Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Oct 8 2019 - Isaiah 43 – Israel's only Saviour

In this remarkable chapter the Lord tells his people not to be afraid for he is not only the one who created them, he is also the one who has redeemed them and called them to be his own (v. 1). He will protect his people and bring them through all the trials that may lie before them:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze. (v. 2)

The Lord their Saviour rescued them in the past from Egypt, defeated its power and demonstrated that the gods of Egypt were helpless in the face of the living God (v. 3). Indeed, God's great love for his people means that he will do whatever is necessary to bring them safely into their inheritance (v. 4). They need not be afraid, for God, their God, is with them and will rescue them from the nations among which they are scattered – even "from the ends of the earth" – that he might bring glory to his own name (vv. 5-7).

The themes of these first seven verses are repeated in verses 14-28. The people whom he redeemed from Egypt, making "a way through the sea" for them (v. 16), and destroying the chariots and army that were pursuing them (v. 17), have burdened God with their sins (v. 24 – see vv. 22-24). But God remains faithful and gracious:

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more.  (v. 25)

Note that God promises to forgive them for his own sake. He is determined to glorify his own name by rescuing this rebellious people. What he is about to do will make their ancient rescue from Egypt pale into insignificance (v. 18). God is about to do a new thing (v. 19), making a way through the wilderness for them and providing them with streams in the wasteland that will give life to his people and prompt a thankful response even from wild animals (v. 20).

And God will do all of this for the glory of his own name and that his people may praise him (v. 21). In verses 8-13, Isaiah imagines a great gathering of Israel and the nations in which God issues a challenge for those who worship any other god to show what their god has done for them. Has any other god been able to steer the course of history to rescue those who offer it their worship and devotion? Has any other god been able to foretell the course of history? Faced with silence, God calls his people, led by the Lord's Servant, to act as witnesses to all that he has done for them (v. 10). There is no other god (v. 10), and no other saviour (v. 12).

This chapter is full of precious promises which are also promises to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that we cannot plead our innocence before God (v. 26). But, in grace, the living God has done more than sacrifice nations to redeem us; he sacrificed his own beloved Son. He who created us has redeemed us at great cost and has promised to bring us safely into the inheritance he is preparing for us. We too can rejoice in the promises of this chapter. And we too are called to be witnesses to those who have not known the saving goodness of our God – bearing witness to all he has done for us in Christ and urging others to leave their idols and discover the great salvation that the living God alone can provide.

Loving heavenly Father, we rejoice in the salvation that is ours through Jesus your Son and that you have promised with him to give us all things. Fill us with joy and peace as we trust in you and in the promises of your word. Help us by your Spirit to bear witness to your saving power and to the living hope which is grounded in Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Use our testimony to draw many others to you, that your name and the precious name of the Lord Jesus may be praised and glorified. 

Oct 8 2020 - Hebrews 4:1-16 – Rest for our souls

God brought the children of Israel out of the oppression and slavery of Egypt that he might give them rest in the land he had promised them, rest with him (see Exodus 33:14). But, because they refused to trust God and believe the promises he had spoken to them, they failed to enter into his rest. And, says the writer of this letter, even those who did enter the Promised Land, did not enjoy God's promised rest; for if Joshua had given rest to the children of Israel, God would not have later spoken through Psalm 95 of the need to listen afresh to his word that they might find their rest in him. The promise of entering into God's rest – the rest which God himself enjoyed when he had completed his work of creation; the rest symbolised in the weekly Sabbath – remained unfulfilled.

The author of Hebrews indulges here in a bit of word-play. The name Joshua is, in the Greek, the name Jesus. It is Jesus, our greater Joshua, who gives rest to those who come to him: "Come to me," he says, "all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29). Surely this is a word that addresses us Today. In all the restlessness and frantic activity of our lives, Jesus calls us to find rest in him, rest for our souls.

Jesus promises rest to those who come to him; but it's a paradoxical and puzzling promise. The rest he calls us into involves taking up his yoke and learning from him. This is a call to uncomfortable and demanding discipleship; his yoke became a cross which he shouldered to the place of his execution. It is no comfortable matter to shoulder the yoke of Christ. And yet he calls us to shoulder this yoke that we might find rest for our souls.

This same paradox is apparent in the words of Hebrews 4. Just as God completed his work of creation and rested on the seventh day, so Jesus has completed his work of salvation and has entered into his rest – he also enjoys the rest that is consequent upon a finished work well done. And we who believe in him have set aside our own work so that we might enjoy with him the rest of his finished work (4:10). He calls us to enter into that rest Today, and every day; to find in him rest for our souls. "We who have believed enter that rest" (Hebrews 4:3).

But there is another sense in which this rest remains a future promise. Today we are to "make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience" (4:11). Today we are called to follow Jesus, doing the work he calls us to do;

Go, labour on: spend, and be spent,
Thy joy to do the Father's will:
It is the way the Master went;
Should not the servant tread it still?

The day is coming when this paradox will be dissolved and we will enter into the fullness of God's promised rest. One day Jesus shall return and God's great work of new creation will be complete. Then there will be a new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness. Then we shall enter the Promised Land; we will enter fully into the rest of God's finished work – of Christ's finished work. In that day, Today will become Forever. What a day that will be.

In the meantime we live in this intersection of the ages. Today we find our rest in Jesus; he provides rest for the weary soul. And yet our restless hearts still ache for the rest which is still to come.

Lord Jesus, teach me both to rest in the perfection of your finished work of salvation and also to work tirelessly for the coming of your kingdom. Help me to follow you and labour for you in the sure and certain hope of the day when you will return and all things shall be made new.

Peter Misselbrook