Isaiah 55:9-11 - My ways are higher than your ways

55:9

My ways are higher than your ways. God’s ways lead to a man like Jesus, man’s ways lead to what we see all around us, and what we see in ourselves. But there is another way in His ways are higher and greater than ours. We think if we admit we are wrong then we are bound to be punished and rejected by God. But His ways are higher than our ways, so when we do repent we receive forgiveness, and much more than that, we become part of God’s plan, we are adopted as His children, we become part of the kingdom.

55:10,11

“My word will not return empty”. We often take this promise in isolation, we need to see it in context. It is all part of the dialogue about how can God’s wonderful promises possibly apply to a sinful people? The previous chapters have been explaining this, with chapter 53 at the centre. If we take sin seriously then the promises are logically impossible, unless we also take the cross and resurrection seriously, and that involves the substitutionary atonement part of the cross as well. God’s word will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. And this does not just apply to individual words, but to the whole gospel message (which begins in Genesis 1 and ends in Revelation 22).