July 13

Isaiah's Prophecies about Restoration and the Messiah (Continued) - Isaiah 41:11-29, 42:1-25, 43:1-7

I will turn the desert into pools of water,

     and the parched ground into springs.

I will put in the desert

     the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive,

I will set pines in the wasteland,

     the fir and the cypress together,

so that people may see and know,

     may consider and understand,

     that the hand of the Lord has done this,

     that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Isaiah 41:18-20

I think the book of Isaiah is my favorite book in the Bible.  I like it's poetic nature.  I like the whole concept of being a prophet and of being the voice of God.  I like the hopeful nature of so much of the writing in this book, looking beyond captivity to redemption and the Messiah.

Water in the desert, an oasis - this is a poetic metaphor of God's comfort and love while His people suffer through captivity.  Our perspective of God is so influenced by the status of our life and the situation we find ourselves in.  We are never closer to God than when the situation demands it.  Lord knows.

Reminds me of Flannery O'Connor's short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find.  

"She'd have been a good woman," the Misfit said, "if there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."