My Word Does Not Return to Me Empty - part 1 (based on Isaiah 55)

God's message through Isaiah, which we find inherent in the canon of scripture at Isaiah 55, portrays the basis of trust for every believer in God - every follower of Christ. We believe that God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is the only true God, Lord of Lords, Sovereign. We believe that His thoughts cannot compare with our limited, weak minds and way of thinking. We believe that the Bible is God’s authoritative Word written by humans as they were guided to do so by the Holy Spirit – who is the true Author of scripture and empowers it (compare Ephesians 6:17). We believe that based on that truth, that God’s Word is to be obeyed and trusted, that we are to ‘feed’ on it freely and regularly, that it is His revelation of Himself to us, and His own personal testimony. We must believe that His Word will always prove true and will always accomplish what it is intended to do. We believe, that in conjunction with Romans 1:16 and John 6:68 that God’s Word is the gospel of our salvation, and contains the words of eternal life.  We believe that we cannot separate God from His Word and still claim true belief in God. We believe that through Christ we find the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life who deserves our obedience. We believe that we are called to repentance and are in need of that kind of Savior, and that our living in obedience encompasses not just rituals, but submission to God that is done willingly and wholly. We believe that God will fulfill all His promises, and we believe that we must seek God while He can be found, i.e., He will not strive with mankind’s rebellion forever.

What God’s Word Tells us – the Harmony and Faithfulness of Scripture in God’s Salvation Plan. Bible students will recall that the law for Israel given to Moses had as its basis or its foundational tenets, the Ten Words or Ten Commandments. On that covenant foundation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob exposited or expounded on that foundation - provided legal context and constructs found in the book of Leviticus and further exposited in Deuteronomy and Exodus. Civil laws – showing them how to conduct one’s life in the presence of a Holy God, harmonized with ceremonial laws of worship - so that an Israelite's daily life was shaped by worship acceptable to God – which is obedience to God and His Law. God's Law through Moses would underscore for the Israelite that God is Holy, has the sole right of Sovereignty, not just of the Israelite but of the entire world. The Law would set them apart as a sacred people, sanctified (set apart) by God for His use and for His Glory (see Leviticus 20:8, and Deuteronomy 28:1, 9-10). 

The Law would fulfill God's Word to Abraham (Genesis 12). The Law would also point out the need for a Savior, revealing the sin to which all of mankind is born due to Adam's fall in the Garden. (Romans 3:20) Thus the ceremonial laws were centered on confession of sin and repentance, on forgiveness of sin, on learning humility since God redeemed them at great cost - by blood - to become His people (i.e., they were bought or ransomed through a sacrifice of firstborns in Egypt – the tenth plague – which forced Pharoah’s temporary concession to God’s will and liberated the nation of Israel from bondage, combined with the sacrifice of a firstborn lamb, the blood of which believers slathered on the doors of their homes to save them as the angel of death passed through the land. See this aspect of the Abrahamic promise in Genesis 15 and Exodus 11 and 12). Bible students know that God’s laws and the worship structured by it which was given to the redeemed nation of Israel and contained for us in the Bible’s Old Testament prefigures the salvation that all peoples would be given access to – not just the Hebrew only; Bible students likewise know that the Law is fulfilled in Jesus.

The all-encompassing Law from God to His people Israel recognizes a ceremonial year and a calendar year; the calendar year was synced to the agricultural cycle that Israel would follow in the land flowing with milk and honey. Their labor in this new and bountiful land was to contrast 400 years of slavery toiling for Egyptian authorities. In their promised land - the land God arranged for their habitation which was to originally encompass much of the geography along the Great Sea (Mediterranean) through to Syria and the Euphrates River, east to beyond the Jordan River and Dead Sea over the mountains of Edom and to the edge of the Eastern Desert, and south to Sinai - in this expansive land the nation was to experience a broad freedom that would be guided by the guardrails of God’s law.

