My efforts are like giving birth to wind

Isaiah 26

Are you feeling weak and weary?

I am.

Do all your efforts end up like a big burst of gas from your backside?

Mine do some times.

Let me offer you, and me some hope.

“Lord, they came to you in their distress; when you disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer. As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, Lord. We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life. But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

Isaiah 26:16-21 – NIV

What can we hope in? Who can we hope in?

Isaiah 11. A branch from the stump of Jesse.

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord — and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:1-6 – NIV

God is going to rearrange the order of things. There will be true justice. There will be disciplinary action against wrongs done. Somehow God will set all things right. The wrong I have done will be set right. Not by me, and I will witness the miracle but I won’t pay for it because Jesus has already paid for it. He paid for my wrongs by dying on the cross. He paid for your wrongs too. Jesus is the root from the stump of Jesse. Have you asked him to forgive you yet? He will. I know he will do it for you because he did it for me. He forgave me.

He doesn’t look on the outside, he looks on the inside.

“A broken and contrite heart oh God you will not despise”. I don’t remember where that is in the Bible. I said it hundreds of times in the Lutheran liturgy.

I have loosely scrapped two sections of the Book of Isaiah together and I told you God has forgiven you because he loves you. Now it’s up to you. What will you do about Gods great loving gift?