“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes”
~ Isaiah 54:2
Hi James and Ellen,
What do you think that your lives would be like if God never had a reason to get angry with you? What do you think that your lives would be like if God left you alone to do whatever you wanted to do? Why do you think that God becomes angry with guys, gals and kids who He specially elected to be His adopted guys, gals or kids? Why do you think that God leaves on their own to do whatever they want to do guys, gals and kids who He especially elected to be His adopted guys, gals and kids? Why do you think that God allows difficulties or trials to happen in the lives of guys, gals and kids who He has especially elected to be His adopted guys, gals or kids? Why do you think that God did not bless Sarah with a baby when she was a young wife? Your grandpaa does not know why God did not bless Sarah with a baby when she was a young wife. God through Isaiah – in Isaiah 54, used Sarah to symbolize the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids. The Galatians Book is a circular letter that Paul sent to the communities of Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in the province of Galatia. Paul in the Galatians Book compared Sarah’s life to God’s covenant with ‘Jerusalem’. When God had the Israelite people group’s guys and gals – His specially chosen guys and gals, who were living in Jerusalem be taken away into exile by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army as a punishment for not doing what He expected them to do – which was to always worship only Him and not worship manmade wood, stone and metal gods, God was causing His specially chosen guys and gals to be barren – just as Sarah was when she could not have a baby. Sarah lived about 1350 years before Isaiah scribed the messages that he received from God in the book that goes by his name. What Isaiah scribed in the Isaiah Book is what God as God the Spirit had him pass on to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Judah’s land area – which includes Jerusalem. Paul – about 750 years later, quoted what Isaiah scribed in his Isaiah Book to encourage God’s specially elected guys and gals in the communities of Christ-followers that were located in the Galatia province. When Sarah was alive – which was over 4000 years ago, it was a disgrace or dishonor for a wife to not be able to have a kid. God made it a disgrace and dishonor for His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, to live in servitude in Babylonia – a country that He prepared to send into the land that He had given to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . .
Do you know what God’s mercies are like? To know what God’s mercies are like is to have God vacate His mercies from your lives after you have experienced His mercies. Isaiah used Noah as an example of how God used His anger to show His mercies. It was God’s anger against the wickedness that was on planet Earth at the time when Noah was alive that had God the Father completely cover planet Earth with water – drowning almost every guy, gal and kid, animal, bird and . . . that was living at that time on planet Earth. God using His anger button is one way that He will remind his specially elected guys, gals and kids of His mercies. Through God’s anger – which is a righteous, perfect and good anger, God got the attention of His specially chosen guys and gals to look to Him for His mercies and how He will get the attention of His specially elected guys and gals to look to Him today for His mercies. It may take a lifetime for a guy, gal or kid who God chose before He created planet Earth to be one of His specially elected guys, gals or kids to internalize God’s mercies. Sarah did not have a baby until she was old. Noah spent 100 years building an ark. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know God’s mercies. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that it was only through God’s divine intervention that they met. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know what it is like to have had very little interest in getting together with guys and gals in a Christ-follower fellowship. God through His mercies kept your grandmaa and grandpaa from doing things that they would regret for having done for the rest of their lives.
God had Isaiah tell His specially chosen guys and gals that when the time arrives for Him to show His mercy that they were to put the evil things that they had done in their lives behind them and that they were to look ahead to having lives that would be completely redeemed by His Redeemer – His Son – Jesus Christ, for Him. God promised His specially chosen guys and gals that – even though He had to hide His face from them for a moment because of their evilness towards Him, that He still loved them and that He would one day again show them His compassion and mercies. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know what it is like to live lives trying to please themselves and not living lives to please God. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know what it is like being the undeserved recipients of receiving God the Father’s attention, of hearing God the Spirit asking them to obey God the Father’s will for their lives and by accepting willingly what they were being asked by God the Father to do. Your grandmaa and grandpaa wanted to and were willing to serve God in the Christ-follower fellowship were they were attending but . . . if God had not led your grandmaa and grandpaa to do what verse 2 says “‘Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes” . . . when your grandmaa and grandpaa heard and answered God the Spirit’s call to serve God the Father in whatever way that God the Father would lead them to do, your grandmaa and grandpaa would never have gotten to experience the kind of wonderful, wild, no limit, mercies filled ride that their lives would be embarking. It is a prayer of your grandmaa and grandpaa that you, too, will experience over your lifetimes the unexplainable joy of experiencing God the Father’s unmerited mercies,
Isaiah 54 (353)