Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Do you believe God had a purpose for YOUR LIFE when God was “knitting you together in your mother’s womb”, as Psalm 139:13,14 declares?
We’ve been looking closely at some amazing messages from God which the prophet Isaiah wrote and today I discovered this statement in Isaiah 49:1,2: “Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb God has spoken my name! He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of His hand He hid me; He made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in His quiver.” Now that is a remarkable statement of LIFE PURPOSE, isn’t it?
The French language has a phrase which says it all: “raison d’etre”. It means the reason for existence. Obviously, it can be used when pointing to a bridge and the traffic which flows over the river; or an airplane and hundreds of people arriving in a new city; or almost anything you can name and then describe its function.
Here Isaiah was declaring his ‘raison d’etre’, his reason for existing. Now do you remember when and how Isaiah received his calling, his professional assignment from God to be a prophet?
He describes it for us in the sixth chapter of his book when Isaiah wrote “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the LORD, high and exalted…”. (Is. 6:1) And in the remainder of that chapter Isaiah describes his encounter with God in which he was anointed and commissioned by Almighty God to be God’s spokesman to the people of Israel during a very difficult time in their history. By the time we arrive at chapter 49 Isaiah has been faithfully receiving and proclaiming God’s messages for about 5 decades. His life spanned the reigns of three different kings in Jerusalem and the final several kings in the northern kingdom Israel before it was decimated by Assyria.
But it is only here, in chapter 49, that Isaiah gives us his confidence that his calling, in Isaiah 6, was the fulfillment of God’s intention, God’s purpose for his life which God had in mind as God was developing Isaiah as a little fetus in his mother’s womb! Now think about that!
Perhaps you know that the prophet Jeremiah wrote something similar about his life: “The word of the LORD came to me saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations…” (Jeremiah 1:4,5)
Jeremiah began writing his prophetic messages from God more than 120 years after Isaiah began writing his, yet God had very similar life purposes for both men. Why? Because they were God’s spokesmen to different generations and that’s why I wonder about you and me and God’s purpose for us in our generations?
Now friends, this reality stuns me. It almost takes my breath away. Because it tells me as God was shaping and forming both Isaiah and Jeremiah during those months in their mother’s wombs, more than 100 years apart, God designed their physical bodies, and God chose both men’s personalities, and God gave both men the right temperament, and God gave both men courage and an energy level all designed to live the life of a prophet of God, able to boldly bring God’s strong messages into the palaces of kings and withstand the sometimes angry response, even to the point of persecution and torture.
As I mentioned the other day, from what history tells us, Isaiah was executed by being sawn in two inside a log! Jeremiah was thrown down into a muddy cistern and starved, then beaten and he remained in demolished Jerusalem eeking out an existence while still communicating God’s important messages to His defiant Jewish people, as they were dragged off into exile. I wonder what price you and I have paid, or will pay, to accomplish the purpose for which God has given us life in our generations?
Isaiah next wrote these important words about his God given life purpose: “And now the LORD says – He who formed me in the womb to be His servant to bring Jacob back to Him and gather Israel to Himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength…” (Is. 49:5)
This tells me Isaiah was convinced that his life mission was to draw the people of Israel back to God through the messages he received from God and proclaimed. I wonder if you and I feel a similar life purpose.
Does God want to speak through your life and mine to our families, our coworkers, our friends and neighbors to draw them to God? Does God love them and does God have great things He’d like to do in their lives helping them become the people God designed them to be? Like the Israelites of Isaiah’s day, have many of the people in your sphere of influence and mine turned far away from God and are they living lives very different from what God may have designed them for?
In closing look with me at Isaiah’s next statement which explains why you and I, Gentiles are looking closely at Isaiah’s writings many centuries AFTER he wrote them? “God said to me ‘It is too small a thing for you to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.“ (Is. 49:6) There it is, Isaiah’s global purpose!
Once again God spoke a message that I am sure flabbergasted, maybe even offended, the Jews of Isaiah’s day. They could not imagine God had any concern for all the non-Jews of the world, especially those who lived in places far away from precious Jerusalem. But this statement from God to Isaiah is very clear, isn’t it?
God’s messages through Isaiah are also intended to draw Gentiles to God and even awaken in Gentiles an understanding that the God of Israel is ready to provide salvation to Gentiles as well, anywhere on this planet, in any generation, including today!
Now we need to pause and ponder that, asking ourselves some important questions:
1. When God was developing you in those 9 months in your mother’s womb, WHAT was God’s master design for YOU? What did God have in His mind for your purpose in your lifetime?
2. Since God can foresee every moment of your future, do you think God had multiple purposes He wanted to accomplish in and through you during your long life? Maybe a purpose for your childhood; and another purpose for your teen years; and another purpose for your young adult years; and maybe several purposes in several different locations during the decades of your adult life; and finally, maybe a very important purpose for your life during the closing years of your life?
3. As you and I look back over our lives can we see God’s purposes? When we finally come to the end of our earthly journey will we be filled with joy that we lived each phase of our lives seeking to fulfill the purposes God had for us and for the people in our lives during each season of our life?
Oh my, these few verses in Isaiah 49 really challenge us, don’t they? So, I hope you’ll spend some time with God right now, as I’m going to, seeking to discern God’s perspective on our life purposes, and here’s a song to help us reflect…
Today’s Scripture: Is. 49:1-6.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
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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