Isaiah 50:1-11 The Comfort of One Who Has Been There
Recap
Last week we were in Isaiah 49, and we saw Israel voice her despair, that the she had been forsaken by the LORD and forgotten. This has been her mantra from the beginning and God will continue to grapple with her over this. He began by giving her three verbal reassurances: He has not forgotten her personally, or her children, or her oppressors. We talked about the fine line between despair and self-pity. A person might despair so long as there is no hope, but once hope is given, there should be no cause for despair. We talked about some reasons why a despairing person might refuse comfort when hope was given. One reason was because sin was the cause of their oppression, and they refused to change their ways, preferring, instead, to sink into self-pity as a way of comforting themselves. (Self-pity is a false comfort.) The other reason was because they didn't feel that the comforter was qualified to give comfort because they hadn't "been there." They didn't know what it was like to struggle this way. They couldn’t identify.
Today, in Isaiah 50, God and the Servant together will address both of these reasons. They are systematically tearing down Israel’s reasons for despair. God is also going to return to the doubt Israel expressed in the previous chapter over His ability to redeem her. There, she made this statement:
God answered the first part of that statement in the last chapter. Babylonia might be mighty, but He is stronger. Strength is not the issue. Today, He is going to pick up on the second half of that question in the opening verses of Isaiah 50.
Isaiah 50:1-3
The chapter opens with God's frustrated reply. Where are the divorce papers? To whom have I sold you? Both questions have to do with transactions made according to the Law that make a person's return difficult, if not impossible. One is divorce, and the other is being sold to creditors as a slave. Both are very poignant experiences of being forsaken, and in a very binding way, yet the LORD points out that these reasons for despair are groundless in Israel’s case.
First, the LORD brings up the issue of their mother's divorce. According to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, if a man divorces a wife and she marries another, she can never return to the first husband. The LORD had brought a charge against Israel, that she had been unfaithful and married herself to other husbands (idols), and that is why He sent her away into exile. But He points out that no divorce papers were ever filed. There is no reason on His end for her not to return to Him.
The LORD then brings up the issue of being sold to creditors. This is in response to the doubt Israel had previously expressed in Isaiah 49:24, when she questioned if the captives of "the righteous" could be delivered. "The righteous" does not mean the godly. Babylonia is anything but godly. This kind of "righteousness" is in the legal sense of having a right or just claim to something or someone under the law. When a woman is sold away to creditors to pay a debt, her children are sold into slavery with her and must be purchased back at a price. This might describe Israel's condition, but the LORD declares that He did not sell her to Babylonia in such a way that Babylonia has any justifiable claim to her and her children. In fact, He did not sell her away at all. She did this to herself. She was the one who ran away from Him and pursued her pleasures by serving idols. And yes, He was angry, but the relationship is far from over. He still loves her. He sees that she is suffering horrifically as the result of her unfaithfulness, and He is moved to pity for her. He is willing to redeem the relationship, but when He tries to comfort her and bring her back to Him, she refuses to respond when He reaches out to her. He asks two more questions,
Divorce is something that has touched almost all of our lives, and whether we have gone through it ourselves or witnessed the struggle of a relative or friend, we might understand the wife's withdrawal from the husband here, even though she was at fault (as in Israel's case).
Being forsaken engages feelings of abandonment. Some of us might have experienced abandonment personally or have grappled with another person or a child suffering from it. This is often the experience of adopted and foster children. My own mother struggled with this all her life. Abandonment strikes at the very heart of a person’s perception of self-worth and can twist their view of themselves. The abandonment may not have been the person’s fault, but all the stumbling blocks of fear, despair, shame, anger, and withdrawal can get wrapped up into that skewed perception of themselves to the point where they refuse comfort, even from a loving family.
On the other hand, the child might follow the prodigal son’s model, which is what Israel is modeling. They might have chosen to cut themselves off from the parents to pursue their own desires, and when their circumstances become desperate, they might still refuse to come home, even though grace is extended.
