For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. – Isaiah 54:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 28, 2013): Isaiah 54

I remember standing outside the door of the room of one of my children listening to the sobs happening on just the other side of the door. They were being punished for something, but in those moments it seemed that I was being punished as well. Sometimes as a parent, we have to do the things that we don’t want to do. To be honest, that is probably the part about being an adult that we like the least. But we recognize that saying no and listening to the crying is part of the task of being a parent, even if we don’t like playing the part of the bad guy.

Isaiah again seems to be returning to the circumstances surrounding the Babylonian exile of Judah as he writes these words. It is doubtful that the meaning of the verse is exactly as we have it in our English Bibles. This passage probably should be interpreted the way that we should also interpret Jesus words from the cross – “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46)? I believe that we are committing error if we are allowed to see Jesus as really being forsaken by God on the Cross. But Jesus was fully human as well as fully God, and the reality was that in that moment the human side of Jesus was unable to feel the love of God. It is sometimes a circumstance in our own lives – sometimes it is quite possible for us to know of God’s love intellectually, but because of the pain that we are in, we cannot feel that same love emotionally. And whether we want to admit it or not, we are emotional beings. In this moment Jesus could not feel the love of God, therefore the sentiment that he expressed was true only according to how he felt. In the same way, Isaiah is speaking to the outcasts of Judah and he says that “for a moment I allowed you to feel like I had abandoned you – for a moment I allowed you to believe the unbelievable, that I had left you to fend off the world with your strategies, but the truth is that I was standing outside the door the whole time.” And when the moment has passed, with great compassion I am going to open the door and invite you back in to my purpose.

For Israel, this time of feigned abandonment by God would produce a change in character. That is exactly what any good parent hopes for. That this time alone would allow the child to grow into a better person. For seventy years God would leave Israel in Babylon, but after the seventy years were over, God’s compassion would compel him to open the door and bring Judah home.

We all go through times of pain when it seems like God is far away. But that is only our emotional understanding. The truth is that he has never been far. He is listening just outside the door, and at any moment his compassion will compel him to come rushing in to bring us home.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 55