Following the pattern
A few years ago, I knitted a shawl. When I moved into my new office, I brought it in for chilly moments. Truthfully, it matches the chair where I leave it, and I suspect that our home hall closet has a moth. The shawl is safer at work.I was looking at it today. I actually have no idea how I made it. I cast on, knitted according to the pattern I was following, and when I was finished, I had a shawl. When I look at the pattern, and read the instructions -- knit 2 together, yarn over, knit in the back loop -- I can't predict what the finished project is going to look like. The pattern tells me step by step what to do, but not why.
In Sunday school, JtM read Isaiah 6:1-9. Take a look at verses 9:
And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:I'm not sure what Isaiah meant when he wrote these verses, but at the time, what I thought as I read them was that God will lead us to do his will, but we won't always understand why, or what the results will be.
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.”
It's OK to listen and to look, but to not understand. We may not always know why God is leading us to the place he is. When we obey, we don't always have the privilege of knowing the big picture.
And yet God calls us to obedience anyway.
Labels: Faith, Old Testament
posted by Kim at 10:09 PM
2 Comments:
People sometimes want to figure everything out before we act. When dealing with God who is so far beyond us this could lead to total inaction.
Taken within its context this verse is a poetic of what would be the ultimate result of Isaiah’s ministry. Israel was a nation bent on self-destruction. Isaiah could do his best to proclaim with integrity God’s word, but they would not listen. They would not listen and what is more, like a ancient long gone Pharaoh they would obstinately refuse to change their ways until judgment brought a similar catastrophe of unparalleled destruction upon the land and people. Refined in the crucible of exile, a remnant of Israel would subsequently emerge, consecrated to and accepted by the Lord even as tithes and offerings to the service of the Temple. Stripped by judgment, this remnant would be like a leafless tree, apparently dead yet at the right time ready to bud into new life, even from only a stump should remain. In this Isaiah could find encouragement in that though judgment would come a remnant would endure and bring forth life.
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