Songs in the Night

It's 4 a.m. I've been awake for hours.

As a kid in high school, I adopted Isaiah 30.29 as my verse. Things at home weren't that great. I loved God's mighty nevertheless:

"You shall have a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept; and gladness of heart..."

Tonight that verse has come true, once again.

I've found some verses that provide comfort.
("com-" suggests "with"; "fort," strength, obviously. To comfort in the Bible means not only to console, but also to fill with strength.)

In Narnia the little girl Lucy is scared. She buries her face in the Great Lion's mane, and is filled with courage. "Now you are a lionness again," says Aslan.

The remarkable thing about these verses is that they occur in a context of political intrigue and military conquest by Judah's savage enemy Assyria. The people have little to rejoice about, even less to feel secure in.

Yet God assures them.

"For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength."

(Isa 30.15 NRSV)

When the king, ignoring the prophet, seeks help from Egypt, Isaiah tells him that Egypt will be no help at all, will in fact be like a defeated dragon.
But God's love remains, God's invitation to come home sounds as clearly, as tenderly as ever:

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you...
Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you will weep no more.
He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it."

(Isa 30.18a, 19-21)

This last verse, Isa 30.21, gives such practical guidance on living by the Spirit. Many, many times I've faced alternatives. and could not discern which was God's will. Then, I heard a voice (in my heart, not my ears) telling me "This is the way, walk [ye] in it." (The King James Version adds "ye.")

There comes to my heart then a sense of peace, knowing God has led me to the right decision. Sometimes, though, that confidence doesn't come until long after.

God tells Isaiah to write the prophecy down. Ignored and rejected by his contemporaries, later generations will treasure his oracles as the Word of God.

Finally, tonight, I was chasing the cross references in my study Bible the New Interpreter's Study Bible (the best!!) I found this:

Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from your birth,
carried from the womb;
even to your old age I am he,
even when you turn gray I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save.

(Isa 46.3-4)

For those of us in the graying population, these promises are precious. Originally, they addressed the fledgling nation of Israel, reborn in 538 BCE, when Cyrus of Persia issued a decree allowing exiles to go home. But in my judgment they also apply to members of God's family as we continue to grow.

(You don't have to "grow older"; you can just "keep growing.")

This is a wordy post. But I hope you'll find much comfort and insight in these passages. Blessings.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God.