THE BEAT e132 Real God. Real People (God, eternal. Isaiah, prophet for 87 years. Micah, 40 years.)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.

 Season 2 Episode 132

THE BEAT | Real God. Real People (God, eternal. Isaiah, prophet for 87 years. Micah, 40 years.)

Quick Take 

Hey human, in this episode we talk about taking on 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah. Yeah. A Biblical legend. We begin where Isaiah began. An attempt to make it personal. A real life with a real God. And Micah brings us a simple message live by. Join us in e132. Thanks for listening.

How has God shown up in your life today?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host. I am grateful that you are here.

When I read the books of the prophets I have a personal focus in mind. I want to recognize them in heaven—their soul, their convictions, their turn of phrase, what upsets them, what God directed them to do. A real sense of their personal life in context of the times, real wisdom as to why God chose them, to speak and act through them.

“Hey Isaiah, I wanted to ask you…” that kind of connection. This year’s reading of Isaiah was not unlike working through a struggle in my daily life. The same extended frustration, especially through the “against prophecies” with little momentum, and a distinct void in my understanding of all the references to each nation, places. I know it all connects to all other references, especially within the Old Testament. I will dig deeper, but it felt overwhelming this time. It felt mired in a longing to skim, to disengage. And to be frank, the divinely dense prose of an Almighty God that has every metaphor at his tongue’s command. A prose so rich with comparisons, drenched in wisdom, it is like swimming in a pool of honey. And blood.

For instance, Isaiah 30:33 says, “the breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulfur sets it ablaze.”

Hundreds of these.

Who would expect anything different from the Creator of our creation?

I have tagged this insight for future discovery: That we have an expressive God. A God with a divine heart that represents all the elements of life he created, and shows us all the ways his creation interacts. His wisdom comes from it. Do tell.

So out of my struggle, God lifted me up into a place of hope, joy, promise through the words of his faithful servant, Isaiah. It was a silly/gnarly struggle, but by the time I read past chapter 40, God began to pull me through and across the finish line of chapter 66.

This is important. That we be honest about how we seek our God, how we struggle, and how he delivers us truth through our obedience. My journal notes may seem disjointed, abbreviated in a nonsensical fashion (it’s a journal, after all), but every note does this: cues me back to something God wants me to learn, re-read, pray over, write about, on and on. Gold to the growth of my soul.

It’s beautiful to know that out of my journal notes on reading Isaiah and Micah, I am witnessing today what God has for me to share from Isaiah’s life as he literally lived God’s words. And Micah 6:8.

Isaiah Lives in Tough Times

The Talmud, Jewish tradition, as possibly reflected in Hebrews 11:37, states that King Manasseh ordered Isaiah to be sawn in two. This King was particularly evil and persecuted prophets. (Isaiah’s demise perhaps from having hidden in a cedar tree, thus…)

For sure, Isaiah was a martyr like so many who died defending, prophesying the name of the Lord God Almighty. And his beloved Son.

Here’s the context of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry:

• spanned the reigns of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah
• Northern Kingdom fell to Assyrians c 722
• Kingdom of Judah faced the rise of the Assyrian Empire
• internal religious corruption (rampant idolatry in Judah)
• political instability (internal conflicts and external pressures from neighboring kingdoms)

This is the context of Isaiah’s prophecies and calls to repentance. His prophetic themes: God’s judgment, hope for the future and The Suffering Servant (Jesus).

Put simply, Isaiah is considered a major source of Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. I will focus on one of the passages next week in preparation for Easter but today is a return to a passage I grew up with, I knew was from Isaiah, though I find this man to be such a fearless mystery. When Isaiah received his commission, Israel was living a life of “meaningless offerings” and had “become a burden to God (Isaiah 1:13-14), so much so that he says “he is not listening” in verse 15.

Five Words from Isaiah

Isaiah’s response to God’s call is five words. Words that I can take in and live by.