Perhaps she will listen to another person who has suffered the way she is suffering. This is where the role of an intercessor becomes vital. Now, the Servant inserts Himself into this frustrated dialogue between God and His people to intercede as much on God’s behalf as Israel’s.
Isaiah 50:4-9
The speaker speaks of Himself only as "Me” but we know that "Me" is Christ speaking. He explains how He Himself has suffered like Israel has suffered and is qualified to comfort her because He has been there. He begins with a statement about His qualifications. He has been given the tongue of the learned (50:4), meaning He can speak from experience, and for the purpose of comforting someone "in due season." I like that phrase, "due season." It means an appropriate moment somewhere down the road. You may not know at the time of your personal trial how exactly the LORD is going to use that experience, so you just have to bank that lesson in your "experience" bank. But that means you have to be looking for the lesson in that experience, even as you go through it.
As the Servant points out, you have to use your ears first. Before you speak to someone else's experience, you have to listen to what God is teaching you in your own experience. Unlike Israel, the Servant does not turn a deaf ear to what God is teaching Him but listens wisely when God sends Him into a trial. And He goes willingly into that trial, without being rebellious and turning away from the hard thing God is requiring Him (50:5).
Verse 6 details the abuse He received, which was not unlike the abuse Israel suffered--being beaten, hair pulled out, shamed, and spit upon. His words on the cross are even an echo of hers (“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46), but He submitted to that ordeal because He knew God had a reason for sending Him into this trial. There was a purpose for it, and God would help Him. Therefore, He determined to go through it and learn what the LORD’s purpose was. The shame and disgrace that the world heaped on Him didn't matter because He would not stand ashamed before God. Is there comfort in knowing that there is only one Person in the universe to whom you have to look for your worth and validation and the Servant has already paved the way for His approval?
Verses 7-9 are bookended by that conviction, “Surely the LORD God will help me!” The Servant’s response to His abusers is defiant. Who will condemn Him if God doesn’t? The world? What is the world but moth-eaten garment? The world is worthless. It’s opinion is worthless.
So, the Servant comes alongside Israel, He identifies with her, and then gives her some instruction on how to overcome the mental battle of despair and fear of abandonment. Just because Israel is going through a trial does not mean that God has forsaken her. It means He has a lesson for her that she needs to learn! When the world heaps abuse on her, God sees the abuse. He will deal with those who contend with her. If God stood by the Servant, will God not stand by His children as well? This is the faith challenge that the Servant is modeling for Israel. These are His words that Israel needs to internalize for herself:
The Servant’s words are really an argument for personal worth—how the Servant sees His own worth and on what that worth is based. Self-worth is something with which an abandoned person grapples. That abandonment makes them feel like they are unworthy and undesirable, but that is the world’s evaluation of them. It is a lie that they come to believe. Getting them to divorce themselves from the world’s evaluation of them and convincing them of their worth in God’s eyes is the greatest part of the battle.
God could not convince Israel that she was not forsaken, but an intercessor might because He has been there. Perhaps we have been there. If we have, the Servant's words might serve as a model for comforting our own struggling person.
This passage puts to rest the second reason for Israel to refuse comfort. She cannot say that her Comforter doesn’t know what it is like. He is her Counselor, but will she listen to Him?
Isaiah 50:10-11
A third-party observer now issues a challenge. There is a choice to be made. Who fears God and will obey the words of the Servant and who wants to seek comfort their own way?
The Servant has been tasked with shedding light on Israel’s darkness. He has been sent into this horrific trial specifically to identify with her and offer her comfort. He is qualified to give her that comfort. He has modeled how to deal with despair and respond to oppressors. The observer says, Let the despairing person follow the Servant's example in trusting the LORD.
Having described those who walk by the Servant’s light, the narrator then addresses people who seek a light and comfort of their own making—they kindle their own fire and encircle themselves with sparks.
How much comfort does a kindled fire give? A little.
How much light does a spark offer to guide a person through the darkness? Even less.
