Isaiah 12:4Praise his name! TELL the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is!
This is one of the texts which motivated me to write Karis’s story and to begin this blog.
So, what has the Lord done for you? Remember and Tell! You can use this blog to TELL, to honor him. Send me your one-page story—or song!
Your story matters! It’s an essential part of the great weaving of a tapestry of praise through history and around the world.
Woman weaving in Sololá, Guatemala Shutterstock: Jose de Jesus Churion Del
Dr. Dan Allender, in To Be Told, says there’s also a huge benefit for our future when we remember and tell our stories: “God wants to reveal himself through your story. … As you gain a clear sense of how God has written your life so far, you will see how he is leading you … He asks you to join him in coauthoring the rest of your story.”
In Nebaj, Guatemala, where I grew up, women tell their stories through their weavings. Image by Picasa
Isaiah’s song is so beautiful, I want you to enjoy the whole thing. Notice how he weaves the past into the present and future. Because of what God has done, I praise him today and trust him for tomorrow—and when today becomes tomorrow, I will have yet more to praise him for.
I will praise you, O Lord!
“God has come to save me.
I will trust in him and not be afraid.
The Lord God is my strength and my song;
He has given me victory.”
With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!
In that wonderful day you will sing:
“Thank the Lord! Praise his name!
Tell the nations what he has done.
Let them know how mighty he is!
Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things.
Make known his praise around the world.
Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy!
For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you” [Immanuel!]
(In relation to this song, see also Exodus 15, Psalm 118, John 4:14, Revelation 22:17)
Verse 3 reminds me of Brazilian Ana Paula Valadão’s beautiful song “Águas Purificadoras” (Purifying Waters). I found her singing it in English!
Isaiah 11:1-2 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him.
Romans 8:10-11 Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.
Colossians 2:9 For in Christ lives all the fulness of God in a human body.
When Dave and I had to cut down our once-beautiful dying tree, we asked for a stump to be left, hoping new growth would come from it. There’s no sign of this happening, and I have grieved the loss of this tree, the birds who nested there, the swing for my grandchildren that hung from its branches.
Trunk of our beautiful tree
King David’s family tree looked dead too. The last king in David’s line, Zedekiah, described as a rebellious, hard, and stubborn man (2 Chronicles 36:13), was blinded after seeing his sons slaughtered in front of him, bound in chains, and taken away to Babylon in 586 BC, where he died (2 Kings 25:5-7).
But God, in the time of his own choosing, by his Spirit created new life in the womb of a descendant of David’s family. His own Son, bearing DNA of David.
The first 39 chapter of Isaiah are not popular like the last half of the book—they seem too full of judgment and predictions of destruction. But nestled between the Assyrians and the Babylonians we find chapters 11 and 12, jewels of joy.
What strikes me as I read these lovely words again this morning is the fact that the Spirit that rested on Jesus—described in Isaiah 11:2-5—is the same Spirit who filled the apostles on Pentecost and the same Spirit poured out on us, you and me, when we open our hearts to him. Isaiah 11 tells us what this Spirit is like: wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And the next verses describe the person (Jesus) in whom will live all of God, by his Spirit:
He will delight in obeying the Lord
He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay
He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited
The earth will shake at the force of his word (see Matthew 27:51—one of Jesus’ words on the cross was, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing”)
He will destroy wickedness (see Romans 6:6-11) and create a world where enemies will no longer harm each other
He will wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment (see Ephesians 6:14)
He will be a banner of salvation to all the world; nothing will be hurtful or destructive as people know the Lord
He will make a highway for his people to return to him (John 14:6)
Other sections of Isaiah add to this description, including from our last chapter, 9:6-7 “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace …”
So, what’s my takeaway today, as I sit in awe of Jesus and the Spirit of God in him? I can’t make myself be like him. What I can do is submit to the Spirit of God and ask him to cleanse and fill me and produce in me his fruit (Isaiah 11:1), the fruit so evident in Jesus: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives (Galatians 5:24-25).
