Guilt free living
Isaiah 33: Best of all, they’ll all live guilt-free.
Jerusalem is conquered, now condemned by Assyria to bow and scrape to those in control of their holy city. Isaiah promises that things won’t remain as they are. As the citizens turn back to the Lord, the Lord will turn back to them. The day is coming when the Assyrian tax collector will be gone and their new masters’ foreign language will no longer be heard in the streets of Jerusalem. It won’t be King Sennacherib who’ll be in charge, instead, Isaiah promises it will be “God who makes all the decisions here” and it’ll be God who’ll be king. Isaiah adds, describing his people, “Best of all, they’ll all live guilt-free.” This is such a wonderful promise. You see, the people hearing these words are really guilty. It’s their abandonment of God that brought this calamity on them in the first place. The good news is that the only One who can forgive them is willing to do so. It’s a great thing when God removes the “foreign kings” from our lives and forgives us our sins. One lady told me that when she confessed her sins and received Christ into her life that she “felt lighter.” In other words, having the sin burden lifted from her was just as real as if a 40 pound backpack had been lifted from her shoulders. Only God can make that kind of difference in a life or in a nation. The Good News is that he wants to do just that.
Take Away: How wonderful to realize that the only one who can forgive us our sins is willing to do just that.