This analogy takes us back to the opening theme in Isaiah 40:6-8. God's instruction began with the statement that all flesh is like the grass, but the Word of the LORD endures forever. He set up a comparison between the sufficiency of God and His provision to that which is fleeting, unsustainable, and dies quickly—like a spark. God says to Israel, I have reassured you and given you light and comfort through an intercessor who identifies with you personally. He has been through the trials Himself, and He can speak words of wisdom to your situation. But if you refuse His help, this is what you get: fear, despair, and torment.
God's Highway Project: Tackling Despair, Part 2
God began addressing Israel's despair in Isaiah 49 with promises, but promises only take us so far. Sometimes we need an actual, tangible comforter who can speak to our struggles from first-hand experience. But we are faced with the same decision of where to seek comfort and instruction: from the words of our Savior and the people He has uniquely equipped to help us, or from our own self-pitying effort to find our own way to cope?
The role of the intercessor is highlighted in this passage. While we understand “Me” is Christ in the big picture, when we read this in the first person, it is hard not to envision “Me” as ourselves in this role. God sends me into trials for the purpose of helping others in those same trials. So how do we model Christ in this passage? Change the “Me” to “I” in the following questions.
Part of avoiding the pitfall of self-pity is to turn your focus outward to others. I think the Servant’s model challenges us to take a higher view of our circumstances in light of what God is trying to accomplish in us. Sending us into trials is needed not just for our refining but for our equipping as well. The words of the Servant were meant for our enlightenment, and we are called to model Him as an expression of God’s love to others, to bring them out of their darkness in which they suffer from torment, fear, and despair. But we can’t do that unless we have been there first.
2 Corinthians 4:6-10 NKJV “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”
And again, in regard to following Christ's model, Paul writes:
Romans 15:3-5 NKJV “For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.’ For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus.”
The Balance of Power and Love
2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
This was our key verse from Part 1, but it extends into Part 2. Chapters 40-48 focused heavily on the power aspect of God’s comfort. Chapters 49-57 will develop the picture of His love. We should note that the Servant’s work is housed within this theme of God’s love and not His power. That is significant to our understanding of His purpose.
Love is meant to relieve the stumbling stone of despair but also the underlying fear that is part of it. God’s love, embodied in the Servant’s experience, was first and foremost meant to relieve the fear of being abandoned because of His judgment, but also from the torment that fear produces. As it was with Israel, so it is with us. John wrote in his first letter:
1 John 4:17-18 NKJV “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
God does not abandon us permanently because of sin and faithlessness, though sin may separate us from Him for a time. There are no divorce papers. There are no creditors to satisfy. The debt has been paid in full. And yet, despite all His assurances, the fear that our separation can become permanent can keep us from experiencing His love and being comforted. In this we can be very much like Israel.
God ends this chapter with a warning to those who willfully reject His comfort. In the next chapter He will address the faithful who are willing to accept the comfort but still struggle with fear.
Last week we were in Isaiah 49, and we saw Israel voice her despair, that the she had been forsaken by the LORD and forgotten. This has been her mantra from the beginning and God will continue to grapple with her over this. He began by giving her three verbal reassurances: He has not forgotten her personally, or her children, or her oppressors. We talked about the fine line between despair and self-pity. A person might despair so long as there is no hope, but once hope is given, there should be no cause for despair. We talked about some reasons why a despairing person might refuse comfort when hope was given. One reason was because sin was the cause of their oppression, and they refused to change their ways, preferring, instead, to sink into self-pity as a way of comforting themselves. (Self-pity is a false comfort.) The other reason was because they didn't feel that the comforter was qualified to give comfort because they hadn't "been there." They didn't know what it was like to struggle this way. They couldn’t identify.
Today, in Isaiah 50, God and the Servant together will address both of these reasons. They are systematically tearing down Israel’s reasons for despair. God is also going to return to the doubt Israel expressed in the previous chapter over His ability to redeem her. There, she made this statement:
“Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the righteous be delivered?” (Isaiah 49:24 NKJV)
God answered the first part of that statement in the last chapter. Babylonia might be mighty, but He is stronger. Strength is not the issue. Today, He is going to pick up on the second half of that question in the opening verses of Isaiah 50.
