The Judgment to Come

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised, and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.”
Isaiah 5:24-25 NIVUK

If people reject God, there are dire consequences. Helped by Isaiah’s wonderfully poetic and descriptive language, we easily make the connection between the people’s sin, rebellion and idolatry, and their ultimate lot. Isaiah used graphic language with references to fire and decay, all in connection with judgement for the sins of the people in Judah. In the current dry weather, there are reports of wildfires here in the UK, and most people here are aware of the dangers and the horrors of what can happen when fires get out of control. And just after the local cherry blossom trees have shed their flowers, the petals are everywhere, turning brown and gradually disappearing as the winds blow them into corners and beyond. Decaying roots are a sign of a plant or tree’s demise; it will, sooner or later, die off or come crashing down, finally rotting and disappearing into the ground that once supported it. God’s judgment of the people who have “rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel” is to be feared, and yet, as we have seen in the previous verses of Isaiah 5, the people were unrepentant and even defiant. God is angry with them and “His hand is raised, and He strikes them down”. But we read that even then, His anger is unabated, and “His hand is still upraised”. 

Isaiah’s description of what is going to happen to Judah is horrifying, and yet the people of his day couldn’t see what was coming, and, if they did, they chose to ignore it, such was the hold that their sinful lifestyles had over them. Were all people in Judah guilty of sinful behaviour, or was there a remnant of people who remained faithful to God? The historians think so, and it has always been the case that God has preserved a faithful lineage through which He would eventually bring restoration and fulfil His promises. The Babylonian judgment fell in 586 BC, and while the invading army exiled the royal family, the religious elite, and skilled craftsmen to Babylon, they left behind a portion of the poorer population to tend the vineyards and fields. Worthy of note was that the prophet Jeremiah chose to stay with the remnant: “When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, ‘The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.’ … So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left behind in the land” (Jeremiah 40:2-4, 6). 

There is no difference between people’s attitudes in 586 BC and those of people today. Sin and evil abound everywhere but the difference is that God has not sent specific prophesies about an imminent judgment that is about to take place. Instead, we have the warnings for sinful behaviour well reported in the Biblical passages. Jesus was a prophet, and Matthew 24 recorded His words about what was going to happen in the run-up to the End of the Age. And then the end will come: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. … Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:36, 42). In the days before Christ in Judah, the people had enjoyed a long period of peace that, however, was marked by sinful behaviour, and they chose to ignore Isaiah’s warnings that there were going  to be consequences. Today, unbelievers everywhere choose to heed the Biblical warnings and carry on with their lives regardless. Yes, nothing bad may happen to them in this life (though we don’t know for sure, because the world could end at any time), but it surely will at the End of the Age.

We, pilgrims, are effectively part of the remnant of God’s people in our generation. It is through us that God has preserved “a faithful lineage through which He would eventually bring restoration and fulfil His promises”. In our secular nation, we are the people about whom Ezekiel wrote. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). That happened on that wonderful day when we were reborn through the Spirit of God. How are we pilgrims living out our responsibilities as God’s people, a faithful remnant in our generation? Are we like Isaiah, warning our generation about the judgment to come, or are we a passive minority huddled in our pews and afraid to put our heads above the parapets in case we are rejected and vilified? Jesus said, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). And so we will, at every opportunity that comes our way.

Dear God. Thank You that You have entrusted to us the mission of being salt and light in our communities. Lead us we pray in Your ways and help us show others the path to everlasting life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Understanding the Six Woes of Isaiah 5

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Antique brass balance scale on stone pedestal in old stone room with arched doorways and window

“Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, to those who say, ‘Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so that we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel – let it approach, let it come into view, so that we may know it.’ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.”
Isaiah 5:18-23 NIVUK

There are six woes mentioned in Isaiah 5. These are declarations of God’s judgement for the sins of Judah. In verse 8, a woe was declared against those who were oppressing their neighbours and buying up their land and houses, thereby expanding their wealth and bringing them loneliness. Then in verse 11, we read about the judgement coming on those who pursue drunkenness, partying and sexual immorality. In verse 18, we read about those people who openly display their sins, even to the extent of dragging them behind them by the wagonload. In verse 20, we find people who are confused about the difference between good and evil, such is the decline in their morality. We all know people who are “wise in their own eyes”, I’m sure. People with an overconfident opinion of themselves and their capabilities. And, finally, there are those who boast about their prowess with alcoholic beverages. All these “woes” aptly describe the fallen state of society in Judah and, sadly, the state of our societies today. Some things never change and the devil never changes his tactics.

