God’s Word Is Not Always What We Want To Hear. It Will Always Be What We Need To Hear.

Isaiah 34:1-17
God calls us to ‘draw near’ to Him. He wants us to ‘pay attention’ to Him. We must ‘listen’ to His Word (1). God’s Word is not always what we want to hear. It will always be what we need to hear. ‘The Lord is angry with all nations’(2). We don’t like to hear about God’s anger. We prefer to be told ‘You’re doing fine’. We need to hear about God’s anger. We need to hear about how far we have wandered away from God - ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us turned to his own way’. We are sinners. We have turned away from the Lord. We have chosen our own way rather than His way. We must hear this ‘bad news’ before we can really appreciate the ‘Good News’- ‘the Lord has laid all our sins on Jesus’, ‘Christ died for us while we were still sinners’, ‘Christ died for our sins’(53:6; Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3).

Isaiah 35:1-10
What blessings are given to those who draw near to God - ‘Your God... will come and save you’(4). The Good News of Christ comes to us as a call to faith - ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’(Acts 16:31). We have been saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot remain the same. We are called to live a new life. We must travel on the Lord’s ‘highway’- ‘the Way of Holiness’(8). This is ‘the Way’ which leads to ‘everlasting joy’(10). This ‘Way’ is so different from the world’s way. The world has no time for those who seek to live a holy life. This is what Jesus says about the world’s way of life: ‘the gate is wide and the way is wide that leads to destruction’(Matthew 7:13). Whatever the world may say, we must never forget this: ‘Without holiness, no-one will see the Lord’(Hebrews 12:14)
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Blessings in Christ
Christ in all the Scriptures
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