My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts

Isaiah 55:1-13 is an incredible passage of scripture.

God reveals a powerful truth in Isaiah 55:8-9.  First, that his thoughts and ways are very different to ours.   Secondly that his thoughts and ways are higher than ours.

How does this work?
We find the answer in all the previous verses of the chapter.  In all that God has promised in free forgiveness and grace, and what he has offered in blessing and love, which is all far beyond our human understanding and experience.

Forgiveness does not come easily to us.   Human forgiveness is almost non-existent even for small offences and transgressions, but God, who has been injured so greatly by us all (humanity), is ready to love us and forgive us and freely pardon us.  How open are the arms of God to all, even the deepest of sinners – Come … Come … Come … Come … is the repeated cry in the two verses Isaiah 55:1-2.

God has opened his arms to us such that there are no conditions which would make it difficult for us to come, and there is no cost which would exclude us.

How wonderfully loving is God in that he has made it possible for our sin to be forgiven without any injustice or denial of his holiness or law.  It is virtually impossible for us to understand high thoughts and ways.

How much higher than our thoughts and ways is this eternal covenantal promise spoken of in Isaiah 55:3, which was God promising Himself to die in our place in the person of his Son, and suffer all our deserved pain. Christ when he went to the cross did not count the cost but set his face firmly to go to Jerusalem. He submitted to the will of the Father without any question even though the cost was an eternity of Hell that He had to suffer.

How high and wonderful is God’s actions that in this way he made himself near to us and able to be found ( Isaiah 55:6 ) and so full of mercy and pardon to all who seek him.

How wonderful is God’s way that to seek the Lord is to find him, because he is ready to be found and is near.

There is nothing in the wisdom of man that could conceive such sure and complete means of blessing; and nothing in the heart of man that could conceive such blessing and love; and there is nothing in the will of man that could act in such self-sacrificing love.

It is Australia’s time to come to the Lord, it is a season of His grace.  We as a nation are morally bankrupt, we are poor in spirit, yet it is an awesome season of grace; it is time for us to repent, believe, and be saved.

It is time! Just just to prophesy and speak the word of the Lord (which we do); but also a time to see the fulfilment of the word.

An Invitation to Abundant Life

55 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
3 Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
The sure mercies of David.
4 Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,
A leader and commander for the people.
5 Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the Lord your God,
And the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”

6 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;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

12 “For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the Lord for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”