GOD TOOK THE GREATEST RISK TO RESCUE YOU

(A series in the book of Isaiah: Chapter 29)

It has been a repeated theme in the book of Isaiah that God reveals all the wickedness and evil God’s people are capable of. He even repeatedly said that “you have contempt against me. You have contempt on who I am.” They have this hate against the ways of God. They don’t have respect for spiritual matters.

God is not blind to the wickedness of His people and to all the evil tendencies they are capable of.

He repeatedly reminded them that apart from Him they will grow like that.

Apart from God, it will all be evil. This has been the repeated theme not just in Isaiah but in the entire Bible itself. Evil will take over and evil will determine to overcome God’s people. Because of this reason God has repeated, patiently, and enduringly presented the very solution and that is HIMSELF alone. He put this on a progressive revelation until its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Isaiah is a treasure book of God’s promise of the revelation of His love and His great deliverance against the all the appearances, influences, and dominion of evil.

This great deliverance is called REDEMPTION. Redemption means someone else paid the penalty that you, yourself, could not afford to pay. Someone needs to pay the price you needed to pay. That is what Christ exactly did for us. Christ took the very death we deserve. The payment for our sin is only death nothing more and nothing less. Like its nature, it will just take your life. God knew this from the very beginning and He orchestrated the salvation plan, the rescue plan for you and me. This rescue mission is not created because we are good and we are very rare. It is created because we are sinful, we amount to only filth, our value only amounts to zero.

Yes, despite this very horrible situation because of sin, God took the risk. The risk to love the people who already learned to hate Him. The risk to show His love, His mercy, His kindness, His patience, and His long-suffering to people who only want the good they see for themselves. They are a people who are blinded with pride, self-sufficiency, and self-righteousness. They have a religion but a dead religion, they go to church but they remain to be ungodly. God’s people would surely reach the heights of evil apart from God.

After all this capacity to do evil God still stood faithful to His promise with Abraham there will be redemption for my people. Not because you are good but because God wants you back in His arms. It was God who created the covenant, it was Him who initiated it with Abraham and for all the nations. He will fulfill the covenant with His love.

HIS PROMISE TO RESTORE HIS PEOPLE IS NOT BECAUSE THERE IS ANYTHING GOOD IN US BUT BECAUSE HE LOVES HIS PEOPLE. HE COULD NOT JUST WAIT WHEN THAT TIME WOULD COME THE ALL HIS PEOPLE WILL PRAISE HIM AGAIN.

(I am in tears writing this line. Understanding the longing of someone to have the people he or she loves to love him or her back.)

IT WILL SURELY BE A GRAND DAY WHEN THE ULTIMATE PROMISE OF ULTIMATE DELIVERANCE THROUGH THE REDEMPTION IN JESUS CHRIST WILL HAPPEN. IT IS WHEN ALL SIN WILL FINALLY VANISH. IT IS WHEN ALL WILL JUST PRAISE GOD.

This longing and promise of God are narrated in Isaiah 29:22-24, only, and only if they will believe in the covenant of redemption vested in Christ. Only and only if the people will turn their eyes to the REDEMPTIVE WORKS OF CHRIST. Only and only if CHRIST work has taken effect in every heart. Yes, Christ is the only way to change and to be back into the arms of God again.

22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale;

23 But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,

They will sanctify My name;

Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob

And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24 “Those who err in ]mind will know the truth,

And those who criticize will accept instruction.

Friends, God said it that there will come a day when it is all about Jesus—

A day that will all be what He has done, a day that will all be praise and worship to the fulfillment of His promise in redeeming you and me.