SEPARATED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.

For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks along them will know peace.

So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead. We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away. For our offenses are many in Your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the Lord, turning our backs on our God, inciting revolt and oppression, uttering lies our hearts have conceived.

So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.

Isaiah 59:1-15a

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I can’t think of any worse place to be in life than separated from God. Can you?

And yet, as we look at our scripture passage today, we find the people of Israel in that very situation.

How separated were they from the God who had chosen them to be His special people, a people who had been hand-picked to dwell in a land He had set apart for them, a land where they could dwell as His people and He as their God?

So separated that they were indeed separated from that land as well as the God who had led them there.

You know the story. The Israelites had decided to sin against God in many ways, following their own ways and desires instead of His, ways and desires that involved worshipping idols and false gods in direct disobedience and disrespect to His commands.

And so God sent His judgment on His people in the way of the marauding, conquering Babylonian army who overwhelmed Judah and Jerusalem, leaving the holy land desolated and destroyed while the people were hauled away into exile to seventy years of oppression in a foreign land.

As Isaiah 59 opens, we find God’s word listing the litany of iniquities the Israelites had committed in addition to their spiritual infidelity, iniquities that had led to God hiding His face from His people, refusing to hear their pleas for help. Those wrongs included:

1. Hands stained with blood from murdering others.

“For your hands are stained with blood. Acts of violence mark their ways. They are swift to shed innocent blood.”

2. Fingers laden with guilt from their actions.

“Your fingers with guilt.”

3. Lips and tongues that uttered lies and wickedness.

“Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things.”

4. No cries for justice in society. Court cases lacking integrity.

“No one calls for justice.”

5. Court cases lack integrity.

“No one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies.”

6. The people conceived trouble and gave birth to evil ways.

“Their feet rush into sin; they pursue evil schemes. They conceive trouble and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.”

7. They failed to live in peace and justice.

“The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks along them will know peace.”

So what happened as a result of all these offenses that the people admitted were many in the Lord’s sight, offenses that were rebellious and treacherous, offenses that served to testify against them?

Well, the people found themselves separated from God and as a result, justice was driven back and far from them and righteousness at a distance and out of their reach. Although they looked for the light of the Lord, all they could see was darkness and shadows. In the midst of their hardship, they moaned and groaned for justice and deliverance but found none. Truth was nowhere to be found.

Not a great place to be, wouldn’t you admit?

And yet, how often are we acting just like the Israelites in the way we live today? Do we really want to end up like they did, separated from God?

Don’t think that it couldn’t happen again. It could.

So what happened to the people of Israel?

In the end, there was a happy ending to their story but not until after they had paid the penalty God had set forth. You see, we find good news nestled in the midst of this passage from Isaiah in verse 1 where we’re told the following:

“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.”

After the seventy year exile, God had promised to make the way for His people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their city and faith. And that’s just what He did. His arm was not too short to eventually save His people from the Babylonians, just as He did their ancestors from the grip of the Egyptians, just as He has done for us today.

You see, our God is mighty to save and provided the way for all of us to find salvation through His Son Jesus, so that no matter how much we might error in this worldly life (and we’re all going to do because we’re all afflicted with sin), we will one day be in a place where we will never be separated from God and His love ever again. These words from Paul’s letter to the Romans affirms it:

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

Through sin, Satan would desire for us to be separated from God, now and forever.

Through Jesus, God said, “Believe in My Son and you can live with the two of us forever, never separated again.”

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