It is All About God Not Us

 

I am not a very political person. In fact, I don’t like politics. I studied government in college and am amazed at the wisdom that is evident in the way our nation’s government was put together. But I am not political. I am very thankful that God calls men and women to serve in elected offices and am thankful that we have the opportunity to vote.

 

With all that said, God really spoke to me on Monday morning as I read Isaiah 33. God brought two verses to my attention. These verses will not speak to a person who does not have at least a belief in God, but for a follower of Jesus they need to be huge.

 

I believe that the Bible is the word of God. I believe it is, as Hebrews 4:12 says, living and active, meaning it speaks to all time periods. So Isaiah was writing the book of Isaiah to the Jews; God was writing it to the world. 

 

The first is Isaiah 33:5. It says, “The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and He will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.”

 

Four things the Holy Spirit showed me in this verse:

 

God will be the one to bring justice and righteousness.

 

Wanting our nation to be a nation of righteousness and justice is a good thing and the desire itself comes from God.

 

The problem is our nation is looking to man and man-made things to bring righteousness and justice. It is impossible for fallen humanity to fashion anything that is not fallen outside of God. So, we need to go to God’s word to see how God would have us as a nation establish true righteousness and justice.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is asking God to establish righteousness and justice.

 

God will be the one to bring stability to our nation.

 

God is immutable. That means that God does not change. What is right is right now and always and what is wrong is wrong now and always. He does not move right and wrong, good and bad, or truth and falsehood around. God does not manipulate things to suit Himself or to prove Himself right. God is truth and what He speaks is truth and it does not change. Because God and the things of God don’t change, we can build on them and they will not collapse on us.

 

Everything other than God will change and, when they do, then we have lost our stability.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is having God as our foundation.

 

God will be the one to bring salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

 

This COVID-19 thing has shown us that whatever opinion a person has, they can find on social media a verification of that opinion. One of the real frustrations most of us have faced in dealing with it is in knowing what is real and what is not.

 

This verse says God brings salvation, so He is our savior. God as my savior means He’s got it and I don’t have to worry or fear. It doesn’t give the license to do stupid risky things or to ignore others concerns. It does give me confidence and assurance.

 

This verse says God brings wisdom. I have not been impressed with our wisdom as human in dealing with the virus or the divide in our nation. God’s wisdom is needed to deal with each in a healthy and productive way.

 

God’s wisdom according to James 3:17 is pure, peaceable (we are really lacking this aspect), gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, produces good fruit, impartial, and sincere. We need this kind of wisdom.

 

This verse says God brings knowledge. We need knowledge. We don’t just need intellectual knowledge, we need spiritual knowledge. We need the mind of Christ to guide us through the issues we are facing in our nation.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God for salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.

 

A holy awe or holy respect of God is to be our treasure.

 

Luke 12:34 says, “For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.”

What I treasure, what I value above everything is where my heart, the focus of my life will be.

 

If my treasure is anything attached to this world, that is where my focus will be. If my treasure is God and the things connected with God, then my focus will be God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is making God my treasure so my heart will be focused on Him.

 

The truth of verse 5 will establish in our lives when God becomes what Isaiah says He is in verse 22.

 

Isaiah 33:22

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; He will save us.

 

God is the Judge and as Judge He determines what is righteous.

God is the Lawgiver and as Lawgiver He determines how we are to live out righteousness.

God is the King and as King He empowers us to be and live out righteousness daily.

 

God as Judge, Lawgiver, and King provides justice, righteousness, stability, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. We are not to look to humans to provide these because humans cannot. Only God can provide these things for us personally, for our nation, and for the world.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God as our Judge, our Lawgiver, and our King.

 

With God as our Judge, Lawgiver, and King, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe