GOD’S ANOTHER SIDE OF THE STORY

(A series in the book of Isaiah: Chapter 32)

What sin has given man is insecurity, chaos, and disorder.

What God has already laid in hand is peace, righteousness, and order.

Isaiah chapter 32 gives us a very beautiful picture of this plan of God. Isaiah 32:16-17,

16 The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert,

his righteousness live in the fertile field.

17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;

its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

God envisions a kingdom of righteousness. It is all goodness that will reign in God’s Kingdom. The condition of God’s chosen people has lost the idea of righteousness and they have all lived a life trusting in themselves. However, despite this condition, God untiringly promised and revealed His grand plan for His people. Verses 18-20 reveal this beautiful ending for all those who will choose God,

18My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,

in secure homes,

in undisturbed places of rest.

19 Though hail flattens the forest

and the city is leveled completely,

20 how blessed you will be,

sowing your seed by every stream,

and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

Another picture that Isaiah is drawing here is the personification of righteousness. Repeatedly Isaiah would refer to the coming Messiah as righteousness. The coming Savior and deliverer of God’s people also is righteousness. He will champion righteousness. Righteousness is who He is. Christ is righteousness.

Friends, we may have been born with evil all around us. But this is not the complete story of our world, of you and me. Your story is not supposed to be this kind of world. Your story is far better than what it is now. The world we are born with does not bear the complete picture of the Creator God. There is a much grander picture of life beyond all the pains and sufferings. We have a God who is LOVE. OUR GOD IS THE KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LOVE—Christ is He. In Him and through Him there is beyond this life we have. Christ will bring us to that kind of life God ultimately has for us from the very beginning—"My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.”

THIS IS GOD'S OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY, God promised that “The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.