The year of the Lord's favor

Isaiah 61

Here's an attempt at Biblical scholarship. Every so many years according to the Law of Moses, there were to be years of jubilee where debts were forgiven, slaves released, land restored, etc. Basically, it was a great time that really allowed people to show off the love and goodness of God. Obviously, nobody really does this anymore...at least not to my knowledge.

But Isaiah 61 is proclaiming a year of the Lord's favor, but it's more like proclaiming the beginning of a new age. The Lord is saying He will do justice in the world by setting captives free, bringing good news to the poor, binding up the brokenhearted, and bringing comfort to those who mourn. He'll give beauty for ashes and gladness instead of mourning!! A year of the Lord's favor to last a lifetime!!

He will clothe us with garments of salvation and robes of righteousness. And best of all God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations!!

I'm no scholar, but I see the promises here and I praise the Lord!! God is not full of wrath or vengance, but He is full of justice. He loves justice. He wants to see the least of us lifted up and our hurts removed. He wants to see wrongs made right. He hasn't left us alone to fend for ourselves; He sent us a Savior. He hasn't abandoned us because we've gone to far; He's calling our names to return!!

the Lord has annointed me to bring good news to the poor...(verse 1)...perhaps there's some sort of commission hidden in these words...

How high are your thoughts!

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

-Isaiah 55: 9

I tried to keep my God in a box,

but when I went back,

the box was empty.

I thought He'd left me,

but then

I remembered,

my God cannot be contained.

So I tried to keep my God in heaven, thinking,

"Surely I will always find Him there"!

But little did I realize

that heaven's just a place;

my God is living, moving, and active,

and He cannot be contained.

This verse in Isaiah is God saying that His ways don't have to make sense to us. His thoughts and ways are so much higher. The context is that He is explaining how He will have compassion on the people of Isreal even though they have royally screwed up time and again. God promises an abundant pardon to His people.

Now I don't know about you, but my little human mind is like, "Wow, T-O God! Why the heck would you forgive someone who's messed up so much (like me)? How is that fair? How is that just? Don't they deserve to be ignored, cast off, and otherwise chastized?" Well, the answer is a simple, "Yes, you do deserve it, all of you! But I am a loving God who, because I am God, don't have to play by your rules. I forgive who I forgive. My ways are beyond your understanding. Don't try, just accept them..."

I find it reassuring.

So when we try to contain our God thinking He has to follow the rules and parameter's we've laid out in our mind, no matter what that applies to, we find ourselves wondering why God isn't playing by the rules. We put a box around what He can do praying for specific things like "God if you could just bring in $200." or "God if you could just give us courage for tomorrow." Just? Why limit God? Why say "God this is what we need, if you could just do it...please :)"? God can do anything!!

Consider prayers that allow God to be God. It's okay to prayer for specific things, but at the end of the day, you gotta let go of your plans and ideas because God has plans of His own. And boy hey howdy do you want those plans to be what happens!

So Lord, let Your will be done! Your ways are higher, and they are better!! I choose Your plans! Help me to know Your heart by the Spirit, and pray accordingly! Let me never put you in a box or treat you like a Coke machine. You are God! Praise the Lord!

Not a coincidence

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Jesus. A simple description of an awesome man. This passage gives a glimpse into the life, the story of Jesus. The Gospel is spelled out so well, especially in verse 11, "Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the rightwous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities". We shall be accounted righteous because Jesus bore our iniquities. We are redeemed. Hallelujah!!!

There's more, though! This is Isaiah, which was written a very long time ago (I know, I'm like a Biblical scholar - don't be jealous :P). Then there are the Gospels in the NT which were written a little bit after Jesus' ascension (for the most part). That's a pretty big gap. In the gap, Isreal was exiled, the came back, Rome became an empire, etc. It was a long time. And yet, Isaiag predicts exactly what is going to happen to Jesus. Now I know it's easy enough to make a story match a prophesy, because how easy is it to lie? But something tells me nobody (but Jesus) was thinking about Isaiah 53 when they thought about Jesus. No one believed He was the Messiah because they expected a king. Little did they know the fortold King was to be humble and lowly (Isaiah 53: 2b). Nobody expected a homely looking son of a carpenter to be the holiest, most beautiful Savior who is the Son of God! But how could He be despised and rejected for no good reason if people knew and believed what He is. If the Pharisees (dun dun dun) actually thought He was the Messiah, they would have treated Him differently. That doesn't mean they would have loved Him, but it would have been different.