The third “woe” described a people who were not only displaying their sins very visibly, but they were defying God to do what He was threatening to do, obviously with no fear of our Heavenly Father at all. We know people like that today, and I have written before about my neighbour, who was not afraid of the prospect of hell, which he described as being “the big party downstairs”. Perhaps his attitude matched that of the sixth woe, of being ”wise in [his] own eyes”. People can become so accustomed to sinful behaviour that they no longer feel conviction. Instead of asking, “How can I please God?” they ask, “What’s the worst that can happen?” Sadly, that is something that they will find out one day, and it will be far beyond their biggest fears.

The next “woe” expressed moral confusion in a people who had rejected God’s standards and replaced them with their own. They redefined reality by saying that evil [is] good and good [is] evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter”. This is a serious problem in our society today, because we have so many people who, for example, maintain that men can become women and vice versa. Such people not only ignore God’s truth, but they also seek to blatantly overturn it. This happens whenever society celebrates what God condemns or ridicules what God approves. We pilgrims are called to maintain biblical discernment even when cultural values move in the opposite direction. The Apostle John wrote, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). We are that light, shining like beacons of hope and countering the lies and deceit the devil has confused the minds of people with.

Isaiah continued with the next “woe”: “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight”. This was the sin of pride and self-sufficiency. The people no longer sought God’s wisdom because they believed they knew better. Their confidence in themselves had replaced dependence on God. But we pilgrims know better, and we follow verses like Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight”. We pilgrims know and understand that education, experience, and intelligence are gifts from God, but they become dangerous when they lead us to reject God’s authority. In the workplace, I remember some arrogant and proud managers with questionable morals, but who always seemed to know best; in the light of God’s truth, they fell woefully short. One of them came to a very sad end, sad particularly for his wife and young children as well, because his hobby of skydiving ended in tragedy with an unopened parachute. In those final moments, did God’s grace ever penetrate his personal cleverness and human wisdom? I wonder …

In the final “woe”, Isaiah was not simply condemning drinking; he was condemning a culture that admired drunkenness and excess as if they were achievements. Because of their sinful ways, we see what the outcome was in verse 23, speaking of those “who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent”. Was this the Judaean equivalent of the “old boys” and “laddish” behaviour we sometimes see today? Possibly, but the outcome of the alcohol-focused culture was injustice. We find even today that when personal pleasure becomes the highest value, justice, integrity, and responsibility often suffer. A culture that celebrates moral decline and excess can lose its ability to distinguish right from wrong.

There is much that can be learned from our verses from Isaiah today. 21st-century society seems much the same as it was in 700 BC, with open and defiant sin, moral inversion and confusion over what is right and wrong, self-reliance instead of God-reliance, and self-indulgent corruption and injustice. It is significant that in all the words describing the sinful behaviour of the Judaean people, the word “self” often crops up. In Isaiah’s day, these traits showed a society drifting away from God. We believers are reminded that spiritual decline rarely begins with outward collapse; it begins when people stop taking sin seriously, reject God’s truth, trust their own wisdom, and pursue pleasure above righteousness. For Christians today, the passage is both a warning and a call to live by God’s standards rather than the changing values of the surrounding culture. Paul was very much aware of this, and he wrote, “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2). I love this verse in the J B Philips translation, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity”.

Isaiah’s concern is not merely individual morality but the health of an entire community. When truth is reversed, pride is celebrated, justice is compromised, and society itself begins to unravel. God’s people are therefore called to be a faithful witness to His truth, wisdom, and righteousness. We pilgrims remember once again that we are beacons on a hill, proclaiming the light of Christ.

Dear Heavenly Father. We pray for our societies today that Your light will prevail over all the “dark paths of sin”. We also pray that Your grace will continue to give our friends and families time to find You amidst the noise and chaos of this sinful world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Isaiah’s Vision: Hope and Judgment in Jerusalem

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“But in that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of all who survive in Israel. All who remain in Zion will be a holy people— those who survive the destruction of Jerusalem and are recorded among the living. The Lord will wash the filth from beautiful Zion and cleanse Jerusalem of its bloodstains with the hot breath of fiery judgment. Then the Lord will provide shade for Mount Zion and all who assemble there. He will provide a canopy of cloud during the day and smoke and flaming fire at night, covering the glorious land. It will be a shelter from daytime heat and a hiding place from storms and rain.”
Isaiah 4:2-6 NLT

In his vision, Isaiah could see the day when the Lord would have dealt with the “filth” in Jerusalem by applying “the hot breath of [His] fiery judgement”. He could see a beautiful and glorious city with the survivors, a holy people, washed and cleansed. And the Lord will protect Mount Zion, where Jerusalem was located, with something reminiscent of the flight of the Israelite slaves from Egypt – “a canopy of cloud during the day and smoke and flaming fire at night”.

