2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Yesterday, the Lord led me to talk about the Refiner’s fire that is His efforts to bring us to readiness for an eternal life of joy and close fellowship with Him. He urges me to continue with that subject today. IS 48, “God is Lord of the Future,” began with a description of the hypocrisy of apostate Jews in captivity in Babylon and then moved to God’s assertion that He will send a man [Cyrus of Persia] to defeat the Babylonians and release the Jews. This will happen not because the Jews have done anything to deserve this deliverance, but for two other reasons. God would do this for His own sake to reveal His righteousness and wanted to prevent the Jews from claiming that any of the idolatrous gods they had worshipped could share in the glory He deserves for doing this. Now, let’s look at the rest of this important chapter of Isaiah.
IS 48: 17-19 begins a section about the Lord’s plan for His people. “The holy God of Israel, the Lord Who saves you, says: ‘I am the Lord your God, the One Who wants to teach you for your own good and direct you in the way you should go. If only you had listened to My commands! Then blessings would have flowed for you like a stream that never goes dry. Victory would have come to you like the waves that roll on the shore. Your descendants would be as numerous as grains of sand, and I would have made sure they were never destroyed.” God’s desire to keep His promise made to Abraham is clearly in the forefront of His mind. His disappointment at the disobedience of His people is also right there with it. This is the state of mind of the One of greatest righteousness, and it is revealed in this passage for all to see. That these issues are on God’s mind shows His compassion as well. He really wanted His people to drop their hypocrisy and their desire to rationalize mixing idol worship with worship of Jehovah.
The issue of a Jewish “remnant,” one that is often repeated in the Scriptures, comes up in the passage, IS 48: 20-22. “Go out from Babylon, go free! Shout the news gladly; make it known everywhere: ‘The Lord has saved His servant Israel!’ When the Lord led His people through a hot, dry desert, they did not suffer from thirst. He made water come from a rock for them; He split the rock open, and water flowed out. ‘There is no safety for sinners,’ says the Lord.” God is reminding His people of the time in their past when they were delivered from Egyptian bondage. And, in spite of their grumbling and complaining, God through Moses performed miracles seeing to it that water for them to drink and manna to eat were supplied. The lesson for the captives and for us in this is that if we trust God, He will supply what we need. Because He is omniscient, God knows that a portion of these apostate captives will remain hardened in their hearts. However, he knows that a remnant of those brought through this Refiner’s fire will come to obedient faith. It is these people that God charges with the responsibility to be “ a light to the nations.” [See IS 42: 6 and 49:6]. Before I leave IS 48, it is important to understand that while this message is directed at the Jews in captivity in Babylon, it has huge implications for us as believers today, even if you have a Gentile background. That has been true since the onset of Paul’s ministry when Gentiles were “grafted on,” that is given the Gospel. The responsibility to be “a light to the nations” has now also been given to anyone who believes in Jesus Christ. So, it is for all of us.
For us to understand the enormity of the patience God has been willing to exercise with man’s sinning ways, it is helpful to give some dates. Many theologians suggest that Adam was first on the scene about 4000 BC. The Abrahamic covenant was made somewhere around 2000 BC. The Babylonian captivity went on from 605 -445 BC, if you include all the waves of movement out of and back into Israel. Isaiah’s ministry was from about 740-692 BC, approximately 300 years before Christ’s crucifixion.
The book of Malachi, the next place from which the Lord leads me to cite, was written in the fifth century BC after the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt. This prophet’s main concern is to call the Jewish people to get rid of the corruption and laxity in their lives and renew their covenant relationship with God. MAL 3: 1-3 deals with the love the Lord has for His people. “The Lord says to His people, ‘I have always loved you.’ But they reply, ‘ How have you shown Your love for us?’ The Lord answers, ‘Esau and Jacob were brothers, but I have loved Jacob and his descendants, and have hated Esau and his descendants. I have devastated Esau’s hill country [Edom] and abandoned the land to wild animals.” The third chapter of Malachi begins with a section which speaks about the Day of Judgment being near. Look at the crucial prophecies of MAL 3: 1-3. “The Lord Almighty answers, ‘I will send My messenger [John the Baptist] to prepare the way for Me [Christ]. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to His temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant.’ But who will be able to endure the day when He [Christ] comes? Who will be able to survive when He appears? He will be like strong soap, like a fire that refines metal. He will come to judge like one who refines and purifies silver. As a metalworker refines silver and gold, so the Lord’s Messenger will purify the priests, so that they will bring to the Lord the right kind of offerings.” The way the Lord brought MAL 3: 2-3 to my attention was when I first heard “But who may abide the day of His coming?” the #6 air for bass in Handel’s “Messiah” and sang “And He shall purify,” the #7 section of the same work for chorus. Yet, it wasn’t until I sat down to write these latest messages to you that I recognized the full impact on how important this message is to my own life.
PRAYER: O Lord, Your love for us is so great, and our history of disobedience has tested Your patience for so long. Yet while we were still Your enemies, You sent us Your Son, the only One who could pay our way out of slavery to sin. You want nothing more than for us to dwell in eternal peace and fellowship with You and with each other in Your Kingdom. To that end, we are subjected to the Refiner’s fire, so that we can rid sinfulness from our lives and mature in our faith to the point You feel we are ready. How blessed we are that You love us, are compassionate with us, and exercise such long-standing patience with our imperfections! We dedicate our lives and our service to You to Your glory. We praise, adore, worship, and thank You for being the force in our lives that You are. In Christ’s name, amen.
I can hear the music from the “Messiah” in my mind right now. It and the message it conveys reaches right to my soul. If you can get a recording of it, do so and drink in this God-inspired work for yourselves. Know that the Lord Jesus, in fact all of the Godhead, loves you now and always. Know that your steadfast faith through whatever trials you face in your lives will be richly rewarded. Be encouraged in your faithful obedience to Him. Peter and I also send you our love.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn