Let your collection of idols deliver you.
But the wind will carry them all away,
A breath will take them.
But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land,
And shall inherit My holy mountain.”
Healing for the Backslider
a“Heap it up! Heap it up!
Prepare the way,
Take the stumbling block out of the way of My people.”
Who inhabits eternity, awhose name is Holy:
b“I dwell in the high and holy place,
cWith him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
dTo revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would fail before Me,
And the souls bwhich I have made.
I was angry and struck him;
bI hid and was angry,
cAnd he went on1 backsliding in the way of his heart.
| << Isaiah 57:13 | Isaiah 57:15 >> |
What Does Isaiah 57:14 Mean?
Isaiah 57:13-19
The first half of the chapter shows Israel's old, wicked state that God could not work with and how He will eventually be able to work with the Israelites once He brings them into the humble, contrite attitude they need to turn to Him.
The thought in verse 16 is, "If I keep contending them as they have always contended with Me, I will wear or burn them out spiritually." The verse actually reads, "For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made." They could not take the struggle between their continuous, rebellious spirit and God's efforts to overcome it. He does not want to destroy people but to change them so He can work with them.
So, even though the natural inclination of the human heart is to rebel against His efforts, He says in the next verses, "I'm going to change them so that there are no more wicked people as they were. I will heal them." Obviously, this change occurs through the giving of the Holy Spirit, making them soft- rather than hard-hearted. He would soften their heart through the Spirit.
It is specifically the Spirit of God that spells the difference between God's former work with Israel and His New Testament work with the elect, then with Israel in the Millennium, and ultimately, with the whole world. Without the Holy Spirit in play, change could not occur, even through God's efforts. As we see with Israel and Judah, His contention with man and man's rotten attitudes just spurred further rebellion, causing the relationship to spiral downward. They ended up defeated and in captivity, which God allowed, even engineered. He had to say, essentially, "I've had enough! Get out of My sight. I'll work with you later," because He did not want to destroy them completely.
But then He sent His Son, who made real change possible. It did not occur immediately, but God's plan was for Him to form a group—the church—to work with in this present age to transform them into the image of the Son. We, the elect, will one day be the examples to which unconverted people will turn to understand that formerly rebellious people can repent and live in a right relationship with God. As the apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 1:26-29, God purposely took the weak, the base, and the foolish to confound the mighty, noble, and wise people who contended with God for so long. They will say, "Wow, if God could do it with them, well, He can do it with us."
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Poor in Spirit
| << Isaiah 57:13 | Isaiah 57:15 >> |
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