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¹⁶ I will not accuse them for ever,
    nor will I always be angry,
for then they would faint away because of me –
    the very people I have created.
¹⁷ I was enraged by their sinful greed;
    I punished them, and hid my face in anger,
    yet they kept on in their wilful ways.
¹⁸ I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;
    I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners,
¹⁹     creating praise on their lips.
Peace, peace, to those far and near,’
    says the Lord. ‘And I will heal them.’
²⁰ But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
    which cannot rest,
    whose waves cast up mire and mud.
²¹ ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’

As the passage flows on, we can see that the ”contrite” experience ‘healing’. In other words, they come to know peace, forgiveness, a restored relationship with God. They are reconciled to Him. They have a near relationship with Him. Their standing before God changes (16-19). But this will not be the case for those who persist in unrepentance (20). There will be ”no peace” for them.

I believe I had heard the expression, ‘no peace for the wicked’ quite often, as a child, before coming to realise that it is in the Bible! But it is; and it is important to see its context. Anyone who truly repents can know peace with God, and the peace of God. But this is not so for those who persist in their godless ways.

There are stark alternatives here.

‘One can choose either the ”peace” of verse 19 or the ”no peace” of verse 21; the choice is up to us.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1062.

And it will be said:

‘Build up, build up, prepare the road!
    Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.’
¹⁵ For this is what the high and exalted One says –
    he who lives for ever, whose name is holy:
‘I live in a high and holy place,
    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.
¹⁶ I will not accuse them for ever,
    nor will I always be angry,
for then they would faint away because of me –
    the very people I have created.

In theological terms we affirm that God is both ‘transcendent’ and ‘immanent’. These are complementary truths, and need to be held together, although in tension. In His ‘transcendence’ the Lord is far above us; far, far removed from us. In His ‘immanence’ He is close to us. He is nearer than our nearest and dearest. He is everywhere present at the same time.

In these verses it is those who are ”contrite and lowly in spirit” who are addressed. They are the ones who will experience a road being prepared for them, and obstacles being removed out of the way (14); they are the very people who will experience God’s mercy (16).

Jesus taught:

”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

All these descriptions are true of the ”contrite”.

Tom Hale says: ‘The contrite are those who are repentant, who mourn for their sins (Matthew 5:4); they are the mourners mentioned in verse 19,” ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1062.

PRAYER: Lord God, please work in my heart so that it is soft, and malleable and shaped by you. May my heart be pleasing to you. I long to know your nearness. Help me Lord, I pray.

‘Whom have you so dreaded and feared
    that you have not been true to me,
and have neither remembered me
    nor taken this to heart?
Is it not because I have long been silent
    that you do not fear me?
¹² I will expose your righteousness and your works,
    and they will not benefit you.
¹³ When you cry out for help,
    let your collection of idols save you!
The wind will carry all of them off,
    a mere breath will blow them away.
But whoever takes refuge in me
    will inherit the land
    and possess my holy mountain.’

It has been said that verses 3-13 have a contemporary feel. They are, we might say, ‘a distant mirror’, reflecting our own times. What is particularly disturbing, and possibly highly relevant, is the fact that the people had no fear of God because He had withheld His judgment. They feared men, but not the Lord.

If divine judgment is delayed, we must not be deluded into thinking that it will never happen.

”The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9).

God, in His mercy, regularly gives people time to get right with Him. But we must not allow God’s ‘longsuffering’ to cause us to think all will be well. When the time of judgment comes, those who trust in their idols will find no help there (13a). Only those whose faith is in God will have a secure place in His Kingdom (13b).

These remain the clear alternatives and we must choose: dead gods or the living God.

“But you, children of a witch, come here!
    Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore.
What business do you have taunting,
    sneering, and sticking out your tongue?
Do you have any idea what wretches you’ve turned out to be?
    A race of rebels, a generation of liars.
You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade
    and fornicate at whim.
You kill your children at any convenient spot—
    any cave or crevasse will do.
You take stones from the creek
    and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.
You’ve chosen your fate.
    Your worship will be your doom.
You’ve climbed a high mountain
    to practice your foul sex-and-death religion.
Behind closed doors
    you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.
Deserting me, you’ve gone all out, stripped down
    and made your bed your place of worship.
You’ve climbed into bed with the ‘sacred’ whores
    and loved every minute of it,
    adoring every curve of their naked bodies.
You anoint your king-god with ointments
    and lavish perfumes on yourselves.
You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,
    send them all the way to hell and back.
You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,
    and never see what a waste it all is.
You’ve always found strength for the latest fad,
    never got tired of trying new religions. (The Message).

This theme recurs in the prophetic writings: Israel the serial spiritual adulterer. Her ‘lovers’ are other gods. She goes ‘whoring’ after them, but she ‘can’t get no satisfaction.’

The sexual imagery is doubly powerful because much of pagan religion involved illicit sexual activity in the rites and rituals of worship.

Saint Augustine hit the nail in the head when he said, ‘Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts find no rest until they rest in thee.’

No man- made god will ever fill the God-shaped hole that lies within each of us.

But the human heart remains an ‘idol-making factory’.

The righteous perish,
    and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
    and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
    to be spared from evil.
² Those who walk uprightly
    enter into peace;
    they find rest as they lie in death.

When those we believe to be godly die ‘prematurely’, some of us may wonder ‘why?’

‘Why has God plucked these lovely flowers now, while they are still in their early bloom?’

