Isaiah 55:8-13
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Here is a message that I think we need to be reminded of, and I'm saying it in the first person, as though it is our LORD speaking, but please note what follows is my interpretation of what God is saying:
“You and I are not the same” says the Lord.
“Yes, in a Covenant Service you are reminded that you
are in Me, and I am in you, but you are not Me.
When you get into your car, you are in your car, but you are not the
car. And when you breathe in some air,
the air is in you, but the air is not you.”
“Hopefully, you and I are in each other” says Jesus,
“but please don’t ever forget, we are not each other.”
We are different....our thoughts, our ways are different!
This is not a Covenant between equals.
I am not “the big man in the sky”……”I am not
your buddy”……”I am not the boss……that’s Bruce Springsteen.”
I am the Lord your God, Your Maker, Your
sustainer. I made you – formed you in
the womb, knitted your little bones together and I, yes I, am the one who actually sustains you and keeps you going.
How do I do this – well.....
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
God is describing the water cycle here:
The water cycle is almost a covenant that the
sea has with the land. The land needs
the sea for more than the sea needs the land. It is not a covenant between equals, just as the covenant between God and us is not a covenant between equals!
We need God far more than He needs us, except that......................................... He
has chosen us and decided to love us and to care for us and to provide for
us. He does that, says our reading and
the whole of Scripture, through His Word (Scripture)..... which introduces us to His Living
Word (Jesus),........ who in turn helps us understand the written word more, ..........so that the
written word begins to form us while the Living Word transforms us, changes us, so
that we become more “like” the Living Word who is in us;........................................... we change and as we change and become more like the Living Word, streams of life giving water begin to flow from us and the world and people around us begin to change, and on and on and on...... and so the Word accomplishes (vs11) what God purposes.
And then (verse 12) there is joy and peace and blessing.
[My word] will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
That is the fruit of God's covenant with you....this is what God gives immediately and continuously to those who live in covenant with Him.....joy, not necessarily happiness, but joy, inner contentment because of who God is, not because of what might be happening around me or to me;
peace, perhaps even in the midst of war and turmoil
blessing...thorn bushes
replaced with juniper
that's blessing....and it's God's gift of grace to whoever enters into covenant with Him!!!!!
You know by now whether you are living in covenant with the God who wants to live in covenant with you.
At a Covenant Service, we praise God for
keeping His Covenant, and giving us joy, peace and blessing. If these are missing, we acknowledge it is
because we have broken covenant and then we renew or even enter into covenant for the first time.
So this is truly a holy moment.....let the liturgy help you to speak to your God....let the liturgy allow God to speak to you.