Isaiah 50:1-3
The chapter opens with God's frustrated reply. Where are the divorce papers? To whom have I sold you? Both questions have to do with transactions made according to the Law that make a person's return difficult, if not impossible. One is divorce, and the other is being sold to creditors as a slave. Both are very poignant experiences of being forsaken, and in a very binding way, yet the LORD points out that these reasons for despair are groundless in Israel’s case.
First, the LORD brings up the issue of their mother's divorce. According to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, if a man divorces a wife and she marries another, she can never return to the first husband. The LORD had brought a charge against Israel, that she had been unfaithful and married herself to other husbands (idols), and that is why He sent her away into exile. But He points out that no divorce papers were ever filed. There is no reason on His end for her not to return to Him.
The LORD then brings up the issue of being sold to creditors. This is in response to the doubt Israel had previously expressed in Isaiah 49:24, when she questioned if the captives of "the righteous" could be delivered. "The righteous" does not mean the godly. Babylonia is anything but godly. This kind of "righteousness" is in the legal sense of having a right or just claim to something or someone under the law. When a woman is sold away to creditors to pay a debt, her children are sold into slavery with her and must be purchased back at a price. This might describe Israel's condition, but the LORD declares that He did not sell her to Babylonia in such a way that Babylonia has any justifiable claim to her and her children. In fact, He did not sell her away at all. She did this to herself. She was the one who ran away from Him and pursued her pleasures by serving idols. And yes, He was angry, but the relationship is far from over. He still loves her. He sees that she is suffering horrifically as the result of her unfaithfulness, and He is moved to pity for her. He is willing to redeem the relationship, but when He tries to comfort her and bring her back to Him, she refuses to respond when He reaches out to her. He asks two more questions,
“Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer?” (Isaiah 50:2 NKJV) In other words, “When I came, no one was there. When I called, no one answered.”
This is God's frustration. He can dry up the sea and make the rivers a wilderness, He can move heaven and earth, but He cannot reach her heart. She won't open the door to Him. She won't answer the phone. She is completely unresponsive to Him.
Divorce is something that has touched almost all of our lives, and whether we have gone through it ourselves or witnessed the struggle of a relative or friend, we might understand the wife's withdrawal from the husband here, even though she was at fault (as in Israel's case).
Q: Why would she not want to come back or be comforted by her husband?
Being forsaken engages feelings of abandonment. Some of us might have experienced abandonment personally or have grappled with another person or a child suffering from it. This is often the experience of adopted and foster children. My own mother struggled with this all her life. Abandonment strikes at the very heart of a person’s perception of self-worth and can twist their view of themselves. The abandonment may not have been the person’s fault, but all the stumbling blocks of fear, despair, shame, anger, and withdrawal can get wrapped up into that skewed perception of themselves to the point where they refuse comfort, even from a loving family.
Q: Have you ever tried to comfort someone suffering from abandonment issues? If so, what does it take to release a person from that torment?
On the other hand, the child might follow the prodigal son’s model, which is what Israel is modeling. They might have chosen to cut themselves off from the parents to pursue their own desires, and when their circumstances become desperate, they might still refuse to come home, even though grace is extended.
Q: Why would they do that? Why would they not accept the grace extended to them?
Q: How else can God (the Husband/Father) reach Israel (the unresponsive wife/child)? If she won’t listen to Him, who will intercede for Him?
Perhaps she will listen to another person who has suffered the way she is suffering. This is where the role of an intercessor becomes vital. Now, the Servant inserts Himself into this frustrated dialogue between God and His people to intercede as much on God’s behalf as Israel’s.
