One Step
… and His name shall be called… Counsellor [Isaiah 9:6]
👨🏻🏫 Does a farmer keep ploughing & harrowing? No! When he has leveled its surface, he sows seed. For his God teaches him judgment, instructing him.
Dill is not threshed with a sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin. Rather, dill is beaten out with a staff, and cumin with a rod.
Bread grain is crushed, but not endlessly. Rumbling cart wheels and horses over it would only crush it to powder.
This also comes from Adonai-Tzva’ot: Wonderful is His counsel, great is His wisdom. [Isa 28:24-29 TLV]
👨🏽🎓God gives us practical wisdom to handle different situations. He is wise in the way He deals with us…
When we place our circumstances in HIS Hands, and lean on HIS Love, then the things satan is using to try & destroy us, will end up refining us and strengthening us…
👨🏻🏫 <<And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, _”This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.>> [Isa 30:20-21]
👨🏽🎓The Israelites chose to lean on their own wisdom, and trust the counsel of the world, and we know their story.
IN CHRIST, we have received the Holy Spirit to be our Teacher. Do we allow our ears to be tuned to His voice?
I find that very often, I am impatient. I want God to give me the whole instruction set, so that I can go ahead, do things quickly and show Him how efficient I am.
I am slowly learning that the “job” is not the most important thing to God. He could always send angels to get stuff done better than I could ever do it.
It is about deepening fellowship with Him, understanding His love, relying on His love… learning to lean on Him… And so, He teaches us, *letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson. [Rf Isa 28:10]
Have you watched/participated in an aerobics class? The instructor calls out the movements one action at a time, so that each one can stay in step with the instructor and each other…
So it is with God and us: He leads us, one step, one step, so that we walk with HIM in time with HIS steps – walking with the rhythms of grace.
Abba Father, forgive me for being so impatient. Help me to follow Your timing/rhythm. Help me to walk with You – one step at a time. In Jesus Name. Amen.
AD
Isaiah 29
In this prophecy, Prophet Isaiah tells us the reasons for which Jerusalem or Ariel, the lion of God, was brought low! He says that it was because, although they kept observing their annual rituals, celebrating their festivals on schedule, vs 1, said that they were loyal to the Lord; and also said wonderful things about Him, yet, they were not really loyal to Him at all, because their worship consisted of nothing but man-made rituals, vs 13! As a result, God decreed judgment against them!
God would make them like an altar hearth in which there would be continual buring in the form of hordes of invaders coming against them, natural calamities and hallucinating dreams by which they would be brought down to the dust, vs 2-8! As a result of their hypocrisy and lip service to the Lord, they and their prophets and seers became spiritually blind and drunk because God poured out upon them a strong urge to sleep deeply, vs 9-12.
Their feigned obedience, resulted in them having a perverse understanding of God, and they began hiding their plans from the Lord on imagining that He would not know what they were doing, vs 15,16! Nevertheless, God was determined to change things and do something amazing in their midst, such that their wise men would have nothing to say, and the sages would have no explanations, vs 14! In that day, God promised to multiply them, vs 17, restore the hearing of the deaf and the sight of the blind, vs 18, as well as, restore the joy of the downtrodden and poor, vs 19.
He, Himself would ensure that the tyrants would disappear, the taunt would vanish, and all those who loved to do wrong would be eliminated, together with those who bore false testimony against a person, and who entrapped the one who arbitrated at the city gate and deprived the innocent of justice by making false charges, vs 20,21.
Thus Jacob would be lifted up and would see their children honour and respect the God of Israel, vs 22,23. They will no longer stray morally or give in to complaining, but rather gain understanding and acquire insight, vs 24. This prophecy helps us to understand what true worship of God is all about. It entails surrendering our plans to Him and working out His plan, by His grace, even if it costs us everything!
It restores our spiritual hearing and sight. It stops us from oppressing the downtrodden and poor. It prevents us from tearing others down with our words, keeps us from doing wrong and bearing false testimony against another and ensuring that the innocent get justice! It will help us to remain morally pure and cease from complaining too!
Our children too would then honour and respect God! If we don’t repent of all these sins and yet imagine that we are worshiping God, then we are deceiving ourselves and will surely experience the judgment of God just like Jerusalem, (the Ariel/lion of God) did! For there is no partiality with God, Romans 2:11.
Rowena Thomas
Mumbai, India.