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Pastor Lud Golz
Pastor Lud Golz

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  Home | Transcript Archive | May | May 19, 2023

Friday, May 19, 2023

Let’s start doing an inductive study of Isaiah 64.  To do an inductive study you read the chapter a few times to determine what it says.  Then you reflect on it to determine what it means.  Finally, you try to develop answers to the question, what difference should what I have learned make in my life?
   

In the bigger context surrounding this chapter Isaiah is wrestling with the issue of God’s judgment juxtaposed with the promises of restoration.  Torn with this tension he cries out that God would bring resolution to Israel’s predicament.
   

The more impassioned he is in his prayer for a visitation from God the more aware he becomes of Israel’s unworthiness, because of their sinfulness.  They don’t deserve God’s intervention, but since God is like a potter and Israel is like clay, Isaiah pleads that their Father would again start shaping or reshaping them.  He pleads for God’s forgiving and restoring grace.  This is what the chapter says.   

Now let’s try to determine what all of this means.  No matter how hard we try to become what God wants us to be we always come short, according to verse 6 – “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”  If God doesn’t respond to prayer with forgiving grace we have no hope.  It is Isaiah’s confidence that as a potter God would make something worthwhile out of us.   

It is true, we are mere lumps of clay, but in the Father’s hands something of rare beauty and worth can be produced.  We need to trust Him to do that.  
 

In our next visit we will begin addressing what we should do in the light of what we have discovered in this chapter. 

 

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