Their obedience to God's agricultural laws would ensure a land that would produce well and satisfy the needs of the people, and fulfill the promise of bountiful. Thus, the calendar new year began with Nisan to recall their liberation from Egypt. This would be our calendar's March to April time period. Passover is the hallmark of that time. The Israelite would begin the harvest for barley and flax - staples in everyday life and in their worship ceremonies. These also involved the time of Unleavened Bread (Passover) and the 'firstfruits' offerings and celebrations. Israel was to remember and celebrate the Passover to recall that their very lives were purchased by God by blood. The next harvest would be the wheat harvest in Sivan - which corresponds to our May-June. The Festival of Weeks or Pentecost was the focus during this time; it was celebrated seven weeks and a day following Passover and would include a wave offering - a rite that involved bread baked with leaven that represented Israel's awareness of their sins, and to seek God's forgiveness. Then from June to about September the people would continue in their stewardship of their land and farming in advance of the rainy season in the autumn.

Part of the end of the growing season ceremony was the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles that occurred within the calendar month of Tishri - our September to October. Israel would live in tents during that week to recall their wandering in the wilderness of Sinai following their liberation from Egypt, and how they had learned lessons, received the Law and learn daily reliance on the God of their forefathers – from whom they had been estranged and were re-discovering in a new way. 

The festival would harken the beginning of the ceremonial new year. This was one of the most holy ceremonial seasons. Although the Israelites were given opportunities through personal sacrificial offerings throughout the year to seek forgiveness for sin and to center their focus on God, to engage in rites of purification before their Holy God, the holy Day of Atonement was to be a national observation. All of Israel would come before God after preparation and purification rituals through the structure of the priesthood that was anointed and appointed to be intercessors between the people and God, and would as individuals and as a nation ritually seek God's solemn forgiveness. A scapegoat would be utilized to signify God's forgiveness where the sins of the people are ritually placed on the goat and sent away out into the wilderness (see the full details at Leviticus 16). The Rosh Hashanah – the beginning of the ceremonial new year, would be cemented by that Day of Atonement - a time when the people as one nation that had been called out and brought in to God’s presence to be made God’s representative kingdom - were to return to God and repent of their sins. The sobering festival was to give the nation the opportunity, again, to recognize that they were subject to not just a merciful God, but also a Holy God, and to effect a kind of holiness according to God’s standards in their standing before God. 

God is serious about worship - whether it is ceremonial in nature or the daily worship of Him through our daily obedience. When the nation and the people obeyed the laws, God's plentiful mercy, security, and prosperity would be theirs. He would honor His own Word to their forefathers, would fulfill those promises found in His law. When they would choose disobedience persistently in their daily lives, the people would experience a time that God told them would be the result of their distancing themselves from God or leaving Him for false supports. Their lands would suffer, their families would suffer because their sinfulness disrupted the harmony God had established for them – the result would be national chaos. By the time Isaiah was given the prophecies from God that are found in the book named for him, the nation had degraded in every way possible because of their rebellion against God and the Law that He had given them for their well-being. God's words in Deuteronomy 26:16-19, and chapters 27 through 30 would be fulfilled beyond their imagination. God's Word does not return to Him empty. 

The key highlight of Isaiah's prophecy, to those who would believe, was the promise of one from the seed of Jesse (father to King David) who would be anointed and appointed by God as the Savior and a once-for-all-time atoning sacrifice for all of mankind - both the Jew and the Gentile. In part 2 this will be explored. [postscript: due to what was being heard, part 2 became focused on Mary; see "About Mary"]

Of note:  There are similarities with the Church liturgical year to the ceremonial year of the Law. The season of Advent is the beginning of the Church's new year liturgically or ceremonially. It is during this time that God's people are exhorted to return to Him and prepare their hearts for God's great blessing - the One who would be both the Atonement sacrifice and the scapegoat for sin. Because the worship significance of this season has been obscured by commercialism and self-absorption that creeps into our daily lives, believers are invited to use this time to re-set spiritually. We would be wise to see the correlation of God’s provision for the Israel nation through the holy season in their new year and its chief ceremony - the Day of Atonement - a coming together of God's people in a call of active seeking of God and active repentance. It can also be for us such a time of restoration and a renewal of our vows to worship God with our whole hearts, our whole minds, and our whole souls. The ceremony of the solemn Day of Atonement called for a certain  'busyness' of the people to prepare for it, where the focus was always to be both spiritual and involve physical activity, centered on the goal of drawing closer to God and recognizing our need for a Savior. The focus was not on the busyness, not on the foods and feasts, but rather on the One who had ordained a time for the people to exult in God's provision of forgiveness of their sins.

