Day 11: Gracious To You
“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”
Isaiah 30:18
Despite God’s invitation earlier in the chapter that “in returning and rest you shall be saved and in quietness and trust shall be your strength” (v15), God’s people preferred the motto of “we will flee upon horses, we will ride upon swift steeds” and in impatience and foolishness had worked out themselves how to ‘save the day’. The result was isolation and vulnerability (feel familiar?!). They were left disappointed and exposed – like “a flagstaff on top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill” (v17).
The NIV then wonderfully encapsulates the emotion and desire of this next verse; “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.” This yearning, this desire to move, rise up and act is so moving and reminiscent of Matthew 23:37 - “How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
It has been said that “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity” and the incredible truth we get to ponder today is that God does not in any way treat us as our sins deserve.
In extending mercy to lost sinners, God is exalted. How can it be that when we forsake him, he will not forsake us? Perhaps here we see far in the distance to another point in history when Jesus is “lifted up” – a new ‘signal on a hill’ to all mankind, that a great exchange is taking place – our shame, waywardness and sin, for his gift of righteousness. God is willing to wait patiently for his perfect plan to be outworked.
Our response? We turn from our ways and “still and quieten our souls” (Ps 131) to sit and wait for him. We trust again in his word which says “blessed are all those who wait for him,” (Is 30:18). We know that “yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay” (Heb 10:37).
Spurgeon aptly writes “He waited to give grace to us, let us wait to give glory to him!”
If you have time, read Isaiah 30:8-22 and meditate on the amazing and upside-down ‘logic’ of grace.
Lucy Thomas