Week 11 Day 4
Finding God in the Mysteries of every day
Isaiah 6:9He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.[a]
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
Some days it is really difficult to understand just exactly what Jesus would do in a given situation. Don’t feel bad. Israel was utterly unable to discern god’s will, His righteousness, His plan and purpose for their lives. They had gone so far down hill in their secularism and greed that nothing would do but their destruction which ultimately came about around 586 BC. What you may not understand is that Isaiah wrote between 100 and 150 years before the events of Jerusalem’s fall to Nebuchadnezzar II.
Isaiah literally ended up “talking to the hand” so to speak. People did not want to hear. People refused to listen. Ultimately the whole of the nation paid the price. In the end even the just, were carried off to Babylon.
With sadness I look out over a world that is very much like the world Isaiah lived in. Amazingly, I listened to a sermon today on the “love chapter” (13) from 1st Corinthians. The message, “Love is not self-seeking”. I was powerfully reminded today that love is not a feeling, it is an act of the will. Love will cost you everything. Not choosing love will lead only to condemnation. “What more horrible word could ever be heard than to hear Jesus say “Away from me, I never knew you”. (Matthew 7:23) To pay the price to love is far better than any alternative I can think of.
Larry M Lawrence- Mysteries 