A Healing, Not a Beating
Isaiah 1:2-6 (ESV) Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” 4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. 5 Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.
Our hearts are distant. We have ignored Your counsel, going our own way. We are stunned by our own depravity. It exasperates us. We think, “Lord, deal with me. Correct me. Fix me. I can’t do right.” We think we need to be disciplined by the Lord. We figure our chastisement is surely coming. But the Lord says that this won’t help (verse 5). We would just continue to rebel. And why? It is not that we need a beating. It’s that we need a healing. We have wounds and bruises and sores. They have not been healed. They lie open and festering. There is smoldering, festering disappointment. There is regret. There is shame. All these lie unaddressed. They have not been soothed with ointment. They have not been softened with oil (verse 6). We have not allowed the Holy Spirit to come in and soothe and ease and heal.
Comforting oil has not been applied to give us any ease, for we have not allowed it. We persist in trying to fix ourselves.
Isaiah 57:10 (CSB) You became weary on your many journeys, but you did not say, “It’s hopeless!” You found a renewal of your strength; therefore you did not grow weak.
If we would allow it, the Holy Spirit would soften our hearts and restore us to tender, childlike dependency and contrition. We would no longer stiffen and stride out into life saying, “I’ve got to be strong and get these things done.” We would no longer try to gun on through life‘s challenges, trying to protect ourselves as best we can. Instead, we would be restored by the Lord to a soft, docile, delicate spirit before Him, and He Himself would protect us and take care of us.
Verse 6 says that there is no “soundness” in these, God’s people. This word conveys the idea of wholeness or entirety. With all of these bruises and sores unaddressed, the heart is riddled with questions and wounds, and so the person is not whole-hearted. All of him does not function in sync. All in his person is not on the same page. He cannot be free and authentic.
Do we see that we are entirely helpless? Broken through and through? That there is no soundness, none at all, in our flesh, from the sole of the foot to the top of the head? (Verse 6). Let us admit that we cannot help ourselves. We are too far gone. It is hopeless. But. This is an enviable state of heart. It is the place where we allow the Lord to help us. He will step in now...
Leviticus 13:13 “Then the priest shall look, and if the leprous disease has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease; it has all turned white, and he is clean.”
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed.”
He comes to the poor, the captives, and the oppressed. May we admit that we are they! He will heal us.
So how do we receive this healing? We must let the Lord do it as He sees fit. When we are sick and go to the doctor, we let him diagnose the problem and prescribe the appropriate medicine. We don’t tell him how to do it. We go and let him handle it. The Lord will handle it. Somehow, He will heal us. We don’t have to know how.
There’s such a subtle difference between coming before the Lord to try to conjure up His moving by our flesh and coming before Him without trying any of our religious “moves,” letting Him do what He may. Oh, it’s so subtle, and we can forget that we’re coming before a Person, One Who will respond to us. We are not merely addressing the air, and having to make something happen by ourselves. The healing is God’s work. We look at the place of injury some time later and find that He has been faithful to heal, to bring resolution and closure, relief and peace.
Ruth came and lay at Boaz’s feet and presented her case. She had no further responsibility. Once she did this, Boaz took it from there. And Naomi describes his eagerness to get the matter settled:
Ruth 3:18 “Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.”
Prayer:
Lord, I bring my case to You, including my regrets, shame, disappointments, hurts, bruises, questions, and frustrations. You have given me Your Word and Your peace that You will handle these matters. I trust You with all.