When was the last time we saw Advent as that kind of season? How can the principles of the Law for forgiveness of sins help us to understand the approach to and worship of God during this time of year? The world's view of Advent and of Christmas has moved so far beyond the message of God's Word that it has nearly if not completely blotted out the need to seek God and to anticipate the coming of Christ. It has become more about seeking pleasures for self, and following the deceptive belief that we deserve prosperity. It has become a time to concentrate on the biggest sale of the season so that we can out-gift one another. It has become a time of demanding certain treats and gifts – at any cost. The season has a veneer of 'hope', while rejecting the God of hope and the One upon whom true hope is placed. There is very little humility and holiness attached to the season as the world celebrates it. It cannot fully grasp the significance of the 'season of redemption' – a term which it commercially lollies about and about which the world strips of any semblance to God’s true redemption plan. The world lacks understanding of the critical link of Christ’s coming to the covenant nation of Israel. The world diminishes God’s greatest gift to humankind and instead reduces that gift to a helpless babe in a manger without any dimension or connection to the portrait of salvation in God’s Word. The world detaches itself from the whole counsel of God’s Word about this gift of Jesus and all that is embodied in Him. The world makes the celebration of the coming of Christ as meaningless and empty to God as were the sacrifices of the Hebrew nation that had abandoned their one true God and supplanted Him with false supports (Isaiah 5; Amos 5)

We'll look in subsequent messages at God's thoughts -His Word, along with the significance of the virgin birth, Mary's and Joseph's part in God's salvific plan, the ‘wise’ men, Herod, and our own place within this holy account.    

About Mary (continuation of My Word Does Not Return to Me Empty)

 Part 2 – The Virgin  : About Mary

Luke 1:26-38 - God’s timing of His Word and fulfillment of promises. One of the greatest dramas in the whole of account of human history – The Incarnation. The mystery of ages begins to be revealed. God in flesh, to live among us and be with us – we His human creatures made by Him in His own image. Ensuring the fulfillment of prophecy by being the fulfillment. God’s love embodied in the Savior He appointed to reconcile us to Himself, Christ the Lord, the Messiah of God.

So, let us start with the specific prophecy of Isaiah 7:13-14. The prophecy tells us that “a virgin will conceive and bear a Son and his name will be called Immanuel (God with us).” God has said of Himself that for Him, nothing is impossible.

For a Jewish person learned in the Mosaic Law this concept was an oxymoron – a contradiction or in the very least, a paradox of what was known. The Law identified God’s holiness in the purity of virginity. The Law in and of itself did not support a virgin or an unmarried woman being made pregnant and simultaneously finding favor with God. Those women upon whom God’s mighty hand had removed their shame of a barren womb and caused them to become pregnant were all married – Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, Leah; and in the first century, notably Elizabeth. They were not virgins. And yet, God said in Isaiah that His plan would involve a virgin who bore a son, that this would be an essential hallmark of His salvation plan, of God’s imminent action in the world. Even while this prophecy was paradoxical, God had provided every reason for mankind to trust Him and His Word (compare Exodus 14:31; Deuteronomy 1:31-33; Psalm 119; Proverbs 3; 1 Chronicle 5:20) 

Nor did the Law discuss alternative options for a virgin birth – primarily because pregnancy was to be the potential result of honorable marriage in the Jewish civil/moral/ceremonial laws and customs. Any proven indication that a young woman and man had violated that law could subject each of them to the consequences of breaking that solemn law – the extreme consequence being death by stoning (see this sobering message at Deuteronomy 22). Marriage was a divine institution of God, something holy; God took seriously violation of that holy act. The challenge presented by this paradoxical prophecy – as with other prophecies humans have tried to understand with our limited capacities and even more limited faith – could result in persons not believing in it. And did. It would be one of those points of stumbling that would be associated with the identity of the Messiah (Isaiah 8:14; Romans 9:33).

