To Be Afflicted and Not Comforted (Isaiah 54)

"O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest, and not comforted..."

I love these words from Isaiah 54.
 
I love them because of where they sit in the midst of a chapter that word after word not only lifts the lowered head, but acknowledges that it is indeed lowered, and knows there was reason.

I love God's heart- the nearness and the dearness of Him- as his response is not just to make a promise, but to acknowledge that life's current reality seems to defy that promise (v.1-3).

I love that he doesn't just say don't be afraid or ashamed, but acknowledges that I have felt both (v. 4-6).

I love that he doesn't just talk about eternal kindness and mercy, but acknowledges that I felt lost...forsaken... unable to find him (v.7-8).

I love that though it should be enough- all the testimony in the Bible, all the testimony in my life- he knows I still need to hear him say that he's not going to change his mind and I'm not able to screw up or fail my way out of this, because to his own heart it is a covenant (v. 9-10).

I love that he speaks so well to the heart that has fallen somewhere between disheveled and destroyed.. to the person left standing in the middle of it all, grief-stricken and tired, asking how and why and what. I love that he knows I am not comforted. And that instead of igniting a righteous indignation in him, he says such a thing as "O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest, and not comforted..".

I love that what follows is to speak of the beauty of what he will build, and that he will use the most precious things. I love that it is by his own hand (v. 11-12). 

I love that he doesn't just promise peace and safety, but acknowledges there will be reason to need that promise fulfilled. (v.13-15).

I love that he acknowledges there are things created to destroy and they'll be intended for my own destruction, and puts power and authority in perspective as he says that whatever man may be creating, He created man. (v.16-17)

Discouragement is not from the Lord. Neither is fear. We are never forsaken, and he is our comforter. But he speaks right to it all anyway, because he knows us. He remembers our frame, that we are dust. And he loves us...

Let's just talk about this.

You cannot receive the God of the Bible and reject the Bible itself.

How can a person have a medley of beliefs/faiths/philosophies, and throw God (the God of the Bible) into it as well?! This baffles me. God by nature does not coexist with other gods/belief systems/etc. Sorry! That's a strong message throughout scripture. These aren't vague, cultural, whatever, verses. I mean if a person just believes in God as a higher power, that's one thing. Because then presumably God is a power but not person, has not spoken to man unchanging truth...so this isn't to address belief in God as a higher power. But if "God" is the God of the Bible, how can you choose God and reject who he said he is, who you are, what he said about life now and life eternal, or create a belief system that is in direct blatant contradiction to the self-description of the God you believe in. That seems like....

Either God is lying, or your truth is a lie.

I love words about God- I just spent more than I meant to at a bookstore, so I can read some more words about God. But the Bible is not that, this is important. The Bible is not words about God, it is the word of God.  How could you possibly hope to know the God of the Bible, without the Bible?

Either God is lying, or your truth is a lie. Right?

The Bible tells us Jesus is the only way to the Father. The only way! You cannot receive a God who says there is only one way-and He is it- and still believe there are many paths for people, and they each need to find their own. The contradiction is insane.  

He says that no one is good- that all of us deserve punishment for our sins apart from the work of the cross- which by the way, is available to all but not chosen by all. The saving work of the cross is for those who believe on his name and are saved....and it was necessary (Luke 24:46, Acts 17:3). There is no salvation without the cross of Christ. We cannot will ourselves into what is not ours apart from life in Christ. 

He says there is only righteousness and unrighteousness, only heaven and hell, only two "teams"- only the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, with no neutral territory- and that they are at war. 

He says that he is holy, righteous, just, without sin...and that he is both wrath and mercy. And that even his wrath is holy, needing no defense or excuse (Romans 9:18,20,22. God punishes sin and God forgives sin. 

And he's not your hippie yoga teacher, who only wants you to really get in touch with yourself, because the source of true happiness and spiritual enlightenment is within you. Sorry kids, it's not. The source of everything that is pure and lovely, every worthwhile thing, is Christ. Christ is Truth. And without him, all your enlightenment and self-discovery and blessed spirituality is deception. All the pretty lies…how they can shine though! The Bible tells us that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Ok look. I’m not trying to go on a religious rant. I remember my open-minded spirituality years… I wasn’t too sure if I believed in God exactly, but I wasn’t ready to discard Him entirely, and when I took too much of something I shouldn’t have been messing with at all, He was the one I was praying to. I mean, that was the extent of that relationship, because the rest of the time I was on the whole “everyone has their own path….I’m gonna go light some more candles and do a bunch of symbolic things that might have some power” kick. I’ve got things to say about that too… but for another time, my friends. My point is just to let you know that I had this same contradiction in my life. I wasn’t really ever confronted with it, until I hit a point in my life so desperate that the only hope was that God actually was….. well…. God. 

It was the “either you are God, completely, or you are not at all” moment- the situation required it. I cried out over and over to know if it was true, opened a book up to a verse, and radically encountered the presence of God for the first time. It was a moment that marked me in such a way that I could not have recovered had I wanted to. There’s no going back. God is real. Jesus is true. 

In a world full of counterfeits, all you can really hope to do is choose the ones that look best to you-even choosing a counterfeit God- until you encounter Him for all He is. When you encounter God as He is and you give Him your yes, the person of Truth is now intimately and forever know by you. Lies compared to lies can be sneaky. This is why we choose the lies that appeal to us most and think we’ve done well for ourselves. Lies compared to Truth though…there’s no hiding (though before anyone gets high and mighty about how their “open spirituality” friends should hear this, let me say that religion is the worst and most deceptive counterfeit of all, because it most easily passes for the real thing in Christian circles, and I think it is quite possibly the most wicked deception of all). Don’t be sold a distorted God, of any kind. He’s beautiful, and He’s a God who wants to be found.

He's a God who will be found.