But what was the “branch of the Lord” that Isaiah could see? Some scholars believe this is a pointer to the coming Messiah, Jesus Himself, the divine descendant of David. There is also mention of the branch in Zechariah 3:8, “Listen to me, O Jeshua the high priest, and all you other priests. You are symbols of things to come. Soon I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.” But is this a prophecy foretelling the First or Second coming of Jesus? Perhaps there is more evidence for the Second, because we have read Revelation and the chapter about the new Jerusalem. However, the picture of a redeemed and holy people, a remnant who have survived the destruction of Jerusalem is an encouragement that God will always bring new shoots of growth as he fulfils His promises to His people. Judgment will ultimately come at the End of the Age, and the “filth [of] beautiful Zion” will be washed away. In the parable of the Wheat and Tares we read, “Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn” (Matthew 13:30). Jesus’ parable describes how good and bad people will co-exist until the “harvest”, which is the End of the Age, the day of Judgment. Isaiah also referred to “the fruit of the land”, perhaps an indication of blessing and peace being restored after devastation and judgment. 

Isaiah could see a remnant of God’s people surviving the destruction of Jerusalem. But what about those, the larger group, who will not survive? They are those whom Isaiah spoke out against in the previous chapters. Amongst them were people who “made alliances with pagans”, who practised sorcery, who were involved in idolatry, and who rebelled against God. God views sin very seriously and sooner or later has to deal with it. Judgment is real and will ultimately cleanse His people, but in each generation, a small group of His covenant people remains. Today we are the people, people of the New Covenant, who Peter wrote about in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light”. 

We notice that Isaiah’s vision did not indicate when the judgment would occur. It was a warning to all those who engaged in sinful behaviour, and many, then as now, refuse to believe that God’s judgment would actually take place. People today live their lives without considering that there will come a time when they will be held to account for their sins. That judgment will occur is without any doubt, because, otherwise, why was it necessary for Jesus to come to this world? He came to provide a remedy for sin so that all who believe in Him will not have to face the terror of judgment. I recently met a man who shared a concern that he needed to move out of London for his retirement, but was at a loss about where to move to. I asked him if he had a faith, and he talked about his Roman Catholic upbringing, but admitted that he rarely gave God any thoughts anymore. I gently reminded him of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”, after which I talked about sin and the need for salvation in Jesus, as otherwise the only alternative was that he would “perish“. He went away thoughtful, and I pray that the Holy Spirit directs his house move to a place where he will find a Christian community.

Do we pilgrims know someone who needs to hear the same message? After all, there are plenty of opportunities because Jesus said, “ ... The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2). So perhaps we need to brush up on our testimonies and have them ready for the next person we happen to meet.

Dear Father God. Please lead us to the people You want us to share Your wonderful message of hope with. We thank You for Jesus and all He did for us in Jerusalem, two thousand years ago. Amen.

Destitution and Despair

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Instead of fragrance, there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding. Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle. The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground. In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, ‘We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!’”
Isaiah 3:24-4:1 NIVUK

Jerusalem and women in despair. The men of Judah killed in battle. Destitution everywhere. Isaiah’s vision was a dire account of what could be the end of Judah, an end that had not yet arrived but was imminent unless the people changed their ways. The people who had so much were going to lose it all. There would be few men left to do the manual work. And the sad situation would arise in which there were so many widows in the land that they had to take drastic steps to assure their future.

The future of a society can never be taken for granted. Yes, all my life I have been fortunate to live in a country without wars or other instability affecting my or my family’s life, and I pray that this will continue for my children and grandchildren and beyond. But it is something neither I nor anyone else can take for granted. With the spectre of another Cold War with Russia emerging on the horizon, perhaps already with us, and the war in Ukraine in its fifth year, with political instability everywhere, the very foundations of our societies in Europe are perhaps under threat. We here in the UK take much for granted, but instead of looking to God, people look to their politicians. And inevitably disappointment will follow.

