{"id":622,"date":"2015-12-02T18:53:43","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T18:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/?p=622"},"modified":"2015-12-02T18:53:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T18:53:43","slug":"how-has-studying-isaiah-affected-my-own-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/?p=622","title":{"rendered":"How has Studying Isaiah affected my own faith?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the big idea in this connection for me.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 40\u201455 works in linear fashion and it simply declares that God\u2019s purpose is about to be fulfilled.\u00a0Isaiah 56\u201466 works chiastically: it goes round in circles. It is set the other side of the events that Isaiah 40\u201455 heralded and it knows that they had not brought the consummation of God\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 56\u201466 is prophecy for a time when nothing is happening, when all a prophet can do is reaffirm God\u2019s promises and reaffirm God\u2019s expectations and model the kind of prayer one prays in such a situation and equip the people of God for the long haul.<\/p>\n

The importance of its message has come home to me in our own context. Isaiah 1\u201439 promised the coming of a reign of peace and justice, and Isaiah 40\u201455 promised the consummation of God\u2019s purpose, and the New Testament declares that in Jesus God has fulfilled those promises.<\/p>\n

Seven hundred years passed from the time of Isaiah ben Amoz to the coming of Jesus. Three times as many years have passed since the coming of Jesus, and (as 2 Peter 3:4 puts it) things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. While a countless host all over the world has come into a relationship with God since Jesus\u2019 coming, and they will be the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, here in this world Jesus\u2019 coming has made little difference. As Jesus put it, wars and rumors of wars continue. Slavery on a vast scale continues. Poverty on a vast scale continues.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 56\u201466 was designed for a time like our time. It reminds us to hold onto God\u2019s promises, to re-commit ourselves to God\u2019s expectations, and not to give up on prayer like that of the woman in Jesus\u2019 parable who is making trouble with the unjust judge.<\/p>\n

John<\/p>\n

\"20151202_104823\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the big idea in this connection for me. Isaiah 40\u201455 works in linear fashion and it simply declares that God\u2019s purpose is about to be fulfilled.\u00a0Isaiah 56\u201466 works chiastically: it goes round in circles. It is set the other side of the events that Isaiah 40\u201455 heralded and it knows that they had not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,18,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isaiah","category-personal-faith","category-student-questions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5VlqB-a2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnandkathleenshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}