But all that wasn't the will of God. God's will is clearly laid out in this passage. Hallelujah for God's plans! As you read the Bible, you have to think about the overall plan. The Old Testament lays the foundation for Jesus. The New Testament shows us the changes. There are no descrepancies or inconsistancies. Everything before Matthew talks about the same loving, just, awesome God that is discussed after Matthew 1. It's so awesome to read. There is no book like this Bible.

Like.

Have you not heard?

'Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass...'

-2 Kings 19:25

I have sort of a two-fold thought about this verse. I'll start with the most contextual. This passage is Isaiah's message to the king of Assyria as they plan to attack Judah. Basically, God says to them, "Wow, aren't yall proud of yallselves! Yall think yall are special because yall've done all these things and taken over all these places. But-um-listen, yall wouldn't have done any of it if I hadn't planned it!" Jesus (and many pastors since) have given a similar message about ruling authority and how it comes from God. All the victories and triumphs a nation has (or doesn't have) are pre-ordained by the Lord. Even if it's an evil nation, like the Assyrians or -I don't know- Nazis. People often wonder how a God like my God could let a man like Hitler be so successful. Sometimes, God just has a plan. Oh wait, no He always has a plan.

Part 2: This means He also has a plan for us in our little lives. We may not be rulers of big nations or anything like that, but that certainly does not prohibit us from have lives determined by God. Looooonnnngggg ago, God planned every single second of everybody's lives. All of history, even the stuff that hasn't happened, is already written (think Slumdog Millionaire "It is written"). But it is! Nothing we can do can mess up God's plan for our lives. I don't want to get into the theology of free will versus predestination because I'm just a humble teacher who has no place to claim a vast theological knowledge. I do have my theories though. :)

Suffice it to say that God has a plan for us (as the nausiatingly overly quoted Jeremiah verse tells us, it's a good plan). Nothing in this world is random.

I find comfort in that.

What are you begetting?

Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'?

-Isaiah 45:9b

Who are we to say God has made us right or wrong. Isaiah says "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him!" Does it not seem silly for us to say to God, "What are you doing here?" or "I think you got it wrong". Does God not know what He is doing? Does a sculptor not know more than his clay?

Animate versus inanimate. God versus not God. Same thing in my book.

So you look at yourself and see mistakes. God's mistakes. God, um...listen...you forgot the handles...and easy mistake...anyone could have done it. NO! God does not make mistakes. God does not make you one way if He wants you to be another. He makes you exactly what you need to be to do what He has planned for you to do. What is God making? That's always fun to find out...

I used to think that I was purposed for something more than just teaching. I saw myself in ministry, teaching in front of a congregation. I struggled with the fact that certain things about me made this dream unrealistic. For one, I'm a woman, and argue as we could, I just don't like the idea of a woman teaching men. So I was like, okay maybe I'm supposed to be like a youth pastor or something. But once again I struggled with not being made for that. I thought, "Why would God make me a woman who is just a little bit shy if He wanted me to preach?" Then it dawns on me...What if I'm not meant to do any of that stuff? I could give a laundry list of things I thought God might have wanted me to do for the Kingdom. Missions. Preaching. Pastor's wifing. Leading. I've gone through my fair share of phases. Many times I have thought God had messed up royally with me. I wondered why He would make me this way. Even in college I watched myself not measure up. This time, I wanted to be a scholar. I thought there was a memo or something that everyone else in the world had received, but someone had just forgotten to CC me on it. Fair mistake. I thought God had just wired me too different and that I would never be a good teacher because I just didn't get it. But since teaching is me, I could not be more perfectly designed for it. Let's see if I can make a metaphor...

A mug and a cup are very similar in many ways. And unless you're using it for hot stuff, you really don't need the handle that comes with the mug. Yeah, it can make things easier, but if you're enjoying a nice glass of sweet tea, you might even prefer the cup to the mug. But, both will work just fine. I was the cup in a class full of mugs. I looked around and saw how I could never hold hot liquids and that was a huge glaring fault in my eyes. Little did I know how much better I could be at other things, like holding tea. All of my collegues will be fabulous teachers too, but I am different. Apples and oranges.

All of that too say that you can't compare yourself to others. Don't think God made a mistake because you don't have qualities you like in others. Sometimes, you better the way you are. Actually, you're always better the way God made you. If you were supposed to be different, He would have made you different. If you were supposed to be skinnier, He would have made you one of those girls. If you were supposed to be an athlete, I think He would have given you the talent. But since all you're supposed to be is what you are, He made You. Period.