a0 So put your hope not in yourself or in your circumstances, but in the LORD.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, thank You for proactively loving us, so much so that You anticipate our concerns long before we know we have them.\u00a0 Thank You that You will never leave me or forsake me.\u00a0 May I place my hope not in myself or my circumstances, but in You.\u00a0 \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 49:14-50:3.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

To me this passage reflects the genius of the LORD and Isaiah working together.\u00a0 In Isaiah chapters 40-48, not only does Isaiah predict future events and write down messages for a people not yet born; even more, Isaiah anticipates how this future people might complain and object to those messages and addresses those complaints and objections in advance.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nIn particular, Isaiah addresses three complaints that he expects the Jewish exiles in Babylon would have when they hear the news that the LORD will deliver them from their captivity.\u00a0 I wonder if the Jewish exiles in Babylon, upon reading Isaiah\u2019s messages, must have felt like Isaiah and the Holy Spirit had read their minds, or that they were carrying on a debate with someone who lived 150 years before.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25783"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25786,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25783\/revisions\/25786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}