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Garments That Do Not Last
As we saw earlier, Isaiah spent a lot of time warning about judgment, but he interspersed those warnings with encouraging promises from God. After an explanation of the Lord’s devastation of the earth, Isaiah spoke to those in Israel who had, in sincerity, looked forward to the fulfillment of all the promises but who had forgotten the many instances when the Lord led His people through difficult times.
Read Isaiah 51:6–8. What message is the Lord giving to the people? What contrasts are presented? What hope, as well?
Who hasn’t seen how easily, and quickly, clothing can be damaged or wear away? It doesn’t take much, does it, and the finest and richest apparel can be ruined. What an apt parallel for this world and the folks on it. How quickly we’re here, how quickly we’re gone. James, in the New Testament, likens our existence to a “vapor” or a “mist” (James 4:14). Welsh poet Dylan Thomas urged his dying father to “not go gentle into that good night” but to “rage, rage, against the dying of the light.” We can rage all we want, but sooner or later, like a garment, we are gone.
And yet, look at what else Isaiah talks about there: God’s salvation, God’s righteousness, the garment of Christ’s righteousness, which alone brings salvation, a salvation that lasts forever. The Lord here is pointing us to the only two options humans face: dissolution and eternal death, or eternal life in a new earth, one that will not “wear out like a garment” (vs. 6, NIV) but will remain forever. From Adam and Eve in Eden until the day of Christ’s coming, these have been and remain the two ultimate fates of all humanity. They’re mutually exclusive, too, meaning it’s either one or the other. Which one is a decision only we, as individuals, can make for ourselves.
Read Isaiah 51:7, words addressed to those who know what is right, who have God’s law in their hearts. What should that mean to us today? How does having the law in our hearts help us know what is right? Is knowing what is right enough in and of itself to cause us to do right, or is more needed? If so, what?
| TUESDAY | May 17 |
As we saw earlier, Isaiah spent a lot of time warning about judgment, but he interspersed those warnings with encouraging promises from God. After an explanation of the Lord’s devastation of the earth, Isaiah spoke to those in Israel who had, in sincerity, looked forward to the fulfillment of all the promises but who had forgotten the many instances when the Lord led His people through difficult times.
Read Isaiah 51:6–8. What message is the Lord giving to the people? What contrasts are presented? What hope, as well?
Who hasn’t seen how easily, and quickly, clothing can be damaged or wear away? It doesn’t take much, does it, and the finest and richest apparel can be ruined. What an apt parallel for this world and the folks on it. How quickly we’re here, how quickly we’re gone. James, in the New Testament, likens our existence to a “vapor” or a “mist” (James 4:14). Welsh poet Dylan Thomas urged his dying father to “not go gentle into that good night” but to “rage, rage, against the dying of the light.” We can rage all we want, but sooner or later, like a garment, we are gone.
And yet, look at what else Isaiah talks about there: God’s salvation, God’s righteousness, the garment of Christ’s righteousness, which alone brings salvation, a salvation that lasts forever. The Lord here is pointing us to the only two options humans face: dissolution and eternal death, or eternal life in a new earth, one that will not “wear out like a garment” (vs. 6, NIV) but will remain forever. From Adam and Eve in Eden until the day of Christ’s coming, these have been and remain the two ultimate fates of all humanity. They’re mutually exclusive, too, meaning it’s either one or the other. Which one is a decision only we, as individuals, can make for ourselves.
Read Isaiah 51:7, words addressed to those who know what is right, who have God’s law in their hearts. What should that mean to us today? How does having the law in our hearts help us know what is right? Is knowing what is right enough in and of itself to cause us to do right, or is more needed? If so, what?
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