Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;

   therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.

For the Lord is a God of justice.

   Blessed are all who wait for him!

The people of Judah took matters into their own hands. They sought an alliance with Egypt, hoping for protection from Assyria, sending donkeys and camels laden with bribes. They refused to listen to the prophets, “give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions” (Isaiah 30:10). They were told their sin would be their ruin. Still they rebelled. God said, “in repentance and rest is your salvation,  in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it” (Isaiah 30:15). Instead, they chose to flee.  

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The narrative of God’s “obstinate child” (Isaiah 30:1) plays out today. We take matters into our own hands. We offer what is precious in exchange for false protection. We ignore the hard truth for sweet talk. When our sin, stacked up like a wall, bulges and collapses (Isaiah 30:13), we refuse repentance and rest. We refuse the quiet. We refuse to trust. We flee. If we’re bound to live out the same old story as Judah, where’s the hope?

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“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!” (Isaiah 30:18) We are sinners, separated from our Father. We deserve nothing. No second chance, no second thought, nothing. This is the hard truth we deflect until we are too hard of heart, too blocked off by our own wall of sin. In our shame, we flee. And yet, our Father loves us. He longs to be gracious to us; it’s his heart’s desire. He promised to help Judah when they cried out, to answer them right away, to provide guidance and provision. He promises the same to us today through his son, Jesus Christ.

This is the Good News! Jesus finds us right where we are, broken victims of our own rebellion. He shows us compassion. I heard once that compassion is sympathy in action. Friends, Jesus is not passive in his care for us. He rises up to help us repent. He is our rest. He quiets our traumatized souls and teaches us to trust his healing process. He is our salvation. He is our strength to love others as he has loved us so that other traumatized souls might experience his salvation. If our neighbors, friends, and family members are soul-weary from fleeing this Good News, tell them God’s answer to all of this self-destruction: his grace!

Lord Jesus, your love is incredible. You see us across the chasm of our sin and have compassion on us. You meet us where we are and in the shame of our sin. You cover us with your righteousness that we might be cleansed. You are forever our salvation and strength! May the joy of your love compel us to share it with each other and with those still blinded by shame. In Jesus’ name, Amen.