When things aren’t going quite the way we’d planned, it’s easy to put our heads down, and just deal with the grind. Our eyes are downcast, our hearing becomes dull. Right then, it’s time to listen to God and wake up to the future He has planned.

An Improbably Journey

Over the years I’ve done a lot of flying and on those long haul trips that I really like to do is to get from point A to point B by the most direct possible route, preferably flying business class; that pretty much sums it up when I’m sitting crammed up in an economy seat at the back of the plane on a 14-hour flight.

And that pretty much sums up our attitude towards life as well. Whatever we’re traveling through we want it to be quick and comfortable and direct would you agree? Life is full of awkward transitions, from being single to married, from being married to being single, from being a child to becoming an adult, from being a couple to being a couple with a baby.

It doesn’t matter what the situation is there always is an awkwardness to the transition. Have you noticed that? And somehow we always seem to be in some transition of some sort. If only we could just arrive, if only we could get to the end of whatever we’re going through from point A to point B in a straight line, preferably flying business class.

If we can get better at travelling through life’s transitions – the change from A to B; from something we know to something we don’t know – frankly we’re going to have a much better life, we’re going to enjoy life a lot more. So I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Are you ready? Life is just one big transition, see we constantly want to arrive at the point where everything’s going swimmingly well, where everything is absolutely perfect, cause most of us have some seasons in our lives where things are like that but seasons come and go.

It seems to me that most of our lives are about traveling through transitions, and instead of just wishing that the transition phase was over, instead of wishing today and tomorrow away I believe that with all my heart that God wants us to enjoy every minute of every day. Enjoy – quite literally entering into His joy.

There was a time in the history of the nation of Israel where they were about to start going through a major transition and I guess over the coming weeks I want to explore that time of transition to discover how God handles transitions, our transitions in life, because where not traveling through this alone – you and I.

He has a plan and the whole world’s plan doesn’t always revolve around us. We need to fit into God’s bigger plan and He’s a player in all of this.

When we’re going through transition and we’re feeling uncomfortable and we’re looking forward to something much better. You know where our focus is? It is normally on ourselves, 100% on ourselves we become all inward looking and self pitying and we’re all woe is me, friend that’s no way to live our lives, it’s no way for me to live my life and it’s no way for you to live your life.

Israel at the point where we’re going to pick up this story have been exiled in Babylon as slaves for close on 70 years it was God’s punishment for their unfaithfulness. Most of the Israelites couldn’t even remember the Promised Land and Jerusalem, because they had never been there! Most of them had been born in slavery but God is about taking back to that place the Promised Land, they’re about to go through a major transition – from slavery to freedom from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Change is always difficult; even getting them to believe that change was going to happen! Hey, they had been slaves for all their lives. God appears to have failed them even though he hasn’t, but that’s how they see it. The Babylonian kingdom is so big and so strong and they’re been hoping that God would do something. They’ve been hoping beyond hope that one day … one day Israel would be restored and God’s promises would be restored. But you know in the face of the present reality – slaves in the most powerful kingdom in the world – that seems somewhere between improbably and impossible. Really?

So this is what God says to them through the prophet Isaiah. Incidentally I believe that this is what God saying to anyone today who’s in that same place as the Israelites back then. Isaiah chapter 51 beginning at verse 1:

God says, listen to me you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hue and to the quarry from where you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you for He was but one when I called him. But I blessed him and made him many. For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places and he will make her wilderness like Eden, her dessert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and Gladness will be found in her thanksgiving and the voice of song.

So what’s God saying? What does it mean to look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from where you were dug? God’s pointing them back to an impossible promise and an impossible journey that they’ve all heard about. They know it backwards. The promise God made to Abraham, 75 years old he was, and God promised him a son. His wife Sarah was barren and off they went on a 25 years journey.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was finally born. God promised a future, he promised to make him a mighty nation, and he promised him the Promised Land. And the very nation of Israel the descendants of Abraham and then Isaac, these same people who are now slaves were themselves the impossible fulfilment of that impossible promise.

See, God’s saying to them, ‘I know it looks impossible, I know your present reality is all you can see at the moment but look back at what I’ve already done, look back to the quarry from which you were hewn. How far have I already brought you? Look back at the many impossible promises that I’ve already fulfilled and the many improbably journeys, like Abraham’s, that I’ve already made happen. It’s your heritage it’s your reality. I am that God; I am your God.’ Wow talk about standing on the promises of God

Whatever transition you’re traveling through your life at the moment, look back and see how far God’s already brought you, look back at Jesus, look back at the cross, at the tomb, at the grace that God’s already poured out on you, at the many blessings, at the many provisions that he’s already bestowed upon you.

However overwhelming your present circumstances may feel, this is your reality. This is who God is; this is who your God is. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, there will be comfort there will be a garden in the dessert the Lord will find a way to restore to you the blessings that he promises.

They don’t call it the Good News for nothing. My friend, listen to me. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

An Uncertain Destiny

It’s’ true isn’t it we hate uncertainty. We want everything to be under our control so that we can make sure that we head to the right destination – the destination that we want. It may be that your job’s going just fine, your children are fine, your finances are fine but your marriage is anything but fine.

Well what’s going to happen? How’s it going to turn out what can I do? Will it ever change? Will she ever change? Will he ever change? Why can’t things be different and if it’s not your marriage, it could be your job or your finances or your health or perhaps your children. At any point in life there is some part of our lives in transition, from point A to point B and often the outcome is uncertain. Well here’s what I believe, in fact here’s what I know – There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

As we saw before the break Israel was at the point of hopelessness – 70 years in exile in slavery under the mighty, mighty nation of Babylon. All hope was lost but as the 70 years came to a close God spoke to them through the prophet Isaiah that the one thing they’ve been hoping for – freedom and a return to the Promised Land – was about to happen.

Now for most of them who had been born in captivity the Word of God, spoken through Isaiah, spoke of an uncertain journey. Sure they may have been in slavery but hey, at least it was certain. They knew how it worked. They knew what tomorrow would bring. Going back to Israel how could that ever happen? What would the Babylonians do? Would it be like the Egyptian army all those centuries ago who come after the freed Israelites and try to destroy them? How was it going to turn out?

So we’re picking up Israel’s story in the next few verse of Isaiah chapter 51 and hearing what God has to say to them to get them focused on the blessing that He’s about to bring upon them. Isaiah chapter 51 beginning at verse 4:

God says, listen to me my people and give heed to me my nation, for a teaching will go out from me and my justice for a light for all people. I will bring near my deliverance swiftly my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me and for my arm they hope. Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look at the earth beneath for the heavens will vanish like smoke and the earth will wear out like a garment and those who live in it will die like gnats but my salvation will be forever and my deliverance will never be ended.

Listen to me you who know righteous, you people who have my teaching in your hearts. Don’t fear the reproach of others, don’t be dismayed when they revile you for the moth will eat them up like a garment and the worm will eat them like wool. But my deliverance will be forever and my salvation to all generations.”

Several times in this chapter God uses a short powerful verb. He says: Listen. Listen to me. Just stop. Listen. Remember me, I’m God. The God that created those heavens the God that created this heart, have a look around just stand back and have a look at the big picture. Remember me, remember who I am and listen to me.

And the first one of those is “Listen my deliverance is coming”. It’s simple. And the second is “not to be afraid of the reproach of others and that not to be dismayed when they revile you for I’m your God and I am mighty to save and my salvation is to all generations.”