There was a vast Assyrian army threatening Jerusalem in 701 BC but the king, Hezekiah, declared to the people, “‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.’ And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said” (2 Chronicles 32:7-8). Soon after, we see what happened to the Assyrians, and things didn’t end well for Sennacherib, the Assyrian king. “And the Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons, his own flesh and blood, cut him down with the sword” (2 Chronicles 32:21). Because they turned to God, the Judahites lived, and God resolved the situation. 

The people of Judah and Jerusalem were facing judgement from God because of their sin, rebellion, and idolatry, but they still refused to return to God. Nineveh was faced with the same challenge when Jonah was sent to them with a prophetic message of destruction. Jonah prophesied “ … Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4b). The people responded with a fast, and God relented and did not destroy them. But the people in Judah were stubborn, and those who survived were exiled.

We pilgrims have the benefit of the Bible, showing us, as it does, a limited view of the future. But with the Psalmist David, we declare, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7). In the First Century AD, there were reportedly many false prophets, and with the spirit of the antichrist present, the Apostle John wrote, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood” (1 John 4:4-6). Even today, God will help us because His Spirit gives us the strength and direction we need, whatever we are facing.

Dear Heavenly Father. We know that in You are all the resources we need for life in this world. So, please help us to turn from our sins and look to You, as we pray for our nation and our leaders. Soften our hearts, we pray. Amen

The Consequences of Sin: Lessons from Isaiah and Sodom

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“For Jerusalem will stumble, and Judah will fall, because they speak out against the Lord and refuse to obey him. They provoke him to his face. The very look on their faces gives them away. They display their sin like the people of Sodom and don’t even try to hide it. They are doomed! They have brought destruction upon themselves.”
Isaiah 3:8-9 NLT

A very serious accusation appears in Isaiah’s vision. The Judahites are speaking out against the Lord, refusing to obey Him and “[provoking] Him to His face”. And “the very look on their faces gives them away”. Isaiah continues with a reference to the sin of the people of Sodom.

In a conversation with Abraham, we find the Lord confiding in him one of the reasons why He was calling that day. “So the Lord told Abraham, ‘I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know’” (Genesis 18:20-21). Flagrant sin. Sin so visible as to be abhorrent. No shame. No morality. In Genesis 19:5, we read what the sin of Sodom was: “They shouted to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!’” Was every male in Sodom guilty of that sin? We don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that Abraham had a conversation with the Lord about it, even saying, “Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” (Genesis 18:25). 

Do we pilgrims ever have a conversation with God in that way? It seemed almost irreverential on Abraham’s part to speak to God like that. But we do pray, and we do ask God to change things, and for the better. Some people even pray that God would indeed destroy all the wicked people in the world, a prayer probably rooted in a personal experience of a crime as a victim, or someone looking at the wars started by evil men. But the reality is that there would be no one left in the world if God answered that prayer affirmatively because, as Paul wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). God always answers our prayers, but not always in the way we ask him to.

But back in Isaiah’s vision, we find that the Jews are heading, like lemmings, to their destruction. They had forgotten the fate that they were warned about through their ancestors. There were plenty of examples of God’s judgement on those who did wrong. As an example, I’m reminded today of the sin of Achan, who had taken certain items from Jericho, even though he had been expressly forbidden not to do so. We can read the story in Joshua 7. Things didn’t end well for Achan, and he and his family and all their possessions were burnt and ended up under a “great heap of stones”  in a place called the “Valley of Achor”, which means trouble. Sooner or later, God’s judgement will fall on sin.

In the Judahites’ case, and because of their sin, their destruction was coming, because they had “brought destruction upon themselves”. So sad that they had treated God in that way. Do we pilgrims treat the reality of sin positively? Or will we make excuses for ourselves or others, perhaps referring to “white lies” or “boys will be boys”, thereby rationalising the sinful behaviour? Will we think of convoluted reasons for behaving in the ways we do, perhaps deferring remedial action before God until later? The problem with sin is that it creates a barrier between God and us, thereby destroying the relationship we were meant to have with our wonderful Creator. And there is always the ultimate question – will we bring “destruction upon ourselves? Sins are not gradeable, meaning some are less serious than others. That was the trap the Pharisees fell into. Yes, they may not have committed adultery, or committed the sins of Sodom, but did they look lustfully at another man’s wife? (Matthew 5:27f).