But God is passionately committed to fairness and justice
Isaiah 10:1-2 What sorrow awaits the unjust judges and those who issue unfair laws. They deprive the poor of justice and deny the rights of the needy among my people. …The Lord, the Light of Israel, will be a fire; the Holy One will be a flame. … In that day the Lord will end the bondage of his people. He will break the yoke of slavery and lift it from their shoulders.
Isaiah 9:7He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen! [See Matthew 1:1, 4:16, 28:18; Luke 1:32-33, 1 Corinthians 4:24-28]
Romans 8:21 With eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
Revelation 21:4 God will wipe every tear from their eyes.
How could we endure the daily news if not for the promises of passages like these? I don’t know about you, but for me it’s so overwhelming that I can develop a “thick skin”–compassion fatigue–to protect myself from feeling all the pain.
Yet if we’re aligned with God’s passion for justice, I think each of us has a part to play. A small part, that may feel completely insignificant. But that’s not the point of our obedience to what God calls each of us individually and as congregations to allow into our hearts, our prayers, our pocketbooks, our time and energy.
What is your small part?
Lyrics of Still Will I Love You (A Song for Refugees):
Give me strength, give me hope And I won’t suffer alone The God who was and is to come Break the silence with Your song Oh, oh, oh, ohh, I can hear You singing Oh, oh, oh, oh-ohh Give me justice, give me peace You are everything we need The God who made the sky and sea Of Your goodness, I will sing Oh, oh, oh, ohh, I can hear You singing Oh, oh, oh, oh-ohh, no, I won’t stop singing Oh, oh, oh, ohh, I can hear You singing Oh, oh, oh, oh-ohh Still will I love, still will I love Still will I love You more Still will I love, still will I love Still will I love You more
Isaiah 9:2, 4 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. … For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.
I was born and grew up in Guatemala. My parents worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators, who used the name Summer Institute of Linguistics (Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, ILV below) for their educational contracts with Latin American governments. Their work included analyzing the linguistic structure and creating an alphabet and literacy materials for languages not previously written. My mom, for example, created primers for teaching people to read, and trained trainers to teach others to read.
Dad devoted his time to translating the Scriptures into Maya Ixil. He told fascinating stories about the translation process. One of my favorites was about translating 1 Peter 5:7. It illustrates, I think, the beauty and significance of the mosaic described below.
Dad told us he made an initial translation of 1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you,” and read it to his Ixil assistant. The man said, “Oh no, you can’t say that.” Dad tried a series of different words until he had exhausted his Ixil vocabulary, each time receiving the same response.
Finally, he returned to his original rendition and asked, “If I were to say this, what would it mean?”
His assistant replied, “Why, it would mean that God cares about us. That’s not possible!”
Dad said, “But that is exactly what this text is telling us.”
The man’s eyes grew wide. Then he leaned back and laughed and laughed and laughed.
All his life he had been terrified of God and of the spirits that inhabited every aspect of nature. They were not benign or personal. He and his family spent much of their resources on trying to make the spirits happy enough to simply leave them alone.
The idea that God cared – about him! – was revolutionary. This Scripture literally transformed his life. He later told my parents, “This Word has made me sweet inside.”
When I was fourteen, I lived with my parents and youngest sister at a Wycliffe base in Ixmiquilpan, north of Mexico City. Occasionally we visited the ILV Tlalpan center in Mexico City. I loved gazing at a huge three-story mosaic on the side of the main administration building. It illustrated Isaiah 9:2 and helped me appreciate my parents’ work.
“The teaching of your Word gives light” (Psalm 119:130)
I asked veteran Wycliffe translator Margaret Daly, retired from her work in Mexico, to describe this amazing mosaic for us:
“Thinking about Isaiah 9:2 and the stone mosaic on the former ILV office building in Tlalpan, I guess you are not so much interested to know how Katie Voigtlander came up with the concept and the various aspects of the construction of the mural as you are with the connection between what is pictured and the translation work of ILV. Am I right?”
“Yes. Thank you, Margaret.”
