Today’s Reading: Isaiah 10-12; 2 Chronicles 28:5-21
Today’s reading continues on telling what characteristics God Himself finds hard to accept about His people. His anger against injustice is not hard to accept, because although He is loving beyond comprehension, still since He is a completely holy being, obviously justice is something extremely important to Him, and especially by those who are in leadership (from teacher, parent to the ultimate of ‘king’ position) and are responsible to display this characteristic of God in their lives. One thing for me which creates problems for me in this area is my being too sensitive to what others think of me and so in some way, their opinion of me controls my behaviour! It’s something I need to work on in my life!
And then our reading continues on with a section about Israel’s enemy, Assyria’s punishment being predicted by the prophet! Seeing King Ahaz was faced with this enemy and was afraid, I wonder what he thought as he heard the prophet’s prediction! More astonishing, Isaiah goes on to tell of a remnant going to be saved and captivity overcome! And beyond that, the fact that the Saviour’s lineage would come through David. This had always been promised through the prophets. Then comes the promise that the Saviour or Messiah would gather the remnant back again, just like Israel had been saved from Egypt! Is there any wonder that the next section is full of praise for deliverance? I love phrases like “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song; He is become my salvation…”
As I read through these sections, I was thinking to myself, how would King Ahaz hear these messages with enemies pounding on the gates of his city? And the dark section agreed with these thoughts and then the end passages proved the facts by stating clearly what happened! I wonder what disaster awaits me, when I’m tempted to choose and seek for some other ways of help, salvation etc. other than my loving Lord! The Lord has not given me a telescope which can see around the next corner in life, and I try to remember it is ridiculous not to believe what God tells me about what’s around the next corner and how He will care for me at all times, and it is O.K. not to be afraid of something overwhelming in my life! In fact, I encourage myself to accept what God tells me and trust Him for what I don’t understand, because faith in Him honours Him in a direct loving way. (And I have learned that actually, this is what impresses my unsaved friends, because they have no foundation to trust in!) And God always honours faith – true sometimes later than sooner, but He always does!
So be encouraged today to look to the future with confidence and more importantly to look to our loving Saviour to be able to face with courage our unanswerable questions and still trust Him to provide the “way of escape” which is just around the corner and because it is around the corner, therefore out of sight, but not out of God’s plan for us!