Our primary task in solitude is… to keep the eyes of our mind and heart on him who is our divine Savior. Only in the context of grace can we face our sin; only in the place of healing do we dare to show our wounds; only with a single-minded attention to Christ can we give up our clinging fears and face our own true nature. As we come to realize that it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us, that he is our true self, we can slowly let our compulsions melt away and begin to experience the freedom of the children of God.
~Henri J. M. Nouwen
“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord. “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.”
~ Isaiah 54: 1-3
There is most surely, beloved, the plain meaning of any Scripture. For truth is not something complex. Indeed, the profound is usually the simple. And in being simple, it is relatively simple to understand. And the oracle of Isaiah is simply for Israel, a nation who was made the peculiar possession of a very Loving G_d. And even in its simplicity, Scripture takes deep dives into the mystical. For, the New Testament makes clear, that while Israel is indeed a real nation, it is also a people not bounded by time or language or geography.
Said simply: Israel is the people of G_d. Israel is us. We, those who have been made righteous by our faith in Him. So, when reading passages like these, we can often hear Him whisper to us, “This is for you child. This was written just for you. Feast and drink deeply. For true food and drink it is.”
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.
~ Isaiah 54:4-8
And we look back over our shoulders at the path He has led us down – and we gasp. We look at our failure and sin and pain and sickness and loneliness; the burden of it seeks to leap back up upon our shoulders like some backwash in the tide and pull us back under the waves of our despair. It is only from the position that He now has us (read firmly in His Loving embrace) that we dare look back on the wreckage of our past. Oh G_d, we were so alone. So alone and only feeling the desperate pain of the wrath of a G_d we did not yet know, and surely did not understand.
And this same One who was pouring out His wrath against our rebellion then laid the full weight of all the punishment on His own Son. His compassion for us drove Him to do the only thing possible in all creation to draw us towards Himself. He paid the price and redeemed the unfathomable note of our debt.
“This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you.
For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My steadfast love shall not depart from you, and My covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. “O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones.
~ Isaiah 54:9-12
And in our redemption, we find an astounding, unfathomable, unstoppable and unbreakable place – His Love. The waves of our past simply cannot touch us anymore. They attempt, but they break upon the infinitely hard walls of His steadfast Love, and the promise of this Love’s continuance. For this Love is Him, and He it is that doth go before and behind and beside and above and below and in and through us.
“All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”
~Isaiah 54:13-17
Then, from this impenetrable fortress of His great Love, He begins a build out of His kingdom within us. The children He gives us are given the same blessing for they get to grow up seeing – from birth – a shadow of the Almighty and simply walk out from the shadow their father casts into the Light of His Presence. This they can do without the crisis of their fore-bearers as the curse of generations of sin have been broken – and now the mercy of G_d is being played out to thousands upon thousands of progeny.
No weapon stands against us. Nothing.
Can we see it? It is an Infinite Power which has set us free. And nothing (read no thing) beats infinite. For the largest army… even the most powerful weapon… even the astoundingly rebellious and evil heart of our own old man… cannot compare to the numberless and limitless and boundless and joyful Love of the One who has put an end to our misery.
Nothing stands in the way beloved.
Nothing can stop you.
You are free.
Live like it.
Love like it.
Free in Him.
God wills the development of all men. When from time to time he makes them hear his call to self-denial, to renunciation and even self-sacrifice, it is not for their impoverishment but for their enrichment. Christianity is in full accord with psychology. Like psychology, it sees man in continual evolution from a lesser condition to a greater one, from limited freedom to greater freedom, from poor wealth to truer wealth. The gospel of Jesus Christ is nothing if not a gospel of growth. It sets our eyes on a development more complete than any that can be conceived by a psychology confined within the limits of nature. All Christ’s calls to detachment are accompanied by promises that point to their real meaning.
~Paul Tournier (1898-1986)