“As I recall, Katie wanted the mural to show how the introduction of the gospel message in languages the people understood brought them from spiritual darkness into the light of life in Christ. Note that the figure at the bottom has its head lowered and shoulders bowed, indicating a lack of interest. The figure in the middle has his head raised, indicating interest has been aroused because what is being told is understandable. The figure at the top is carrying a torch to light the way to truth for his fellow man. The lighted torch symbolizes the translated Scripture.
“The mural is not a painting — Katie went to the quarry and chose the colored stones to be used. A three story ‘tablet’ was formed on which the ‘cartoon’ (the enlarged drawing of Katie’s concept) was carefully traced so that she could see how it all fit together, make any necessary changes in perspective, and finally follow the cartoon in placing the stones.”
(Me) “I read an article in Spanish that identifies eight colors and types of stones used in the mosaic.”
“Yes. I’m sending you another article too that tells more about Katie’s intent and process.”
[If you’re interested, you can read the article below.]
“To transfer the cartoon to the tablet, Ted Engel, one of the Swiss ILV members who was a trained mountaineer, lowered himself from the roof of the building. Katie climbed the scaffolding daily for several months to work with the stone masons.”
(Me) “The Tlalpan mosaic honors the work you and your husband John devoted your lives to accomplish, Margaret. Thanks so much for helping us better understand the impact of Bible translation through Katie’s stunning mural.”
(Margaret, quoting Marilyn NIckel Ahrens Baer):”I found the following article when I was working in the Mexico-Cardenas Museum at JAARS***. We were also given, by the Mexico Branch, the original drawing that Katie made before the mosaic was created.”
The Mural on San Fernando Avenue
Reported by Carlos Zugasti, resident of the Barrio del Niño Jesús, Tlalpan
This mosaic mural, full of mythological symbolism, is in the tradition and style of Mexican murals, and in this case has the aura of primitive civilization. Mexico is no stranger to this tradition. Long before any contact with peoples from other latitudes, people here designed and built mosaic murals; the ancient Aztecs practiced this art of painting with pieces of stone. They created mosaics on objects destined to propitiate their many gods and by which they represented ritually the equilibrium of the cosmos. They displayed on masks, earrings, medallions, knives and necklaces scenes of importance for religion, history or everyday life relating to education and culture. In Mexico the history of mosaic art cannot be reduced to a simple chronicle of decoration for rooms or for educational buildings. It is a compendium of the art produced with great dedication and talent during the Aztec dynasty by artists of world class ability.
Tlalpan has various examples of mosaic art, some done in stone and some in glass. With pride we focus on the one found on San Fernando Avenue, between the Viaducto to Cuernavaca and Retama Street, in the Barrio del Niño Jesús, on the building which now belongs to the Centro Nacional de Cancerología.The mural was created under the auspices of the Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C., which in its time was charged with the task of designing phonemic alphabets for Indian Languages of Mexico and which was a pioneer in the elaboration of dictionaries for these languages.
During her long career, the Mexican linguist Artemisa Echegoyen* compiled a dictionary of the Otomi language of the Sierra, and published oral histories of the Mexican Revolution in the journal Tlalocan. She collaborated in the translation to Otomi of the Gospel of Saint John and also wrote articles about the indigenous culture. In collaboration with Katherine Voigtlander** she published the grammar “Luces Contemporaneas del Otomi,” and prepared many other linguistic studies as well as promoting and publishing literature in Indian languages.
Katherine is the one who designed and executed this mural, utilizing natural stones of different colors and hues. She brought together Venician red, sienna, rose, salmon, grey, obsidian black, Calcedonian white (like marble) and Tikal green. With them she created a mural measuring almost 38 square meters that covers part of the headquarters building of the old Linguistic Institute. The theme of the mosaic is an Indian man carrying a torch to illuminate the darkness. Katherine Voigtlander executed the work with regular “teselas”, stones selected and cut to the desired shape. The colors of the minerals in these natural stones became part of the artwork of the mural which covers three stories of the building which housed the library and classrooms as well as administrative offices of ILV.