Now I don’t know what twists and turns your life has taken so far and I don’t know what twists lie ahead for you but this one thing is for certain, God’s deliverance is coming and when He decides to deliver you and bless you and to get you to the other side of what you’re traveling through at the moment it’s going to be a mighty thing.

I’ve read my bible from front to back at least a dozen times I’ve looked everywhere and there’s not one place where I can find that God tells us not to put too much faith in Him. I don’t care what’s going on in your life at the moment cast it all on him!

Towards the end of WW2 the allied forces were sweeping across Germany and they were searching the farms and the houses for snipers, at one abandoned farm house almost a heap of rubble, searches with flash lights found their way into the basement and there on the crumbling wall a victim of the holocaust had scratched a star of David and beneath it in rough lettering the message:

I believe in the sun even when it doesn’t shine,
I believe in love even when it’s not shown
and I believe in God even when God doesn’t speak.

My friend that’s the sort of faith and confidence that you and I can have when we hear God say, “Listen. Remember who I am! I am coming to deliver you.” And remember the poignancy of what that Jew wrote on the wall. He went to the gas chamber, he didn’t make it, and yet his confidence was in his God.

If you put your trust in Jesus then for you, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. No person, no man, no woman, no child who believes in Jesus is on uncertain journey with an uncertain destination. Sometimes God brings His salvation quickly, sometimes He delays because He has a much bigger plan remember not all of God’s plans revolve around you and me.

I know we sometimes think it does but God’s specialises in hitting many birds with one stone, His plans and His purposes don’t put us at the centre of the universe, you see we forget … God why is this happening? God what’s going on? When will I get to the other side of this? How’s it going to turn out? And they’re all great questions but His thoughts aren’t our thoughts, His ways aren’t our ways, He works things out according to His plans and His purposes in His time. But I’ll tell you this, His salvation isn’t too far away!

That’s good news! There is a light at the end of the tunnel! It’s that certainly, that trust that faith that hope that shines a light into the darker times. That’s what gives us courage and the will to keep going and to get through the time of transition. Sure the future may seem uncertain, the outcome may be uncertain, most times honestly only God knows. But the very fact that he does know is what brings Joy to my heart when I’m going through one of those awkward times of transition.

I’ll never ever regret putting my hope in God. Often he hasn’t delivered me in the way or the time frame that I would have liked but what He has done is, He has delivered me at the right time in the right way having achieved His plans and purposes.

Whatever you’re going through at the moment my friend I assure you that in Christ there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

An Impatient Heart

I mean, how do you cope with the uncertainty? You ask about 80% of the population the answer would be “not too well at all “. It’s only natural. We don’t like uncertainty, we like to know what the future holds, and all too often in our lives we find ourselves going through a transition. How often have you and I been swamped by the reality of our circumstances? How often have we wanted to believe in God in the face of the impossible odds that we’re facing? But it’s just too much of a stretch.

How do you respond to God’s promises in times of uncomfortable journeys with uncertain destinations? Like the Israelites, God sent them the prophet Isaiah to proclaim the mighty salvation he was about to bring.

I will bring near my deliverance swiftly my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples. The coastlands wait for me and for my arm they hope.

Today God’s brought me into your headspace, through this program, to share with you what He’s saying to us through that great Prophet of old. But we still look at our circumstances don’t we, saying “well you know I’d like to believe but … ” I want to share something powerful with you as we head towards the end of our time together today; a powerful truth that will help you navigate uncertain waters in your life. A powerful truth that will put a great courage in your heart with your spirit is weak and your demeanour is timid.

And that powerful truth comes to us again through the Word of God through Isaiah; through what Isaiah has to say in response to God’s revelation about the great coming salvation and restoration of the nation of Israel. Remember this, Isaiah was seeing the same things that the rest of the Israelites were seeing – the power of Babylon the impossibility in human terms that freedom from their present slavery and oppression would be possible and that they’d actually return to the Promised Land – and yet this is how Isaiah response to God. This is what he says to God:

Awake! Awake! Put on strength o arm of the Lord. Awake as in days of old the generation of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab up in pieces who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea the waters of the great deep? Who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, everlasting joy will be upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”(Isaiah chapter 51 verse 9-11) 

See God’s been talking to Israel through Isaiah and Isaiah been listening to it and now he responds with confidence in God. He hears what God’s proposing here to save Israel to redeem them out of slavery yet again and restore them. And Isaiah is listening to God and saying:

GO FOR IT GOD! Halleluiah! God we’ve seen you do it before! You redeemed us all those years ago out of slavery in Egypt, way it go God as in days of old and the generations past.

Wasn’t it you who did all those mighty things o God? Wasn’t it you who got Israel out of slavery and through all that red sea thing? God I’m going to put my trust in you, I’m going to believe that we’re going to get back home and we’ll see the temple on mount Zion again, that we’ll be singing in everlasting joy. And all the sorrow and sighing will be gone and replaced by rejoicing.

Isaiah responds in faith. Isaiah looked back at God and all that He had done and cried YES GOD!

There is something powerful about speaking God’s promises out loud. I’m not about “name it and claim it” or “blab and grab it” school of faith, I’m simply talking about verbalising God’s promises and saying, “Lord God I am going to believe in you, I’ve heard the prophet Isaiah I’ve heard that joker on the radio today and it’s your word of God and I’m going to believe you, in your time, in your way I’m going to respond in trust and faith and in throwing my whole self upon you.”

I’ll tell you the alternative. The alternative in these transitions that are uncomfortable and uncertain is impatience. The alternative is whining. Why God? How long is this going to go on? Oh Lord why are you putting me through this? Ok there is a place for pouring out our hearts to God; there is a place for being real and honest and direct, sure, but there is time to pick ourselves up; there is time for us to stand on the promises of God.

Then it’s time to speak back to God what He’s said and ask Him powerfully to come and do what He promised to do. Go for it God! I’m ready I’m waiting I’m looking to you; show me what you’re going to do! I dunno what I’m going to do, but my trust is in You.

All too often we respond to God with impatience and importance and as much as He loves us, as much as He shows compassion towards us, He’s looking for true Disciples to worship Him, to honour Him and to trust Him. Can I ask you very plainly but very simply, are you one of those Disciples or are you one of those people whose incessant whining He constantly has to listen to?

Come on, if you were a parent and you provided for your children and you were there for them to love them and to protect them and all they every did was whine and complain, wouldn’t you get sick of it at some point? Wouldn’t you at some point want them to grow up and stop being so self-focused and impatient and see what they have in you? Sure you would! So why do we expect that God would be any different huh?

Impatience wishes away our days. Impatience. A person driven by an impatient heart isn’t grateful, they’re not at peace, they’re not at rest, they’re not trusting in God. They’re not enjoying the journey despite what the world is throwing at them, they’re not sitting there waiting for God to act and trusting in Him.

See without faith it is impossible to please God, in fact when we respond to him with impatience and whinging and whining and complaining you know what He does? Often He keeps us in that place longer and longer and longer to teach us that the way to react to God, the way to react to our situation is the way that Isaiah reacted – with confidence! With faith in the Lord knowing who God is, knowing that God loves us, knowing that God’s going to provide for us and deliver us and restore us and bless us.

And I know, I know that often that’s the last thing we feel like doing right, reacting to God with faith, reacting to God with praises and worship and joy when we’re doing it tough, when were’ uncomfortable, when we don’t know what the journey is doing or where it is going or what it is doing or what our destination is. The last thing we feel like doing is reacting to God in faith.

