Wilted or Watered by Grace?
From Isaiah 1 – 28 The destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together. And those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. 29 for they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees which you have desired; and you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen. 30 for you shall be as a terebinth tree whose leaf fades, and a garden that has no water. 31 The strong shall be as tinder, and the work of it as a spark; both will burn together and no one shall quench them.
Elton Trueblood memorably cautioned that the same sun which softens the wax hardens the clay. In this, he offers the sobering assessment that the same blessing or adversity from the hand of the Lord can have very different results on divergent hearts. One softens before either His grace or His chastisement, while a neighbor under similar circumstances becomes even less supple before the Lord.
Thus we arrive at the end of Isaiah 1. Within it, Isaiah has spelled out the details of both judgment and restorative blessing beforehand. By the grace of God, he peers inside the hearts of individuals and of the culture he confronts, and finds both wanting. Amazingly, by that same persevering grace of God, he sees beyond the self-inflicted, in fact self-insistent, self-worshiping sickness of pervasive pride to a restoration that is just as pervasive.
The Jerusalem Isaiah says will be known after the meting out of correction for justice cannot maintain righteousness of her own merits, or pass it on to the next generation. The very principles of righteousness by which she is known for a brief and blossoming season will confront her people's backsliding toward sin, again. The standards she upholds in the tourist brochures will prove the guilt of the Chamber of Commerce, individual houses, and individual worshipers of pleasure.
Those who begin to take flourishing for granted as a product of birthright or location are to be surprised, Isaiah says, when the Lord, at least metaphorically, withholds the water necessary for basic sustenance. Even the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, remember, whether irrespective of their splendor if God does not grant rain for enough consecutive tomorrows.
The response to this withering, or its equivalent in our lives, can be telling. Do we, culturally or individually, experience shame with verse 29? Sure. Are we embarrassed when the objects and the prosperous position in which we used to take pride don't look so impressive? Certainly. What then? The shame of Peter and the shame of Judas were outwardly similar. The shame of Nineveh was convincing to the Almighty, for a while. How deep does conviction penetrate, and what is its result?
Judas took HIS life defiantly to Hell's pit. Nineveh eventually took off sackcloth, prospered again, oppressed again, and fell to the final judgment the board predicted through Nahum. Peter's shame led to confession, and so can ours. His being convicted prompted a confession that the Lord knows all things. So can ours. Our new growth can be watered by continual reliance on the grace of God.
Elton Trueblood memorably cautioned that the same sun which softens the wax hardens the clay. In this, he offers the sobering assessment that the same blessing or adversity from the hand of the Lord can have very different results on divergent hearts. One softens before either His grace or His chastisement, while a neighbor under similar circumstances becomes even less supple before the Lord.
Thus we arrive at the end of Isaiah 1. Within it, Isaiah has spelled out the details of both judgment and restorative blessing beforehand. By the grace of God, he peers inside the hearts of individuals and of the culture he confronts, and finds both wanting. Amazingly, by that same persevering grace of God, he sees beyond the self-inflicted, in fact self-insistent, self-worshiping sickness of pervasive pride to a restoration that is just as pervasive.
The Jerusalem Isaiah says will be known after the meting out of correction for justice cannot maintain righteousness of her own merits, or pass it on to the next generation. The very principles of righteousness by which she is known for a brief and blossoming season will confront her people's backsliding toward sin, again. The standards she upholds in the tourist brochures will prove the guilt of the Chamber of Commerce, individual houses, and individual worshipers of pleasure.
Those who begin to take flourishing for granted as a product of birthright or location are to be surprised, Isaiah says, when the Lord, at least metaphorically, withholds the water necessary for basic sustenance. Even the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, remember, whether irrespective of their splendor if God does not grant rain for enough consecutive tomorrows.
The response to this withering, or its equivalent in our lives, can be telling. Do we, culturally or individually, experience shame with verse 29? Sure. Are we embarrassed when the objects and the prosperous position in which we used to take pride don't look so impressive? Certainly. What then? The shame of Peter and the shame of Judas were outwardly similar. The shame of Nineveh was convincing to the Almighty, for a while. How deep does conviction penetrate, and what is its result?
Judas took HIS life defiantly to Hell's pit. Nineveh eventually took off sackcloth, prospered again, oppressed again, and fell to the final judgment the board predicted through Nahum. Peter's shame led to confession, and so can ours. His being convicted prompted a confession that the Lord knows all things. So can ours. Our new growth can be watered by continual reliance on the grace of God.
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