1/12 Life

Listen to Me! Look to the Rock! (ISAIAH 51)
1.[v.1-3] Look Back: “Listen to me… Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you”
2.[v.4-6] Look Up:
      A.[v.4-5] to My Righteousness: “Give attention to me… My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out”
    B.[v.6] to the Vanishing Heavens: “Lift up your eyes to the heavens… for the heavens vanish like smoke”
3.[v.7-8] Look Out: “Listen to me, you who know righteousness… fear not the reproach of man”

 
Listen to Me! Look to the Rock!
(ISAIAH 51:1-8)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. 3 For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

1. [v.1-3] *Biblical principle – LISTEN, LOOK BACK: Listening to God in what He has done in the past is the gift of His promised comfort to joyfully live out the present and future. Listening to God is far more critical than speaking to God, for the only right thing to say before Him (and to one another) is rooted first in what is heard from Him. God’s people, who were presently in a period of darkness, had to learn to listen to the LORD again. The call to listen meant to look. Therefore, listening is not passive action, but active obedience. If the people truly heard and listened to the LORD, they were to look back to how God had formed them through an aging Abraham and barren Sarah. He had created them from a hopeless condition. He had multiplied one promised son (Isaac) into a multitude of people. He had turned their wilderness into His garden of Eden again. Comfort was found in Him. All who look back to what He has done will hear it and have it. Joy and thankfulness will be their song!
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – How is listening not a passive action but active obedience before God? How did Abraham model this for us in Genesis 22, when God tested and removed the treasure of his heart – his son, his only son, whom he loved, Isaac? That day, God prevented Abraham from offering Isaac’s life as a burnt offering, yet who did Father God not withhold in giving up as a sin offering for you and me? So, how did God listen to the brokenness of our lives entangled in sin?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Where is God calling you to look back but not turn back? What do you hear from there? Look back to Abraham and Sarah – By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore... By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back (Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19). What do you hear? How were their graves turned into gardens of Eden (=God’s delight/pleasure) again?

 
4 “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

1. [v.4-6] *Biblical principle – LISTEN, LOOK UP: The ears that listen back to what God has done will move the eyes to look up to who God is eternally – our righteousness and salvation that never vanishes. Listening to God causes us to look away from ourselves and look up to His words and ways. When our ears are tuned to hear Him, our eyes will follow to see His righteousness drawing near instead of our own and His salvation going out for us instead of living to save ourselves. Now, His law – His Word – is righteous instead of unfair or unjust. He is the light we wait upon and welcome to shine upon us instead of avoid or repel away in shame. Listening to the LORD lifts up our heads to see His righteousness that cover us and saves us despite our own unrighteous estate. When our eyes are lifted up to Him, only what is eternal matters. In our eyes, there is no more glistening treasure in the vanishing heavens above or earth below, except the righteousness and salvation gifted in Jesus Christ.
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Listening can either lift up/perk up your head or it can put down/hide away your head. Which one is happening before these words of the Lord? Do we wait to look up for His righteousness (=His justice, His faithfulness, His innocence, His judgments) to be revealed or look away for Him to come another day? Are we growing in longing to say, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!” or “Not now… stay away, Lord Jesus, stay away”?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – We can either look up to the vanishing heavens (and earth) or look farther up to our imperishable LORD. How far have you looked up in your listening of His Word? Are you putting a glass ceiling on the endless heavens of God’s voice? Is listening to God like wearing out an old garment? Or have you heard and looked up to see this salvation so forever great and righteousness that never dismays?

 
7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”

1. [v.7-8] *Biblical principle – LISTEN, LOOK OUT: When God’s righteousness becomes ours in Christ Jesus, we can fearlessly listen and step into His future, even in the face of criticism and discouragement. If our eyes have looked up to behold the LORD, they also must look out to the path He has given in our active obedience before Him. The discouraged people of God were called to press on fearlessly in the face of their captivity, to trust in His deliverance and not let the reproach or revilings of man affect them, for these would vanish one day like an old garment. They were to keep His law in their hearts and press forward fearlessly in the path God had carved out for them. We too can step into this fearless listening and obeying of the LORD in the face of anything that comes our way, fearing God above anything else. The strength of His Word in our hearts is more than able to carry us through this journey!
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – There is a cost to listening to God. It will invoke fear. It will bring conviction to our core. It will floor us to something unnatural and uncomfortable. Certainly, there will be consequences to listening and obeying His voice from the outside. Yet by this, we advance in our walk with Jesus. How do you know you are truly listening to Jesus today? How are you listening and obeying the guide of the holy Spirit today? What is the cost you are counting for it?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – The twin towers that cause us to look back instead of look out and press on in the LORD is “reproach” and “revilings.” The fear of disappointment/disapproval of others (reproach) and the discouragement of criticism/insults (revilings) from others is a real struggle both inside and outside the church. How can we guard our hearts from both with His law in our hearts? How can we look forward and press on toward the goal of growing into Christlikeness and extending His salvation to lost souls through our lives on mission with Jesus? Read the following Scriptures:
      1. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:16-17)
      2. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)
      3. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)
      4. Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; (James 1:19)
      5. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. (Proverbs 12:15)

 
The central truth of this word was –
As the new year 2024 is in full swing, let us hear from the LORD clearly, learning to strengthen our listening of His Word and the guide of His holy Spirit in our lives. To listen to Him is to look at Him. God calls us to turn our ears to listen and our eyes to see our everlasting Rock from which we were cut-out, the quarry from which we were dug-up. We press forward into 2024 by pressing back on our ears so prone to not hear, our eyes so prone to wander, from the unchanging Rock in ever-changing new time. Look back to Abraham, Sarah, and all the flawed men and women of faith that listened to the LORD rather than the counsel of man (Hebrews 11). Look up to His righteousness and salvation for you. Give attention to what cannot vanish but lasts forever – His law in our hearts. Look out to press on, fearlessly listening to His Word, obeying Him above all else. May Jesus say of us, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:16).

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)