The Book of Isaiah

Isaiah Big Idea: Yahweh will destroy the pride and self-righteousness of humanity and glorify his name through the salvation of his Messiah.

The anger and wrath of God expressed in this book is generally against the pride and self-righteousness of humanity. "For Yahweh of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up- and it shall be brought low...." (Isaiah 2:12). The day of Yahweh is a day when he brings low all by which man lifts himself up. As it says about Jacob, "Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own finders have made." These things listed are things which Jacob (and all humanity as the author is careful to clarify) has looked to for security. They have turned from Yahweh and bowed down to these things. The day of Yahweh consists of this sort of idolatrous foundation being completely pulled out from beneath humanity. Yahweh is glorified when human beings display faith in him, for it speaks of the truth that he is the sovereign ruler, Father, and that he is forever powerful. Idolatry glorifies earthly things. So for the sake of his own name he does this (Is 48:11). Yet he also provides salvation through his anointed one, his Messiah, who offers quite explicit imputed righteousness (Is 53:4-6). This salvation is from Yahweh, and when humanity looks to this salvation Yahweh will be glorified. This way of salvation is the only way of salvation, and all other idols will fall through, but this one way of salvation will stand forever (Is 47:8-15).

Reading Update

Over the next three of four months I hope to read:

1. Four Loves - Lewis
2. That Hideous Strength - Lewis
3. Weight of Glory - Lewis
4. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained - John Milton
5. Confessions - Augustine
6. City of God - Augustine
7. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Twelve, Colossians, John, Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Lamentations, Esther, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Ecclesiastes (we'll see how far I get...)

Perelandra

I just finished Perelandra, the second from Lewis's space trilogy.

Lewis's writing is always rich, and there is a lot that he packed into this novel which I am still thinking through, but here is a brief take-home/response:

Ransom is sent to Perelandra (aka Venus). On Venus he meets a lady who is the first mother of the planet; she is basically Eve. Satan, in the body of Ransom's old enemy Weston, has come onto the planet to attempt to deceive this lady as he had deceived Eve. But Maleldil - God - has sent Ransom for the purpose of thwarting Satan's plans. For the duration of a few chapters, Satan and Ransom are in the company of the Lady as Satan tries to convince her to disobey Maleldil's command, and Ransom tries to show her the folly of his deception.

One of Satan's methods of deception is to argue that Maleldil had brought good from Eve's disobedience: "... it was this breaking of the commandment which brought Maleldil to our world and because of which He was made man" (Lewis 120).

Ransom is frustrated with the "unfairness of it all." But his response is illuminating: "Of course good came of it. Is Maleldil a beast that we can stop His path, or a leaf that we can twist His shape? Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost for ever. The first King and first Mother of our world did the forbidden thing: and He brought good of it in the end. But what they did was not good; and what they lost we have not seen. And there were some to whom no good came nor ever will come" (Lewis 121).

How often we attempt to justify wicked, unwise decisions on the basis that God will use it for his good in the end. Yet this is the original sin; it is our attempt to play God's role; instead of trusting and obeying we wish to sit on his throne and operate his sovereignty, working all things, even our selfishness, foolishness, and wickedness, for good.

Perelandra provides a helpful scene to illustrate this lesson: trust and obey.

Scarlet Letter

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 2:5-10)