“Do you not see it?” God asked through Isaiah. Did they not see the new thing He was doing?
How often do we miss things that we think we’re looking for? Over the weekend, my husband and I were driving in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There was a small herd of deer that many stopped to photograph, then just yards away, another stood, majestic, but slightly hidden. His winter camouflage worked. Most folks drove right by, missing the chance to see him — seemingly not wishing to see him.
Israel was looking for their Messiah, but they missed Him. Their misconceptions, pride, and unbelief caused their vision to be so obscured that they missed the One who fulfilled the prophecies about Him.
Here, Isaiah reveals what God had shared with him, a reminiscing of what God had done for Israel throughout the ages, then said,
“But WAIT!”
He was going to do something bigger and better than pushing back the waters of the Red Sea or the Jordan River. He was going to do something new. Different. Permanent. And he challenged the people to look for it.
It is interesting to me, that the Hebrew word for “pathway” – that passable road – is “derech.” We’ve experienced the derecho winds here before. The destruction is massive and fast. Trees laid over, chopped down in an instant. The dictionary doesn’t credit derecho as being derived from ancient Hebrew, but I can’t help but think it’s at least a close cousin.
Imagine with me, there is wilderness that has swallowed up humanity, holding the people captive and lost. And God says He will make a derech (pathway) through. It won’t be a process of centuries, it will be an instant change. A stunning revelation of a path to freedom.
To me, that instant change happened one day long ago on a hill just outside Jerusalem called Golgotha. When Jesus cried “It is finished!” the derech to God was opened. No further sacrifice system needed. No more blood sprinkled on an altar. No more grain mixed with oil poured out on the altar. A path that while narrow, would accommodate all who would choose it.
This pathway to freedom, cleared completely by the hand of Almighty God, is still cleared today. Still available for you to walk. Still missed by those who don’t wish to see.
What shall we do with this new thing, this pathway to freedom, this entrance into the Kingdom of God?
Today is the day to #ChooseWell.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
A little extra…
What do we do with that? What do we do as believers? We need to be on that path. And we need to be beckoning people to join us on that path. Don’t you think? That we would be saying, hey, here’s the way, here’s the way to freedom. You need to get on this path with me. Come on. It’s not as bad as you think.
We also need to get to that point where we realize it’s not as bad as we think. You know, a lot of people–how do I say this being gentle? A lot of people choose salvation as an escape from hell. And they don’t view it as a journey through life. They think that it’s something thing that comes into play when this life ends. But Jesus said that he came to give us abundant life. He didn’t say abundant life after life. He said abundant life. And I fully believe that that abundant life starts the moment that we accept his free gift of salvation.
Does it mean that we’re going to be wealthy? Maybe not monetarily. Does it mean that we’re going to be healthy? Maybe, maybe not. Does it mean we’re never going to know trials and tribulations? Probably not. Jesus said that we would face all those things. What it does mean is that the joy that has no price, the peace that also has no price, all these things that he offers to us will be ours, and there is a wealth there that we cannot comprehend. And there’s no price tag for it.
If you think about the things that you have gone through, were you going through those with the Lord? Leaning on him, trusting in His promises? Or were you going through them without Him? I’ve done cancer twice. I mean, I didn’t choose it, it chose me. And I can tell you that having the Lord and knowing His peace, and keeping His joy is what got me through that. Lots of other stuff that I’ve been through, and I can tell you that holding His hand, knowing that He does not let go of mine helped me to walk through all that. That’s priceless. That’s abundant life. That’s life that is abundant, is filled with, filled up, overflowing. And if we live that abundant life, there are others who see. And they’re like, Well, how do you do that? I’ve had people ask me, how did you go through this cancer, if they saw what happened: How did you go through that? And not freak out and not be all blue? And you know, all these different things? And I tell them it was Jesus. I had to explain it, it’s trusting him.
Maybe it’s time that we start trusting him a little bit more. We do a little bit more today than we did yesterday. And then tomorrow, we do a little bit more than we did today. And then the day after.
Let’s do that. Let’s trust God and look for this new thing that he’s doing. Let’s be excited for it. Let’s invite others to see it with us. Right? You can do this! I know you can. I do. I know you can. I believe in you, and that better than that. God believes in you. And he is for you. Oh, he is for you. It’s time to trust him. Time to walk with him.
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