Day 110 – Repairers Of The Breach

Isaiah 56 – 62

Israel was intended by God to be a balm for the nations.  As a people they were called to holiness through obedient, sacrificial observance of the Law.  In so doing, the blessings of the Almighty would flow upon them for the world to see.  This chosen people of Yahweh’s possession would shine forth to the whole world as a beacon to draw everyone to God.

Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Isaiah 58:1-7

In humbling themselves before God and denying themselves, they could take the blessings of God and share with the world in need.  If they would let go of the wickedness and cling to righteousness, they would lose nothing and gain everything, and they would be a blessing.

Instead, they became a curse.  Through faithless disobedience, the blessings ceased.  The Law became their condemnation and the world ridiculed them.  Time after time, prophet after prophet called the people to change and fulfill the great purpose Elohim intended for them.  They did not listen and they were crushed and hauled away into captivity.  Now their light was dimmed.

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Isaiah 58:8-11

The prophet Isaiah concludes his prophetic writings speaking to the future.  He conveys God’s plans for Israel to become the light unto the Gentiles they were set apart to be.  Repentance, restoration and renewal will replace punishment, scorn and humiliation.  The end of Isaiah is filled with hope.  The hope is real not because of the people being called, but because of the faithfulness of the God who calls them.  The eternal plan of God in His saved people will not be thwarted, and His people will become a balm for the nations.

And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.
Isaiah 58:12

Far too often the people of God look at the mess this world in in and then look to God and wonder why He does nothing.  This was true of Israel and it is true of the church, the spiritual Israel foretold by Isaiah and other prophets.  The people of God cannot be a balm for healing unless we first heal our own relationship with the Almighty.  Once we do this, then we can see that we are the hands of God in this dark world.  We need not look and ask “where is God?”  Instead we should know that we simply need to acts as he has called us.  we simply need to take the blessing He has given us and use them to heal the hurting world.

The world is disconnected from God.  We are His chosen people.  In our day and in our circumstances, we are the repairs of the breach.  Like with Israel, nothing we’ve done in the past can dampen God’s hope for the future.  All things can be made new.  God is all-powerful.  And, He calls the willing to His work.

Consider His nature.  Consider His ways.  Strive to love Him more!