Isaiah 50:4-9
The speaker speaks of Himself only as "Me” but we know that "Me" is Christ speaking. He explains how He Himself has suffered like Israel has suffered and is qualified to comfort her because He has been there. He begins with a statement about His qualifications. He has been given the tongue of the learned (50:4), meaning He can speak from experience, and for the purpose of comforting someone "in due season." I like that phrase, "due season." It means an appropriate moment somewhere down the road. You may not know at the time of your personal trial how exactly the LORD is going to use that experience, so you just have to bank that lesson in your "experience" bank. But that means you have to be looking for the lesson in that experience, even as you go through it.
As the Servant points out, you have to use your ears first. Before you speak to someone else's experience, you have to listen to what God is teaching you in your own experience. Unlike Israel, the Servant does not turn a deaf ear to what God is teaching Him but listens wisely when God sends Him into a trial. And He goes willingly into that trial, without being rebellious and turning away from the hard thing God is requiring Him (50:5).
Verse 6 details the abuse He received, which was not unlike the abuse Israel suffered--being beaten, hair pulled out, shamed, and spit upon. His words on the cross are even an echo of hers (“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46), but He submitted to that ordeal because He knew God had a reason for sending Him into this trial. There was a purpose for it, and God would help Him. Therefore, He determined to go through it and learn what the LORD’s purpose was. The shame and disgrace that the world heaped on Him didn't matter because He would not stand ashamed before God. Is there comfort in knowing that there is only one Person in the universe to whom you have to look for your worth and validation and the Servant has already paved the way for His approval?
Verses 7-9 are bookended by that conviction, “Surely the LORD God will help me!” The Servant’s response to His abusers is defiant. Who will condemn Him if God doesn’t? The world? What is the world but moth-eaten garment? The world is worthless. It’s opinion is worthless.
So, the Servant comes alongside Israel, He identifies with her, and then gives her some instruction on how to overcome the mental battle of despair and fear of abandonment. Just because Israel is going through a trial does not mean that God has forsaken her. It means He has a lesson for her that she needs to learn! When the world heaps abuse on her, God sees the abuse. He will deal with those who contend with her. If God stood by the Servant, will God not stand by His children as well? This is the faith challenge that the Servant is modeling for Israel. These are His words that Israel needs to internalize for herself:
“It does not matter what the world thinks of me or does to me. They are the ones who are worthless. They are like moth-eaten garments. The LORD will help me, I will not be ashamed. The LORD will help me. Who will contend with me? If God does not condemn me, then who can?”
Q: Imagine yourself as having been abandoned by someone in life. Do these words help overcome that feeling of abandonment, fear, and despair? If so, how?
The Servant’s words are really an argument for personal worth—how the Servant sees His own worth and on what that worth is based. Self-worth is something with which an abandoned person grapples. That abandonment makes them feel like they are unworthy and undesirable, but that is the world’s evaluation of them. It is a lie that they come to believe. Getting them to divorce themselves from the world’s evaluation of them and convincing them of their worth in God’s eyes is the greatest part of the battle.
God could not convince Israel that she was not forsaken, but an intercessor might because He has been there. Perhaps we have been there. If we have, the Servant's words might serve as a model for comforting our own struggling person.
Q: How can we take the words of the Servant and make them our own when comforting someone who feels forsaken in life?
This passage puts to rest the second reason for Israel to refuse comfort. She cannot say that her Comforter doesn’t know what it is like. He is her Counselor, but will she listen to Him?
Isaiah 50:10-11
A third-party observer now issues a challenge. There is a choice to be made. Who fears God and will obey the words of the Servant and who wants to seek comfort their own way?
The Servant has been tasked with shedding light on Israel’s darkness. He has been sent into this horrific trial specifically to identify with her and offer her comfort. He is qualified to give her that comfort. He has modeled how to deal with despair and respond to oppressors. The observer says, Let the despairing person follow the Servant's example in trusting the LORD.
Having described those who walk by the Servant’s light, the narrator then addresses people who seek a light and comfort of their own making—they kindle their own fire and encircle themselves with sparks.
How much comfort does a kindled fire give? A little.
How much light does a spark offer to guide a person through the darkness? Even less.
