How has the coronavirus changed the world? Perhaps the most profound way is how it has heightened fear. How then do you deal with fear? God’s people in Isaiah’s time were in fear of the Babylonians. In the book of Isaiah we see how they were to respond. Firstly, God speaks of his favour, next his justice and then his power.

God tells His people to look to Abraham, their father, from whom they are descended. God’s justice is seen in that their sin has been either dealt with in Christ, Abraham’s Saviour, or will be dealt with in them. He also reminds them that, whilst the Babylonians may have been a formidable enemy, they are as nothing in relation to God’s power.

How do you see your troubles? Do you see them as occasions of spiritual learning or as occasions to step away … to avoid others? Isaiah says no. Let your troubles lead you to salvation. Let them be an instrument to wake you up. Consider them as occasions to see with even greater clarity that God is in the midst of it all. We find in this passage that God is saying to His people they will be redeemed without money. This was accomplished in Jesus at the cross.

It has been said that life is a journey. We can often find it difficult to navigate and make sense of this journey. We can easily become lost. In this passage is the story of a young man who was lost. He said to his father ‘give me my share of the estate’.  Jesus wants us to see how the son treated the father because that is what it is like when people are lost in their sins.

For the son in this story he squandered what he had been given and was in a desperate condition … feeding pigs in a muddy enclosure. He had hit rock bottom. In this condition, however, he thought he would go back to his father and rehearsed what he would say, even asking to be made like one of the hired servants.

The father came running to him when he saw the son returning and embraced him. Just like the young son, when we hit rock bottom and are lost in our sin, we too can go to the Father. The good news is that God loves us like the father in the story. We only need to look at what happened to the one who told this story.  Jesus went to the cross so that we could be forgiven and come back to the Father.

Civilisation has tended to look down on singleness but in this passage we see that the apostle Paul supports it as a good thing and also to the glory of God. He was single himself and presents it as a gift from God which is not given to everyone.

For singles it is important not to make the decision for singleness if you don’t have the gift to do so. Not everyone is able to resist the pressures that are involved. This letter was written at a time when there was a wave of persecution against the church. In this context being married would potentially create more problems. So the gift of singleness would actually be beneficial.

There are 2 more reasons why singleness is helpful. One is that the single person has more freedom in the use of their time and the other is that their devotion to God is less hindered. The really important thing to remember, however, both for the married as well as the single, is that in the gospel, Jesus, in a very important sense, is their spouse.

In the movie ‘Guess who’s coming to dinner’ the guest who arrives was quite different to what they had expected. In these passages we see that it was like that with Jesus. The Jews were expecting someone who would be a mighty military ruler to conquer the occupying Romans. Instead, Jesus came as a suffering servant who would deliver them from the bondage of their sins.

The Jewish Scriptures had told them that anyone hung on a tree would be cursed. They didn’t understand that Jesus would be on the tree for us … he bore our curse on the cross so that we could be set free. The prophet Isaiah saw a long time before it happened that ‘He was pierced through for our transgressions’ and also ‘by His scourging we are healed’. This healing comes to us as a free gift though faith.

Many people are interested in the future because they want to make the right decisions today.

The nation of Israel and Israel’s king were to follow God and that is all they needed to know about the future. King Saul, however, disobeyed God and in doing this rejected Him. As a result, God rejected Saul as king and instead anointed David to lead His people.

In the passage, we see that Saul’s son Jonathan had realized that David would be the next king of Israel. Jonathan had made the right decision about the future by giving his allegiance to David. This enraged Saul who tried to kill both Jonathan and David but it only bound them closer together in love.

In all this we see a picture of God’s anointed King, Jesus Christ, who is descended, in the earthly sense, from the line of David. It is important to make the right response to what God has done in Him. His rule is established through what was accomplished at the cross and in His resurrection ….. forgiveness for sin. ‘Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.’

