Verse 7 has told us what God does verses 8 and 9 tell us who he is. Verses 8 and 9 take us deeper into this compassion and abundant pardon. New Eyesīut notice what the text then does. Returning to God in fresh contrition, however ashamed and disgusted with ourselves, he will not tepidly pardon. This is profound consolation for us as we find ourselves time and again wandering away from the Father, looking for soul calm anywhere but in his embrace and instruction. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry then gives us another way of saying that God will exercise compassion toward us: “He will abundantly pardon” (v. What will happen when we do this? God will “have compassion on” us (v. God calls us to seek him, to call on him, and invites even the wicked to return to the Lord. How does Jesus feel about his people amid all their sins and failures? This book takes readers into the depths of Christ’s very heart-a heart of tender love drawn to sinners and sufferers. The transition comes toward the end of verse 7 (which concludes, “for he will abundantly pardon”). The first part of this passage tells us what to do. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.įor as high as the heavens are above the earth,Īnd my thoughts than your thoughts. The full passage goes like this:Īnd to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. It is a statement not of the surprise of God’s mysterious providence but of the surprise of God’s compassionate heart. And in context, it means something quite different. But the passage in which we find “his ways are not our ways” comes from Isaiah 55. The mysterious depth of divine providence is, of course, a precious biblical truth. When life takes a difficult turn, Christians often remind others, with a shrug, “His ways are not our ways”-communicating the mysteries of divine providence by which he orchestrates events in ways that surprise us. “There is nothing that troubles our consciences more,” said John Calvin on this passage, “than when we think that God is like ourselves.” 1 Perhaps nowhere in the Bible is that point made more clearly than in Isaiah 55. We tend to project our natural expectations about who God is onto him instead of fighting to let the Bible surprise us into what God himself says.
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