So speak it out! Do what Isaiah did – speak back to God the Word of God spoken out over your life. Say to God,

Awake! Awake! Put on your strength oh arm of the Lord. Awake as in the days of old generation of long ago. So that the ransom of the Lord can return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads, they will obtain Joy and Gladness and sorrow and sighing will flee away. God I believe in you! I believe that you are going to deliver me. I believe that whatever I’m going through right at this moment I believe that in Christ there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

How do you think God reacts to that? What do you think that does to God’s heart when He sees that sort of faith in His children? 

Things look different depending on where you sit. And sometimes, things in our lives look a whole bunch worse from where we sit, than from where God sits.

The View from Heaven’s Balcony

I was recently confronted with a situation that really tested my faith. You see, I don’t want you to think that just because I happen to be this smooth voice on the radio – that I somehow get an exemption stamp in my passport, from turbulence on the journey. In fact, probably the opposite is the case.

Because I’m out there, sharing the fantastic news of Jesus with people all around the world, week after week through these radio programs, our enemy the devil’s got me in his sights. I’ve got a target painted on my chest as far as he’s concerned. So, here’s what was going on.

There was one particular country, one of the world’s most populous countries, where our team had been working to get these programs to air on a radio station with a huge listenership. The daily audience for the program was going to be over one million people – that’s actual listeners.

That’s a big deal! I mean one listener is a big deal to me. A million – I can’t even imagine that many people. It’s a big deal. We’d been working for two years on this project, including finding translators and a voice to record the messages in the local vernacular language.

Quite an investment of time and effort and money. And then the day came when finally, the radio network in question accepted the program and placed it in a prime time slot. Amazing stuff. We rejoiced. We gave thanks. Really – it had been such a long road and so much was at stake. So many lives, so many people to hear the good news about Jesus. Wow.

But on the first day we were due to go to air they told us, well … we can accept the program for the moment, but in a few weeks’ time, we’re having a review of all externally provided programs and we don’t know what that is going to mean.

When our team in that country got in touch with me to tell me the news, they were gutted. I can understand how they felt. All that effort and now, all of a sudden, the whole thing was up in the air again. Devastating. What would happen? I’ll share my reaction to that whole thing with you in a minute. But first I want to go to what Isaiah has to say into situations like that.

Remember, if you’ve been able to join us these past few programs, you’ll know that Israel has been in slavery in Babylon for 70 years, since about 586 or 587 BC. And God comes to them through His Prophet Isaiah and brings them the good news that He is about to set them free; that they are about to return to the Promised Land. Whoopee! You’d think. But just like you and me, when everything’s bleak, they struggled to digest the good news.

You know what it’s like. When all your circumstances are screaming gloom and doom at you, it’s very hard to believe that something good is going to happen. Even if you believe in God. Even if you’ve put your trust in Jesus. Even if you’ve heard a million sermons on trusting God.

When your Goliath comes stomping into your life with weapons of destruction pointing at you – yah, believing that God is there to protect you, that God has a good plan for you – that’s really, really hard. It was hard for Israel, way back then and it’s hard for us today. Here and now. So here’s what God says to His people through the Prophet Isaiah. Have a listen Isaiah 52:12:

For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

You see, they were going to leave Babylon and their slavery behind. But how does that actually happen, they’ve been wondering? Babylon – the global world power of the day. The most fearsome and powerful of armies. Are we going to have to run for our lives? Are some of us going to be killed? What? How’s this going to happen?

All well and good for Isaiah to be carrying on with all this good news, but what if he’s wrong? What if God doesn’t show up?

Have those thoughts ever crossed your mind when you’re between a rock and a hard place? Yep – well, Israel too. And so God points back to a time when He’s done exactly the same for them before. He’s pointing back to a time in their history that every man, woman and child knows from top to bottom, inside out, back to front, because it’s been handed down from generation to generation for centuries.

He’s pointing back to the Exodus of course, to their escape from Israel. Remember? They fled and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and so the greatest army of that time, Egypt, came after them. In front of them was the Red Sea – an uncrossable body of water for a million men, women and children. Behind them, coming up fast was the mightiest army on the planet. Here it is.  Exodus 13:21–22:

The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

So God went ahead of them. But what about the rear, as the Egyptians closed in on them? Exodus 14:19–21:

The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided.

There it is. God went ahead of them, and behind them. He led them and opened the way, and He protected them from an attack from the rear. So when He promises now all these centuries later to do exactly the same – what is it that He’s doing? Is He asking them to rely on blind faith? Is He asking the to conjure up courage that they don’t have? No! He’s asking them to look back at what He has already done.

That’s the amazing thing with God, He never takes us to the point, where we can’t take it. Each challenge, He comes through. And so the next time, when the challenge is bigger and scarier than last time, He asks us to look back on what He’s already done in our lives.

We forget that each time. We forget He’s already proven Himself faithful and true. Oh yeah! He did that last time. Of course, in fact as I look back, He’s always come through, He’s always been there, He’s always somehow some way made it happen. Wow! And there is the bedrock of our faith this time.

When I heard the bad news about the radio program in that country, my reaction was this. We have seen this happen so many times. Today God has tens of millions of people listening to this very same program that you’re listening today in 160 plus countries around the world. There are so many times when we shouldn’t have ended up on stations and God opened the door. He went ahead of us.

There are so many times when the ministry should have folded because there weren’t the resources. But He brought up our rear. He’d trained me to trust in Him over and over again by putting me between a rock and a hard place and showing up and making things happen. After a while even someone as spiritually thick as me starts to get it. We don’t have to listen to the theory, God plans for us to put it into practice over and over again and then shows up and proves Himself true. He teaches us in our experience that this verse is absolutely true:

For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

He’s teaching us to stop sweating it. He’s teaching us at each and every transition and trial and temptation that He is faithful and true. What an awesome Dad. What an awesome God.

The Answer is Jesus

I would love to be able to tell you today that I have a secret that can take all the uncertainty and change and surprises out of your life’s journey. I’d love to be able to tell you that I have a secret that’ll take all the wrinkles, and lumps and bumps out of your life. But alas, no, I’d be lying if I told you that. There’s no such thing! Every life is a journey, every life has surprises, and every life takes twists and turns that we wouldn’t choose for ourselves. The sooner we get used to that truth, the better.

‘It’s just not fair!’ I hear you say. Well, whether it’s fair or unfair, whatever, the reality is that there isn’t a perfect life out there. There isn’t a life out there that’s all peaches and cream. We kind of kid ourselves that there is. We aspire to living that sort of life, but I’ve been racking my brain and so far as I know, there’s not a single person I’ve met in my life who can tell me that their life has been completely perfect.

However, what I can share with you is the amazing truth that in the midst of the imperfections and the storms and the onslaughts and the wrinkles and the surprises; in the midst of the disappointments, the tragedies, the loneliness that we find ourselves in; in the midst of those things, there is an answer. There is an answer that brings joy and peace in the middle of those troubled times – a special kind of joy and peace that is only available in those difficult times.

I hope you’ve been able to join me these past few weeks on the programme, because we’ve been talking about the huge transition that the nation of Israel faced, from certainty (such as it was) – the certainty of their slavery and captivity in Babylon over the past 70 years, to the uncertainty of God’s blessing as He set out to restore their freedom and take them back to the promised land, to rebuild Jerusalem; to rebuild the wall; to rebuild the temple. It’s really ironic that we’re more comfortable often with an ugly certainty than a potentially beautiful uncertainty, but as we saw before the break, that’s just the way it is; we are.

