March 20, 2001
Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant?
Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light,
trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.
But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.
Isaiah 50:10-11
These two verses conclude the prophetic verses about Jesus and both are exhortations to follow after him. Verse 10 is written to those who have chosen to follow and obey God, friends of God. Verse 11 is written to those who would choose not to follow him. I have been continually humbled and awed by God's patient love as I've read through Isaiah.. how many times in this book alone God had pleaded with his people to repent and even given Israel's enemies the opportunity to repent. This one book is amazing enough but it is only one of many books in the Bible that describes God's begging, pleading, patient and faithful heart for his people!!!
Verse 10 encourages me in a special way as it is an encouragement to God's people when they walk in darkness. Not darkness as referred to in the New Testament, when we are in sin and have not repented. He speak rather of the darkness of hard times, when circumstances are dark and we see no light. There is at times a gloom that settles over your heart and mind, times when you feel that comfort can not be found and there is no way to ease the ache inside. The encouragement is to rely o God, to lean on him as you would a staff or our modern translation... a crutch. Being accident prone I am intimately acquainted with this need.. when I get to the point of needing a crutch to walk, I am utterly dependent on it in order to move, in order to take a single step. I can attempt to take a step on my own without it but it causes incredible pain, makes the injury even worse and simply put - it's a stupid thing to do. That's where God wants our hearts to be in dark times. He does not promise that he will immediately illuminate our paths, he only promises that he is trustworthy and if we lean on him we can walk through the darkness. God does provide the light we need, his Word is a light and other believers are a light - both can help lead us through those times; that is how God works. It's very hard for me when I am in times of darkness, I want very much to light my own torch so that I can see and understand everything God is doing. I want to know for myself.. which makes me more like those in the next verse... but to trust in myself, to seek my own wisdom in a situation, to try and get through something without God is pure folly (really dumb!) and to stay on that path will cost me my salvation. Surrendering my heart to the fact that I don't need to see when I walk through the darkness is very hard... but God promises me that he is enough!