Isaiah 19

This is one of those times when I’m sure that I don’t have adequate words to describe what is going through my head at the moment. The marvelous picture of God that presented itself to me at the end of this chapter of Isaiah is so immense in my mind that I’m sure I am incapable of relating the whole of it to anyone else.

Nevertheless, here goes.

Did you squeal when you got to the end of this chapter? I did. This was one of those Bible passages that, even though I know I’ve read before, made me do a double-take: “The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.’” (vs 22-25)

Egypt… my people?!

Assyria… my handiwork?!

These are the nations God spends soooo much time railing against in the Old Testament. The big enemies of Israel. He hurls warnings and threats at them, promising plagues and destruction (although, don’t forget to also notice in this passage the purpose of those plagues!).

Yet, at the end of the day, none of this tough talk or action is punitive or retributive in nature. God doesn’t threaten these people because He’s planning to get revenge on them. He threatens them because He’s planning to get intimate with them! He’s longing to draw them into a relationship, one where He can freely call them “my people” and “my handiwork.”

Yesterday’s blog was about how God doesn’t play favorites. But it goes far beyond that. God is inclusive—and that’s even a very poor way to try to convey the utter expansiveness of God’s fold. God’s love is as high and deep and wide as necessary to take in absolutely anyone and everyone who will allow themselves to be taken in.

God is not in the business of keeping people out; He is in the business of drawing people in! He even fantasizes about calling His enemies “my handiwork.” And He will do anything and everything He can to help bring those people into a relationship with Him.

God doesn’t have an exclusive bone in His body. He is eager to welcome and accept anyone, anytime, anywhere. To those who have hated and reviled Him, He still extends the invitation to be His people and dreams of a future with them.

If you or I are “left out” of God’s circle, it won’t be because He put us out, but because we insisted on putting ourselves out. If we do not stubbornly resist the wooing power of the Holy Spirit, we will be drawn into the circle of God’s love—no matter who we are, no matter where we have come from, and no matter what we have done. God sees us in His future, and He wants us to decide to stay there with Him!