And so, through the prophet Isaiah, as we’ve been tracking through chapters 51 and 52 of that book in the Old Testament, we’ve seen God rousing His people and convincing them of the amazingly beautiful journey ahead of them, back to the Promised Land. Isaiah 52:4-6, he says:

Listen to Me, My people, and give heed to Me, My nation: For a teaching will go out from thee, and My justice for a light to all the peoples. I will bring near My deliverance swiftly; My salvation has gone out, and My arm will rule the peoples. Even the coastlands wait for Me, and for My arm they hope. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats. But My salvation will be forever, and My deliverance will never be ended.

It’s a beautiful promise of deliverance, but as we’ve seen, Israel has been struggling with that. So the question is, in the middle of that struggle, what’s the answer? Where do we turn? Where do we find that courage and strength and peace and comfort and calmness that we need to get through the tough trials?

Well, this is the really exciting bit. This is the end of those 2 chapters and unbeknown to the Israelites in that sixth century before Christ, what Isaiah gives them is a prophecy – a prophecy that wouldn’t be fulfilled for centuries; a prophecy about the One who would bring the comfort of God into their very midst. Are you ready for it? Isaiah 52:13-53:6:

See, my servant shall prosper. He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at Him, so marred was His appearance beyond human semblance and His form beyond all that of mortals, so He shall startle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him, for that which has not been told them, they shall see; and that which they have not heard, they shall contemplate.

Who has believed what we have heard, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of the dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we would look upon Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and acquainted with infirmity. As one from whom others hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him of no account. Surely He has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases, yet we counted Him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and by His bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

And on it goes in Isaiah chapter 53. This is truly amazing. Centuries before that starry night, on which Jesus was born in that stable in Bethlehem, God through Isaiah’s prophecy tells us exactly what this Jesus would be like – Jesus the suffering servant; Jesus the plain, ordinary man who would bear our sin, whose suffering would set us free; Jesus the Son of God, who would show us exactly how much this God of ours loves us – a God who not only does things powerfully for His people, but a God who would come into our very midst and suffer for us.

This is what sets God apart from all the other so-called gods. It’s the fact that He shows up; that He walks 30 years or more in our shoes on the dusty highways and byways of life: This Jesus who understands our suffering not merely because He is God, but because He became one of us and suffered for us and suffered like us and suffered with us, dying a terrible death so that you and I might live.

My friend, with all my heart, I tell you that this Jesus is the answer. You may be going through indescribable suffering and pain; you may be going through an exhausting or an uncomfortable transition in your life, but Jesus has been there ahead of you, and He knows how you feel, what you’re going through, the pain and the loneliness – hallelujah! God is the God who suffered for me and for you, and that is the answer. He is the answer. When you pray to God in the name of Jesus, you’re praying through Jesus, who knows you and your journey better than you know them yourself, ‘cos He’s been there.

I want to leap forward now to something in the New Testament about Jesus – this Jesus who wants to bring you peace; this Jesus who wants to be your companion on this journey so that you are never, ever, alone. Just before He was crucified, He said this to His disciples:

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, because He abides with you and He will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will also live. And on that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me and I in you. They who have My commandments and keep them are those who love Me, and those who love Me will be loved by my Father and I will love them and reveal Myself to them.

Hallelujah! ‘Cos Jesus is on our journey with us. Jesus is on your journey with you. He’s on my journey with me. We’re not orphaned. We’re not alone. We’re never alone! We’re never without Him! Have you asked Jesus into your life? Have you called out to God in His mighty name? If you have, Jesus dwells in you. God dwells in you (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) – in you to hold you, and to comfort you, and to strengthen you … That’s the honest truth, and it’s a truth that I would tell you with my dying breath because it’s the most important truth I know. Friend, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

A Battlefield Perspective

I was recently in a little place called Lincoln, Nebraska, in the USA – the home of the global media ministry Back to the Bible, the very same ministry that way back in 1957 planted Christianityworks in Australia. And I was over there on a weekend, so I wandered down to my favourite church in that town – the Lincoln City Church, and it turned out they had a visitor speaking at the church that morning. Her name was Bo Stern – mid-40s, great communicator – but what she spoke about was something that I just didn’t expect. You see, everything had been going perfectly for her and for her husband Steve and their family. They were a family that served and honoured God. Steve in particular was a great man of faith, as the head of the home, and he sought to honour God with all that he was. It was all going along swimmingly, until the day Steve was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, and in an instant, Bo found herself out on a battlefield.

She found herself out there in one of those places where she needed to learn how to trust God not just in theory, but in practice. And as she remarked: ‘Don’t you just hate it when people come along with glib platitudes like oh, don’t worry dear. All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose?’ Hey, now that’s a Scripture. Romans 8:28. How can that be a glib platitude? Well, easy. ‘Cos when people who haven’t really experienced the pain of your battlefield come along and try to drop a simple solution in your lap, it doesn’t work.

“Hey; don’t you get what I’m going through here? Don’t you understand the ferocity of the battle, the onslaught on my family, my husband’s disease?” She’s written a book about this journey and it’s called “Beautiful Battlefields” by Bo Stern. Definitely worth a read; you can buy it online. The central thesis, the big idea of this book if you will, is this (and I quote from her book):

“Some beautiful things can only be found in the hardest times. Can you turn that idea around in your mind for a bit, and let its size and scope seep in? God is for us. He is for our growth; for our joy; for our success; our maturity; and He will use every struggle we face as the delivery agents for His most remarkable gifts. Our beautiful God has hidden beauty in the soil of our battlefield. He has placed treasure there that we simply would not be able to find in another, more peaceful place. Before we faced this fight, I knew this in theory, but I hadn’t experienced a fire hot enough to prove and refine it. Now I can say with great confidence: I own it. On good days and on bad, in war and in peace, in sickness and in health, I know in the deepest part of my heart that He is the God who brings beauty from battle.” (Beautiful Battlefields by Bo Stern).

The power of what she’s saying here lies in the fact that Bo is speaking from her vantage point in the midst of a most terrible battle. No glib platitudes or shallow theories; just a real, gritty, Spirit-breathed understanding, that can only come from out there on the battlefield. In that book she grapples with issues and shares insights that’ll warm your heart and strengthen your soul, and fill you with hope.

My point in sharing this with you is that I think sometimes, when we’re going through some transition in life, from A to B, from comfortable to uncomfortable, from safe to unsafe, from certain to uncertain, we expect there to be an instant, magic solution. We expect God to heal now! To provide now! To do whatever we want Him to do now, while all along He holds back because there are treasures hidden in the dirt out there on the battlefield.

My friend, it’s true on my battlefields, and it’s true on your battlefields. God has hidden treasures out there that you can only find because you’re out on the battlefield – the treasure of knowing Him in the battle; the treasure of discovering His faithfulness under fire. And I would encourage anyone out there on their own personal battlefield, you on your battlefield, to start looking for those treasures – for they are treasures only available to you out on your battlefield – and when you discover them, they are truly, truly exquisite.

My friend, God is with you on your journey, as He was with Israel; as He went ahead of them to lead the way, and behind them to protect them, your God is travelling with you through your battle, doing exactly the same thing for you, and here’s one thing for certain: In years to come, when you look back at this battle, you’ll be able to see how your God has proven Himself to be faithful and true, ‘cos that’s just who He is.

You’ve heard that saying – “asleep at the wheel” right? Well the truth is, that many of us as we drive down this highway called life – are doing just that. We’re asleep to God’s amazing plans and purposes for our lives. Are you … asleep at the wheel??

