The Book Of Isaiah. Day 190, Those Called By The Lord's Name

In our current chapter the Lord is reminding Isaiah's people that He called them by name and made a great nation of them. Now He goes on to remind them that many times He allowed their enemies to be conquered in order to preserve Israel.

"For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life." (Isaiah 43:3-4) It's important to remember that the Lord loves everyone. But it's also important to remember that, when He promised to make a great nation of Abraham's descendants, He vowed that anyone who cursed those descendants would be cursed and that anyone who blessed them would be blessed. So when other nations did harm to Israel or failed to help Israel, the Lord was willing to allow those nations to be captured in order to protect His people.

The same type of things happen in our lives today. The Lord sometimes demotes people in order to promote those who honor Him. The Lord protects us from those who intend us harm and turns their wicked acts back onto them. I've actually seen this type of thing happen a number of times. The Lord diverts the wickedness that someone intended against His child and causes the wicked person's deeds to come to light, but by contrast He pours blessings out on the one who has remained faithful to Him.

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth---everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made." (Isaiah 43:5-7) We know that, because they descended into a great deal of idolatry, the Lord allowed the northern kingdom of Israel to be conquered by Assyria and the southern kingdom of Judah to be conquered by Babylon. But He wants the people to know that this won't be the end of them. They will be scattered for a time but they will be regathered.

As we said a few days ago, discipline is for the purpose of correcting the one who is wayward; it is not for the purpose of destroying them. A parent doesn't impose discipline upon a child in order to destroy that child; the parent does it to correct wrong behavior. In this same way, the Lord disciplined Israel and Judah for a time but He did not make an end of them. After their captivity in other lands we never heard of them becoming idolaters again. They had developed other issues by the advent of Christ, such as a strict form of legalism that didn't leave much room for mercy and grace and compassion, but they did not bow to other gods. The idolatry was corrected by the discipline, just as a child's disobedience is corrected by a temporary timeout or a temporary removal of privileges or whatever the case may be.

The Lord knows those who love Him and He has His eye on them at all times. No discipline sent to a child of God is sent in order to beat them down and discourage them and make them feel like there's no use trying. It's sent to correct waywardness---which is harmful to us and to those around us---so that we can enjoy more abundant living as we walk in the will of God.