Redeeming Lost Opportunity
This past week, I attended an event hosted by our Colorado Senators called the “Colorado Capital Conference.” The event was co-hosted by Mesa State University and the University of Colorado. CU Regent Sue Sharkey was in a “foot boot” so it provided a partner in my attempts to navigate the mobility challenges in Washington D.C. CU Regent Steve Bosley, was a great companion helping me get to where I needed to be and even pushing me in a wheelchair.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…. “This is what the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who leads you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commands. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” Isaiah 48:17,18 HCSB
We don’t always learn the lessons we should, when we should learn them. We miss opportunities, we don’t take advantage of the wisdom of others, we don’t apply the lessons that we are taught.
God’s people spend 70 years in captivity in Babylon as exiles before they return to Jerusalem. It was one difficulty way to get their attention, but that is what had to happen. I can’t read the words, “if only you had paid attention to My commands” without feeling a sense of regret over the “lost opportunity.”
What God’s people failed to understand, is what many fail to comprehend today. God is on our side, He is for us! What He teaches is for our benefit. It is not to be viewed with a “take-it-or-leave-it” attitude. Where He leads we are to follow. We are not to exert our own preference and will. Stubbornness and fierce independence can be positive in the right context, but when applied to our relationship with the Lord, they are costly.
The good news was God was preparing to fulfill His promise to return His people to their home. So we read, “Leave Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with a shout of joy, proclaim this, let it go out to the end of the earth;
announce, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!” (Isaiah 48:20 HCSB)
At one point in their history, God told his people, “don’t resist go to Babylon.” Now, He is telling them, “don’t remain in exile, get ready to return, I have redeemed you.” The Lord on His own initiative was going to the “pawn shop of Babylon” to bring back His people.
We see the edict in Ezra 1, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The Lord put it into the mind of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing: This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever is among His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem…” (Ezra 1:1-3 HCSB)
God’s people had a new opportunity. Even though it was in a new generation, to have the peace and righteousness the God had planned long ago. But it would take them to understand that God teaches for their benefit and where He leads they are to follow.
If we can learn those simple lessons today; and live by God’s teaching and direction, we too will have a life of peace and righteousness. And it doesn’t have to take 70 years to learn that lesson.
Prayer for today… “Lord, help me to remember that your instructions and guidance is for my benefit. When I listen and apply Your truth, when I follow Your lead, You take me into paths of “righteousness of Your name’s sake.” Thank you for the peace that comes to my life when I pay attention to the One who cares for me and desires the best for me.”