Asleep at the Wheel

Life is full of transitions isn’t it? We go from being a child to being an adult, they call those years our teenage years and anybody who’s been a teenager will know that it’s an awkward often difficult time. You se it’s this transition thing from something we know to something we don’t, from A to B. And what we’d really like is, we’d like our transitions to be quick and simple and direct and comfortable and predictable and safe. That’s what we’d like them to be.

But transitions never are. From single to married, from married to single, from staff member to supervision, from supervisor to manager, from employed to unemployed, from student to teacher. Whatever the change is, whatever the transitions is, there’s always an awkwardness, an uncomfortableness about it.

So we’ve been looking at this whole transition thing by putting ourselves in Israel’s shoes in this series. They’d been exiled in Babylon for seventy years but at the end of seventy years God’s ready to bless them again and take them back home to the Promised Land. Now you’d think that when Isaiah announced that, there’d be shouting and dancing in the streets. But think about it, most of them had been born in slavery. They’d been there over seventy years!

And while they’ve heard of the Promised Land it’s a bit like a dream land! Does it really exist? And hey we’re slaves right? Dominated by the dominant world power of the day the Babylonians, right? How are we ever going to see the Promised Land? That’s the reality. And when we’re in our version of Babylon, when we’re in that difficult place we’d rather not be in, come on, how difficult for us to even begin to imagine that God would actually restore our lives?

Sometimes fear is our default mode. It’s true for many of us. Most of us respond to uncertainty and transition with what? Fear rather than faith. And that is where Israel was; they needed some convincing that God was going to bless them. That’s where many people are today. How about you?

So God sends them the prophet Isaiah and as we saw in the last program, three times in chapter 51 in the book of Isaiah God says to his people, “Listen to me. Listen to me. Listen, to me.” It’s like an alarm clock at 6 in the morning going Ring Ring Ring! What’s he trying to do? He’s trying to get their attention, he’s trying to wake them up and in fact the very next thing he says to them is, “Wake up!” Let’s hear what God has to say to His people back then and what He’s saying to you and me about His plans and purposes for us today. Isaiah Chapter 52, verses 1 – 6:

Awake! Awake! Put on your strength oh Zion, put on your beautiful garments Jerusalem the holy city for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall enter you no more. Shake yourself from the dust, rise up oh captive Jerusalem loose the bonds from your neck oh captive daughter Zion for thus says the Lord your God you were sold for nothing and you shall be redeemed without money.

For thus says the Lord God, ‘Long ago my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens and the Assyrian too has oppressed them without cause, now therefor what I am doing here,’ says the Lord, ‘seeing that my people have been taken away without cause, they’re rulers house’, says the Lord, ‘and continually all day long my name is despised therefore my people shall know my name therefore in that day they shall know that it is I that speak, here am I’.”

This is God shouting, “Wake up people!” You know what it’s like when you first wake up out of a deep sleep and your kind of groggy and disorientated and if you default mode is fear and you’re traveling through your difficult place – your Babylon, your health issue, your marriage issue, your family issue, your money issue, your whatever issue – when you’re in that place and your default mode is fear, Hey! You’re going to take some waking up. To wake up from the drowsiness of that negativity to the potential and the amazing future that God has for you.

We need to get dressed in the garment of praise, we need to put on the strength we have in Christ! We need to shake the dust off our attitudes where it settled from lack of movement, cos tell you, fear has a tendency to paralyse us, we just kind of sit there and hope it’s all going to change. We need to lose the bonds of captivity to our circumstances that are choking us.

What a beautiful picture. God is wanting His people to wake up to the fact that by his sovereign will and His immense power He’s already started doing some amazing stuff but the God of their fathers is going to redeem them without money in other words He’s going to do it, He’s already doing it, and it’s going to cost them nothing. No work, no effort, cos God is going to do it.

“Wake up to what I’m doing here people”. That is what God’s saying to Israel and my friend that is what He’s saying here to you and me today. When we’re in that dark and difficult place of transition from something we know to something we don’t, from something that’s comfortable, albeit trying, to something that’s maybe not as comfortable and familiar, we almost want to sleep, most of us want to stay where we are. It’s out default mode; we’re not expecting God to move.

I’m not saying God’s going to wave a magic wand and solve all your problems over night that may be his plan, that may not be his plan but he may have a plan to fill you with exquisite knowledge of his present, the sort that is only available in the dark place that you’re in the sort of knowledge the presences of God and his healing an comforting spirit that simply wouldn’t be as poignant or as powerful in a place of light as it is in a place of darkness.

Whatever God’s plan is for you let me tell you, He has a plan. A plan for good, a plan to bless you, a plan to be your God right smack bang in the middle of that place that you’re in at the moment. You’re God has a mighty plan and a mighty purpose for your life and I don’t care if you’re 8 or your 80 or you’re 800, your God has a mighty plan and a purpose for your life. And today through his word this is what God is saying to you. “Wake up my child, wake up to the plan that I have for you.”

Wow, see the stuff that we could end up missing out of if we are not in God’s word? If we don’t’ open God’s word and read it and read it as though he means to speak to us through it? Wake up to the plan that God has for your life for whatever it is, it’s good! And it’ll be such a tragedy for you to miss out on God’s plan for your life. Wake up!

Beautiful Feet

Good news about tomorrow always brightens up today have you noticed? And there are probably only one or two people, and perhaps you’re one of them, who needs a bit of good news about tomorrow today.

Like the nation of Israel a few hundred years BC when they were coming to the end of exile and slavery in Babylon, back in around 520BC give or take a few years. They desperately needed some good news. But you see for the last seventy years as slaves all they were used to was bad news, and for someone only used to bad news it can be really hard to get the good news though. God had to shake them and wake them up.

He used the prophet Isaiah to do that as we’ve seen so far in this story, and of course you and I can be like that too. If all we’ve been used to is bad news for a long time, it’s kind of hard to wrap our hearts around some good news. It’s hard to have hope for tomorrow when the circumstances of yesterday and today are screaming at you there is no hope!

Are you with me? Sure you are. You’ve been there at that rock point out there on the battlefield where the enemy whoever or whatever that enemy’s been in your life is threatening to overwhelm you. When your Babylon has enslaved you and has robbed you apparently of all your freedom and your future and your hope in God.

So the old Isaiah has been waking and shaking God’s people, telling them that God is on the move and that good things are about to happen. It’s not an easy message to get through to them or to me. So God calls Isaiah to say something that’s really going to get our collective attention. Isaiah chapter 52 verses 7-10:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace; who brings good news; who announces salvation. Who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, and he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Beautiful feet, what the blazes is God on about? Have you looked at your feet lately? Hardly the most attractive part of your anatomy are they? Leave them in a pair of shoes or socks for too long and they get a bit smelly too. God is nothing if not an edgy communicator. You know how sometimes advertiser will use shock tactics to get your attention? To stand out from the crowd to get their message noticed? That in effect is what God’s doing here. He’s grabbing our attention. He’s grabbing your attention and my attention.

Come on, if someone brought you the good news that you had just won 10 million dollars in the lottery, you could kiss their feet couldn’t you? That’s the picture here. This isn’t just good news, it’s not just even great news or fantastic news, this is stunning brilliant totally life changing news. God has a plan to save His people, Israel back then – you and me today. And it’s the sort of news that should have us singing and dancing in the street.

Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, and he has redeemed Jerusalem.

There are some joys, some pleasures, some delights that are only available to us when all around us is darkness and gloom. I can tell you that, not just because I’m reading it in the book Isaiah, but because I’ve experienced it myself. In the days when all that I held dear had been taken away from me, the days were black and the nights were even blacker. And nothing that anybody said or did made one iota of difference to the pain and the isolation I felt.

