29:22
Isaiah now points right back to Abraham. God reminds them that He “redeemed” Abraham. Abraham was living in a pagan land, worshiping pagan gods. God redeemed him from this existence, and later in chapter 51 will urge them to look back to Abraham and Sarah. God led him to a new life, and one from which “all nations on earth will be blessed” (see Gen 12:2,3). God did not desire to destroy Jacob, but to redeem her, then she would no longer be covered in shame, no longer will “her face grow pale”. Instead she would be free and flourish. We should look at this in the whole context of Isaiah. There is an enormous amount of judgement, there is no beating about the bush over the seriousness of Israel’s sin and the consequences thereof, but the goal, and the heart of God, is salvation for Israel, freedom from sin, freedom from shame, freedom from suffering. Today, sinners don’t like being told about their sin, and much of the church is extremely reluctant to speak about sin. But this is a wrong attitude. All of us need to be rescued from our sin, and while we remain in sin, shame and struggle are what characterise our lives. We need God’s salvation.
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