"For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me."
Isaiah 50:7-8
Isaiah here is speaking as though he were Christ, and expressing his feelings. This insight into Christ's emotions touches me, I think because as God our Savior seems a little distant from our lives, at least on paper. And needing help and being even a little bit worried about being ashamed or confounded seems very human. Setting his face as a flint so that no one gets to him with the "shame and spitting" of the previous verse also seems kind of like us, right? And so, knowing that he was like us in so many ways, and yet, he didn't *have* to suffer any of it, and that he had the power to walk away, I think makes the next verse more powerful.
Christ talks about the people who want to contend with him, who choose to be his adversaries, and he invites them to come to him, to stand with him... he went through all of it to save whoever he could get through to, and he works so hard to get through to all of us, even when we want to fight him. He understands what we suffer and he feels just as we do. He's ignoring our cruelty and our bad behavior and is determined to love us anyway.
Today, let's respond to his kindness and his love with humility and obedience. Let's realize that his whole work is to save us, and every single thing that he does is for our good. He gives us chance after chance, and all will be forgiven, if we can just change.... if we just realize how much we need him and let him *help* us to be better and stronger and everything that we have the potential to be with his unlimited wisdom and power. Let's love him back, with everything that we are.
He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me."
Isaiah 50:7-8
Isaiah here is speaking as though he were Christ, and expressing his feelings. This insight into Christ's emotions touches me, I think because as God our Savior seems a little distant from our lives, at least on paper. And needing help and being even a little bit worried about being ashamed or confounded seems very human. Setting his face as a flint so that no one gets to him with the "shame and spitting" of the previous verse also seems kind of like us, right? And so, knowing that he was like us in so many ways, and yet, he didn't *have* to suffer any of it, and that he had the power to walk away, I think makes the next verse more powerful.
Christ talks about the people who want to contend with him, who choose to be his adversaries, and he invites them to come to him, to stand with him... he went through all of it to save whoever he could get through to, and he works so hard to get through to all of us, even when we want to fight him. He understands what we suffer and he feels just as we do. He's ignoring our cruelty and our bad behavior and is determined to love us anyway.
Today, let's respond to his kindness and his love with humility and obedience. Let's realize that his whole work is to save us, and every single thing that he does is for our good. He gives us chance after chance, and all will be forgiven, if we can just change.... if we just realize how much we need him and let him *help* us to be better and stronger and everything that we have the potential to be with his unlimited wisdom and power. Let's love him back, with everything that we are.
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