Warren Wiersbe says that this passage points to the premature deaths of certain of Israel’s good leaders, and that, by being taken early, they were spared from seeing the terrible things that were to befall the nation.

This, however, still leaves us with the mystery of why other devout people are left on earth to witness harrowing things.

It has to be said that our calling is to trust in the Sovereign Lord. He has His own good and wise purposes for the lives of His children. John has a different destiny to Peter, and what God will do with John is none of Peter’s business. we must each of us keep our eyes fixed on Him.

A call to the savage beasts: Come on the run.
    Come, devour, beast barbarians!
For Israel’s watchmen are blind, the whole lot of them.
    They have no idea what’s going on.
They’re dogs without sense enough to bark,
    lazy dogs, dreaming in the sun—
But hungry dogs, they do know how to eat,
    voracious dogs, with never enough.
And these are Israel’s shepherds!
    They know nothing, understand nothing.
They all look after themselves,
    grabbing whatever’s not nailed down.
“Come,” they say, “let’s have a party.
    Let’s go out and get drunk!”
And tomorrow, more of the same:
    “Let’s live it up!” (The Message).

Not only should these words cause Christians to pray for their leaders; they should also prompt leaders to examine themselves.

” Keep a critical eye both upon your own life and on the teaching you give, and if you continue to follow the line I have indicated you will not only save your own soul but the souls of many of your hearers as well.” (1 Tim.4:16: J.B. Phillips translation).

I remember reading an article in ‘Leadership Journal’ some years ago. It described how pastors who give and give, can succumb to a sense of ‘entitlement.’ Maybe someone has laboured and sacrificed (and suffered) in their service, and they become vulnerable to being seduced by the argument that ‘This is just for me‘: this little compromise, this bad attitude, this indulgence. Whatever it is. ‘It’s just a little something for me.’ The devil is a slick salesman and is good at marketing such lies. We can all too easily believe them – especially when at a low ebb mentally, spiritually, physically.

How we need to pray for our shepherds!

How the shepherds need to take heed unto themselves!!

Be vigilant. Don’t fall asleep at your post.

Come, all you beasts of the field,
    come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!
¹⁰ Israel’s watchmen are blind,
    they all lack knowledge;
they are all mute dogs,
    they cannot bark;
they lie around and dream,
    they love to sleep.
¹¹ They are dogs with mighty appetites;
    they never have enough.
They are shepherds who lack understanding;
    they all turn to their own way,
    they seek their own gain.
¹² ‘Come,’ each one cries, ‘let me get wine!
    Let us drink our fill of beer!
And tomorrow will be like today,
    or even far better.’

Israel’s failure to be a light to the Gentile nations was, to a large degree, a failure of spiritual leadership. They had self-indulgent, self-seeking leaders who were dopey, blind and ignorant.

We live at a time when many prominent leaders have ‘fallen’ amid moral scandal, and some have even left the faith altogether. Spiritual leaders are exposed to intense temptation, and I think there may be peculiarly ferocious temptations faced by people in large, high profile ministries. That is not to excuse any bad behaviour, but it should encourage us to pray earnestly and faithfully for our ”shepherds”.

Let’s seek to place a ‘prayer shield’ around them.

these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
    a house of prayer for all nations.’
⁸ The Sovereign Lord declares –
    he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
‘I will gather still others to them
    besides those already gathered.’

Why was Jesus so angry with the money-changers in the Temple? (Mt.21:13). In a word: misappropriation. This was going on in the court where Gentiles could come to pray. It prevented it happening. The money-changers were also scurrilous, charging exorbitant exchange rates. But I think the main issue was that the Gentiles could not pray there while it was being used for commerce.

People don’t always associate ”joy” with prayer (7b). But it is vital that we do. Yes, it is a duty (and can be hard work), but above all it is meant to be a delight. as we have the privilege of a relationship with Almighty God.

I read an article, written by a pastor, in which he said he encouraged his congregation to come to the prayer meeting by telling them: ‘We get to be with God!’

³ “Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say,
    ‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.’
And don’t let the eunuchs say,
    ‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’
⁴ For this is what the Lord says:
I will bless those eunuchs
    who keep my Sabbath days holy
and who choose to do what pleases me
    and commit their lives to me.
⁵ I will give them—within the walls of my house—
    a memorial and a name
    far greater than sons and daughters could give.
For the name I give them is an everlasting one.
    It will never disappear!

⁶ “I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord,
    who serve him and love his name,
who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest,
    and who hold fast to my covenant.
⁷ I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem
    and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.
I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices,
    because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
⁸ For the Sovereign Lord,
    who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says:
I will bring others, too,
    besides my people Israel.” (New Living Translation).

Israel, and her leaders (9-12) failed to be a light to the Gentiles. But it was always God’s intention that ”other sheep”…”not of this sheep pen” (Jn.10:16; see verse 8b) should be drawn to the Messiah and into His Kingdom.

‘…God did not abandon the Gentiles. The ”outcast” foreigner is accepted (vv.6-8), and the eunuch is welcomed (vv.3-5; Deut.23:1). In Jesus Christ, the wall between Jews and Gentiles is broken down; and any sinner can come to the Saviour and find forgiveness and acceptance (Eph.2).’ Warren Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.487.

One beautiful New Testament example of the fulfilment of this passage is seen in the story of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). He was both a foreigner and a eunuch. Also, it was the scroll of Isaiah he was reading when Philip the evangelist met him and led him to Christ. ‘What a harvest was to follow in the vast African continent, a harvest still being reaped today!’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, p.223.