Traveling 800 years later to the account at Luke 1. The Bible account does not indicate that time lapsed between the angel Gabriel’s announcement of God’s plan and Mary/Miriam’s saying yes, i.e., she did not say “Hmmm, I must give this some heavy thought; return later and I will let you know what I decide.” Let’s look at Mary’s person and character – she was not born a prophetess. As a female, her presence at the temple would be with the other females in what was called the Ezrat HaNashim – the court of the women, located in the outer forecourt. They did not worship alongside the men. She had no certification of worship leadership, she was no religious savant, she carried no other designation or activity that would have elevated her status within her society and community. She was no princess, nor anyone born to wealth – just the very opposite. She lived in the common, poor circumstances of village folk within a political framework that fostered policies to keep her and others poor. She was simply one of hundreds of ordinary Jewish girls in their teens; thus, to the world, Mary was an obscure ‘nobody’. Mary had been shaped by Jewish law and traditions – as had others of her peers, and recognized her place within the community where she hoped to eventually become a married woman and contribute to the ongoing growth of that community through her own childbearing. Her heart shaped by faith was opened to God because she knew His character as repeatedly told to her in the stories of her people’s history. 

Based on what God has revealed of Himself and of His purpose, one can firmly believe that when God spoke the prophecy in Isaiah 7, He had already ordained or predestined Mary’s role in His salvific plan from before the foundation of the world. What transpired at Luke 1:26-38 was a fulfillment of that part of God’s plan formed from before time.

Now, without a doubt, there are Bible scholars and others who will not agree with that position. Perhaps some of those same scholars also promote the idea that there were two Isaiahs attached to the book of Isaiah. After all, they may say, the prophecy does not identify the virgin by the name ‘Mary’ specifically – which may fuel their ‘logic argument”. If so, that is a weak argument that falls apart quickly. While some may at God’s discretion, not every prophecy names the individual or individuals involved. The prophecy at Isaiah 7 says that the child’s name would be Immanuel – God with us - but at God’s discretion, leaves off the familiar name for the child – Jesus – which is a form of Joshua/Yeshua meaning God is salvation – which was a common enough name (as well as some derivative thereof) for a Jewish male. A closer look at the name “Immanuel” reveals a deeper punctuation of God’s salvation plan by indicating that when this foretold One arrived on the scene, He would be God living among them – that He would be fully God and fully man. The child to be born and live as a human is also referred to as Anointed within the other prophecies that speak of Him, and is called the Son of David or seed of Jesse. Nor does the prophecy at Isaiah 40:3 name John, son of Zechariah, as the one preparing the way for the Lord (we know him as John the Baptizer; in Hebrew his name would be Yohanan, which means “Yahweh has been gracious”). 

Another path of human logic about Mary and the prophecy at Isaiah 7 is the presumption of the possibility that perhaps God may have asked other young women candidates to carry out the plan and only Mary said yes, thus solving the riddle, suggesting that Mary was one of a pool of candidates who were interviewed for that role. They may say, after all - this is a legitimate point of view based on human experience and human reason. It is a procedure that is often used; even when we were kids playing and chose team members, we considered the benefits of so-and-so versus the other, and chose who we thought would help us be winners. At various times of year, humans choose political leaders to represent them and operationalize policies we agree with. Or, as an employer, when we search for a special person to fill an essential position or role in our business, we analyze resumes, interview candidates until we find whom we perceive to be the right fit. 

But, what would such a lottery approach tell us about God’s plan of salvation? Does it not suggest that His plan could possibly hinge on the ‘luck of the draw’, that Mary was God’s best guess for the person who would carry Jesus into the world as very human, yet very God? That God was hoping that the right candidate would step up to the plate? That Mary was but one of a pool of optimal candidates who could potentially fit the bill? 

