“Count Your Blessings”
Isaiah 30:19-33
Last week we read the first part of Isaiah 30 and discovered just how patient God is and because we know that whatever God does, is right, we were reminded that we can depend on Him. We also learned that the Israelites were much like we are today and they had difficulty waiting. They often decided to take matters into their own hands and because of that, they often turned their backs on God’s plan and struck out on their own.
Today’s Scripture gives details on what happens when the Israelites wake up and realize that what they have been doing didn’t work and they return to God.
Isaiah reveals three kinds of promises in this half of Isaiah 30.
There is the promise of spiritual regeneration, verses 19 – 22 In verses 23-26 we read of the physical blessings God intends to lavish on His people The final promise in verses 27-33, Isaiah prophesies the defeat of all of Israel’s enemies, including Assyria
Previously, in chapter 6 we read that God said that Isaiah’s ministry would actually contribute to the blindness, deafness, and the “fat-heartedness” of the people.
Last week, we read in verse 11, where the people came right out and told Isaiah to stop confronting them with the Holy One of Israel.
Today we read in verse 19 that Isaiah sees a day when all of this will be changed. Isaiah tells them that the day will come when, the people will cry out to God and and He will answer them graciously.
In fact, “the moment he hears, he’ll answer.” Instead of being driven from Him with adversity and affliction their spiritual eyes will be open and the experiences they have, will be teaching them,
instead of destroying them.
Not only will their spiritual eyes be open, their spiritual ears will be in tuned in, as well. They will be able to hear the merest whisper from God, telling them to turn to the right or to the left. The result of open eyes and open ears means they will be able to see their idols for what they really are, idols. And when they look upon their idols, they will be disgusted with them. Regardless of how expensive they were or what they once meant, the only sensible thing to do with them, will be to throw them out, get rid of them.
How many of us long for the day when we can hear the merest whisper from God. Whether we turn to the right or to the left, we will be able to hear a voice behind us, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”?
I contend, God, our Heavenly Father, always wishes to guide us, it is we who are the ones with the difficult hearing. Unlike the Israelites, that Isaiah was talking to, today we have the ability to hear straight from God anytime we want. We have His Word, accessible from our cell phone!
We know the way to walk.
We have “what” to do, right here in the Scriptures.
I think that most of the time we don’t like “Wait” as an answer. We don’t like that the Lord may give us the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. We forget what James wrote in the first chapter of his book, James 1:2-7
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
The second promise found in verses 23-26 relates closely to the previous promise. Let’s face it, the main reason we have idols is to make sure we receive physical blessings. Here, Isaiah reminds the Israelites that when they are responsive to God and stop all of their manipulative behaviors in their physical, social and spiritual worlds,
to their own advantage,
they leave God space to provide.
It is then, God will give blessings, freely.
We read in verses 23-24 of how God will provide them blessings in agricultural terms. Check it out!
The rain will come when it is needed, and will create a harvest so great, that even the work animals will have more food than they can possible eat.
In verses 25-26, we read again how God is the one who gives the blessings. There will come a day when God will heal His people of the wounds and bruises from their time of punishment. God will provide abundant water and darkness will be replaced with incredible light.
Let’s be honest. How often do we provide for ourselves, perhaps not consciously leaving God out of the picture, but not always acknowledging He is the true provider. Until,
there comes the point where we are unable to provide and we quickly throw up our prayers for answers, or the provisions we feel we need.
When,
had we been in conversation and allowed God to provide for us in the first place,
we would have received even more than what we could obtain for ourselves. Not only will the rain come when we need it, the crops will yield more than we we can use so that even the work animals will have abundance. The darkness will be turned to light and what we think is already in the light will become brighter. And our bruises will be mended and our wounds will be healed.
Doesn’t get much better than that.
But for some reason, we forget and continue to try to make due with what we can and forget the promise God has made to provide.
The final promise, in verses 27-33, coincides with Isaiah recalling how the counselors had been stating the only way for Judah to be saved was to create an alliance with Egypt. Here, Isaiah reiterates that if Judah wants deliverance they should be looking at God, not Egypt.
In verse 31 Isaiah puts it quite clearly when he states, The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria; with his rod he will strike them down.
Isaiah is trying to help the Israelites comprehend, that this is not a battle between “little Judah” and “mighty Assyria.”
Rather it is a contest between Assyria and the most overwhelming, mighty Being in the universe. In other words, “Don’t mess with God!”
Because the wrath of God does not mean a slap on the wrist, it means Verse 28 – they will be carried off in a flood Verses 27, 30, 33 – they will be consumed by fire Verse 30 – they will be battered by hail and pounding rain Verses 30, 31, 32 – they will stagger after repeated blows Verse 33 – finally they will be hurled into the place of eternal burning
All of this comes about by the Lord’s Mouth Breath Voice
Out of the mouth of God comes life, for those who respond positively to it, and for those who reject it, comes the opposite, death. Malachi 4:1-3 The Message (MSG)
“Count on it: The day is coming, raging like a forest fire. All the arrogant people who do evil things will be burned up like stove wood, burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ash— a black day. But for you, sunrise! The sun of righteousness will dawn on those who honor my name, healing radiating from its wings. You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking. And you’ll tromp on the wicked. They’ll be nothing but ashes under your feet on that Day.” God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.
If only Judah could get its eyes off, how great Assyria was and how little they seemed, and put their eyes on how mighty God is.
Sound familiar?
How often do we get caught up with how big our problems seem and how little we have to combat them?
Today’s Scripture reminds us that if we were to keep our eyes on God, we would be able to experience the blessings He has for us. Our eyes would see and our ears would hear. But we are too busy with the world and our problems around us, much like they were in Isaiah’s day. Yet if we look closely, we will see that today’s Scripture reveals to us that Isaiah emphasizes two key principles to God’s divine blessing, which is as important to us today as it was for those listening to Isaiah. You see, God’s blessings are both spiritual and material and cannot be separated. Unfortunately, Christians often put God’s blessings into one category or the other.
Either they are spiritual and the Old Testament physical blessings were symbolic to the spiritual blessings of the Christian life. Or the promises of the Scripture are to be taken literally, so that the Old Testament promises of riches should be experienced for us today. Both views are missing the other. The concept that we should serve God so that we receive a blessing, is another name for Christian paganism. This certainly wasn’t the example given by Christ and His disciples. Christ was explicit in His rejection of such an idea and expressed it in His Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the Beatitudes. Isaiah says in verses 19-22 that a blessing is a matter of a transformed heart, that can see adversity and affliction and recognize that God is capable of working both of them for good.
The truth is, God wants to give good things to his children. Yet, we often get in the way of that happening.
We need to repent of trying to meet our own needs commit our needs to Him delight in serving Him out of love
And when we do, two things will happen:
We will be living in a way, where we no longer block all the good things God wants to give us, which means,
We will be able to recognize everything that comes to us as what it is really is: an incredible, undeserved blessing from God.
Let’s pray.
