Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Consider the Rock

 
Wednesday, July 1, 2020

“Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance—all who seek the Lord!  Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined.  Yes, think about Abraham, your ancestor, and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation.  Abraham was only one man when I called him.  But when I blessed him, he became a great nation.”  The Lord will comfort Israel again and have pity on her ruins.  Her desert will blossom like Eden, her barren wilderness like the garden of the Lord.  Joy and gladness will be found there.  Songs of thanksgiving will fill the air.

Remembering from whence we came is, at once, the greatest blessing and bane humans enjoy and endure.  When we recall our sinfulness, willful and self-destructive, we must endure its shame.  When we recall our humble entrance into this world, small, and totally dependant on the kindness of our parents, we gain the perspective of dust; lowly we began, and we are bound for it again.
God points out to the enslaved nation of Israel, losers in war and captives again, that both their sin and their Savior are attached together.  The God who used Israel’s enemy to awaken them to their sinful ways would also be their Savior, bringing greatness out of brokenness, once again.
This is a thought that occupies my mind and soul these days.  And not just for America; we are only a few days away from the July 4th anniversary of our nation’s birthday, but this is not patriotic nationalism.  This is about humanity’s survival.
God’s promises are at least two things:
          1.     They are certain…what God promises, God brings to pass
          2.     They are misunderstood, and misrepresented…just turn on the TV and see the commercials during religious programming. 
Isaiah says God promises joy that will replace the ruins of a disgraced superpower.  In so-doing the prophet invites the beleagured nation to consider the rock from which they were cut; he holds up their humble beginnings for examination. 
It was to an old couples’ childless vacuum God promised an heir, the firstborn of a nation, to be numbered as the grains of sand on the beaches.  To Sarah, 90 years old, and her 100 year old husband, Abraham, there was given a birth, and beginning of fulfillment.  What was once the emptiness of no evidence of God’s promised blessing, is now breathing, cooing, nursing, and filling diapers in a geriatric couple’s tent.  Amazement, laughter, and joy have replaced sad resignation.  Singing and dancing are the new order of the day.  Humble beginnings in Abraham’s tent now shows the flower of spring in the garden of hope.
But, it also began a rough ride. 
Abraham’s family has known what every other family on earth has experienced, treachery, jealousy, hypocrisy, poverty, oppression, tears, joy, singing, parched times, and good.  And, eventually, the fruit of God’s promise came to a cradle in Bethlehem, born a child with no earthly father, but nonetheless a part of Abraham’s lineage.  This is the centerpiece of God’s creation, understood from before the foundation of the universe, that the promise of restoration is carved from the bedrock of Yahweh’s strength.
And, here we are, muddled in such deep and abstruse mysteries, such as whether or not to wear a face mask in WalMart.  And we have deep pain over the shortage of toilet paper.  And on, and on, ad nauseum.  We are drowning in the proverbial puddle of plague-concern at the moment, with all sense of normalcy on-hold, except for the incessant droning of the news channels counting the dead. 
All this…and it is substantial…is momentary.  God is forever; and we have been mined from His quarry, not some primordial pond of protoezoa.  We are made in His image, and, blurred and muddied as that image is in 2020, we remain the apple of His eye[1], His crown of creation[2], and as much as we might feel as depressed and forgotten as Abraham and Sarah, the promises of God never fail.
Let’s Pray Together:

Father, we are thankful that the promise of Your word will never return to You unaccomplished.  What You set out to do is already done.  Prime our faith to receive this truth, we pray, in the name of Your holy child, Jesus.

For You Today
If the “virus culture” of this moment has you a little (or a lot) depressed or bewildered, don’t let the mud puddle claim another victim; just lift your head to look at the rock from which you were cut!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!
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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For other posts on God’s Promises see After the Storm – Part 2 and Why God Got Some Ink

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