LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Isaiah 28:21 and 29   The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon—to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task… All this also comes from the LORD Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.

I am fascinated with this passage of Scripture, as is indicated by spending a couple of days writing devotional thoughts from it. What fascinates me is the modern-day application of these historical events and how we as Christians need to wake up to what God is doing around us. A good friend helped me to put the whole chapter in perspective and brought out the truths that we need to understand. Here’s what missionary Curt Kregness wrote to me from Sao Paulo, Brazil:

God, through Isaiah, is taking the leaders of Judah (called Ephraim here) to task for their alliance with Egypt in order to escape from the Assyrians.  This is the “covenant with death” mentioned in v. 15 and 18.  Judah should be looking to the precious cornerstone for its sure foundation, and not to human strength.

So, the short bed and the narrow blanket of v. 20 is a metaphor for Judah’s misplaced trust.  The alliance with Egypt will offer no rest, no comfort, for Ephraim.  The strange work and alien task of the Lord is having to fight against his own people because of their disobedience.  The mention of Mount Perazim and the Valley of Gibeon is ironic, because in those two battles God fought for Israel against their enemies.  Now he must resist his people because they are rebelling against him.

The final section of the chapter uses another metaphor—the farmer.  The breaking up and turning over of the soil, although costly, has a purpose: to produce grain to make bread.  “All this comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.”

My conclusion for this passage would be that God loves us so much that he is willing to take extreme measures to get our attention and win us back to his family.  His wisdom is completely trustworthy, even when we turn our backs on him and suffer the tragic consequences of our sin.

We are not all that different from the people of Isaiah’s day. We are at times more intimately connected to the world than we are to Jesus Christ our Savior. We are at times more interested in finding satisfaction and fulfillment from the world than we are from God.

To many of us, God’s work has become strange and alien. We have become so engrossed in the lifestyle of the world, convinced that we can love both the world and God and use both for our own gratification, that when we look to see what God is doing around us we don’t recognize Him. How sad it is when God initiates a work in our lives and we mock it or scoff at it because it doesn’t fit into our personal life plan or our daily schedule of approved activities. We have become so in touch with what we want from the world that we are out of touch with the touch of God. We have chosen to believe that the social and financial benefits of living in our modern civilization are our rights and we choose to pursue them rather than pursue what God wants for us.

But remember this – God will not stop loving us or pursuing us. We may not like what He does to finally get our attention, but He will win us back to Himself. Every event of our lives today will be an opportunity for us to turn from the pursuit of worldly pleasure and prosperity to a personal and productive relationship with Almighty God.

Also remember that what we think we are doing to find satisfaction in life by pursuing the values of the world is really wrapping us up more tightly in the chains of bondage to the world so we see less and less of God (verse 22).

God is working to bring us to fullness in Christ. It is a work of love. He is breaking up the soil of our hardened hearts.  He is planting seeds of righteousness. He will harvest those seeds by beating away all the chaff. Then we will stand before the people of this world as reflections of His glory.

God is working on you because He loves you. Embrace what happens as His expression of grace.

Pastor John