The Lord Will Be Gracious

Isaiah 30 has been a chapter that I found myself coming back to again and again this week. Each time I was gripped by a different verse and truth within this chapter. Each time I approached this text I was doing so with a different lens, some colored with hues of baggage, praise, longing and expectation. After a long night at the hospital, I had a chance at the end of my shift to read for a bit. For whatever reason Isaiah 30 caught my eye. As I read I came to verse 21 that spoke of direction. And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. That was enough for me to think about. I even tweeted it. And timely it was. That same night, I was at a friend's party, we were celebrating freedom and his exoneration after spending 16 years in prison on a wrongful accusation. A friend stood up after being asked to share a brief word, an effort to bring the night's focus higher, onto the Lord. He shared from Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. The Word spoke tenderly to my heart, as a father speaks to his son or daughter, my Father spoke to me. It took a few minutes to realize that I had read from the same chapter earlier that morning. The intimacy and precision that God employed to speak tenderly to my heart was powerful. I'm a cryer and a few tears of joy did find their way down my face. That moment was pivotal, for it had been a difficult night, feeling slightly out of place and distracted by thoughts, my attention was refocused on my Father and in that moment, everything was right.

Tonight, the Lenten season begins. Again, I read Isaiah 30, and again I read with new eyes. Lent is a time to be with Jesus in a special way. It is a time of prayer and fasting and...following. But who or what I follow is a decision made in and in-between each moment of life. I want to follow Jesus; to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and finally to victory over death...but my heart is still so divided.

I truly want to follow you, Jesus, but I also want to follow my own desires and listen to the voices that speak of success, pleasure, and acceptance. But you are calling me to be attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life. Your voice speaks from behind me saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when I turn to the right or when I turn to the left. But I come from a rebellious people, and I know how deeply I resist choosing you. I am Israel that verses 9-11 speak of. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

Even so, the LORD is gracious! It is in light of this that I again read verse 18. Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Please LORD, be with me in every moment and decision to follow you. In verse 20 you give this promise. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 

And the response that comes from choosing Jesus is powerfully seen in verse 22. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

"Be gone!" God's mercy is greater than our sins! Lent is a time to break down idols and to direct our attention to our loving LORD. This new life is found through Jesus Christ alone. Return and rest in the LORD.