Isaiah 55

I stole the title of this blog from the title of a chapter in my father’s book, Freedom Fighter: How God Wins the Universal War on Terror. That chapter is all about God’s amazing forgiveness. (I invite you to read the chapter online.) In many ways, God’s forgiveness does seem odd to us, because unlike most of us, God never holds a grudge. Ever.

Ever.

Wasn’t that evident from this chapter? “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” (vs 6-7)

This mercy is free. This pardon is free. We don’t receive it because we’ve done the right things or said the right things or even brought the right sacrifice. We get it because that’s the kind of person God is. He forgives because He is forgiving—not because we’ve done something to persuade Him to be merciful.

He needs no such persuasion.

It is true that the best things in life are free, and God confirms that in this chapter. Not only are the best things in life free, but God’s abundant life itself is free. Along with mercy and pardon for our past, He invites us to, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.” (vs 1-2)

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been wicked and unrighteous, indulging in the very worst kinds of evil. God’s arms are still open to you. He doesn’t hold anything against you. In fact, He just wants you to have the best life possible! You don’t have to do anything to buy this life—He’s more than willing to give it to you for free!

That’s what God is like. It seems odd, you know—the fact that He never “gets even,” the fact that He doesn’t hold a grudge, the fact that He only wants the best for all of His children, even the ones who have turned their backs on Him. If this seems hard to believe, you’re not alone. It really runs contrary to the way we think.

That’s why God immediately followed His declaration of mercy with this: “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (vs 8-9) It’s almost as if God knew we would have a hard time believing that He would be merciful to us just because.

Oh, to be as odd as God—to never again be a slave to the desire to “get even.”

How nice that would be!