Isaiah - Verse By Verse | Isaiah

Isaiah - Day 74

versebyverse | August 14, 2008 20:16

Scripture: Isaiah 3:26 (NIV): "The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground."

Thought: To me, we are slow to recognize God at work.

Question: Has my spirit been broken? Has God comforted me through it?

The "she" here, I believe, is Zion, the Holy City of God, also known as Jerusalem today. After all the stripping and judging, Zion will utterly fail and leave a "standing" position being relegated to a vulnerable, "sitting" position of collapse and ruin. Zion is broken in every way: her leaders have been removed from power after influencing people into idolatry, her women have been degraded, her men have been killed in battle. She is left to "lament and mourn" her losses.

Similarly, God's judgment aims at our spirit. It may dishearten us completely to be stripped and brought low by God. To me it is clearly meant to happen so that we will turn and return to God for recovery.

How slow we are to recognize God! How blind to see His presence! How much difficulty God must allow to descend upon us to awaken us! We need to become children of sensitivity to His Spirit. We live too much in the physical, mental and emotional parts of our being. We completely overlook the spiritual. God therefore must resort to many harsh strippings and substitutions of ugliness to finally awaken us to Him.

Will we respond? Will He find us teachable?

Prayer: God of all comforts, meet me in my mourning and lament! Help me to understand what it is You long to teach me through sadness and loss. Amen.