Isaiah 50: There Is Still Time to Seek the Lord

Introduction

The Assemblée Évangélique de Strasbourg continues its reading of the prophet Isaiah. This Sunday, Thierry J. pauses on just three verses, Isaiah 50:1-3, a short text he reads twice "to try to soak it in a little more."

He starts from a sense of wonder: for centuries, Israel set itself against God, and yet God did not set his people aside for good. "Us, we would say, that's enough now." God does not react that way. His love is "tenacious," "a love that does not give up."

The message he draws from this passage fits in one sentence: there is still time. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Three reasons follow: God's love still remains, it is time to respond, and it is time to trust him.

Message outline

1. A word for a people who think they have been forgotten

Like many prophets, Isaiah announces events before they happen. But God also prophesies how his people will react in that difficult moment.
The kingdom of David and Solomon has been divided. The northern kingdom was deported more than a century ago. Judah and Jerusalem remain, and they too will be deported to Babylon.
It is in this context, at the time of Judah's first deportation, that God has Jeremiah say: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you" (Jeremiah 31:3). "It's not just fine words," the preacher stresses: this word is spoken in the very midst of judgment.
The people's reaction is recorded in Isaiah 49:14: "Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me." A ruined home, lost land, a foreign language and foreign customs, deaths in the family: we can understand that cry.
We can feel this way in our own daily lives too. Isaiah 50 answers it, and the message is that of Isaiah 55: "Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near" (Isaiah 55:6). We are living in a time of grace, but the moment will come when God says stop.

2. God's love still remains

Thierry J. titles this point "God has not changed his mind," while admitting he is not happy with that title. He rephrases it: God's love still remains.
"Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, with which I have put her away?" One could read only a reproach in this, and it is one. But the preacher sees above all God's love that endures.
To the northern kingdom, God had given his certificate of divorce (Jeremiah 3:8). To Judah, he asks: where is it? The answer is obvious: there isn't one. "At least, not yet."
We often look for the reason for our situation in God rather than in ourselves: "What on earth did I do for you to act like this?" We think God no longer loves us, that his attitude has changed. "But that's not the case at all."

3. Neither sold off nor abandoned: the cause lies elsewhere

God's second question: "Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?" In those days, a creditor could take a man's wife and children, sometimes the husband too, as slaves to settle a debt.
God has no debts. The deportation was not the result of a negotiation with the king of Babylon. "There was no deal up in heaven where you were the stakes."
The answer is given in the verse itself: "Behold, you were sold for your iniquities." The New Testament says the same thing: "Don't be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:7).
This text, which at first glance sounds like a reproach, the preacher finds encouraging. You are bearing the consequences of your actions, "that's normal, that's fair," but God's love toward you has not changed. God has not given up on restoring his people.
"We sometimes attribute human intentions and ways of acting to God, but that's not the case at all."

4. It is time to respond

"Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there no one to answer?" God is probably referring to the prophets sent over the centuries to call his people back. No one paid attention to what they said.
There is a note of astonishment from God in this passage. Jesus expresses the same astonishment about Jerusalem: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!" (Matthew 23:37).
Today, God has sent people to speak to you. You hear messages, a sentence in a book catches your attention, a hymn grips your soul, a baptism testimony or a thanksgiving celebration sounds like your own story. "You realize it, but you do not respond."
God is not trying to judge or condemn you: he is trying to lift you up, to give you a better life, to see you grow spiritually.
"It's not enough to nod along intellectually; you have to respond." If something struck you this Sunday, or even last Sunday, now is the moment. There is still time, but one day, perhaps, it will be too late.

5. It is time to trust him

"Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?" Babylon is then the military power dominating the whole region. No one can rival it. The people may think nothing will ever change.
We can think the same: a character trait that keeps you from drawing closer to God, bad thoughts you cannot shake off. "My grandfather was hot-tempered, my father was hot-tempered, and I am hot-tempered." As if it were fate: "I'll just have to live with it."
Intellectually, because we are Christians, we say that God is almighty. But in my life, in my situation, will that almighty power act? "And there, we may doubt it."
God answers as he often does in Isaiah: he reminds us who he is and what he has done. The dried-up sea is the crossing of the Red Sea. The rivers turned into desert are most likely the Jordan crossed on dry ground with Joshua. The fish that die recall the plagues of Egypt in the Nile. The darkness is the gloom over all of Egypt, while there was light where God's people lived.
These facts were handed down from generation to generation, and even the neighboring peoples knew them. "God has the ability to change what in our eyes is unthinkable."

6. Remembering what God has already done

God says: "Remember what I did in your life, in that situation where you had no solution." Then something came unblocked. "Because we forget so quickly."
In Mark 8:17-21, right after the two feedings of the crowds, the disciples worry that they have not bought bread. Jesus asks them how many baskets they collected: twelve, then seven. "Do you not yet understand?" It wasn't ten years ago, but two weeks ago, three weeks ago, a month or two. "But I can do it again, it's no problem."
The apostle Paul points the same way (2 Corinthians 1:10): "who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver, on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us." Paul had been stoned; he should not have come out alive. He looks ahead to the future because God has proven it to him.
God has proven it in the Scriptures, and perhaps already in your life or in the lives of others. "So trust him."

7. Even under correction, love does not change

To conclude, Thierry J. returns to his three points. Even if you are experiencing God's judgment because you disobeyed, that does not mean God no longer loves you.
He speaks to parents who have at some point spanked their child: they were angry, not pleased at all. Had their love changed for all that? "No. It hadn't changed. It's still the same."
One thing to remember, he insists: "It is time to respond. Not just to listen." To really take the step, without looking for excuses.
He ends with a prayer: that this word would not go in one ear and straight out the other, and that the Spirit, who convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8), would come to the aid of our will.
After the message, a brother from the church rereads Isaiah 50:2 and invites everyone, this week, to focus on the hand of God: how many times, in our lives, "it was the long arm at work, it wasn't the hand that was too short."

Key takeaways

God did not give his people a certificate of divorce: even in the midst of correction, his love still remains.
The cause of our difficulties is not to be sought first in God. We reap what we have sown, but God does not give up on restoring us.
God keeps speaking through people, messages, hymns and testimonies. Nodding along is not enough: it is time to respond.
His hand is not too short. What seems like fate in your life is not beyond the reach of his power.
Remembering what God has already done feeds trust for the future: he will deliver us again.

Personal application

In what situation have you thought, or said, "The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me"?
When things go badly, do you look for the cause in God, or are you willing to look at your own side as well?
What has struck you in recent weeks (a message, a book, a hymn, a testimony) that you have not yet responded to?
What character trait or habit do you consider a fate you "just have to live with"?
What act of God in your life can you remember this week to feed your trust today?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does the certificate of divorce mean in Isaiah 50:1?

God had given his certificate of divorce to the northern kingdom (Jeremiah 3:8). By asking Judah, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorce?", he makes it clear that no such document exists: he has not put his people away. For Thierry J., behind the reproach, this verse shows that God's love still remains.

Why does God ask to which creditor he sold his people?

In those days, a creditor could take a debtor's wife and children as slaves to settle a debt. God has no debts and made no deal with Babylon. The people were sold because of their iniquities, not because God had abandoned them.

What does "Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem?" mean?

Faced with the power of Babylon, the people could think nothing would change. God recalls what he has done: the Red Sea, the Jordan, the plagues of Egypt. Thierry J. draws an appeal from this: God is able to change what seems unthinkable, and it is time to trust him.