By Guest Writer
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 50:4-11, Isaiah 51:1-23, Isaiah 52:1-6, Deuteronomy 30:19-20, 1 John 1:5-10
As a child, I remember being told while I was being disciplined, “this hurts me more than it hurts you.” As far as I could tell, that was rubbish. If my parents wanted to tell themselves that to make them feel better, so be it, but I wasn’t buying it. However, as a mom now, I find discipline to be one of the trickiest aspects of parenting. I see it differently because I so long for restoration in whatever is going on and to see my girls grow from their mistakes. I see that their behavior is shaping who they are becoming, for better and for worse. And most of all, I see how what they believe and tell themselves in those moments of failure deeply affects their souls and whether or not they are willing to receive love from my husband and me, as their parents.
In their recent past, Judah had watched Israel be conquered by the Assyrians. Then, the Babylonians ousted the Assyrians as the conquering power. Isaiah brought a message that Judah, too, would follow the path of exile. They knew their fate—Babylon was coming, and their generations of sin and disobedience were to blame. I can only imagine that exile felt like the end of almost everything. How could they recover or find hope in the midst of something so destructive, something they had watched happen to their neighbors?
But that was not the end of Isaiah’s message. The passages for today come from the perspective of God’s servant, looking back at the exile and calling the people of God to rise up, trust Him, and fulfill their calling to be a blessing to the nations. Isaiah brought hope by reminding them of God’s past promises—“Look to Abraham your father” (Isaiah 51:2). Abraham’s name alone would evoke the stories of their family’s legacy, God’s provision and guidance set within a tender covenant passed down through generations. And even further back in their history, “he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD” (v.4). Eden was where God shaped Adam and Eve as His own and lived with them unveiled, as those who are near and dear to one another.
It can be hard to feel near and dear to anyone in the midst of discipline. If you’re anything like me, self-loathing and condemnation feel much more accessible when I have failed. But just as God called Judah, He calls us to look to Him and to His Son, the Suffering Servant. Jesus brought us the hope of resurrection by suffering on the cross in our place. Salvation in Christ means that the exile that sin affords has no power over God’s love for us. He beckons us back to Him, to draw near to Him, and to believe that His love goes deeper than any failure ever could.
Written by Becca Owens
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