But I’m sure we pilgrims know all about this, and we are diligent to maintain short accounts with God, so that our sins never create a barrier to our wonderful God. “He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:7-8). Our forgiveness cost Jesus His life at Calvary. We must never forget that sacrifice He made so that we could spend eternity with Him one day.

Dear Lord Jesus. You died so that we might have life, and life with You forever. Thank You. Amen.

Walking in the Light: Lessons from Isaiah 2

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord! For the Lord has rejected his people, the descendants of Jacob, because they have filled their land with practices from the East and with sorcerers, as the Philistines do. They have made alliances with pagans.”
Isaiah 2:5-6 NLT

Following an invitation for the “descendants of Jacob” to “walk in the light of the Lord”, we find about their parlous state because the Lord has rejected them. Why is that? Because they have “filled their land with practices from the East and with sorcerers”. And the reason for the Lord’s rejection of them? Because “They have made alliances with pagans”. The Jews were supposed to be a nation set apart and holy for the Lord. God had provided them with instructions for how they must live under the Mosaic Law, and He made a covenant with them to ensure their prosperity as a nation. God promised them a land that extended all the way from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates river, as the Lord promised Joshua, “I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you— from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites’” (Joshua 1:3-4). The exact boundaries encompass all or parts of modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, so Israel today only possesses about 10% of the land that God promised them. And they lost it all at various times in history due to their continual rebellion against the Lord.

Isaiah was one of several (many?) prophets who emerged in history to warn the Jews about the consequences of their idolatry and sin, and here he presented another prophetic vision, warning the people that, because of their behaviour, the Lord had rejected them. Was God’s rejection of His people permanent? No, as we see time and again how He continued to fulfil His part of the covenant that he had made with them. Over successive generations, it seemed as though one would return to God only for the next to lapse into sin and rebellion against the Lord.

What can we pilgrims learn from all this today, if anything? We live in the days of the New Covenant, which is the promise that God will forgive sin and restore fellowship with those whose hearts are turned toward Him. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, and His death on the cross is the basis of the promise. Jeremiah prophesied about the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-33, ““The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people”. But regardless of living in the new, there is still a place for sin, rebellion and idolatry. The same choice facing the Jews is facing us today. The difference is that God has delayed judgement until a future time rather than bringing about immediate calamities, such as punishments from the peoples and nations around them. 

Of course, there are people today who claim that certain human ailments or national disasters are the result of rebellion or disobedience to God’s precepts, such as the AIDS or Covid epidemics, or floods and earthquakes, but I’m not so sure. His grace prevails, as Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent”. So there is an opportunity for all to repent of their sins even with their dying breaths. But one day there will be a time of judgement and people will face the eternal consequences of their sins. 

But the main takeaway from Isaiah 2 must be that God will reject those who fail to follow His ways. Does that include those who once had a relationship with Him, but who have subsequently turned their backs on Him and returned to their lives of sin and rebellion? Some would say, “once saved always saved” but in Hebrews 6:4-6 we read, “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame”. This is perhaps a sober reminder that we pilgrims must stay the course and complete our journey with Jesus. Yes, we will have times of doubts and difficulties. Yes, we may even lapse into times of sin. But God is patient and kind, and He sees the end from the beginning. We grow under God’s grace and produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives day by day, always in the light of God who helps us every step of the way.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your grace and mercy. Please forgive us for our waywardness and tendency to drift into places where we shouldn’t be. We declare again, “I have decided to follow Jesus”. Amen.

The Refining Process: Purity Through Pain

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says, “I will take revenge on my enemies and pay back my foes! I will raise my fist against you. I will melt you down and skim off your slag. I will remove all your impurities. Then I will give you good judges again and wise counsellors like you used to have. Then Jerusalem will again be called the Home of Justice and the Faithful City.”“
Isaiah 1:24-26 NLT

The previous verses in Isaiah 1 paint a picture of a corrupt Jerusalem. In the prophecy, Isaiah wrote of a series of comparisons between the Jerusalem of old, “Once the home of righteousness and justice” and now instead being “filled with murderers”. The Lord said that Jerusalem was “Once like pure silver, [but had now] become like worthless slag”. It wasn’t, of course, the bricks and mortar of Jerusalem that had become corrupt, but it was the people who lived within its walls. They “loved bribes and demanded payoffs” and refused “to defend the cause of orphans or fight for the rights of widows”. The leaders were a morally flawed people who selfishly lined their own pockets and neglected the social needs of the people. But that didn’t let the ordinary inhabitants of Jerusalem off the hook because they were all pursuing an agenda that was in conflict with God’s and found themselves vulnerable to judgement and punishment.