The message that unites is a message of love

In the passage we see that the barrier between Jew and Gentile is broken down. The message of grace in Jesus Christ unites and reconciles people from all kinds of different backgrounds. We are to value what God has done to bring about a new humanity. We are told that ‘…. in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.’ No longer does a person have to become a Jew in order to be near God.

The ‘building’ of a new humanity is what God Himself is doing and in which He dwells in love ….. God’s household. Jesus is the cornerstone of this building and everything in the building is set in reference to Him. Dividing walls such as language, cultural backgrounds, nationality, race, age, gender and fear are no longer able to separate people who have truly embraced the gospel.

Testing of faith is not judgement but more like refinement

Testing of faith is not judgement but more like refinement. It is a gracious thing from God. It proves the genuineness of faith. The trials that come are actually helpful when viewed in a right way. They are painful but necessary.

Testing often occurs in having to wait for something. It is easy when things happen in a way that can be seen but what about the things that cannot be seen. The passage shows that king Saul was relying on what he could see ….. he wasn’t really considering the things he could not see.

As a result of this Saul forfeits God’s blessing. His heart was not after the Lord. The Philistines came against him with a much stronger army and the people became afraid. Both he and his soldiers should have trusted in almighty God, not what they could see.

Once people really see the cross they know that they can trust God in anything.

It’s not about what we do but what has been done by another

The ever present temptation to think of ourselves as secure before God because of religious heritage or by what we do is corrected in this passage. The classic example is that of the Jews. They regarded themselves as God’s people because they had the Law and were obedient to it. They also looked down on non-Jews as sinners because they didn’t have God’s law and did not therefore obey it. The Jews, however, didn’t understand that they were sinners too.

This situation was highlighted in the incident which occurred in the early church at Antioch when Jews, who had become justified by faith in Christ, separated themselves from the Gentile believers. This was a denial of the gospel. The gospel places every believer on the same level before God, both Jew and non-Jew. The Jews had made the mistake of trying to be justified by keeping the law. The apostle Paul rebukes this divisive tendency by emphasizing that the only way anyone can be justified before God is by trusting in what Jesus has accomplished for us at the cross.

Even in extreme circumstances there is always hope

Suffering is something we experience in varying degrees and at different times in our lives. It also occurs for different reasons. In this passage we have a glimpse of followers of Jesus who were facing life threatening persecution under the rule of the Roman Emperor, Nero. The apostle Peter writes to them for their comfort and encouragement.

He explains that God is worthy to be praised even in their severe trial. Among the things he says are the following three. Firstly, they are to remember God’s mercy to them in the gospel. Through trusting in Jesus dying on the cross, their status has changed. They are no longer under God’s judgement but, instead, His mercy.

Secondly, through the gospel they have a glorious future awaiting them in heaven. There is a picture of God surrounding and protecting them even in the midst of suffering. Thirdly, God is using suffering for their good. This is because the trial they are about to go through is for the refining of their faith … the goal of their suffering is their salvation. Who else, other than Christians, can say that there is any good in suffering?

The wonder and beauty of grace can be misrepresented

There are a lot of misunderstandings about the gospel. One of them, which is highlighted in this passage, shows that some have difficulty grasping the fact that it places every believer on the same level.

The early church in Antioch was composed mainly of non-Jewish converts. When a group of Jewish believers came down from Jerusalem, however, the apostle Peter (Cephas) left the table fellowship of the non-Jewish believers in order to eat with the Jewish arrivals who had separated themselves. The apostle Paul, who was in Antioch at the time, opposed Peter to his face and said that his behavior was not in line with the truth of the gospel.

The seriousness of this incident cannot be overstated and, sadly, it has been repeated many times ever since in various forms. It is a weighty reminder to the fact that the gospel places every believer in every age on the same level … justified in Christ, alone. Jesus’ death on the cross was for our sins and we receive this forgiveness through faith … it’s not about what we do but what He did for us. Factions in the church are a contradiction of the gospel.