Cata, as we all knew her, in addition to her linguistic expertise, had unique abilities for drawing and painting. She illustrated many of the manuals, missals, booklets and dictionaries in Mexican Indian languages. With her great artistic sensibility, she designed the mural, learned the technology for building a mosaic mural, and produced a great work of art, worthy of wide recognition. She has left for posterity this monument in stone that in its time was symbolic of the work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. It forms part of the Route of Murals that includes those of the National University of Mexico executed by Diego Rivera, David Siquieros, Juan O’Gorman and the mosaic murals we see in the Anahuacalli of Coyoacán.
*Artemisa Echegoyen passed away Febuary 11, 2006.
**Katherine Voigtlander moved to Arizona; she celebrated her 90th birthday April 19, 2007. She died August 13, 2011.
***JAARS, Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, was founded by Cameron Townsend (who also founded Wycliffe) 75 years ago to assist Bible translators living in remote areas with transportation and radio connection. Margaret’s son Charles Daly (Chuck) has worked with JAARS his entire career. See https://www.jaars.org/about/.
Isaiah 8:11-13 The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said, “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them. Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear.”
Romans 12:16-21 Live in harmony with each other. And don’t think you know it all! … If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. … Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
I had a wonderful experience on our recent 1500-mile trip to visit friends and mission supporters west of us. We stopped to visit a friend we haven’t seen in many years. He brought up a political issue that is very important to him, asking what we thought about it. As carefully as I could, I expressed agreement while saying that for me there were other important issues to consider as well. He listened. He did not immediately dismiss or diss me. His expression of affection for me did not waver.
I felt honored by this friend. Rather than “cancelling” me because I didn’t agree with him 100% about one-issue voting–a heartbreak I’ve experienced before–he noted how much we have in common. He protected our relationship rather than negating all that we’ve witnessed together of the Lord’s work in our lives.
The times I have felt dishonor, once the sting wore off, I have wondered whether fear might be at the root of cancelling or ghosting a friend over something so relatively unimportant to me (maybe because I didn’t grow up in this country?) as political issues. Certainly, the media can foster fear in us, especially if we pay attention only to one perspective on a given issue or decide certain political figures are wearing the white hats and the rest are black, along with everyone who gives them a hearing. Fear can result in rejection of those we’re told are destroying what we value. It can leave us vulnerable to believing things that are simply not true. It can narrow our experience of life, to the point that we miss out on abundance and the freedom to live joyfully.
But the Lord calls us to think and act differently. When our trust is solidly rooted in him and his sovereignty over history, we don’t have to live in fear. We can dare to honor others, as our friend did on our delightful visit with him and his family.
Elaine Elliott, who has contributed to this blog in the past, recently sent me notes from an online sermon on honor she listened to. She’s referencing one of the values of the church she and her husband attend in Antigua, Guatemala:
Here’s the value: “We give honor—to those we lead, work beside and follow. The cross gives every human being immeasurable worth. We will treat people with the honor the cross displays.”
Dishonor disrupts the supernatural. The Greek word for dishonor means “to treat as common.” Honor is mentioned 147 times in Scripture—usually in reference to people. The word means to value, to treat as precious, to give weight.
Honor creates a space for the Holy Spirit to be released. Honor must be chosen; it is not a feeling but a choice.
All honor starts with honoring God. God says, “Those who honor me, I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30). God LOVES the world–and calls us to consider precious what he does, the sinners–including you and me–for whom Jesus died.
Some ways we can choose to honorothers: not compare, make it a daily habit, practice gratitude. Daily think of something positive about your spouse and friends, for example, and share it with them. Each day think of something you can be grateful for about someone with whom you’re in a struggle and share it with them. Speak words of honor over your home, declaring your spiritual purpose. One purpose: “I love my husband. I will make him glad he married me.”
Romans 12:9-10 says, “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them … with genuine affection. Take delight in honoring each other” (NLT). “Outdo one another in showing honor” (RSV).
Respect is earned; honor is a gift. If someone is dishonoring you and you honor them, you have already won the competition by outdoing them! If your effort is sincere and heartfelt, it has value even if the other person is not able to receive it as intended. It’s a kind of defense against bitterness and anger when we are misunderstood and mistreated.
