DAY 272

WHEN DO YOU THINK GOD FIRST THOUGHT OF YOU?

Isaiah 5 & 6 and Ephesians 1

WOW! The texts today, all of them have big important things to say. I want to write to you about what was going on in Isaiah’s world when he was hearing God, and I want to write you a little about the structure of the Book of Isaiah…but neither of those are topics for today, or tomorrow. Next week I will try and post some thoughts about them.

Today I want to speak first and foremost about the question I titled this blog with: When do you think God first thought of you? Before you read the next sentence, pause and try and answer it. Was it when you were born? Was it when you were conceived? When? It says in Ephesians 1, a portion of verse 4 the following, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…” He chose us—in him—before the foundation of the world. One Bible translator says it this way, “Before God made the world…he thought of you!” What an amazing idea…that God thought of us.

The second big thing to notice is Isaiah 5 and the vineyard. The chapter is a love poem. John Stott writes that Isaiah audaciously refers to God as his beloved and to God’s people, Israel, as a vineyard…and God has done everything, everything, to make this vineyard fruitful…but it is not. Then come six woes: illegal acquisition of land (v.8), excessive consumption of alcohol (v.11-12), a brazen defiance of God (18-19), a perverse transfer of moral categories (v.20), conceit (v.21), and the corruption and denial of human rights (vv.22-23). I will later write more about the society of Isaiah’s day, but you are getting a good picture. What I want to suggest to you is the metaphor of vineyard. Can you hear Jesus telling a story about it (John 15)? Israel, and you and I, are thought of as vineyard…something God has worked at, worked hard at, done all he can…you might say the vineyard is something God planned…even thought about beforehand…all so that you and I produce good fruit.

The third big thing is Isaiah 6. “Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah finds himself in a dramatic scene before God. The hem of God’s robe fills the temple and Isaiah is undone. What would you do if you came face-to-face with the Living God…even if it is the hem of His robe? Isaiah has a healthy sense of himself; he knows he is not perfect. He knows he makes mistakes. He knows therefore that he should not be in presence of God. But God thought of Isaiah before Isaiah was born…and God has a plan for Isaiah so long as Isaiah is open to God’s leading. “Whom shall I send…send me Lord…”

The point of all this gives me pause…God thought of it, of you, and of me…before he thought of the cosmos. If this is true then I pray you will no longer have self image issues…and I pray you will have a richer sense of how much God cares for and loves you…and I pray that you will, like Isaiah, offer yourself more to God and His service.