To Encourage You

Isaiah 30:21 “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ’This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”

Whenever we read the Bible, we should always ask the question “To whom is the writer speaking?”  Sometimes it’s a universal message – the same for anyone who reads it. Sometimes it’s a very specific message to one individual, like Peter, or to a group of individuals, like the apostles.  At other times it’s to an entire nation, e.g., the nation of Israel. 

Although the message of the Bible is a universal one to each and every one of us, understanding that message is so often dependent on understanding the context of the message that is given.  For example, the words in Isaiah 30 above were written to the nation of Israel at a time when they had turned their back on God. They were rebelling against Him and had turned away from Him to go in their own way.  That way, as at all the other times they did this, was a very destructive way.  It was a dead end with nothing good for them in it, yet away they went in spite of all the examples that should have kept them from this path as they looked back through their history.  Yet, in spite of all this, God graciously tells them that they will hear a word from Him even though they had turned their backs. It would be a word coming from behind them, calling to them.  It would come when they were doing anything but seeking Him. And it would come as they wandered, sometimes turning to the right hand and sometimes to the left.  In their rebellion, God would still call out to them in a way they would surely be able to hear, telling them to turn to His way and urging them to walk in it. 

That’s the way it always is for the rebel against God.  The Bible tells us clearly that “No one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:11-12).  It is incredible that, in spite of this, God takes the initiative to seek sinners, typified by the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son in Luke 15.  In each case, it is the shepherd, the coin’s owner, and the son’s father who are doing the seeking, not the other way around.  In some way or another, in God’s providence, He knows how to get the attention of those who are far from Him with the persistent cry of “turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die” (Ezekiel 33:11). That message may come by way of the conscience, a gracious gift of God to each one of us.  It may come by way of the consequences of our sin, or perhaps through the words we read or hear from a friend, a book we read, a radio program, or some other source. And it may come when we’re least expecting it, when we’re not thinking about God and His ways at all.  Nevertheless, it comes, and when it does the responsibility then falls on us as to what we do with it.  Will we then, in spite of His grace and mercy, just keep forging ahead in our own way, or will we finally, and maybe for the first time, have ears to hear. 

May God give us the wisdom to walk through life with our face turned toward the Lord and not away from Him.  But when we find ourselves in the condition of having turned away, may we have the wisdom when we hear His call, to turn back, to turn toward him, for why would we continue on the path of loss and death when the Author of Life is calling.