THE ONE WHO MADE US (Isaiah 17)

Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at the Holy of Israel. They'll lost interest in all the stuff they've made. (Isaiah 17:7-8, MSG)

The idea is not unique to the Terminator franchise, but they spoke to the issue well. Humans fear that some day the things we have made will turn on us.

The irony is that humans in general treat the One who made us the same way. We rebel. We don't respect Him. We don't even admit He made us. We creep closer and closer to the miracle of procreation, with cloning and in vitro fertilization.

Unlike the Terminator machines who come close to exterminating the human race, we can never kill God. What we do is even worse--we ignore Him.

God could kill us with a single word--a thought. He doesn't have to tolerate our rebellion. He doesn't because He loves us.

But the day is coming when everyone will acknowledge the Creator God. They will bend their knees to His right to govern them. They will be judged. Those with Jesus as their Defense attorney join Him in glory; those without that defense, head to the lake of fire.

The One Who Made Us us also the Holy. As our parent, He has the responsibility of disciplining us. As the Holy, He has earned the right to judge our behavior. He not only is the Holy in heaven, where His lordship runs things. He is also the only perfect, holy man. With Jesus' death and resurrection, He bought our pardon.

For now we can squander our time on our toys, on what we've made. What exists at the top of your list? Right now, I suppose it's writing. I've "made" a growing list of books. It could be our children, a business we've grown, a hobby.

None of those things are wrong in and of themselves. But if they shine so brightly that they eclipse the Holy Creator, I'm blinded to the truth.

A long hard look--look long. Take your time. Study the tiniest details and open your mind to as much of the whole picture as you can grasp. Humans experience of God resembles the blind men with an elephant. One of them comments on the trunk, another the tusks, another the leathery legs, and so forth. But the more we look, the more we will see. Look hard--look at the things about God that you'd rather ignore--like His holiness.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full on His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace--Helen H. Lemmel

RECOVERY ROOM (Isaiah 14)

When God has given you time to recover from the abuse and trouble and harsh servitude that you had to endure, you can amuse yourselves by taking up this satire, a taunt against the king of Babylon. (Isaiah 14:3-4, MSG)

I love this verse. Get this, everyone who has ever experienced abuse or hard times or oppression: God gets it. He understands. He doesn't expect us to get up and walk away as if nothing ever happened.

He gives us time to recover, That fact has so many implications. For one thing, He knows what I went through. He doesn't explain why He allowed it to happen--but He saw. He cared.

For another thing, anyone who has suffered from abuse, trouble, servitude, needs time to heal and recover. I'm a big believer that forgiveness is a process. God allowed and shared my feelings of anger. But I prayed for my enemies--and in time that helped me to see their stunted lives. In time--a long time--I was able to commit an act of forgiveness.

How strange, but how satisfying, that God breaks into that time of healing by offering amusement at the cost of the our enemies.

God may not ask us to write a satire--although if you want to write one, that would be fine too. But is it all right to make fun of our enemies? To laugh at their misfortunes? This passage suggests that's okay.

And you know what? As I prayed for my enemy, I saw his disasters. A part of me rejoiced. Another part felt sorry for him. As long as he refused to repent, he had a lifetime of unhappiness ahead of him.

When the Germans tore down the Berlin Wall--when Iraqis tore down the statue of Saddam Hussein--maybe God was there, celebrating the victory against oppression.

I know He celebrates when one of His children is delivered.

BLUE-COLLAR MESSIAH (Isaiah 11)

Each morning he'll pull on sturdy work clothes and boots, and build righteousness and faithfulness in the land. (Isaiah 11:5, MSG)

I want to know this Savior.

Isaiah 11 describes the day when the green shoot will come out of Jesse. Commentators agree that it refers to the Messiah, the Son of David. Reading his words makes me hungry for the day He will rule the earth.

Although the Messiah is a king--he is from the stump of Jesse, the Davidic line--he is a working-man's leader. Instead of suit coat and tie, he dons work clothes and boots. He doesn't only tell others what to do. He builds righteousness and faithfulness with His own hands.

His priorities focus not on the rich and the privileged but for the invisible. "He'll judge the needy by what is right, render decisions on earth's poor with justice." (Isaiah 11:3-4)

When I read, "He won't judge by appearances," I was reminded of Martin Luther King's famous 'I Have a Dream' speech. This Messiah will definitely judge us by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. He chooses the poor in spirit, those who are lost, the sinner and not the saint.

This man chose me. Not because I'm white, because I longed for perfection, because I'm smart. He didn't reject me because I'm overweight and self-centered. He chose me because of all the things I'm lacking, all the reasons why the world passes me by.

I love Him because He first loved me. I love Him because He knows me inside out and loves me anyway.

Of course this Messiah needs work boots. He is a carpenter, after all.

THE FIST OF GOD (Isaiah 9-10)

Even after all this, God is still angry, his fist still raised, ready to hit them again. (Isaiah 10:10)

Yesterday I looked at the Rock of God--either a hiding place of refuge or an immoveable obstacle.

Today Isaiah talked about God's fist.

Strangely enough, one of the most-often quoted prophecies about the coming Messiah lies between the two passages: Isaiah 9:6. Say it with me: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting father, the Prince of Peace.

