“But I myself said: I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and futility; yet my vindication is with the Lord, and my reward is with God.” HCSB
In the first three verses of Isaiah 49, Isaiah shared that God had called him to prophesy before he was born, and that God put words in his mouth to tell the people God’s will. Yet Isaiah felt that he had labored in vain. He couldn’t see that he had done any good at all. The Israelite people just kept doing what they wanted in spite of God’s commandments and in spite of Isaiah’s prophesying. I know how Isaiah felt, and if you have served God in any capacity, you probably feel the same way. We preach and preach, we have church and have church, we pray and pray, and we hope and hope, but things still seem to go on as before. Instead of getting better, the spiritual and moral situation seems to be getting worse, not better. Understand that to people who have no interest in the Bible, church and spiritual things, things are going rather well – right on schedule. Does that mean, then, that we have lost and that we, like Isaiah, feel that we “have labored in vain”? It doesn’t mean that at all. As you have heard before, God has not called us to be successful, just to be faithful. The problem is that we forget history. (That’s why it is important to know something about history.) There has never been a time when the world was in perfect moral order, yet God has continued to call people into His service, and He continues to bless His Church. The point is that we enter the world at a particular time in history and it is our duty, our privilege, to serve God in that time. We can wish that things were like they were in bygone years, but it will never be. My formative years were in 40’s and 50’s. I have often wished that we could return to the simplicity of those days. (It might be worth it if we could take air-conditioning and medical science back with us. lol) However, I realize that, while those days were simple to me, there were older folks who wished they could go back to the 20’s and 30’s during that same time. Since the fall of humankind in Genesis, the world has not been a perfect place, nor will it ever be on this side of history. We just have to be faithful and serve God in the time in which we live, and trust that He knows what’s going on. Which brings me to Isaiah’s conclusion of the matter: “Yet my vindication is with the Lord, and my reward is with God.” The vast majority of the people paid no attention to Isaiah and went on their merry way, doing as they wanted to do. Isaiah came to realize what we must come to realize, i.e., it is not our fault that people pay no attention to God if we have been faithful in serving Him and telling others what He did for us in Jesus. If we are “walking the walk” and not just “talking the talk,” we can feel vindicated as Isaiah did. (Warning: I’m about to get “fussy” here!) One of the problems is that instead of being Christ’s Church in a sinful world, we play at being the church and society does not take us seriously. That is our side of the problem. We need to live the Christian life before people so that they can take us seriously. We need to love people like God loves them so that they can take us seriously. We need to stand up for what is right, remembering Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 4:14-15: “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slieight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. 15. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head even Christ.” But even when we have done our best, we will still just need to trust God and know that our vindication is in Him and not in our effectiveness. Our labor for God is never in vain, for He is still in charge. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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