August 11 - Isaiah 64-66: What to Get a God Who Has Everything

Today is my dad's birthday, which brings up the inevitable - what do you get a guy who has everything?  My dad's not hard to please, but it can be difficult to find the perfect gift for the man with a garage full of tools, an overflowing bookcase, and who isn't too concerned about the latest fashions.  So, I'll go on the hunt later today for something that will express love to him.

The beginning of Isaiah 66 reminds me of this conundrum with God.  What do you get a God who has everything?

Heaven's my throne, earth is my footstool.  What sort of house could you build for me?  What holiday spot reserve for me?  I made all this!  I own all this!  (66:1)

Thankfully, God doesn't make us go on the unending, aimless shopping spree.  He gives us the answer.  He lets us know exactly what gift He'd like:

But there is something I'm looking for:  a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say. (66:2)

Sounds too easy, doesn't it?  And not very glamorous or showy.   I have to say that with that kind of gift, I would feel like the lame friend at the bridal shower who brought the toaster in the department store bag and didn't even bother to put on a bow.  Simple and plain, that's what You want, God?

Scanning back through Isaiah, it's confirmed.  That's is what God repeatedly asks for:

Throw wide the gates so good and true people can enter.  People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit.  Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing. (26:2-3)

But the Master, God, has something to say to this:  'Watch closely:  I'm laying a foundation in Zion...and this is the meaning of the stone:  A TRUSTING LIFE WON'T TOPPLE.' (28:16)

God, the Master, the Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel:  'Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.  Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me -- '  (30:15)

"Simple and plain" but not easy.  A "reverent response" is costly.  "Setting my mind" on God means setting aside my own agenda.  "A trusting life" means risk.  "Complete dependence" means no independence.  The gift that God wants will cost everything I have, everything I am.

"Through Jesus Christ, at infinite cost to himself, God has clothed us in costly clean garments.  It cost him his blood.  And it is the only thing that can deal with the problem of your heart." [Tim Keller, King's Cross]

Father, it seems stingy of me to begrudge you anything when You gave it all for me.  However, You know that I withhold much of myself and that I identify way too much with the Israelites.  I'm grateful for the exposing magnifying glass of Isaiah, but I feel undone.  Thank You for not leaving me there, for also giving hope and comfort through this prophetic book.  I leave it with the mixed sense of my brokenness and Your promised wholeness.

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"The book of Isaiah is expansive, dealing with virtually everything that is involved in being a people of God on this planet Earth.  The impressive art of Isaiah involves taking the stuff of our ordinary and often disappointing human experience and showing us how it is  the very stuff that God uses to create and save and give hope.  As this vast panorama opens up before us, it turns out that nothing is unusable by God.  He uses everything and everybody as material for his work, which is the remaking of the mess we have made of our lives."  (Peterson, Intro. to Isaiah)

As we finish Isaiah, is anyone experiencing God's remaking of any disappointments, failures, messes in their lives?