Thoughts for the Day

Thus says the Lord
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you for your own good,
who leads you in the way you should go.
O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your prosperity would have been like a river,
and your success like the waves of the sea;
your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Isaiah reminds us that God teaches His people throughout their lives. We learn in different ways - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, and through reading (or writing). I mainly learn by doing things (kinaesthetic) and by reading, but am not so good at learning visually or through listening. My mother's comment as a child was often, "You have to learn the hard way!" when I fell out of the large oak tree near where we lived in Bordon in Hampshire, not realising how slippery the tree had become after it had rained!

Speaking to the people of his time Isaiah has been saying that God has been teaching them, but they have failed to listen. He is effectively saying that when Samaria was destroyed (722-21 BCE) and the ten tribes were taken away by the Assyrians they had failed to listen; and when Jerusalem was destroyed (587/6 BCE) and they were taken into exile to Babylon the people still didn't reform their ways. They had not obeyed God's laws, neither had they listened to God's words spoken through His prophets. And when God intervened to bring them a conqueror-turned-liberator in the shape of Cyrus, who allowed them to return to Jerusalem, their response was minimal with most of the people preferring the life they had achieved in Babylon. The people did not obey God or repent, and have had to learn the hard way. Isaiah, in Chapter 48, describes God's lament over what might have been!

Today, God still teaches us in different ways: We see the problems in our world on tv or social media; we listen to sermons; we read the word of God in our bibles or on our screens; and we experience the good things or the mistakes we make in our own life. The question is, are we really applying what we learn to our daily life?

Lord Jesus Christ,
You call each of us to action
in a different way,
but all too often we prefer to ignore
the messages You send.
You taught Your disciples
in many different ways,
and You sent the Holy Spirit
to help them understand.
We ask Your help this day
that we may learn Your will for us.
and that we may be stirred to action.
Amen.