Solid as a Rock

Reading: Isaiah 44-48

My last remaining aunt celebrates her 100^th birthday today. I don’t know that I want to live that long but since the timing is not up to me I will rest, as my aunt does, in some neat promises from today’s reading.

God, through Isaiah, is addressing His children. He says:

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (46:3, 4, NIV).

From birth until death, God promises to carry us in safety. The verses surrounded these two remind me of why God can make such a sweeping promise.

He’s the Creator.

“I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself” (44:24, NIV).

He’s the Redeemer, the One who has brought us into the Kingdom of light from the Kingdom of darkness.

“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you” (44:22, NIV).

He’s in control.

“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come, I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please…What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that will I do” (46:9, 10, 11 NIV).

His reputation is at stake and we are part of that through which He reveals His glory.

“See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another” (48:10, 11, NIV).

Sounds to me like a whole bunch of security no matter how many years He gives or takes.

Here’s another one that brings me great comfort. My home in Northern Ontario is famous for its rock cuts. We are perched securely on the Great Canadian shield—tough to move. But no shield or rock is as secure as this one:

He's a Rock.

“Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one” (44:8, NIV).

The experience of the years tells me that He told no lie. That’s the great thing about years and experience when you walk with the Lord. You have the joy and privilege of seeing God do exactly what He says and be exactly what He has promised to be.