The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly

SCRIPTURE:  And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:20-21

THOUGHT: Don’t you hate it when the good news is all mixed up with the bad news? Then, to add to the complexity, sometimes it gets downright ugly. In Isaiah 30, the prophet hits every part of the spectrum. He tells the truth about the way things are (bad, and even ugly) and he talks about the way things will be (good) if God’s people stop trying to find life on their own and come to him in rest and repentance (v. 15). “You shall have a song as in the night,” he says (v. 29).

It’s going to be very good.

Rest and repentance are an incredible combination. In tandem, they require you to stop striving and admit that God is God and you are not. But God’s people don’t rest and repent easily. Isaiah knows this. He’s heard their derision toward him, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel (v. 10-11).”

Between the ugly now and the beautiful not yet, Isaiah confesses it may be bread and water rations – the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. That sounds bad, right? But not really, because in the midst of that sparse meal, God will not hide himself from us, Isaiah promises. We’ll see our teacher in a way that we didn’t in the midst of plenty. We’ll hear his voice saying “this is the way, walk in it.” As my friend Sherry pointed out the other day, “walk,” not run, not charge, not slip and slide into it. Just steady listening, hearing and walking in the rest and repentance that will save us (v. 15).

PRAYER: Oh God, we want to get to the good news without hearing the bad and sometimes ugly news about our own sin sick souls. The kind of news that makes us eager to repent and accept your invitation to rest. God help us not to ask the one who speaks hard truth to dumb it down, speak to us smooth things or prophesy illusions. Clear our lives of lying voices until we hear yours clearly, “this is the way, walk in it.”