But instead of the healing, encouraging Prince of Peace (the Message uses the word "wholeness"), verse 8 talks about the "Master." God is depicted as a harsh school headmaster, trying to discipline the rebellion out of Israel, fighting fire with fire and with fist still raised, ready to strike agtoain.

God sent them prophets but they were too arrogant to listen (if anyone is interested, this passage includes the verse that the Cahn's The Harbinger is based on but I won't get into political rhetoric, for or against.)God used the Philistines to punish them. God's fist was still raised.

Next, God went after the leaders, chopping off the head and tail. The people got the leaders they deserved. God's fist was still raised.

The people indulged insatiable lusts--food, drugs, power, things, you name it. Civil war ensued. God's fist was still raised.

Lastly, they legislated evil. God's fist was still raised.

It is tempting to apply this to America, but I'm not sure we should.

What I do think is truth-for-any-age from this passage?

God is angry when we go from sin to sin. The Bible tells us He disciplines us because He loves us. That punishment may reach greater and greater levels.

It is by God's mercy that we are not consumed by His holy fire or crushed underneath His rock.

Instead, His rock shelters and His fire purifies us and provides comfort.








Even after all this, God is still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

STAND YOUR GROUND (Isaiah 7-8)

If you don't take your stand in faith, you won't have a leg to stand on. (Isaiah 7:9, MSG)

Hmm. I read chapters 3-4 and couldn't find anything to write about. Today is overflowing with wonderful truths, so many that I had a hard time deciding. That says more about where I was on Thursday than about God's Word.

Although chapters 7-8 include separate prophecies, they all reflect on the truth of standing in faith. Foundational truths of why and how we take that stand.

How about--When all is said and done, the last word is Immanuel--God-With-Us. (Isaiah 8:10, MSG).
How fitting that "the" Word (in John 1) has the "last word." After all debates end and all wars cease, He will still be standing. He is the foundation, the rock on which I stand. Sing it with me. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand." Oh, and what is Jesus's name? Yup. Immanuel, God with us.

Take these words to heart: If you're going to worry, worry about the Holy. Fear God-of-the-Angel-Armies. The Holy can be either a Hiding Place or a Boulder blocking your way." (Isaiah 7:12-14, MSG) What a great picture of "fear God". He is either the place to which I run when I am afraid (Oh, Corrie Ten Boom and The Hiding Place). Or else He is the thing that I fear. He places a boulder that I can't climb on and when things go far enough, the boulder can smash. Strong, hard, immoveable--all I want my defender to be, all I don't want in my opposition.

The last verse that stood out to me is one of those "I wish this wasn't true" passages. It talks about the times God "remains in hiding." If you want a great book on the subject, try Seeking God's Hidden Face by Cecil Murphey. Thursday I felt a hint of that, when I read God's Word and it felt dead, not the living organism that I have encountered over and over again during this nibble experiment. If God seems silent--it doesn't always mean something is wrong. Isaiah gives us the only answer to a time of silence: While I am waiting, I continue to hope. I don't give up on Him.

Take your stand on faith.
Stand your ground and hope.

They both say the same thing.

LIFE FROM DEATH

**A quick note: I have been fighting a bad cold recently. Sorry to have missed the remainder of the Wisdom books but we jump back in with the prophets.**

The country will look like pine and oak forest with every tree cut down--Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps. But there's a holy seed in those stumps. (Isaiah 6:13, MSG)

Today the social worker at the nursing home asked me for the most special moment of my life.

The question made me think of what accomplishments could I celebrate? And the answer is--very few. My accomplishment has come in surviving a difficult life.

(My answer? The birth of my granddaughter nine months after my daughter's death, and the publication of my first book.)

When I read about the "huge field of stumps," I thought about that conversation. If all of my dreams pictured trees reaching to the sky, what remains are stumps. My family--stripped of my till-death husband and one of my two children. Music--not a career and now no longer a ministry. Writing--a tree, perhaps, but more like a seedling than a tree in California's Redwood Forest.

Dreams stunted by health and events and age.

But that isn't the final word.

God tells Isaiah that He is going to empty Israel. That even if a tenth is left, those will be removed as well--leaving stumps out of what was once a great forest.

But in those stumps--a holy seed rests. The stumps aren't dead. Out of their death, a new life grows.

Kind of like Jordan's birth, and then Isaiah. Jordan, born a full pregnancy after Jolene's death. Isaiah, born seven months after my mother passed away.

A seed, ready to fall into the ground, to grow to fullness. Kind of like The Lion King's circle of life.

Another reminder of God's grace. God's holy seed rests in me, ready to sprout to new growth. My roots will grow deeper in him. My trunk will grow taller--stronger, and more like Christ. My branches will spread outward, to other people. There will be fruit ready for picking for others. They will grow strong--and in term, a new holy seed is planted in them.

The circles will continue to ripple through death and beyond.

Amen.

Please pray!

Hey, friends. Roberta Brosius here. Darlene has been sick the last few days and not able to write and post her daily nibbles. Please pray for her quick recovery, and send her a message of encouragement. Thanks!