Reflecting God’s Devotions for Holy Living – Wednesday, 12 February
2014 “God Restores Life” Scripture Isaiah 26: 12 Yahweh, you will ordain
peace for us, for you have also done all our work for us. 13 Yahweh our God,
other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make
mention of your name. 14 The dead shall not live. The departed spirits shall
not rise. Therefore you have visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory
of them to perish. 15 You have increased the nation, O Yahweh. You have
increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of
the land. 16 Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer
when your chastening was on them. 17 Like as a woman with child, who draws near
the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have
been before you, Yahweh. 18 We have been with child. We have been in pain. We
gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the
earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. 19 Your dead shall
live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust;
for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed
spirits.
20 Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors
behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
21 For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the
earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no
longer cover her slain.
“God Restores Life” by Richard H. Neiderhiser
Isaiah’s resurrection metaphor may not be limited to a physical
resurrection of the human body. Perhaps a more appropriate metaphor would be
more like the renewal of dry vegetation when even the slightest drizzle of rain
refreshes it: “your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give
birth to her dead” (v. 19b). If this is so, what does this resurrection
metaphor say to God’s people?
Challenge to Holy Living
Resurrection implies newness of life–restoration from a dead or
lifeless state. Apparently God’s people had become lifeless–perhaps because of
their own spiritual negligence, perhaps because the relentless attacks of their
enemies. In their despair they cried to the Lord for help. And from their pit
of depression, either from their willful or unwitting disobedience, God
promised them restoration if they would indeed revive and reactivate their
trust in Him. This was a resurrection–a spiritual renewal.
Not infrequently lifelessness results from emotional depression
that needs to be healed. Emotional resurrection is available to every child of
God. The key is to trust God, to count on His sending the dew of His grace to
refresh your dry and weary soul.
Hymn for Today:
“Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” by John Greenleaf Whittier
1. Dear Lord and Father
of mankind,
forgive our foolish
ways;
reclothe us in our
rightful mind,
in purer lives thy
service find,
in deeper reverence,
praise.
2. In simple trust like
theirs who heard,
beside the Syrian sea,
the gracious calling
of the Lord,
let us, like them,
without a word,
rise up and follow
thee.
3. O sabbath rest by
Galilee,
O calm of hills above,
where Jesus knelt to
share with thee
the silence of
eternity,
interpreted by love!
4. Drop thy still dews of
quietness,
till all our strivings
cease;
take from our souls
the strain and stress,
and let our ordered
lives confess
the beauty of thy
peace.
5. Breathe through the
heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy
balm;
let sense be dumb, let
flesh retire;
speak through the
earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice
of calm.
Thought for Today:
“It is good to renew ourselves, from time to time, by closely
examining the state of our souls” (John Wesley)!
Prayer Needs:
Developing Christian leaders in Switzerland!
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