"And it will be said: 'Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of My people.'" (Isaiah 57:14) The Lord will orchestrate a return to the land, which is partly in view here in this promise, but primarily He is speaking of their spiritual return to Him. He wants no stumbling blocks in their way. In ancient times, whenever a great caravan of people was coming, the road would be prepared ahead of them. The potholes would be filled in (built up) and obstacles such as rocks and fallen tree branches would be removed from the roadway.
"For this is what the high and exalted One says---He who lives forever, whose name is holy: 'I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.'" (Isaiah 57:15) Although the Lord is greater than all things, He wants fellowship with us. As David said in Psalm 18, the Lord stoops down to make us great. The Lord reaches down to us to lift us from the mire of sin. The Lord enables us to grow spiritually into what we were created to be.
"I will not accuse them forever, nor will I always be angry, for then they would faint away because of Me---the very people I have created. I was enraged by their sinful greed; I punished them, and hid My face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways." (Isaiah 57:16-17) Not being able to have fellowship with the Lord should seem to us like the most dreadful thing of all. Because the people were wallowing in sin, He was silent to them. The only thing He wanted to hear from them was prayers of repentance. He would not have been silent to repentant prayers but, since they kept doing what they were doing, He did not answer their prayers for help against their enemies. He allowed them to be conquered and taken into captivity. But that wasn't going to be a permanent situation. If He had turned His face away forever, their enemies would have made an end of them as a race and as a nation, and He did not intend for that to happen.
"I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel's mourners, creating praise on their lips." (Isaiah 57:18) It's possible to fall so far into sin that we have no idea what to do when we realize we are ruining our lives. Just as someone can become so addicted to drugs or alcohol that they can't stop using substances on their own, no matter how much they want to stop, the person who has dug themselves a pit of sin may want out but cannot get out. The Lord takes the initiative for the one who has a willing spirit. He says here that He has seen the wicked ways of Isaiah's people but that He will hold out a hand of reconciliation to them. He will lift them out of the pit when they become tired of it. He will cure them of their immorality when they see it has brought them no satisfaction.
What about the one who feels no remorse? What about the one who rejects the Lord's helping hand? What about the one who never has and never will want anything to do with Him? "But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. 'There is no peace,' says my God, 'for the wicked'." (Isaiah 57:19-21) Chapter 57 began with the Lord promising peace to those who are faithful to Him and we see here that there is no peace for those who refuse to accept Him as Lord.
I want to close by backing up to look at verse 18 again. The Lord used that verse in my life to let me know He was about to perform a tremendous and miraculous act of healing for someone. There was someone who had fallen into a deep pit of sin, a pit of immorality and of addiction and of dabbling in an occult practice. I had prayed for years for this person and they seemed to only be growing worse and worse. One morning I was sitting in the waiting room at the allergy doctor's office and with a heavy heart and with this person on my mind I picked up the Gideon Bible and began reading it. It was in the KJV and the KJV renders verse 18 like this: "I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners." Why is this KJV translation significant? Because the person I was praying for was a male and because the Lord refers to Israel as a female more often than as a male, especially when accusing Israel of not being true to Him, but here He uses the words "him" and "his".
When I read that verse, the Holy Spirit spoke to my spirit so strongly that I felt like jumping out of my chair in the doctor's waiting room and dancing and shouting with joy. When I got back to work I printed out the verse and carried it in my purse, taking it out often and reading it, until the Lord healed that person and restored comforts to him and to his mourners (to those who love him and who were grieved by his actions). That person is still healed today, for he accepted Christ as his Savior and has forsaken all the immoral, addictive, and occult practices of his past. He is in fellowship with the Lord, who reached out a hand to him just as the Lord said He would when I was reading Chapter 57 of Isaiah that day.
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