The Strange Ways

Isaiah 51:1-5, 8-9

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many.

Have I not said all along that the ways of God are well above ours as in Isaiah 55:9. Look at this thing here. Moab, built among the rock, was their half nephew left to die in the desert from Genesis 13:8-9. From the pit you were dug speaks of the story of Joseph. Just as they did Joseph, so the Lord will do to them. For is he not both the rock the builders rejected and him that was raised from the pit as in Psalm 118:22. Psalm 16:10 says from the pit he will not let his loved one, who is Jesus, see corruption. God says, 'you are looking for someone to lead you.' God says look to your nephew, your own brother, and the one you rejected. How many of you know that there are some situations from which your own family cannot help you. Seek no further than Jesus. Just as he had been all these places himself, so he will also rescue his people. They will even look, talk, and act just like him as in 1 John 3:2.

Now, the text speaks of Abraham and Sarah. What an odd couple to speak of at this time. Abraham was their father just as God will be like him unto them. Only, God will be a far better Father than Abraham ever was in John 8:58. The people of Israel who enter the house of God will come to their senses and find there are the children of the slave there. These are just as much their equals in God's house unlike the story of Genesis 16:7-15. Sarah was not a comforting figure to the Jewish people, even if she was their matriarch. God's call rested with Abraham alone rather than with Sarah. Remember, God had also promised her a son as in Genesis 18:12-15. Some of you have had women who were birth givers in your life. Some of you have had men who were not the best of examples of what a father, husband, or a man of God should be. When God called Abraham, he was only one. Now, there are many such spiritual fathers who are waiting in God's house. How many of you know that when your family is messed up, God is still with you.

The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

Genesis 13:5-7 sees the split between Abraham and Lot that occurred due to the condition of the land. It is not interesting to note that the people, like the animals, were many in number. As the animals multiplied, so did the people, as in Hebrews 10:4; this passage speaks of the blood of bulls and goats. There is an eternal perspective on this thing. The people might be here today and gone tomorrow like 1 Peter 1:24 implies. However fleeting their life, rest assured that it matters to God and to your fellow beings. Does anyone know what bulls and goats do? They find partners out there grazing down the field with their herd-fellows; then they have babies and end up on someone's dinner or redemption plate. But even God says, that to him you are precious according to Psalm 116:15. The land may look like a desert or a wasteland from the hand of the Lord and from overgrazing by the people. After he is through, he will cause some things to be replanted and a few others to grow that were not there before. How many of you know that he provides and restores even better than it was before. I would imagine the people will be singing like they never sung before.

"Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: Instruction will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.

The verses probably make some uncomfortable that are not used to the ways of the Lord. I would imagine the Jewish people do not like to talk about the book of Isaiah very much. It made them so uncomfortable, that the religious rulers came to Jesus with a question of Matthew 22:29-32. Jesus immediately referred them back to what Moses had taught of the raising of the dead. These verses state that the nation of Israel will see his salvation for other people before they see it for themselves. They may be his people and his nation. But no longer are they the only ones as Romans 11:17 makes clear. God has no favorites in his kingdom. Only he will have people who call upon his name from the island nations to those who have been with him from the beginning. His house will be filled with a lot of different people. All their needs will be met in him as well. A law will come from him, and the island nations will see his salvation. Verse seven says, he is calling to those who know righteousness. He seems to have a lot of other people he is calling here that know him as Savior also.

For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations." Awake, awake, arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through?

My, this is a strange situation. Verses eight and nine speak of an old enemy: the moth, the worm, and the dragon. Joel 2:25 speaks of God restoring the years the locust and worm has eaten. Yet here is his army, just chewing away at his command. Granted, they are chewing on the enemies of God, but it is still a frightful image, really. Next, the text discusses cutting Rahab and wounding the dragon. It is more likely that the dragon was wounded when she was cut loose from the devil's work as in Hebrews 11:31. Either way, Rahab is not the monster spoken of by the text. The King James Version here has helpfully translated that word as dragon from the ancient text. Therewith, we can make a few other useful categorizations. The dragon spoken of here is more than likely Satan rather than Leviathan. Thus, Satan suffered loss all the way up to the time of the cross when Christ crushed his head as promised in Genesis 3:15. God is not asleep. We do not have to keep calling for him to wake up. He is of old; that means he has been around for a very long time. This war has been going on for almost as long. You see, when Rahab was found, she was an ancestor of another of Israel's distant relations. Thus, her being cut into a new family brought about the solution to hundreds of years of family feuds, power struggles, and senseless schemes of the enemy. Only God could bring great good out of such horrible situations for his glory and our ultimate blessing.