Isaiah 64

Scripture: verse 1

Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at Your presence

Observation: Seth Godin recently blogged about the difference between confidence and certainty.  He concludes that insisting on certainty – in yourself or in others – is a mistake.  It tends to be a way of drowning out fear by ignoring possible negative outcomes.  He’s primarily talking about business situations, but at the moment it rings true for faith as well.

I’d like to be certain.  I’d like to know exactly what God is going to do next.  I’d like Him to rend the heavens and come down so that I don’t have to think anymore.

God doesn’t seem to work like that, though.  He wants us to be confident in Him, but He rarely gives us certainty.  He might promise to work all things for our good (Romans 8:28) but He doesn’t say how long that will take or how He will do it.  He promised to be with Jeremiah and rescue him (Jeremiah 1), but that doesn’t mean nothing bad happened.  At one point Jeremiah got thrown into a cistern to die (starvation, dehydration, blood poisoning from standing in muck – take your pick) and God sent a sponsor to plead with the king and get Jeremiah out.  There was rescue, but not certainty.

God says that He will be found by those who seek Him (Jer 29:13).  But I’m not at all sure that we ever stop seeking.  There is always more of God to find.

Application: Act on confidence.  Don’t be discouraged when things are not certain.

Prayer: Lord, I praise you because you are God.  I praise you because you are the only certainty.  Thank you for blessing me.  Help me to be confident in the future you have planned for me.  Amen.

Isaiah 43:14-28

Scripture: verses 16 through 19

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,
who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Observation:  This passage begins with a reference to Exodus 14, the crossing of the Red Sea.  The people of Israel were trapped between the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his army, intent on killing (or possibly capturing) them all.  God opened a path through a sea, and then collapsed the water onto the army when the Egyptians tried to follow.  He displayed His power, and also reminded His people that He was ready and willing to rescue them.

And now God says that He is doing a new thing, but the new thing looks like the old thing: He is making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  The impassable has become passable.

God wants to remind me that He is powerful, and that He is ready and willing to rescue me when I am stuck.

I don’t know what your wilderness is.  I barely know what mine are.  I’m pretty sure keeping the house clean is one.  Recently I realized I’ve been having panic attacks, so I expect there’s some sort of wilderness behind those.  But the point is that it doesn’t really matter what my wilderness is.  What matters is that God is opening up a new path that was never there before.

Application:  Look for the new way, the new path, the new river.  He is making a way through.

Prayer:  Yeshua, I praise you because you are the well that never runs dry.  Making new ways and new spaces does not drain you.  Thank you for opening new ways for me.  Help me to see them and go where they lead.  Amen.