“Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;” -Isaiah 48:18
This text is one I need to seal in my heart today, and everyday…especially on the days there are struggles it is good to remember that some of those struggles are due to my own poor decisions. Please hear me, not all our struggles are due to our individual poor decisions, indeed some of my struggles are just the corporate poor decisions of all of us. But too often I can place my struggles at another’s feet when in truth I need to examine my own life decisions, my own heart and ask, “am I following the principles God laid out not to control me but to bless me?”
That is one idea from this text….maybe that is the oppressive portion of the text for some…maybe you are already beating yourself up you don’t need that reminder.
The other idea I get from this text then is this…
All that God has established, that many call oppressive rules, are in fact foundations of blessing!
And the language of the blessings is abundant! Like a river, not a stream, not a creek, not a spring, a river.
Not a still lake, not a calm pond, but waves like the sea.
The commandments are wonderful! They are full of abundance for all of us. Walk in them not to earn salvation but because Jesus loves you so much He wants you to have everything, He wants us to have everything we don’t deserve! But by grace we receive through our Savior.
“Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;” -Isaiah 48:18
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” –Isaiah 26:3, ESV
To understand Isaiah 26:3 we have to read Isaiah 25:1-Isaiah 26:6 and in those verses what you will discover is that the people are celebrating that God is in charge. He is the ruler. He has overcome enemies and established His authority, He has established His “bulwarks.”
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. -Isaiah 26:1
In context we can see the perfect peace spoken of in Isaiah 26:3 is established first upon the actions of God that place Him in complete control and authority. But then it also involves an act of the individual, a mind stayed on God because that individual trusts in the authority of God.
Peace then comes through by the work of God establishing His authority and us trusting in, I’d say even submitting to that authority and rulership.
In our modern world this would mean that true peace is not about Jesus establishing earthly powers, but rather about allowing Jesus to establish His “bulwarks” in our hearts and minds. That we trust His authority.
As Charles Spurgeon wrote,
“To be sure that what you are doing is what Jesus would have yon do is peace.”
For those searching for peace through any other means than Jesus, peace will not be found.
It will not be found in the $500 million spent on self-help seminars each year nor in $776 million spent on self-help books. Peace will not be found in the $90 billion spent on alcohol by Americans each year or in the escapism of the pornography industry (450 million viewers monthly in the world).
Peace is also not found in the good things, a spouse, children, a job, or even exercise.
True peace is found in doing life according to the will of Jesus.
Let us all spend more time in the Word on our knees living in peace.
Plant it in your mind, let it impact your heart, apply it to your life:
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” –Isaiah 26:3, ESV
I embark upon this preparation for the New York City Marathon with a number of fears and motivations.
“Am I really going to do this?” was the question that swished through my mind as I read an email last week informing me I’d won the lottery. Not the lottery that gives you money, but the lottery to run the 2017 New York City Marathon.
I’ll back-up, in November of 2016 I caught a ride up to New York City slept in a church office…
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” -Colossians 3:16
I love this verse because it lays out for us two ways in which the Word of God can be firmly rooted in our hearts.
The first is through teaching and admonishment. The word admonishment in our culture carries a negative connotation. The actual meaning of the word though includes