Devotion:
Read Isaiah 55:6-9.
Many scholars say that Isaiah was writing to the exiles in Babylon at the time when Cyrus, king of the Persians, had defeated the Babylonians and was permitting the exiles to return home to Judah. The exiles’ attention was likely focused on the common realities of daily living instead of on spiritual things. Through Isaiah, God invites them and us to turn to God while God is “near,” accessible and open to us. Verse 7 calls out in an evangelistic way for sinners and the unrighteous to turn back to God and receive mercy. The exile’s human response would have been to think that only those who deserved pardon would be forgiven, but God counters this thinking by reminding us that God’s thoughts and ways are so different from ours and so much “higher” than ours.
This passage teaches us to search, study, and seek to know the ways of God. The theologian Karl Barth insisted that “God is not man writ large,” making the important point that we cannot understand God’s ways by thinking those are simply our ways magnified in an exaggerated, grand style. To learn God’s ways, we must be open to surprise, constantly learning, and willing to subject our ways to God’s.
Personal Worship Option:
Lord, as I pray to you today, I seek to know you and your will for me. Help me to be open to your ways instead of simply lifting my thoughts and ways and asking you to bless them. Keep my heart and mind open to knowing you as you really are. Through your Son, Amen
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