Thank you, Elaine! While recognizing the complexity culturally, relationally, and emotionally of what is perceived as honor or dishonor, I think these ideas–and the example of my friend–can help us think and act more like Jesus would in our challenging culture.
My apologies for posting this out of order! I wrote it before traveling, so it would be easy to post on the run, and then forgot I never did it.
But God wants us to know him
Isaiah 5:7, 12-13, 20-21, 24 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence… “My people never think about the Lord or notice what he is doing. So they will go into exile far away because they do not know me. …
“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever. … They have rejected the law of the Lord; they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”
Lament.
Not ours, this time. God’s.
I imagine Isaiah writing this chapter with tears running down his cheeks, just as Nehemiah, after the exile Isaiah predicts took place, wept over news about the condition of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:4). And as Jesus, too, wept over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34-35).
Commentators say no other portion of Scripture gives us such insight into God’s heart as the writings of Isaiah. In this chapter, he uses the phrase “What sorrow” six times as he details the indifference of his people to his love for them, and their foolishness in rejecting his wisdom.
God wants us to know him: what he values, what he cares about, what he is doing, what he longs for, what stirs him to holy anger, what delights him. Through Isaiah, God shows us his broken heart. He shows us that even he can feel disappointed and betrayed. Like a loving parent passionate about his children, investing everything in them—and then experiencing their rejection and having to watch them suffer the consequences of their misguided choices.
God is not distant from us, untouched by our daily lives. He longs for intimate relationship, open communication, transparency in the security of his love for us. He wants us to pay attention when he speaks to us, and to make choices worthy of him, in line with his holiness.
The sovereign Lord and Creator of the universe loves you and me enough to weep over us.
Isaiah 6:5-6 Then I [Isaiah] said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
Isaiah 6:10 The hearts of these people are hardened… Their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them. (Greek version)
I remember, as a child (I think I was seven), not being able to sleep one night because I had told my father a lie. I tossed and turned and finally crept into my parents’ bedroom, woke Dad and confessed my sin. I still remember how relieved I felt when he forgave me. My heart filled with thankfulness as I returned to my bed and to sleep.
Dad didn’t say, “Oh, honey, that’s nothing to worry about.” He took my confession seriously and extended the solution to my guilt: forgiveness.
God doesn’t say, “Oh, no worries, Isaiah. Don’t feel bad. I’m sure everything will turn out all right. Other people are worse than you. You should cultivate the ability to feel good about yourself.” This was, essentially, the message of the false prophets to the people of Isaiah’s time.
No. There is right and there is wrong. It’s not all fuzzy and gray and rationalizable. It’s no gift to sugarcoat sin, any more than it would be a kindness for an oncologist to deny the presence of cancer in a patient’s body.
God accepted Isaiah’s self-diagnosis, his recognition and confession of his sin. And he offered a solution, one that caused physical pain but healed Isaiah spiritually. (Isaiah has enough to say the rest of his life that we know the burn on his lips also healed.)
I used a translation of Isaiah 6:10 from the Greek version of the Old Testament because that’s the one Jesus quotes in Matthew 13:14-15/Mark 4:12/Luke 8:10 when he’s explaining the parable of the Sower to his disciples. And it’s the version Luke uses at the end of the book of Acts that Paul quoted while preaching the Gospel to Roman Jews from prison (28:26-27). Some were persuaded, but others did not believe. Paul quotes Isaiah to say, “Even if you Jews will not accept the Gospel, the Gentiles will” (Acts 28:28).
So, what is required of me if I seek God’s forgiveness and healing? I must:
1. Acknowledge my need. In the presence of God, Isaiah realized he could not fulfill God’s calling of him—to communicate God’s words to the people—with lips that had spoken sinfully. His need became clear when he encountered firsthand God’s sovereignty and holiness.