So with that background, the “Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the Mighty One of Israel” was warning then that a time was coming when He would take revenge on these corrupt and Godless people so that Jerusalem could be restored to what it should have been, “the Home of Justice and the Faithful City”. The process would involve much pain, the Lord said, with the inhabitants going through a refining process and all the dross, the useless rubbish, being removed. And the corrupt leaders would be replaced by honest judges and wise and capable leaders, all of them God-fearing and tasked with restoring Jerusalem’s reputation.

When was this going to happen? That was up to the people. If they repented of their sin and returned to the Lord, then God would not have needed to take any action at all. That was why He chose Isaiah to be His messenger to the people. It was always better for people to change themselves rather than force God’s hand.

A prophet called Zechariah emerged in Jerusalem about 200 years after Isaiah, and he spoke the Lord’s message to the people in Jerusalem, which had been rebuilt after the exile. He had a similar warning to the people as Isaiah’s, and in Zechariah 13, he warned the people that a time was coming when two-thirds of the people would perish. Of the remaining third, the Lord said, “I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God’” (Zechariah 13:9). The refining process was something that was going to happen under God’s control. A skilled silversmith will carefully refine the silver, watching what is happening closely. The purpose of the process is to remove all the impurities so that the silver becomes pure, and when the silver has been fully refined, the silversmith can see his reflection in the surface of the silver. If we spiritualise that we can see that “silver” is the people, and the impurities are the sins and evil they committed. Once refined, God can see His reflection in the people, meaning that all their sins have been dealt with, and they reflect God to the people around them.

So for us pilgrims today, God’s refining process continues. Through life’s journeys, God carefully and gently deals with our sin. The Holy Spirit within us brings to the surface situations and behaviours that need to be dealt with and cleansed. Sins are skimmed off one by one as we clean up our lives under God’s gaze, until our lives truly reflect the One we love and worship. It can be a painful process, particularly for those stubbornly entrenched in a life of sin and who are reluctant to let go. But God loves us too much to allow us to continue in a life of sin. 

When we find ourselves going through the “crucible of silver”, we need to allow the Master Silversmith His way, no matter how painful that might be, so that one day we will be in His presence, pure and holy, the people that He created us to be.

Dear Heavenly Silversmith. Thank You that You care for us so much that You don’t want us to languish in our sins. Through Jesus, You supplied a remedy for our iniquities, and we come before Him today with deeply grateful hearts, responding to Him in worship. Amen.

Finding Redemption: The Message of Isaiah 1:18-20

Posted on by Adrian Clark

““Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. If you will only obey me, you will have plenty to eat. But if you turn away and refuse to listen, you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies. I, the Lord, have spoken!””
Isaiah 1:18-20 NLT

After a hard-hitting message that included a comparison between the Israelites and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, God offered the Israelites a way out from the impending destruction that was getting closer and closer. The problem, though, was that the people didn’t recognise God for who He is anymore. Isaiah 1:3, “Even an ox knows its owner, and a donkey recognises its master’s care— but Israel doesn’t know its master. My people don’t recognise my care for them”.  So what was the point of all the burnt offerings, the blood of bulls, the ceremonies and meaningless gifts that we read about earlier? The Israelites were just going through the religious motions without any understanding of what they were really doing or why they were doing it. They were even praying, but to no avail, “When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims” (Isaiah 1:15). 

But God is always merciful, and He offered a way out for the Israelites. Our verses today start with “Come now, let’s settle this”. Other translations read, “Come now, let us reason together”, but the meaning is the same. The human race has always had the capacity and mental ability to look at the facts and draw a conclusion. And the facts for the Israelites were stark. In Isaiah’s day, the political situation in Israel, the Northern Kingdom, was one of instability, and the Assyrian empire was expanding its horizons, starting to encroach on its borders. It wouldn’t be long before Samaria would fall, and many Israelites would be deported to a foreign land. But they had, as a people, one last chance to avoid a fate that otherwise seemed inevitable. Isaiah’s vision was directed at Judah in the South with the warning that unless they changed their ways, they too would follow into captivity.