Isaiah 6

Isaiah’s Commission

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

9 He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;

    be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

10 Make the heart of this people calloused;

    make their ears dull

    and close their eyes.[a]

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

    hear with their ears,

    understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”

11 Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”

And he answered:

“Until the cities lie ruined

    and without inhabitant,

until the houses are left deserted

    and the fields ruined and ravaged,

12 until the Lord has sent everyone far away

    and the land is utterly forsaken.

13 And though a tenth remains in the land,

    it will again be laid waste.

But as the terebinth and oak

    leave stumps when they are cut down,

    so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

 

Isaiah’s prophetic purpose endured at the hand of God’s mercy for 87 years. And he gave many prophecies that were laden with the heavy hand of God’s judgment. But not for today.

He also voiced the nature of God, and how powerful God’s steadfastness is.

This is where I come in. So much later in the historical picture, as a child, a young adult, a new believer, a scripture that spoke to me in my youth, and has come back to greet me. But this time with more context, having been spoken within the life of Isaiah, a struggling Israeli nation that was wicked yet seeking, and God’s story running through all of us.

Isaiah 40:28-31

28 Do you not know?

    Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

    and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary

    and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,

    and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the Lord

    will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

    they will run and not grow weary,

    they will walk and not be faint.

 

I learned it ala the King James Version. And celebrated it as a worship song.

Isaiah 40: 31

31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

I know it differently now. God gives me more to understand. c 1446 marks the Israeli nation’s exile out of Egypt. The Red Sea scene. Followed by 40 years of wandering in the desert, then deliverance to the Promised Land, followed by slavery in Egypt, followed by the era of the Judges, then Israel’s first kings in the United Kingdom—Saul, David, then Solomon—then the divided kingdom, beginning with Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, then 39 more kings, and their prophets. Which brings us to c. 760, and Isaiah.

Almost 700 years of waiting, warriors at war and a nation of people turning toward and turning away from God’s Will. A people divided by those who were seeking, and those who were not waiting for the Lord to renew their strength.

Enter Isaiah, a voice of God. I now hold God’s anointment of Isaiah in my heart. And here is one of very few windows in this book into my why.

Chapter 50:4-11 is traditionally seen as Isaiah talking about his call from God. Some believe it is Jesus. Either way, let’s listen.

Isaiah 50:4-11

4 The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,

    to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning,

    wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

5 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;

    I have not been rebellious,

    I have not turned away.

6 I offered my back to those who beat me,

    my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;

I did not hide my face

    from mocking and spitting.

7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,

    I will not be disgraced.

Therefore have I set my face like flint,

    and I know I will not be put to shame.

8 He who vindicates me is near.

    Who then will bring charges against me?

    Let us face each other!

Who is my accuser?

    Let him confront me!

9 It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.

    Who will condemn me?

They will all wear out like a garment;

    the moths will eat them up.

10 Who among you fears the Lord

    and obeys the word of his servant?

Let the one who walks in the dark,

    who has no light,

trust in the name of the Lord

    and rely on their God.

11 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.

When God calls us to represent his voice, when he calls us to suffering, he controls not only our vocation, but also our destiny. I have only begun to draw from this prophet’s life, and the clarity of God’s voice and his nature.

I followed this reading with another prophet named Micah. A prophet who God spiritually nestled into the middle of Isaiah’s life. My annual Bible read-thru plants this affirmation in my heart:

That God’s story really happened. Real God. Real people.

Micah in a Powerful Moment

Micah was a prophet during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah (c 738-698)

His prophetic purpose was God’s vision of Samaria and Jerusalem. He began his work approximately 22 years into Isaiah’s prophetic journey and ended 25 years before Isaiah. He was a prophet for 40 years. Less than half the time of Isaiah’s 87 years.

But what commitment from these men. And such different voices from God.

At the end of his book, Micah brings his work for God to a simple, but powerful place of conviction, that is not about a judgment of nations, a people, a world turned from God. It is not about a God who shows us what comes from him, and what does not. A God who shows us what true justice is, what his mercy brings, and what calling him Lord allows us to do.

He brings it to the personal journey we each take. As mortals. A simple directive for our witness, to hold close to us today, human. It is the God in our soul. Take heart in this.

Micah 6:8

8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

    And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

    and to walk humbly with your God.