Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus”
Our world is now profoundly affected by something called “AI”...’artificial intelligence’, particularly in the world of technology driven information. While some is helpful, a new challenge has arisen and that is trying to discern if what you see or hear is reality and truth or artificial information produced by ‘AI’. People are discovering the value of frequent ‘reality checks’ to be sure they can discern when they are dealing with “AI”.
Amazingly, I see this warning from God throughout the Bible! These famous words of Jesus are a divine ‘reality check’ to a world claiming many roads to God and many different truths: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6)
Yesterday and Thursday we looked together at Isaiah 64:1-4. It’s the age-old cry to God for help from a world in desperate condition. However, the remainder of Isaiah 64 is a ‘reality check’ for those seeking God’s help: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Is. 64:6)
Its reality isn’t it… like the child who doesn’t know how to swim playing in the waves at the beach as their parents keep calling them to not be drawn into the deeper water, and before long the child is screaming for help washed out by the waves into deep water, as they disregarded the warning while they played in the surf.
When we cry out for God’s help, we must first take an honest look at how we got into the mess! Of course, most people want to blame someone else for their painful situation and these next words from Isaiah are too often the unspoken hope of people in a mess: “Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us [with mercy], we pray, for we are your people.” (Is. 64:9) It’s like that little child screaming for help in the deep water, unable to swim, but asking their parents to overlook the fact they disobeyed, they turned a deaf ear to parental warnings about riptide and the power of the waves. Have you ever found yourself doing that with God?
Isaiah then wrote something he could not imagine, but led by the Spirit of God Isaiah scribed a reality check picture of the future for Jerusalem which happened a little more than 100 years after Isaiah died: “Your sacred cities have become a wasteland, O LORD…Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins. After all this LORD, will You hold Yourself back? Will You keep silent and punish us beyond measure?” (Is. 64:10-12) That was the reality check of 586bc when King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem; demolished and burned the great Temple of God; and dragged off thousands of Jews from Jerusalem to captivity in Babylon! (2 Kings 25:1-21)
It should be easy for us to imagine the Jewish people in captivity wondering if God had given up on them and would Jerusalem remain nothing but a pile of rubble forever? So, God gave Isaiah a ‘reality check’ message for those who thought God had given up, God had punished with too much vengeance and Isaiah 65 is that message from God: “I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call on My name, I said, “Here am I. All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations, a people who continually provoke Me to My face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick…” (Is. 65:1-7)
The Jews had turned away from God and pursued idols and the gods of other nations. They had disregarded God’s continual invitation for them to return to Him. Does that sound like a message from God through the apostle Peter to our world in the first century? “The LORD is not slow in keeping His promise…Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
And so, God gave Isaiah this ‘reality check’ statement for all people of all time: “See, it stands written before Me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full…both your sins and the sins of your ancestors, says the LORD…” (Is. 65:6,7) God’s clear message of justice is that every person will stand in accountability before Holy God for all that they did in their lifetime! (Hebrews 4:13; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 3:23, 6:23)
Beginning with Moses, God’s prophets had made God’s standards for living God honoring lives very clear, and God’s warning for the price of disobedience equally clear: “For you who forsake the LORD…I will destine you for the sword…for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen; You did evil in My sight and chose what displeases Me.” (Is. 65:12)
Isaiah 64 and 65 are a harsh reality check but a very important warning from God, aren’t they, my friends? In our world of “AI” it’s very important for us to hear God’s truth as it was for Isaiah and the people of his day who were being deluded and led astray, away from God by King Manasseh in Jerusalem. Of course, with Holy God there is always His Love and Mercy and Grace and on Monday we’ll see that hopeful message in repentance, but for this weekend, let’s not miss God’s warning as voices all around us invite us into darkness and disregard of God’s truth! Are you living a careful, discerning life, my friends?
Here’s a worship song to help us consider these important truths of Isaiah 64,65.
Today’s Scripture: Isaiah 64 & 65.
Choose below to read or listen.
Isaiah 64
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Isaiah 65
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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