Pain is the unique individual and isolating experience, when you suffer you suffer alone on the inside even if there are people around on the outside to comfort you. There’s just one thing one thing, that cuts through the darkness, that cuts through the pain with a light so warm and so gentle and so beautiful that they’re simply aren’t any words to describe it, and that my friend is the voice of God saying, “I have to come to comfort you. I have come to redeem you.”

The people who came to bring me that news, I’m picturing their faces right now, I could kiss their feet. And once I was able to light my candle the flame that raged in their hearts burned ever brighter in me. Once I’d met Jesus in my black hole, He became my friend and my companion and my comforter in a way that no one ever has to me and no one else ever will be to me. He came to save me and to lift me out of that pit. Something He did even while the circumstances around me where still against me.

The joy of meeting Jesus in that dark place is a pleasure so exquisite that I wouldn’t swap those dark days for anything because the Lord bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth saw the salvation of our God in me.

The good news is, God is only a side. Doesn’t mean He’ll always see things the way you do or do things the way you’d want him to do or when you wanted Him to do them. See we only see a small part of the puzzle He sees the whole picture and His plans and His purpose go way beyond anything we could ever imagine. But in the face of the most terrifying inky blackness I’ve ever faced in my life I remember the experience of that joy and of that comfort and of that peace that goes way beyond any understanding. There are no words to describe the beauty of God’s presences in that dark pit with me.

I know that God has a future planned for each one of us. I know that God has a future planed for you, a future that is so far beyond anything you can imagine or hope for its better than winning the lottery. It’s better that anything this earth has to offer, because it involves him in our lives. It involves Jesus leading you forward through whatever transition you’re going through, through whatever dark hole your traveling through, though whatever pit you’ve fallen into, it involves Jesus leading you through that place and out on the other side.

My friend when you look back in the days to come, when you look back at the difficult transition that uncomfortable time, you’ll see the arm of the Lord, you’ll see what God has done, you’ll give glory to God because He was in that place with you and He did it for you. And that’s the news that Jesus asked me to bring you today. May it bless your socks off. 

Don’t Just Sit There 

There are plenty of people who want to wallow around in pain and misfortune until the end of time. Now please I’m not being harsh here when something bad happen, when we lose a loved one, when we get a bad medical diagnoses, when a marriage falls apart or we go to work in the morning only to come home unemployed in the evening, come on it knocks the wind out of us.

We go through all sorts of emotions, we go through shock, pain, anger, fear, and resentment there is a whole cycle that we go through in what’s called the grieving process. And that’s natural, we need to go through those stages and if you’re in that cycle somewhere at the moment I am definitely not knocking that. Please understand me.

But at some point, we have to get up off the canvas; at some point we have to accept that the world has changed irrevocably and get on with the business of living. If you’ve just lost your partner of 30 or 40 years nothing can ever bring them back, the world has changed; at some point you have to get on with life.

But I know people who are in the business of being perpetual victims. It’s like their default mode. They always look at the glass and decide that glass is half empty and they live their lives like there is a water shortage. I’m bringing you good news today! Your God reigns and He is determined to get you through whatever it is that you’re going through and He is determined to bless you in His own way, in His own time, believe it or not.

The question is, what response is God looking for from us? When He lays out the good news before us the way He’s been doing through His word today on the program? When God speaks and as when I read the word of God from the book of Isaiah – that’s exactly what He’s doing make no mistake about it – when God speaks He’s blessing into your heart, what response is He looking for?

Well in the very next verse, Isaiah chapter 52, verse 11 after He tells people to rejoice after He says, look I’m bringing you good news, go and dance in the streets, go and party, go and have some fun, what’s the next thing He says to his people Israel, who are about to be released from captivity? He says verse 11 chapter 52:

Depart, Depart! Go out from here. Touch no unclean thing, go out from the midst of it and purify yourself he who carries the vessels of the Lord.

Hang on, what’s all that about? Okay, let’s understand it in the context of what’s going on in the history of Israel. Right now when God is speaking to them, as we’ve seen they’ve been in slavery for seventy years in Babylon and Gods about to restore them and bring them the fantastic news we’ve been talking about this last little while, and they’re struggling to wrap their minds around it, to understanding it, to comprehend it.

Three times in the book of Isaiah in chapter 51 God says,  “Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me!” Then as we’ve seen he says “Wake up, wake up”. He’s like an alarm clock here trying to get their attention and now he’s giving them the next piece in the puzzle, “Don’t just lie there…you’ve got to get up and out of that nice warm comfortable bed that you’ve made for yourself and hit the track Jack because I’m doing something and if you want to get with what I’m up to you have to get up and go!”

For Israel that meant that they had to get used to the fact that they were about to leave Babylon that might at first? Sound like good news. They’re going from slavery to freedom – that’s what God’s been telling them here through Isaiah – they’re going from Babylon back to the Promised Land! Great news! You’d think!

Here’s what Isaiah was running into with the people, they’d become comfortable in their slavery. Okay, they were slaves but they had a roof over their heads, they had food on their tables, they were safe. What? Leave Babylon? Are you crazy?  The same thing had happened centuries before as Israel had fled Egypt under the leadership of Moses. They went only a few miles into the wilderness when they turned on Moses saying in effect “what have you done you idiot? It’s risky out here, it’s uncomfortable, its uncertain out here, better we should have stayed back in Egypt at least there we were safe and we had food and a roof.”

There’s nothing new under the sun. We still behave like that today because we prefer the certainty of our despair to the uncertainly of a future in the Promised Land. Listen to that again. We often prefer the certainty of our despair to the uncertainty of a future out there on a journey to the Promised Land.

God promises a whole bunch of stuff but to get it we have to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. Die to ourselves in order to gain our new lives in Christ. Listen again to this one verse.

Depart, Depart. Go out from here. Touch no unclean thing, go out from the midst of it. Purify yourselves you who carried the vessels of the Lord.

Don’t just sit there, get going and along the way on the journey stay pure and holy. Don’t mix it with the rubbish that the world’s dangling under your nose like it’s a viable alternative to the holiness and perfection of God. Don’t think you can have a foot in both camps…one on God’s journey and one staying back in the world in Babylon, which has put you in slavery in the first place. Are you silly?

It’s like standing waiting for your luggage at the airport and having one foot on the ground and having one foot on the moving conveyer belt. That works for about half-a-second before you end up flat on your face. It’s one or the other. Its staying stuck in your present circumstances which are grooving you into slavery or getting out on the road and getting moving on God’s journey, God’s way to God’s destination for your life!

So friend, which one is it going to be? Going to stay stuck where you are or are you going to get going with God’s plan?

See, when the shock of the impact is over, when you’ve come to the point where you can begin to function again after a tough time a difficult time of transition even though it’s still tough, even though its still uncertain and uncomfortable and fearful are you going to get moving with God’s plan for your life or not? What does that mean? What does that look like?  It means pressing into God and starting to function again in your gifting’s and helping other people and serving other people and seeking heart after heart after God and in that a journey begins somewhere.

Journeys don’t’ happen by lying to bed and listening to the alarm clock and pulling the covers over our heads. Journeys don’t happen while sitting on the couch complaining that Gods not doing anything, the journey begins when we hear the call of God when we feel him shaking us saying, “Wake up!” The journey begins when we take those first few steps because he said to us to “depart, depart. Go out from here.”

