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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.
“For your Maker is your husband—the
Lord Almighty is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called
the God of all the earth. The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife
deserted and distressed in spirit—a wife who married young, only to be
rejected,” says your God.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer.
“To me this is like the days of
Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So
now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though
the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you
will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has
compassion on you.
Isaiah 54:5-10
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
If you were married to someone and
they willingly chose to be unfaithful in your relationship, would you be
willing to forgive them and bring them back? Would you have compassion for them
and be merciful in receiving their apology by giving your relationship a second
chance? Or would their sinful betrayal be more than you can pardon? Would you reject
and abandon your disloyal mate and hide your face from them in anger?
Most people would fall into the
latter category because it’s what the world would say is right. An adulterous
husband or wife has made their bed and should have to sleep in it. Their
infidelity obviously showed they didn’t wish to be with their partner anymore and
so both parties should just move on with their lives. Clemency and absolution are
not options.
But as we see in so many instances,
the Lord has a different way of looking at things and this matter of
unfaithfulness and the proper response to it is one of them. Look again at our
scriptures for today:
“For your Maker is your husband—the Lord Almighty is His name—the Holy
One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth. The Lord
will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—a
wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer.
“To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of
Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry
with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the
hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my
covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:5-10
Note here the portrayal of the Lord’s
relationship with His people. He, the Lord Almighty and God of the earth, is
the husband and Redeemer of all. But there is a real problem in the
relationship. For although the Lord is perfectly faithful to His bride (that
being all of us), we are not faithful unto Him in return. The Old Testament
Israelites chose to worship idols and false gods. Here in the 21st
century, we haven’t learned much as there are people worshipping plenty of
offerings that have nothing to do with God the Father or Jesus His Son, the
only One who can save us and bring us to God (John 3:16, John 14:6). The things
we worship can be other religions and their offerings or they could be any
number of things the world offers us to become attached to, drawing our
devotion from the only One we should be devoted to.
So how does the Lord handle our
unfaithfulness?
With compassion because His
unfailing love cannot be shaken nor His covenant with us broken. Yes, the Lord
may be upset at us and even turn from us in the midst of His disappointment,
leaving us feeling distressed and deserted, but He does not cut us off.
Instead, He brings us back from our abandonment, ever seeking to reconcile us
to Him. His everlasting kindness and mercy will always return to us, just as it
did for the Israelites who were redeemed and restored from their Babylonian
captivity and allowed to return home to rebuild their relationship with the
Lord they had violated.
Friends, we have a lot to learn in
regard to how we should function within our relationships of life. Thanks be to
God that we have this timely word today to lead and guide us to that end, a
word that shows us that we are to have compassion and grace for those dear to
us when they betray us just as the Lord does for us in our relationship with
Him.
For when we allow sin to take us
astray from Him, we can always count on Him bringing us back with a caring, forbearing
love when we repent of our transgressions and seek His forgiveness.
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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