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The Scriptorium

Sin and Separation

It's not that He could not, but that He would not.

God’s Eternal Covenant: Isaiah 59 (5)

Pray Psalm 77.13-15.
Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary;
Who is so great a God as our God?
You are the God who does wonders;
You have declared Your strength among the peoples.
You have with Your arm redeemed Your people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph.

Read Isaiah 59.1-3.

Reflect.
1. It seemed to the people of Judah and Jerusalem that God had abandoned them. Why?

2. Why was God holding back from helping them in their time of trouble?

Meditate.
The people of Judah and Jerusalem had begun to think that God had abandoned them. “Where is God when we need Him?” they must have cried often and loudly. “Can’t He do something to save us from the Babylonians?”

It’s not that He could not, but that He would not. God heard their groans, and He could easily have stretched out His hand against Nebuchadnezzar, as He had done against Pharaoh so many years before. But God would not save His people from their captivity. They had sinned against Him (v. 3), and as of Isaiah’s day, they had not confessed their sins and turned to the Lord again.

A brief moment of revival would ensue under Josiah, in the days after Isaiah’s ministry (cf. 2 Kgs. 22, 23), but it was a shallow season of turning to the Lord, and judgment followed shortly thereafter.

Sin separates us from God. How terrible is that? How terrible was it that Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, was separated from His Father, not because of His sins, but because of ours. We do not have to live in separation from God. We can see His face, we can know that He hears our prayers, we can experience His help in every season.

But not if we continue in sin before Him. Indeed, unconfessed sin in our hearts even cuts off our prayers from reaching the ears of our heavenly Father (Ps. 66.18). He simply “will not hear” us if we choose to continue in sin before Him (v. 2). Let us learn the lesson of Israel and Judah: To know the Lord’s Presence and favor, to dwell in His peace and love, we must keep short accounts where sin is concerned (1 Jn. 1.8-10).

Reflect.
1. How can we know when we might have sinned against the Lord?

2. What should we do when God convicts us of some sin? 

3. Meditate on Psalm 139.23, 24. Do you think it might be a good idea to pray this at least daily? Explain.

Let us consider our sins, and reviewing the secrets of our action and mind, let us weigh the merits of our conscience. Cyprian of Carthage (fl. 248-258 AD), The Lapsed 21

Show me my sins, Lord; and give me grace to confess, repent, and…

Pray Psalm 77.

Pray for repentance, for yourself and all God’s people, that His hand of blessing may soon return to the Church and the world.

Sing to the Lord.
Psalm 77 (Leoni: The God of Abraham Praise)
My voice to God shall rise; I seek Him on His throne. 
In days and nights of trouble I seek God alone! 
When I remember Him, then am I sore distressed! 
My spirit faints and longs to find in Him its rest.

I scarce a word can speak, so troubled is my soul; 
Yet I recall Your grace to Israel long ago. 
I sing Your praise by night; my heart will meditate; 
My spirit ponders all Your grace and wonders great.

O Lord, will You reject Your people without end? 
Has favor ceased, are You no more our heav’nly Friend?
Your promise and Your love in anger are obscured; 
My sin has turned Your hand away, Your beauty blurred. 

Now let us call to mind Your deeds and wonders, Lord, 
And meditate on all Your works and praise Your Word. 
Full holy is Your way, great God of earth and heav’n, 
To You, O God of strength and pow’r all praise be giv’n! 

The waters and the deeps all tremble ‘neath Your hand. 
The clouds give forth, the sky resounds across the land. 
Your lightning flashes forth and lights the earth around; 
We feel beneath our feet the trembling of the ground. 

Your way leads through the sea; Your path the waters parts. 
Your footprints are to us deep mysteries in our hearts. 
As then by Moses’ hand and Aaron’s law-filled voice, 
You led Your sheep, lead us that we may all rejoice!

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are fromThe Ailbe Psalter (available byclicking here).

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

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