These past couple months the Lord has been showing up in my quiet times by rehearsing a narrative. This narrative is found all throughout scripture and it is where we see Israel turning away from God, but God remains faithful. We watch them suffer under the weight and pain of a life striving after fleeting pleasures, and God’s wrath is evident concerning their sin.
When looking at Isaiah 30 we see SO MUCH of God’s heart. He we see him express the reality of Israel’s turning away. He says,
“Because you have rejected this message,
relied on oppression
and depended on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
14 It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
for taking coals from a hearth
or scooping water out of a cistern.”
What a hard thing to swallow. He says, it is “Like a high wall, cracking and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant”. Sin wrecks. It destroys. It hurts. And how suddenly all of its consequences seem to come flooding in all at once.
I think about how grievous the Lord’s heart is towards this. For has has told Israel “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). How deeply does he long for his people to have rest, hope, strength, and restoration? He is so hungry for us and think about how greatly he wants us to know a full life. One that can only come by walking in obedience and trust with him.
As God shares these words, (which I imagine are said with a broken heart and full of righteous anger) he ultimately reminds Israel their response to such fullness was rejection. For He said, “but you would have none of it” (v.15).
In our world, this kind of rejection gives God the grounds to respond justly where He would also turn away or would rain down his wrath and judgment upon Israel. However, this is not his response.
Rather with a yearning and loving heart for his people, the Lord longs to be gracious to his people!! (v. 18).
Scripture says:
“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”
23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. 25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. 26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.” Isaiah 30:18-26
We have a God who is hungry for us. Who comes after us even when we turn away. Who will answer us when we call. Who’s very being is grace, mercy, and love. He is completely committed to us. I find great hope and strength sitting and resting in this truth.
Thank you Lord for reminding me of your faithfulness, that you come running after me, and that I am never too far gone to be yours.
-Berkley