Scripture has this amazing power to bring our lives back into balance. We swing from extreme to extreme, but God’s word is true, steadfast, unchanging. This is why we can trust it to ground us when we find ourselves drifting too far to either end of the emotional spectrum.
On one end is the dark place. In this place we pity ourselves, we can’t imagine anyone loving us or any reason why they ever might. Sometimes we stop by this place for a few hours in the middle of the week, sometimes we bring our tents and camp in this place of despair for a season. Unloved. Forgotten. Abandoned. Persecuted.
Isaiah’s audience was camped out in this place of despair as their nation crumbled around them. They believed God had turned His back on them and left them to be swept up by their enemies. The opening verses of Isaiah 63 paint a very different—and gruesome—picture. God has not abandoned His people and left their fate in Edom’s hand. Instead, He reveals a Messiah who will fight Israel’s enemies with His own hands, who will trample them and destroy them, soaking His own garments with the blood of His enemies.
When we are feeling downcast and defeated, that same Messiah will fight for us. He declares us worthy, precious, loved.
The other place we go is to the mountaintop of arrogant pride. From this vantage point we can see how badly others are screwing up. We can appreciate all the great things we do. We are successful. Competent. Independent. Of course God loves us, what’s not to love?
Israel was guilty of this too. They were unrepentant, proud. They went through the motions of worship and sacrifice, but their hearts were hardened. And so Isaiah 64:6 brings us the oft-quoted reality check:
“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
As impressive as Israel thought its worship was, as great as we think our actions are, God sees filthy rags. And that’s our good acts.
God’s word is the fulcrum that keeps us balanced between these sinful extremes. It tells us we are loved and worth fighting for. It reminds us that we haven’t arrived, that our ultimate redemption has yet to come and that it is completely out of our control.
1. The Holy Spirit is mentioned a couple times in these chapters. What do we learn about Him from them? How can His work keep us balanced?
2. Of these two extremes, which one are you more likely to camp in? Think about why and about what truths can pull you back.
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