Simple Faith

“This is what the Lord says: Where is your mother’s divorce certificate that I used to send her away? Or who were My creditors that I sold you to? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away because of your transgressions. Why was no one there when I came? Why was there no one to answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem? Or do I have no power to deliver? Look, I dry up the sea by My rebuke; I turn the rivers into a wilderness; their fish rot because of lack of water and die of thirst. I dress the heavens in black and make sackcloth their clothing.” (Isaiah‬ ‭50‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

Growing up with three brothers meant that we often blamed things on each other. If something was accidentally broken in the middle of a wrestling match then whose fault was it? There was always someone else you could blame. I don’t think that’s unique to my situation, I have three grandsons who do the same thing to each other. When you’re looking for an excuse, any excuse will work. And when it comes to our moral and spiritual failures, we often do the same thing. We look for a scapegoat, someone else to blame.

The first three verses of this chapter are closely tied to the previous section we looked at two weeks ago. The children of God are living in Babylonian exile and are looking for someone, anyone to blame; anyone but themselves. When it comes to sin, we often do the same thing. We look for someone, anyone to blame but ourselves. In this instance, the children of God blame their Heavenly Father for their circumstances. They look around and then look up and ask, “Why are we in this mess? What have you done? Have you divorced [broken your covenant with] our mother? Have you sold us [into slavery] to your creditors?

When things go wrong in our lives, we often try to blame God, too. We want to blame him for the mess we’ve created. We accuse Him of writing a bad chapter into our lives even while we hold the pen in our own hands. Thankfully, the ink in our pens is not permanent ink. 

God responds to their accusations with several very pointed questions. If you think I’ve divorced your mother [broken my covenant with her] then show me the evidence. Produce the divorce certificate or decree. If you feel like you’ve been sold into slavery to my creditors, to whom would I owe anything? So, God puts the problem back on His people. They want to blame Him but He wants them to stop and think about what they’re saying, to consider what they’re implying.

Be careful when you accuse God of being guilty of sin, the root cause of your failure! Why? Because He just might respond, and it will be like this… “This is what the LORD says: …Look, you were sold for YOUR iniquities, and your mother was put away because of YOUR transgressions.” [emphasis added] The failure is on our part, the sin rests with us. Simply put, God’s not the problem… we are. 

I work in information technology and when we have a system failure we look for the “root cause”. It is often easier to address the symptoms than the real, root cause. Finding the root cause means you have to dig deeper, you have to look beyond the symptoms. It takes time and effort and, to be honest, it might reveal things we’re uncomfortable with. It just might reveal that we’ve made a mistake in our setup, configuration or programming. In other words, finding the root cause just might put the blame back on us and our work. But you don’t look for the root cause to place blame, you do it so that you have a solid, stable and working system. 

Next, God shows them the root cause for their condition and their habitual failures. “Why was no one there when I came? Why was there no one to answer when I called?” God came but nobody showed up, God called but nobody responded. Nobody comes into His presence. Nobody listens to His voice. It’s a lot like the parable we considered two weeks ago that Jesus told about the wealthy man that had the dinner party and everyone who was invited made excuses as to why they couldn’t come. At the last minute, he sent his servants into the streets, alleys and highways to invite anyone who would come, “so that his house would be filled.” 

The root cause of our ongoing struggle and endless trouble is that when God speaks we refuse to listen and when He comes we don’t show up. So, He asks two deeply probing questions: “Is my hand too short to redeem? Do I lack the power to deliver?” Those questions speak to the very heart of what we claim to believe about God, our faith. Is God capable of redeeming us? Does He possess the power to deliver us from our desperate situation?

It all comes down to faith. It usually does. What we believe about God determines what we expect from Him and how we respond to Him. Our faith determines whether we expect God’s presence when we gather for worship. Our faith determines whether we trust Him for our redemption, or whether we must take the initiative to save ourselves. 

Notice, I didn’t say that our faith determines whether God is present in our worship. It doesn’t. His word promises that He will be present when “two or three are gathered in My name (see Matt. 18:20).” Our faith doesn’t determine whether God keeps His promises or not, it only determines what we expect from Him. Faith determines whether we will expect Him to keep His word and whether we will act in accordance with His word. So, when we gather for worship do we expect God’s presence and do we act in the belief that God is present?

As I write these words, I am traveling home from a funeral/memorial service for a young, twenty three year old woman who suffered many years with debilitating epileptic seizures. She passed away a few days ago and my wife and I attended her funeral because her parents are old friends of ours. I was their pastor while they were in college and I officiated at their wedding. That was a long time ago. As we worshipped, I was struck by one overwhelming realization; her parents knew what it meant to trust God even when their circumstances and emotions told them it was futile. 

Do you let your circumstances and emotions control your faith or do you let your faith control your circumstances and emotions?

That, my friends, is simple faith. Simple faith takes God at His word, believes His promises, expects Him to keep His promises and then lives and acts in accordance with them. If God promises to come and redeem His people, then faith filled people live in hope, the expectation and fulfillment of God’s presence and redemption. “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” (Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

But how can you live in the “reality” of unrealized expectations and unfulfilled promises? You trust a God who has shown Himself to be capable and trustworthy of that hope. And that’s right where He takes His people in the next few words… Remember, He asked them two deep, probing questions… “Am I able to redeem? Do I have the power to deliver?” His response to those questions brings them into the reality of faith, the realization of hope. Listen to His response…

“Look, I dry up the sea by My rebuke; I turn the rivers into a wilderness; their fish rot because of lack of water and die of thirst. I dress the heavens in black and make sackcloth their clothing.” 

He’s calling for His people to remember their history, the reality of His fulfilled promises. Faith must be in us before we can experience the reality of His fulfilled promises. Faith isn’t about you, it’s about Him! We try and make faith contingent upon our circumstances, but faith isn’t about our circumstances it’s about God’s ability, His power, His will for us and His faithfulness. That’s why God asks those deep, probing questions. Do you believe I am capable of redeeming you? Do you believe I have the power to deliver you? Will you believe what your forefathers have told you about Me and will you trust Me to do the same in your life?

That’s really the question we face with God. Will we believe what His Word tells us about Him and will we trust Him to do the same in our lives? Faith really isn’t that complicated. It’s simple enough that a child can possess it but it must also be deep enough to carry us through those times when our circumstances are very loud. So loud that they threaten to drown out God’s Word being spoken into our hearts by His Holy Spirit.

“For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭6‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

So, God calls for us to come walk with Him by faith. To do so, we must believe that He has come and that He has spoken in a way that we can hear Him and understand Him – Jesus came to reveal God to us and to speak God’s Word to us. Will you trust Him? Will you walk with Him? 

God among us, speaking the truth of God to us so that we can see God, hear God and walk with God, by faith… just simple faith.