A builder may have an architect’s plans in his hands, but unless he digs the holes and pours the foundations and puts the frame up and starts laying the bricks row upon row there ain’t going to be a house. No house at all. There are way too many people who have heard God’s call because He does have a plan for them, for you, and then with covers pulled up over their heads, their lying there complaining that don’t know what God’s plan is for them. Well, what’s it going to be for you? Are you going to keep lying there with the covers pulled over your head complaining ‘I don’t know what God has planned for me?’ Or are you going to do what God’s called you to do?

Depart, Depart Go out from here. Touch no unclean thing.

Get up out of bed. Go to the bathroom, have a shower, clean your teeth, put your clothes on and go and do the things that God made you to do. The things that you’re gifted to do. The things that you’ve been called to do and somewhere in the middle of that God’s plan for your life will begin to emerge. See that is what God’s called you to do.

It’s one thing for us to trust in God … in theory. The theory, as it turns out, is pretty simple. It’s the practice that many of us find much harder. Because trusting Him is something we need to do, very often, when times are tough.

The View from Heaven’s Balcony

I was recently confronted with a situation that really tested my faith. You see, I don’t want you to think that just because I happen to be this smooth voice on the radio – that I somehow get an exemption stamp in my passport, from turbulence on the journey. In fact, probably the opposite is the case.

Because I’m out there, sharing the fantastic news of Jesus with people all around the world, week after week through these radio programs, our enemy the devil’s got me in his sights. I’ve got a target painted on my chest as far as he’s concerned. So, here’s what was going on.

There was one particular country, one of the world’s most populous countries, where our team had been working to get these programs to air on a radio station with a huge listenership. The daily audience for the program was going to be over one million people – that’s actual listeners.

That’s a big deal! I mean one listener is a big deal to me. A million – I can’t even imagine that many people. It’s a big deal. We’d been working for two years on this project, including finding translators and a voice to record the messages in the local vernacular language.

Quite an investment of time and effort and money. And then the day came when finally, the radio network in question accepted the program and placed it in a prime time slot. Amazing stuff. We rejoiced. We gave thanks. Really – it had been such a long road and so much was at stake. So many lives, so many people to hear the good news about Jesus. Wow.

But on the first day we were due to go to air they told us, well … we can accept the program for the moment, but in a few weeks’ time, we’re having a review of all externally provided programs and we don’t know what that is going to mean.

When our team in that country got in touch with me to tell me the news, they were gutted. I can understand how they felt. All that effort and now, all of a sudden, the whole thing was up in the air again. Devastating. What would happen? I’ll share my reaction to that whole thing with you in a minute. But first I want to go to what Isaiah has to say into situations like that.

Remember, if you’ve been able to join us these past few programs, you’ll know that Israel has been in slavery in Babylon for 70 years, since about 586 or 587 BC. And God comes to them through His Prophet Isaiah and brings them the good news that He is about to set them free; that they are about to return to the Promised Land. Whoopee! You’d think. But just like you and me, when everything’s bleak, they struggled to digest the good news.

You know what it’s like. When all your circumstances are screaming gloom and doom at you, it’s very hard to believe that something good is going to happen. Even if you believe in God. Even if you’ve put your trust in Jesus. Even if you’ve heard a million sermons on trusting God.

When your Goliath comes stomping into your life with weapons of destruction pointing at you – yah, believing that God is there to protect you, that God has a good plan for you – that’s really, really hard. It was hard for Israel, way back then and it’s hard for us today. Here and now. So here’s what God says to His people through the Prophet Isaiah. Have a listen Isaiah 52:12:

For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

You see, they were going to leave Babylon and their slavery behind. But how does that actually happen, they’ve been wondering? Babylon – the global world power of the day. The most fearsome and powerful of armies. Are we going to have to run for our lives? Are some of us going to be killed? What? How’s this going to happen?

All well and good for Isaiah to be carrying on with all this good news, but what if he’s wrong? What if God doesn’t show up?

Have those thoughts ever crossed your mind when you’re between a rock and a hard place? Yep – well, Israel too. And so God points back to a time when He’s done exactly the same for them before. He’s pointing back to a time in their history that every man, woman and child knows from top to bottom, inside out, back to front, because it’s been handed down from generation to generation for centuries.

He’s pointing back to the Exodus of course, to their escape from Israel. Remember? They fled and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and so the greatest army of that time, Egypt, came after them. In front of them was the Red Sea – an uncrossable body of water for a million men, women and children. Behind them, coming up fast was the mightiest army on the planet. Here it is.  Exodus 13:21–22:

The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

So God went ahead of them. But what about the rear, as the Egyptians closed in on them? Exodus 14:19–21:

The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided.

There it is. God went ahead of them, and behind them. He led them and opened the way, and He protected them from an attack from the rear. So when He promises now all these centuries later to do exactly the same – what is it that He’s doing? Is He asking them to rely on blind faith? Is He asking the to conjure up courage that they don’t have? No! He’s asking them to look back at what He has already done.

That’s the amazing thing with God, He never takes us to the point, where we can’t take it. Each challenge, He comes through. And so the next time, when the challenge is bigger and scarier than last time, He asks us to look back on what He’s already done in our lives.

We forget that each time. We forget He’s already proven Himself faithful and true. Oh yeah! He did that last time. Of course, in fact as I look back, He’s always come through, He’s always been there, He’s always somehow some way made it happen. Wow! And there is the bedrock of our faith this time.

When I heard the bad news about the radio program in that country, my reaction was this. We have seen this happen so many times. Today God has tens of millions of people listening to this very same program that you’re listening today in 160 plus countries around the world. There are so many times when we shouldn’t have ended up on stations and God opened the door. He went ahead of us.

There are so many times when the ministry should have folded because there weren’t the resources. But He brought up our rear. He’d trained me to trust in Him over and over again by putting me between a rock and a hard place and showing up and making things happen. After a while even someone as spiritually thick as me starts to get it. We don’t have to listen to the theory, God plans for us to put it into practice over and over again and then shows up and proves Himself true. He teaches us in our experience that this verse is absolutely true:

For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

He’s teaching us to stop sweating it. He’s teaching us at each and every transition and trial and temptation that He is faithful and true. What an awesome Dad. What an awesome God.

The Answer is Jesus

I would love to be able to tell you today that I have a secret that can take all the uncertainty and change and surprises out of your life’s journey. I’d love to be able to tell you that I have a secret that’ll take all the wrinkles, and lumps and bumps out of your life. But alas, no, I’d be lying if I told you that. There’s no such thing! Every life is a journey, every life has surprises, and every life takes twists and turns that we wouldn’t choose for ourselves. The sooner we get used to that truth, the better.

‘It’s just not fair!’ I hear you say. Well, whether it’s fair or unfair, whatever, the reality is that there isn’t a perfect life out there. There isn’t a life out there that’s all peaches and cream. We kind of kid ourselves that there is. We aspire to living that sort of life, but I’ve been racking my brain and so far as I know, there’s not a single person I’ve met in my life who can tell me that their life has been completely perfect.

However, what I can share with you is the amazing truth that in the midst of the imperfections and the storms and the onslaughts and the wrinkles and the surprises; in the midst of the disappointments, the tragedies, the loneliness that we find ourselves in; in the midst of those things, there is an answer. There is an answer that brings joy and peace in the middle of those troubled times – a special kind of joy and peace that is only available in those difficult times.

I hope you’ve been able to join me these past few weeks on the programme, because we’ve been talking about the huge transition that the nation of Israel faced, from certainty (such as it was) – the certainty of their slavery and captivity in Babylon over the past 70 years, to the uncertainty of God’s blessing as He set out to restore their freedom and take them back to the promised land, to rebuild Jerusalem; to rebuild the wall; to rebuild the temple. It’s really ironic that we’re more comfortable often with an ugly certainty than a potentially beautiful uncertainty, but as we saw before the break, that’s just the way it is; we are.