2. Recognize my part in causing my condition. I have made sinful choices, allowed sinful thoughts to occupy my mind, carried out sinful deeds that violate God’s holiness and harm other people as well as myself. Isaiah made no excuse for his sinful lips. He blames no one else.
3. Realize I can’t change myself with any amount of positive thinking, discipline, or willpower. Isaiah despaired; he believed his life was over because he could not help himself.
4. Accept the cleansing and forgiveness God offers. He is ready and wanting to heal me, when I “understand with my heart” and turn to him. The future sacrifice of Jesus (which Isaiah foretells in his writings more clearly than any other prophet) is symbolized by the burning coal from the altar, which purified his lips, the agents of sin in Isaiah’s confession.
Isaiah felt such gratitude for God’s cleansing and healing that he was ready to say, “Here I am. Send me.” He served God the rest of his life not to earn forgiveness, but out of thankfulness for his healing. He passionately desired to guide the people of his generation to likewise find release and forgiveness from their sinfulness.
One clear message for us from Isaiah 6: Understand with your heart your need for forgiveness, and turn to God for healing.
Isaiah 4:5-6 Then the Lord will provide a canopy of cloud during the day and smoke and flaming fire at night, covering the glorious land. It will be a shelter from daytime heat and a hiding place from storms and rain.
Psalm 31: 19-20, 32:7 How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear you. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world. You hide them in the shelter of your presence, safe from those who conspire against them. You shelter them in your presence, far from accusing tongues … You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory.
Whenever I see or hear the words “hiding place,” I flash back to a Saturday night Karis “should” have died. She was sixteen; I was with her at the hospital in São Paulo. Her eleven-year-old sister Valerie, home alone working on a project for school, sang “You are my hiding place … I will trust in you” over and over and over, afraid for Karis’s life.
Teen Karis with her sisters at Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo, sharing two pairs of rollerblades between the three of them
Meanwhile, the teens of our church were engaged with their regular weekly meeting. Suddenly one of them said, “We need to pray for Karis.” They didn’t even know she was in the hospital, but the entire group knelt and prayed for her until around midnight they sensed release from God. They only learned the next morning that at the time they felt compelled to pray, Karis’s fever had spiked beyond what the thermometer could measure, and she had managed to say “Goodbye, Mommy,” before passing out. Her doctor was struggling to reach the hospital through São Paulo traffic. Her nurse, too terrified to act, left it up to me to pack Karis in ice and, with the help of another nurse and an orderly holding her down—Karis was shaking uncontrollably—give her the injection the doctor had ordered before he jumped in his car. He repeated the injection, along with other emergency measures, the moment he arrived in her room, running full tilt up the stairs and through the hallways.
“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you.”
Isaiah too was afraid, of the judgment and stripping and violence he knew was coming (chapter three). He flashed back to the Exodus, when God had led his people escaping from slavery in Egypt with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13-14). These stories were part of the people of Israel’s identity, told and retold through the centuries to illustrate God’s care and protection when they were weak and vulnerable.
Have you experienced God as your hiding place? I would love to hear your story.
Luciene update: Surgery yesterday went well, and she is home at Val and Cesar’s house. Pray for pain management today and for God’s provision of $50,000 to pay for the surgery! Thank you!!
But God chose the poor to be rich in faith
Isaiah 3:14-15 The Lord comes forward to pronounce judgment on the elders and rulers: “How dare you crush my people, grinding the faces of the poor into the dust?” demands the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
James 2:1, 5, 8 My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? … Hasn’t God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith? … Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Strong words from Isaiah today, echoed by James almost 800 years later, reminding us that God’s character doesn’t change. It’s so easy for us, who are among the world’s and history’s most wealthy, to equate poverty with crime, with character defects like laziness, with bad habits and lifestyle choices, with inferior intellect and wisdom. In so doing, of course, we elevate ourselves and justify our own ways of living.
As I sit here, though, a series of snapshots flit through my mind of people who would be considered poor by most standards who have, out of kindness and generosity, deeply blessed my life. Of wisdom and perspective I gained from the fruit of the Spirit shining through people living lives of grace within terrifically difficult circumstances. Of gentle care extended to me as a child by people living in one-room earthen floor thatched roof homes. Of friends who grew up in favelas (urban slums), who were abused and hungry and cold, yet whose hearts were wide open to God’s love and somehow carried forgiveness instead of grudges.
