Isaiah’s Offer

You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.

(Isaiah 12:1)

My schedule has increased a little since our daughter and son-in-law and two grandchildren have moved in with us. As I write and study it used to take me about 5 – 10 minutes to run downstairs and make a cup of tea. Now, because two “grands” are just so tempting to play with on my way, that cup of tea is taking me about half an hour to get.

This is also spilling over into other areas (just for the record, I am loving it). I had started the study of Isaiah with Bible Study Fellowship in September. I am not getting to the class as regularly as I would like because of increasing responsibility in my family – but I am continuing to do the study. It is easy to see how helpful a discussion group is when you’re not getting to it!

As my husband was preparing to leave for work this morning I was studying Isaiah 13. It is proclaiming a clear judgment on Babylon for her evil, the iniquity of the wicked, and the pomp of the arrogant (13:11). This follows chapter 12 in which Isaiah offers hope and comfort, the turning away of God’s anger. He assures Israel, God’s people, that He will turn from His anger and they will drink from the wells of salvation – with joy!

The first 11 chapters of the book were similar to this. There was a promise of judgment for God’s people as well as the wicked nations around them for their sin, the oppression of the poor and needy, the corruption they lived with in their cities, and the worship of other gods. Then, just for God’s people Isaiah would remind them (and us) of the hope we have because of who God is and how He deals with us. He will judge the sin but when we turn back to Him in repentance He shows compassion.

I asked my husband this morning about that constant roller coaster in this book. Judgment then hope. The conviction of sin and turning back to God. I wondered out loud why God didn’t give us all the judgment and then all the hope. The roller coaster was making me a little weary! He reminded me that others of the books of prophets – major and minor -were like this.

As I have thought about this through the day I realized this is like life. I can’t imagine if I am weary from reading it how God must feel as we take His hope and forgiveness and then turn back to sin and idols? He watches daily as His people betray Him with their oppression of the poor and their worshipping other gods. He watches from close by as His people wallow in their wealth while many around them go cold and hungry and ignore His instruction to give to them. Then, in His mercy He brings judgment to draw us back to Him.

This is life in our bodies and with our minds. We fall short of the glory of God and He corrects us in judgment. Often it’s just a gentle nudge reminding us that He has work for His children to do. If we ignore the gentle nudge He will remind us a little more intensely that we are not listening. From His Word we know that if we repent and turn back to Him that He is faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The hope is right there in front of us being offered from Genesis to Revelation. Sometimes, like in Isaiah and the other prophets, it’s offered with the reminder of the judgment when we refuse God or turn from Him if we belong to Him. Other times it is a clear promise of something better to come, One who will rescue us from our sin.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)

So, Isaiah offered hope to the people of God of His day by reminding them of God’s promises to comfort, keep, and reinstate them into their own city of Jerusalem after the exile to Babylon. Isaiah continues to offer that same hope to God’s people today. He is the God who, in the midst of all this rebuke for their sin and promises of judgment, told them of the One He would send to save His people from their sin. We will know the New Jerusalem because of His sacrifice for us.

Isaiah 54:7-8 describes the Hope that each one of has as a child of God; “For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer.

That is Isaiah’s offer: the Lord, your Redeemer.