Thanks and praise to God that He created us with minds that think, that analyze, that imagine things and seek answers. That He gives us the ability to think outside the box and let us see new possibilities. That He has created us in His image, and is the Creator God who gives us minds and abilities to reason and create novel things with our minds and hands. Lord, like any other gift you provide to us, we pray that we will use these gifts of open-mindedness, of analytical thinking and probing, of questioning and of seeking answers, of reasoning out, talking through paradoxes – all in ways that honor you, and which feed true worship and thanksgiving to you (see Philippians 4:8-9; Psalm 25:4-5; Psalm 51:6; Psalm 119:5-6; , 66-67; Psalm 143:10).  Help us to reason with the mind of Christ that God the Holy Spirit strives to create within us (see 1 Corinthians 2:6-16; Romans 11:33-12:3). Help us remember that we must take care that our thoughts harmonize with the tenet of scripture so that we are not misled to believe faith-eroding concepts. Remind us that when we come to difficult passages to interpret scripture with scripture, i.e., the Spirit-wrapped and infused Word of God by the Holy Spirit and the understanding He gives, and not rely on our own understanding. (compare Psalm 111:7, 10; Psalms 119:4, 15, 27, 33-34; 2 Peter 3:1-2, 15-18; Genesis 40:8; Proverbs 3:5-8; Daniel 2:30; Luke 24:13-27; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:19-21) 

Some lean into their own interpretations possibly because they see God’s Word as being too rigid and find some pleasure in human reasoning when it comes to doctrine (compare Isaiah 5:21,24; Isaiah 9:8-10; Isaiah 28:13; and Isaiah 29:13-14). 

(Interestingly there is a version of the Bible in publication called the New Life Version, which seems to have tampered with the language at Luke 1:28 to imply Mary was the winning candidate among other women. It is the only version that I’ve found so far that has done this.) 

If we are believing in the sureness of God’s salvation, we are trusting God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – even when we don’t immediately or fully understand His Word. We can trust Him as the Eternal One before whom is all of time, and who existed before time was created. We can be assured by what the ‘God-breathed’ scripture tells us, that God had already settled before the foundation of the world how the salvation plan would be executed, and how God’s long-held plan harmonizes with the rest of scripture in the Old and New Testament, that is, His Gospel and Word. Thus, we can have confidence in believing that the person Mary had already been determined by God as part of His plan from before time (compare Ephesians 1:3-4; Acts 4:27-28; Romans 8:29-30). 

The unadulterated language of Luke 1:28 states plainly that God had chosen her – that she had been pre-determined as part of God’s plan. (compare to God’s predestination or the fore-ordination of God’s King in His over-arching salvation plan, versus human supposition at 1 Samuel 16:1-13) The verses at 28-38 indicate a girl who, by grace, had learned already to develop a strong belief in Yahweh, to believe in His Word and promises. Her mind and heart had been shaped by the word, acts, and promises of God. Through a learned faith in the only true God and the Spirit’s work in her, she was able to say yes. She believed in the Providence of God. She trusted Him. She had a healthy innocence about her – based in the belief that her life was in the hands of the Almighty Elohim, El Shaddai, Yahweh Tzebaot, Adonai. She believed the messenger of God and was humbled by God’s unmerited favor upon her, and she obeyed. She could not possibly understand all of the ramifications of her ‘yes’, no more than we could have foreseen all that God would be doing in our lives when we said yes to His call on us – in that way we can identify with Mary because just as God had determined from before time how Mary would be a part of His salvation plan, from before time God had called us to be a part of that salvific drama (recall the reading at Ephesians 1). 

[In the Bible book of Revelation, chapter 12, we receive a high-level vision of God shepherding and shaping time, circumstance, events and historical markers to bring forth His salvific plan. Again, in this glimpse into God’s eternal workings, nothing is left to chance or supposition, nor can the enemy supplant God’s salvific will. (The ‘woman’ is Israel with whom God’s covenant relation existed; Israel would bring forth/’give birth’ to the promised Savior and Messiah, through whom God’s salvific plan would be operationalized and executed).]

To take the view that the identity of the young woman who would carry within her body the Son of God would be left to chance is not only out of harmony with all else to be known about God, it also casts a shadow on God’s promises – painting them with a dependence on human response to make them come true. 

As with any part of scripture that is hard to understand, we must always petition the Father to have the Holy Spirit enlighten us – since He is the true author of scripture. (see John 16:13-14; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)