This analogy takes us back to the opening theme in Isaiah 40:6-8. God's instruction began with the statement that all flesh is like the grass, but the Word of the LORD endures forever. He set up a comparison between the sufficiency of God and His provision to that which is fleeting, unsustainable, and dies quickly—like a spark. God says to Israel, I have reassured you and given you light and comfort through an intercessor who identifies with you personally. He has been through the trials Himself, and He can speak words of wisdom to your situation. But if you refuse His help, this is what you get: fear, despair, and torment.
God's Highway Project: Tackling Despair, Part 2
God began addressing Israel's despair in Isaiah 49 with promises, but promises only take us so far. Sometimes we need an actual, tangible comforter who can speak to our struggles from first-hand experience. But we are faced with the same decision of where to seek comfort and instruction: from the words of our Savior and the people He has uniquely equipped to help us, or from our own self-pitying effort to find our own way to cope?
The role of the intercessor is highlighted in this passage. While we understand “Me” is Christ in the big picture, when we read this in the first person, it is hard not to envision “Me” as ourselves in this role. God sends me into trials for the purpose of helping others in those same trials. So how do we model Christ in this passage? Change the “Me” to “I” in the following questions.
Q: Have I endured suffering in life that has made me uniquely able to comfort others, offer timely words, or serve as a role model?
Q: Did I enter into that suffering willingly?
Q: How did I respond to being unjustly wronged?
Q: To whom did I look for my justification and validation?
When we look back on the Servant's experience, we see that the LORD had a purpose for putting Him through that trial.
Q: How does that change our perspective of going through trials? (Can there be a reason why bad things happen to good people?)
Q: Is there any comfort in the knowledge that God might use our experience to help another person?
Q: Is there any comfort in the knowledge that God might use our experience to help another person?
Part of avoiding the pitfall of self-pity is to turn your focus outward to others. I think the Servant’s model challenges us to take a higher view of our circumstances in light of what God is trying to accomplish in us. Sending us into trials is needed not just for our refining but for our equipping as well. The words of the Servant were meant for our enlightenment, and we are called to model Him as an expression of God’s love to others, to bring them out of their darkness in which they suffer from torment, fear, and despair. But we can’t do that unless we have been there first.
Paul explains:
2 Corinthians 4:6-10 NKJV “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”
And again, in regard to following Christ's model, Paul writes:
Romans 15:3-5 NKJV “For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.’ For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus.”
In the context of Paul's letter to the Romans, this principle is applied specifically to those of weak conscience, but I think the principle can be applied generally to bearing one another's burdens.
The Balance of Power and Love
Fear has been the chief stumbling block we have been discussing overall so far, and in Part 1, God tackled that with a grand display of muscle—His sovereignty and power. But now despair and self-pity have entered the picture, and He changes His tone to an outpouring of love. Power and love by themselves cannot conquer the fear. It takes a balance of both paired with a sound mind, as the apostle Paul says:
2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
This was our key verse from Part 1, but it extends into Part 2. Chapters 40-48 focused heavily on the power aspect of God’s comfort. Chapters 49-57 will develop the picture of His love. We should note that the Servant’s work is housed within this theme of God’s love and not His power. That is significant to our understanding of His purpose.
Love is meant to relieve the stumbling stone of despair but also the underlying fear that is part of it. God’s love, embodied in the Servant’s experience, was first and foremost meant to relieve the fear of being abandoned because of His judgment, but also from the torment that fear produces. As it was with Israel, so it is with us. John wrote in his first letter:
1 John 4:17-18 NKJV “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
God does not abandon us permanently because of sin and faithlessness, though sin may separate us from Him for a time. There are no divorce papers. There are no creditors to satisfy. The debt has been paid in full. And yet, despite all His assurances, the fear that our separation can become permanent can keep us from experiencing His love and being comforted. In this we can be very much like Israel.
God ends this chapter with a warning to those who willfully reject His comfort. In the next chapter He will address the faithful who are willing to accept the comfort but still struggle with fear.
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