The Lord effectively said to them, “Look at your circumstances, look at what is about to happen, and turn to Me so that you can be saved”. And He then said, “But if you turn away and refuse to listen, you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies”. The problem for the Israelites was that they didn’t want to change their sinful and idolatrous practices. There is something seductive about sin, that makes repentance so very hard. The deeper the Israelites were engulfed in their evil ways, the harder it was for them to turn their backs on all that they were doing and instead turn to God. God told them they must use their rational minds and consider their future. It seems simple to us, looking on with the benefit of hindsight, but, sadly, as events turned out, they failed to make the right choices. God had the power and mercy to forgive them for their sins, and if only they had made the right choice, for Him rather than against Him, they would have been returned to His protection, and world events would have been different. 

Sins like scarlet and red like crimson. Colours that had stained their hands and hearts, leaving the people indelibly inked with sin for which there was only one solution. God offered to make their hands and hearts white like snow or as white as wool. There was no human solution. No chemical in a bottle on the shelf with the power to bleach out the redness. No other god or idol was available to forgive their sins. They had only one solution, and God was holding out His hands, pleading with them to turn from their wicked ways and return to Him. 

We pilgrims made the right choice when we turned to God from our lives of sin. We came to the Cross at Calvary, and bowed before the Man crucified, believing Him and His message of salvation. That was the moment when our crimson-red hearts were made as white as snow. King David made the right choice after his affair with Bathsheba when he wrote, “Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). He then wrote, “Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me”. David could see the same choice before him three hundred years before that of the Israelites. He wrote, “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God” (Psalm 51:16-19).

There are many people around us who are heading toward destruction and a lost eternity. The same choice that Godless people face today is the same as the one before the Israelites in the 7th Century BC. We pilgrims must be diligent in telling them about the consequences of a life spent in sin. God is holding out His loving arms to them, just as He did to us, and we are His messengers responsible for dispensing His message of love and hope.

Dear God. Only You have the remedy for sin and guilt. Please help us, we pray, to be diligent in telling others of Your love and grace at every opportunity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Burden of Guilt

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Oh, what a sinful nation they are— loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil people, corrupt children who have rejected the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick. You are battered from head to foot— covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds— without any soothing ointments or bandages.”
Isaiah 1:4-6 NLT

The burden of guilt. It is a heavy burden to bear, and many are bearing it in our world today. God has created mankind with a conscience, designed to be aligned to Him so that their lives are without guilt. Man was never able to carry the burden of guilt. The psychiatrists may come up with band-aid solutions that might make someone feel better for a short while, but the issues are still there and before long the burden of guilt returns. Some people turn to some form of distraction, such as alcohol or drugs, “retail therapy”, or sexual gratification, but the burden of guilt remains in the cold light of the morning. 

Isaiah, bringing the Word of the Lord in our verses today, called out evil, corruption, God-rejection, sickness, and punishment, all self-inflicted conditions because of one single cause – the people had turned away from God. How had it come to this? As the previous verse in Isaiah 1 recorded, “Israel doesn’t know its Master”. They had become complacent in their land. The crops continued to grow. The rain came at the right time. Children were still being born. Affluence had dulled their spirits, and the effort of keeping a relationship with God had somehow become crowded out by living. 

The root of the problem was, of course, sin. The current generation in Isaiah’s day had been brought up without a knowledge of God, because their parents didn’t know Him either. This was because their parents were Godless as well. But this wasn’t a sudden decision, made one day to forget God and His ways. The sin and evil had come into their lives as God was forced out, getting worse generation by generation. Now, the storm clouds of war, famine, pestilence were starting to emerge on the horizon, and Isaiah brought a warning straight from God Himself. 

There was a remedy to their condition and David wrote about it in Psalm 32:5, “Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone”. 

We pilgrims are not immune to the same problems the Israelites faced. It starts on a Sunday morning, with the thought that we might skip church just once. Then we find ourselves too busy to pray or read the Bible. Then sinfulness creeps in, and we finally find that we are well and truly on the slippery slope that leads to destruction. Yes, there are those who say that you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. There are even those who claim eternal life from the “once saved, always saved” doctrine, and then proceed to live out the rest of their lives in a world full of sin and depravity. But always in the background is our loving Heavenly Father, calling out our names, warning us of the consequences of sin. We pilgrims know all this, of course, but somehow we can find it easy to rationalise our return to a world that invites the punishments the Lord warned the Israelites about in 740BC. 

