I Still Love You

www.bible.com/1713/isa.54.10.csb

Have you ever felt like God has abandoned you? Maybe you’ve been going through a tough time and you’ve cried out to God over and over again, only to feel like your prayers are just hitting the ceiling. Maybe you’ve cried out to God again and again but nothing has changed. You’ve tried to be “prayed up” and holy, looked for every flaw in every corner of your being trying to figure out why God doesn’t answer. It’s very easy to come feeling that God just doesn’t love you anymore.

This 54th chapter of Isaiah addresses this issue. God through Isaiah is speaking to Judah, the last remnants of the people of the promised land. The Assyrians had destroyed and carried off their brothers of Israel to the north, and Judah alone was left in the world, God’s only people left on earth. They were the only ones who worshipped the True God, and yet even this God seemed like he had abandoned them.

“For the LORD has called you, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” says your God. “I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with great compassion.””
(Isa 54:6-7)

In the next verse, God explains Himself to them:

“In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love,” says the LORD your Redeemer. “For this is like the days of Noah to Me: when I swore that the waters of Noah would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.””
(Isa 54:8-9)

God did not have to do or say anything. God is completely justified in all that He does. Yet, he wanted Judah to know why he had abandoned them for a little while. He wanted them to know that He was angry with them, and that He “hid” from them for a while. I would suspect He hid from them for their protection, rather than out of any fear on His part. God’s absolute righteousness was offended and angered by their actions. He “hid” Himself so that He would not reflexively destroy them. How do you discipline those you love? When your children go astray, do you lash out in anger, or do you temper your response by first leaving the room until you compose yourself? That would be an analogy of what God does here. Because of their sin, and His absolutely justified response in wiping them out, God “takes five”, removes Himself from them for a moment, and then returns in His compassion. He recalls to them what happens when His anger is allowed to work — the Flood. There was a time when God released His justice upon the world (in the days of Noah) and destroyed every human being on it, save eight aboard the Ark. That’s God’s anger. Maybe we ought to be grateful that God “takes five” from time to time.

It’s like an old joke I heard once about fathers and their children. When Mom comes home to find out what misadventures dad had had with the kids, he says, “at least they didn’t die!” I think we can get a bit narrow-minded in our understanding of God’s blessings. We look at all the things we don’t have. We mourn that our lives just aren’t as good as others. And we complain about it. Sometimes our prayers are hitting the ceiling because God has hidden His face from us, perhaps fuming that we haven’t acknowledged a single gift He HAS given us, let alone the eternal gift of life everlasting, which we have never and cannot ever earn for our ourselves. Yes, often we sound like ungrateful punks to the Lord, who don’t appreciate the things we have, complaining like the Israelites in the desert: “Well yeah you miraculously freed us from the most powerful nation on this planet, but where’s my lunch?” We complain about not getting everything we think we deserve when we have been freed from the most powerful enemy on this earth, death and Hell. What is your freedom worth to you? The Israelites, though free from any oppression in the wilderness, and on their way to the Promised Land, reminisced about how good they had it back in Egypt under slavery, with plenty to eat.

Yeah, we have cancer. Yeah, our heart is a mess. Yeah, our kids are causing all kinds of heart-ache, but it sure beats Hell. Yes, I am beset on every side with stress and conflict. Yes my world is falling apart, but Hell is worse, and I’ve been saved from that. I wonder sometimes if we are subjected to some of there horrible circumstances just to remind us of what we are being saved from. We don’t know what Hell is like, but whatever we are going through now, we know Hell must be worse, and for the Christian, this is the worst Hell we will every experience.

Lord, I know I must sound very ungrateful at times, selfish, unconcerned with all the GOOD You have given to me. I know that when I complain, I still have many blessings that I didn’t earn, nor deserve. I cannot thank You enough for my salvation in Jesus, and when it comes down to it, that’s the only thing that matters. Please fill me again with the joy of my Lord. Please pour into me the joy of my salvation, drowning out all the cares of this world, so that I may see You afresh. Thank You Jesus for giving Your life for mine. In Your Name I pray, Amen.