"Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
This is Isaiah’s call to Israel to repent. The idea was that God was ready to receive them if they would just seek Him. This is always true. He is never reluctant to forgive and receive us when we come to Him. In verse 7, Isaiah described to them how to seek the Lord. First, he wrote: “Let the wicked forsake his way.” This is a call to repentance, for repentance means to forsake the way we are presently living and return to the Lord. It is possible that we would not refer to ourselves as “wicked,” but that is a shallow view of what the word means. There were, no doubt, people in Israel who were living terribly wicked lives, and there were probably others who were just spiritually indifferent. Spiritual indifference might not be seen as wicked, but it is, because not to care about the things of the Lord, and not to care about moral laxity, is part of the problem. It is easier sometimes to bring a person to Christ who is living a blatantly sinful life, than one who just does not care. We need to look into our hearts and minds and repent of wickedness when we find it. So the first way to seek the Lord is to repent. Second, he wrote: “…and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” This is a call to rethink, if that is a word. (My computer seems to think so.) We know that “the thought is the father of the deed,” so we need to watch our thoughts. What we think about really determines the way we live. Frankly, it seems to be easier to watch our deeds than our thoughts. The human mind is Satan’s workshop. (You have no doubt heard that "an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.") Satan wants us to think unwholesome thoughts. (Come on, you know what I mean.) Satan also wants us to think hateful thoughts. We might have one or the other worked out, but, look out, because Satan will try to get you one way or the other. Just as lustful thoughts, can lead to unwholesome deeds, hateful thoughts can lead to hating people and hateful deeds. Third, he wrote: “…and let him return to the Lord.” We can return to the Lord. To actually repent, we have to understand that we have wandered away from God’s will. You might have made a decision at some time in your life to change your ways. To just want to change is insufficient. What God wants from us is really changed lives. In our case, it is a faith relationship with Jesus Christ. Fourth, here is the result when we repent, rethink and return to the Lord: “…and He will have mercy upon Him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” This is what we receive when we seek the Lord. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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