And so, through the prophet Isaiah, as we’ve been tracking through chapters 51 and 52 of that book in the Old Testament, we’ve seen God rousing His people and convincing them of the amazingly beautiful journey ahead of them, back to the Promised Land. Isaiah 52:4-6, he says:

Listen to Me, My people, and give heed to Me, My nation: For a teaching will go out from thee, and My justice for a light to all the peoples. I will bring near My deliverance swiftly; My salvation has gone out, and My arm will rule the peoples. Even the coastlands wait for Me, and for My arm they hope. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats. But My salvation will be forever, and My deliverance will never be ended.

It’s a beautiful promise of deliverance, but as we’ve seen, Israel has been struggling with that. So the question is, in the middle of that struggle, what’s the answer? Where do we turn? Where do we find that courage and strength and peace and comfort and calmness that we need to get through the tough trials?

Well, this is the really exciting bit. This is the end of those 2 chapters and unbeknown to the Israelites in that sixth century before Christ, what Isaiah gives them is a prophecy – a prophecy that wouldn’t be fulfilled for centuries; a prophecy about the One who would bring the comfort of God into their very midst. Are you ready for it? Isaiah 52:13-53:6:

See, my servant shall prosper. He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at Him, so marred was His appearance beyond human semblance and His form beyond all that of mortals, so He shall startle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him, for that which has not been told them, they shall see; and that which they have not heard, they shall contemplate.

Who has believed what we have heard, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of the dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we would look upon Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and acquainted with infirmity. As one from whom others hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him of no account. Surely He has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases, yet we counted Him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and by His bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

And on it goes in Isaiah chapter 53. This is truly amazing. Centuries before that starry night, on which Jesus was born in that stable in Bethlehem, God through Isaiah’s prophecy tells us exactly what this Jesus would be like – Jesus the suffering servant; Jesus the plain, ordinary man who would bear our sin, whose suffering would set us free; Jesus the Son of God, who would show us exactly how much this God of ours loves us – a God who not only does things powerfully for His people, but a God who would come into our very midst and suffer for us.

This is what sets God apart from all the other so-called gods. It’s the fact that He shows up; that He walks 30 years or more in our shoes on the dusty highways and byways of life: This Jesus who understands our suffering not merely because He is God, but because He became one of us and suffered for us and suffered like us and suffered with us, dying a terrible death so that you and I might live.

My friend, with all my heart, I tell you that this Jesus is the answer. You may be going through indescribable suffering and pain; you may be going through an exhausting or an uncomfortable transition in your life, but Jesus has been there ahead of you, and He knows how you feel, what you’re going through, the pain and the loneliness – hallelujah! God is the God who suffered for me and for you, and that is the answer. He is the answer. When you pray to God in the name of Jesus, you’re praying through Jesus, who knows you and your journey better than you know them yourself, ‘cos He’s been there.

I want to leap forward now to something in the New Testament about Jesus – this Jesus who wants to bring you peace; this Jesus who wants to be your companion on this journey so that you are never, ever, alone. Just before He was crucified, He said this to His disciples:

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, because He abides with you and He will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will also live. And on that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me and I in you. They who have My commandments and keep them are those who love Me, and those who love Me will be loved by my Father and I will love them and reveal Myself to them.

Hallelujah! ‘Cos Jesus is on our journey with us. Jesus is on your journey with you. He’s on my journey with me. We’re not orphaned. We’re not alone. We’re never alone! We’re never without Him! Have you asked Jesus into your life? Have you called out to God in His mighty name? If you have, Jesus dwells in you. God dwells in you (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) – in you to hold you, and to comfort you, and to strengthen you … That’s the honest truth, and it’s a truth that I would tell you with my dying breath because it’s the most important truth I know. Friend, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

A Battlefield Perspective

I was recently in a little place called Lincoln, Nebraska, in the USA – the home of the global media ministry Back to the Bible, the very same ministry that way back in 1957 planted Christianityworks in Australia. And I was over there on a weekend, so I wandered down to my favourite church in that town – the Lincoln City Church, and it turned out they had a visitor speaking at the church that morning. Her name was Bo Stern – mid-40s, great communicator – but what she spoke about was something that I just didn’t expect. You see, everything had been going perfectly for her and for her husband Steve and their family. They were a family that served and honoured God. Steve in particular was a great man of faith, as the head of the home, and he sought to honour God with all that he was. It was all going along swimmingly, until the day Steve was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, and in an instant, Bo found herself out on a battlefield.

She found herself out there in one of those places where she needed to learn how to trust God not just in theory, but in practice. And as she remarked: ‘Don’t you just hate it when people come along with glib platitudes like oh, don’t worry dear. All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose?’ Hey, now that’s a Scripture. Romans 8:28. How can that be a glib platitude? Well, easy. ‘Cos when people who haven’t really experienced the pain of your battlefield come along and try to drop a simple solution in your lap, it doesn’t work.

“Hey; don’t you get what I’m going through here? Don’t you understand the ferocity of the battle, the onslaught on my family, my husband’s disease?” She’s written a book about this journey and it’s called “Beautiful Battlefields” by Bo Stern. Definitely worth a read; you can buy it online. The central thesis, the big idea of this book if you will, is this (and I quote from her book):

“Some beautiful things can only be found in the hardest times. Can you turn that idea around in your mind for a bit, and let its size and scope seep in? God is for us. He is for our growth; for our joy; for our success; our maturity; and He will use every struggle we face as the delivery agents for His most remarkable gifts. Our beautiful God has hidden beauty in the soil of our battlefield. He has placed treasure there that we simply would not be able to find in another, more peaceful place. Before we faced this fight, I knew this in theory, but I hadn’t experienced a fire hot enough to prove and refine it. Now I can say with great confidence: I own it. On good days and on bad, in war and in peace, in sickness and in health, I know in the deepest part of my heart that He is the God who brings beauty from battle.” (Beautiful Battlefields by Bo Stern).

The power of what she’s saying here lies in the fact that Bo is speaking from her vantage point in the midst of a most terrible battle. No glib platitudes or shallow theories; just a real, gritty, Spirit-breathed understanding, that can only come from out there on the battlefield. In that book she grapples with issues and shares insights that’ll warm your heart and strengthen your soul, and fill you with hope.

My point in sharing this with you is that I think sometimes, when we’re going through some transition in life, from A to B, from comfortable to uncomfortable, from safe to unsafe, from certain to uncertain, we expect there to be an instant, magic solution. We expect God to heal now! To provide now! To do whatever we want Him to do now, while all along He holds back because there are treasures hidden in the dirt out there on the battlefield.

My friend, it’s true on my battlefields, and it’s true on your battlefields. God has hidden treasures out there that you can only find because you’re out on the battlefield – the treasure of knowing Him in the battle; the treasure of discovering His faithfulness under fire. And I would encourage anyone out there on their own personal battlefield, you on your battlefield, to start looking for those treasures – for they are treasures only available to you out on your battlefield – and when you discover them, they are truly, truly exquisite.

My friend, God is with you on your journey, as He was with Israel; as He went ahead of them to lead the way, and behind them to protect them, your God is travelling with you through your battle, doing exactly the same thing for you, and here’s one thing for certain: In years to come, when you look back at this battle, you’ll be able to see how your God has proven Himself to be faithful and true, ‘cos that’s just who He is.