Sin is rebellion against God. Pure and simple. And as sin builds, so does guilt. The burden gets heavier and heavier, bringing sickness, mental ill-health, and ultimately death. But today, should we find that we are carrying a burden of guilt, we come before God with a repentant heart, believing as David did, that He will forgive us. In 1 John 1:9, the Apostle John wrote, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness”. And so, we return to our knees once again, feeling His forgiveness wash away our burden of guilt.

Father God. Please forgive us for all our sins and for trying to hide our guilt. As we roll our burdens off our shoulders before Jesus, Your Son who died so that we can be forgiven for our sins, we experience an inner peace that cannot be found anywhere else. Thank You for saving us. Amen.

Paul’s Third Visit: Testimony and Warning

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“This is the third time I am coming to visit you (and as the Scriptures say, “The facts of every case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses”). I have already warned those who had been sinning when I was there on my second visit. Now I again warn them and all others, just as I did before, that next time I will not spare them.”
2 Corinthians 13:1-2 NLT

We begin the last chapter of 2 Corinthians considering what Paul is intending to do in this, his third visit to the church in Corinth. The sinning amongst the believers will be his focus when he arrives, and he issued a warning in advance, probably in the hope that all would be sorted out by the time he gets to Corinth. Paul had obviously heard things about the goings-on in the church and reassured them that he wouldn’t act just on one person’s testimony. Paul quoted Deuteronomy 19:15, “You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses”. This common-sense principle still underpins our legal system today, and the prosecution of anyone in the “dock” accused of a crime will need evidence that is backed up by a variety of factors, one of which is the importance of multi-witness testimony.

There were twelve men who spent three years of so in the company of Jesus, and in that time they were convinced that Jesus was who He said He was, the Son of God. And they continued through the rest of their lives suffering greatly for their testimony about who he was. Before the Sanhedrin, Peter said, “Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 4:10). This was a testimony that silenced the High Council, and we read, “But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say” (Acts 4:14). In this case, Peter was the witness and his testimony was boldly proclaimed and backed up by the miracle that had taken place. We can just imagine the religious hierarchy staring at Peter open-mouthed, for once silenced by such indisputable evidence. There was nothing in their law book that could cope with this. And Acts 4:33 recorded “The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all”. 

The Gospels are full of the works and sayings of Jesus, and they were witnessed by His disciples and many others at the time. Paul wrote, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:3-7). Lawyers today have examined the available evidence for the death and resurrection of Jesus and have concluded that there was sufficient to meet the threshold of achieving a positive confirmation of the truth of it. So why is it that people still won’t believe in Jesus? Evidence from far more than the required “two or three” exists.

People don’t believe in Jesus because it is a deliberate act of their will to deny the truth. They know that if they do believe in the evidence, then they will have to make some changes in their lives. Big changes for some, if not most, and in the verses we are considering today, the biggest issue is that of sin. Sin is defined as rebellion against God and His ways, but mis- and disinformation conspires to cover it up, or call it something else. Blame for sinful behaviour is apportioned to a number of factors, such as upbringing, social circumstances, or a popular one today – mental health. These are all valid to a greater or lesser degree, and they play a big part in defining who a person is, but they only mask the fundamental problem. I met a man the other day with a bright yellow sweatshirt emblazoned with the strap line “ADHD is not a lifestyle choice”. It probably isn’t – I’m not qualified to express even an opinion – but I worship a God who is bigger than any human condition, and we pilgrims know that He can take the weakest human being and turn them into a mighty man or woman of God. Paul wrote, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). God uses people who are weak, powerless, inadequate, uneducated, even sick, physically or mentally, to witness for Him. I have a dear friend who was hospitalised for some weeks recently with a heart condition, but even in his distress, he made sure that all the doctors and nurses knew about his faith in Jesus.

We pilgrims are counted amongst the “two or three” swelling the numbers who witness for Jesus into an uncountable multitude. And yet there are many more who do not know Him, and we have to tell them that they will perish in their sins unless they make the right choice to follow and believe in Jesus. What else can we do, other than tell people about God’s love and grace, about how he sent His Son, Jesus, to die for everyone, taking on their sins and taking on Himself the punishment for what was legally ours? 

Dear Heavenly Father. We understand that we are Your witnesses here in this sad and dying world, and we pray that we will get opportunities to declare “the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” whenever we can. In Your precious name we pray. Amen.