I feel like I’ve had the privilege of at least some insight into God’s tenderness toward his people, the ones he chose to be rich in faith, the poor.
Poverty is such a relative concept. Everyone (almost!) is “poor” when compared to some others—and wealthy when compared to a different set of people. I felt this viscerally when our family spent a year in the US when I was eleven. In our small village in Guatemala, we were considered unbelievably wealthy. Even though our house was small (especially for our large family!), we had a tile floor, and Dad devised a way for us to have running water, heated by our wood stove. We children went away to school. We each had more than one set of clothes. We ate fruits and vegetables. We owned a vehicle. We had games and toys and jigsaw puzzles and a crank record player. We had resources to help other families.
The complexity of two cultures (and ours as a third) with lopsided power and wealth sharing, occupying the same physical space in the town where I grew up (Shutterstock: Stefano Ember)
A week of travel, though, took us to a city in the US where we were considered poor. My classmates wore new clothes, not hand-me-downs. (We joked about the used tea bags included with missionary donations.) When special events came to town, they could attend. Their teenage siblings didn’t have to go to work after school as mine did, leaving me, at eleven, responsible for my four younger sisters and brother, along with housework and cooking. So they could visit each other’s homes and play after school or learn special skills like gymnastics or other sports. At age eleven, I resented being different from my peers.
But was I poor? No, I don’t think so. I had a home to go to, food to eat, clothes to wear. I spoke (to some degree) three languages. I had grown up amid two other cultures that interfaced in complex fashion in my part of Guatemala. (After I left home, my town was caught in the crossfire of a brutal, years-long civil war engendered by these disparities.) My parents were well-educated (Dad that year was earning an advanced degree in linguistics at the University of Chicago) and good at their work of Bible translation. I had been well cared for at my boarding school, learning enough that the academic part of life in the US seemed easy to me (except latitude and longitude—for some reason I could never remember which was which!).
God’s point, recorded by Isaiah, is of course about kindness and generosity, living by the royal law rather than greed and abuse. Today I am filled with gratitude, for the unexpected riches of a zillion blessings, for many opportunities to share them with others. And for daily invitations from the Lord to grow in faith.
Luciene update: Surgery is now scheduled for Thursday. Though it’s painful, Lu can wiggle her toes. She’s finding grace for enduring each day and says thank you for your prayers for her. Her son (my son-in-law) Cesar has found two possible pathways toward funding.
Isaiah 2:3-4, 11, 22 The Lord will teach us his ways … He will mediate between nations … Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. … Human pride will be brought down, and human arrogance will be humbled. Only the Lord will be exalted on that day of judgment.(Verse 11 is restated in v. 17) … Don’t put your trust in mere humans. They are as frail as breath.
The other day I had a conversation with another grandmother, both of us expressing dismay over the world we see our grandchildren growing up in.**
Juliana is now an expert crawler
That’s why I think Isaiah 2 is one of the most thrilling passages in the whole Bible. As I re-read it this morning, I found myself with goosebumps. Have you ever watched someone mediate a dispute, honoring the needs and perspectives of both parties and bringing them to a place of understanding? It’s one of the most beautiful creative endeavors I have ever been privileged to witness.
Imagine, then, the breathtaking beauty of God mediating between nations! Take a minute just to picture this in your mind.
Imagine no more war, with all those resources invested instead in positive purposes. Imagine a world without fear, without the greed for domination and power that propels people to devastate one another.
Imagine people trusting God so deeply that they understand and want what he wants and love what he loves.
With this post I want to honor those who, every day, humbly walk in God’s paths, creating, building, mediating, honoring and loving one another, generating peace wherever they go.
I want to honor the Lord, for giving us hope, a future to anticipate with joy!
**It’s becoming more acceptable to end sentences with a preposition—hurrah!
Debra Kornfield 