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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
In
that day the Lord will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for
bees from the land of Assyria. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the
crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes.
In that day the Lord will use a razor
hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave your head
and private parts, and to cut off your beard also. In that day, a person
will keep alive a young cow and two goats. And because of the abundance of the
milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat
curds and honey. In that day, in
every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there
will be only briers and thorns. Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be
covered with briers and thorns. As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no
longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places
where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.
The Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it
with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.” So I called in Uriah the priest
and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. Then I made love
to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said
to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. For before the boy knows how to say ‘My
father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will
be carried off by the king of Assyria.”
The Lord spoke to me again:
“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters
of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore the Lord
is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king
of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all
its banks and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and
reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your
land, Immanuel!”
Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen,
all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for
battle, and be shattered! Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose
your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
Isaiah 7:18-25,
8:1-10
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Rejection. No one likes it.
I think we learn this at a very early age. I remember one
such instance when I was among a group of other children and it was one of
those situations where teams were being picked by two kids designated team captains.
Typically, these two children were kids considered the best at the game being
played and they would choose their team one person at a time, alternating picks
during the process. And so it would go, one child picked after the other and if
you were left unselected for awhile, rejected by the person choosing, it had a
tendency to hurt you a little because it sent the message that you weren’t as
good as the others or were being left out because you didn’t quite fit in
socially with everyone else.
Yes, rejection is not a pleasant experience. And I started
to really dislike it early on. That dislike would grow as I grew older and
experienced it again.
This time, I was in my teens, a senior in high school who
was looking for a date to the school prom. It was an expectation that if you
went to this event, you didn’t go alone, a clear sign that you were a social
outcast in your peer group. And so I had a girl I felt liked me, one I would
feel comfortable going with, and so one day I asked her if she would be willing
to be my date and she said “no” because she already had a date.
Rejection again.
My last memorable rejection encounter came when I was in the
latter stages of my Navy career. I was a Senior Chief Petty Officer, just one
step away from reaching the most senior rank in the enlisted community. My first
opportunity for advancement came in 1999 but I was not selected. That’s alright
I thought, most people don’t get picked their first look. But then 2000 came
and I was not selected again. This time the rejection hurt more. I started to
wonder if I had maybe topped out in my career and would not have the opportunity
to move to the top. That thought would be dashed the next year as I was
selected and advanced. It was a big relief for me for a lot of reasons, one of
which being that I would not have to deal with the rejection that comes with
not being advanced again.
Maybe you have a few rejection stories of your own. I think
we all do and that goes for God too we’re going to see in our scripture passage
today. Look at these words and see how much God hates being rejected, something
we would be well served to keep in mind.
In that day the Lord will whistle for
flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. They will all come and settle in the
steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at
all the water holes. In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the
Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and private parts, and
to cut off your beard also. In that day, a person will keep alive a
young cow and two goats.
And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will
be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. In that day, in every place where there
were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only
briers and thorns.
Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be
covered with briers and thorns. As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no
longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places
where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.
The Lord said to
me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen:
Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.” So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of
Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. Then I made love to the prophetess,
and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, “Name him
Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My
mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off
by the king of Assyria.”
The Lord spoke to
me again:
“Because this
people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over
Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore the Lord is about to bring against
them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king of Assyria with all his
pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks and sweep on
into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its
outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel!”
Raise the war cry,
you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for
battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Devise your
strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for
God is with us. Isaiah 7:18-25, 8:1-10
The main theme of these final verses of Isaiah Chapter 7 and
opening verses of Chapter 8 is judgment, God’s judgment on the Israelites. The
instrument of that judgment was the nation of Assyria who scripture tells us
was summoned by God to attack and devastate first Israel in the north before
heading south to Judah. The imagery of this judgment was telling for the armies
of Assyria would flow into the promised land like floodwaters, swirling through
the land of Israel and Judah passing through and placing the people at a point
where the “water” would be up to their necks. In other words, they would be
placed in a precarious, perilous situation where their very lives would be
threatened.
Think about floodwaters for a minute. When they come, they
don’t discriminate where they go. Rather, they fill whatever area will receive
them, going into every possible crack and crevice possible as it flows through
areas. It does not distinguish one home from another nor does it turn away from
fields or vineyards that produce valuable crops and fruits. No, floodwaters
come and lay waste everywhere, displacing people while leaving behind
destruction and ruin in their wake. Such was what was about to come when the
Assyrians invaded, the promised land stripped and left bare, like when hair is
shaved off the body of a person from the top of their head, their beard, and
even their private parts.
All this can be summed up with one statement.
There is a cost for rejecting God, a very steep cost.
How do we know that the people’s rejection is at the core of
the judgment?
We see it in the passage, embedded within the particulars:
“Because this people has
rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the
son of Remaliah.”
Note
again the water imagery used here. The Lord offered a life like no other, a
life of consistent blessing and protection, a sustaining life that would bring
peace and productivity like gently flowing waters. It was this life that the
people turned from, choosing instead to worship other gods and reject the God
who had always watched over them, delivered them, and kept them in His care. They
traded in the gentle flowing waters of living in the favor of the Lord for the
flood of consequences that come from His wrath and punishment.
Where
do you stand in your relationship with God today? Have you rejected Him, asking
for the flood of hardship to be sent upon your life? Or have you fully accepted
the Lord, seeking to honor Him with the way you live, thankful for the guidance
and protection He renders out of His deep love for you?
My
prayer is that you are in good standing, living in His favor and not His
judgment.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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