“The Sovereign God has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary, He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.”
~ Isaiah 50:4
Hi James and Ellen,
How much are you willing to suffer for Jesus’ sake? Are you willing to be beaten? Are you willing to go to jail? Are you willing to die? Mark Rich died for Jesus’ sake? Mark went to Tambo. Tambo is the New Tribes Mission boarding school in Bolivia where your dad and Aunt Lynn went to school. Mark was in a grade between your dad and Aunt Lynn. Paul – Mark’s older bro, married Kerri Johnson. Kerri is the youngest daughter of a South America Mission field missionary team couple who were friends of your grandmaa and grandpaa. Mark along with two other New Tribes Mission field missionary team guys were kidnapped by Colombian guerillas and murdered. Mark and the two guys were living with their families on the New Tribes Mission base that is in Panama when they were kidnapped by a Colombian guerilla faction called FARC. Up until a couple of years ago – when their bodies were finally found, no one knew what happened to Mark and his two New Tribes missionary team associates. No one knows how long Mark and his two New Tribes missionary team partners remained alive after they were kidnapped by FARC guerillas. John Tarzwell died for Jesus’ sake. John was on the same South America Mission summer team that your grandmaa and grandpaa were on that went to Colombia in 1976. John and your grandpaa became friends. Your grandmaa and grandpaa visited John several years later in Wynndel, British Columbia – which was where John was living with his wife Leeanne. John and Leeanne went with their two boys to Pakistan as SERVE field team missionaries to do humanitarian work when John was purportedly kidnapped by the Mujahideen and murdered by a Mullah. The Mujahideen were Afghanistan freedom fighters and Islamic fascists or militants. Because of not being able to procure visa extensions, Leeanne – who was at this time eight month pregnant, and her boys had just flown back to Canada when John was kidnapped. John’s plans were to follow his wife and kids back to Canada in a couple of days. John’s body has never been found.
Isaiah suffered for God’s sake. Isaiah says so in Isaiah 50. Isaiah wrote that he offered his back to the guys who beat him, his cheeks to the guys who pulled out his beard and his face to the guys who mocked and spit on him. Isaiah never felt any shame from being beaten up for his beliefs. Isaiah said that he would set his face like a flint and take the beating – even though the beating was not justified. Isaiah did what Jesus would do a little over 700 years later when Jesus was very badly beaten, mocked and spit on by His tormentors. Mark and John pulled an Isaiah when they willingly put themselves in harm’s way. Mark and John pulled an Isaiah because they had heard the voice of God telling them to do what they were doing as missionaries. Pulling an Isaiah is being an obedient listener to God’s voice and then not holding back from doing exactly what God is asking to be done. Verse 4 explains how it happens that a guy, gal or kid can pull an Isaiah, “The Sovereign God has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary, He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” When you wake up each morning, do you wake up listening for God’s voice? When you wake up each morning, do you wake up asking God to give you the right words to say throughout the day?
God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit, and through Isaiah begins this chapter by explaining what He decided to do in His relationship with His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. God says that He ‘divorced’ them. God ‘divorced’ His specially chosen guys and gals because they – as His ‘wife’, chose to live sin filled lives for the sake of the deceiver – Satan, versus choosing to live holy, obedient lives for His sake. Because of the inability of His specially chosen guys and gals to accept that He could do whatever He wanted to do – such as being able to ransom their wretched lives from the grasp of sin, rescue their helpless lives from the deceiver’s minions and by a mere remark, fill their empty lives with hope – just as He dried up seas and turned rivers into deserts, God had had enough of their vacillating, self-centered lifestyles so . . . the implication here is that just as what God did in His relationship with His specially chosen guys and gals by ‘divorcing’ them because they did not fear and trust Him, that He will ‘divorce’ any guy, gal or kid who takes on being a Christ-follower when he or she does not fear and trust Him. Even though God ‘divorced’ His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel, the Israelite people group of guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, are still God’s specially chosen guys and gals today. Your grandpaa believes that once a guy, gal or kid makes a decision of faith to becomes a Christ-follower that he or she will always be a God elected Christ-follower even though a guy, gal or kid may pull for a time the ‘I do not fear God card’ and/or the ‘I do not trust God card’. God’s ‘divorce’ that is referenced in this chapter is in a separation context. God uses separation from Him as a ‘card’ to remind His specially chosen guys and gals and specially elected guys, gals and kids how life is like again without Him in it. Pulling an Isaiah, Mark or John may result in death but it will alleviate having an empty feeling.
Isaiah 50 (786)