JANUARY 16, 2015
God’s
Refreshing Word
Read: Isaiah
55:8-11
My word . . . shall not return to Me void. —Isaiah 55:11
When I was a boy, our
family would occasionally travel across Nevada. We loved the desert
thunderstorms. Accompanied by lightning bolts and claps of thunder, huge sheets
of rain would blanket the hot sand as far as the eye could see. The cooling
water refreshed the earth—and us.
Water produces
marvelous changes in arid regions. For example, the pincushion cactus is
completely dormant during the dry season. But after the first summer rains,
cactuses burst into bloom, displaying delicate petals of pink, gold, and white.
Likewise, in the Holy
Land after a rainstorm, dry ground can seemingly sprout vegetation overnight.
Isaiah used rain’s renewal to illustrate God’s refreshing Word: “As the rain
comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the
earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and
bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall
not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:10-11).
scripture carries
spiritual vitality. That’s why it doesn’t return void. Wherever it encounters
an open heart, it brings refreshment, nourishment, and new life.
God’s Word is like refreshing rain
That waters crops and seed;
It brings new life to open hearts,
And meets us in our need. —Sper
The
Bible is to a thirsty soul what water is to a barren land.
Insight
We cannot know God
unless He reveals Himself to us. An attribute of God is a characteristic that
God has chosen to reveal about Himself through His Word. Incommunicable
attributes are those that belong to God alone (e.g., omniscience [all-knowing];
omnipotence [all-powerful]; omnipresence [present everywhere]; immutability
[unchangeable]; infinite [having no limits]; transcendence [beyond
comprehension]).
Communicable
attributes are those that human beings can also possess (e.g., compassion,
love, mercy, goodness). In Isaiah 55:8-9, God reveals that He is unlike any
other being and our finite minds can never fully understand Him (see Job
11:7-9; Ps. 131:1; Rom. 11:33). Throughout scripture we are told that there is
no one like God (see Ex. 15:11; Ps. 35:10; 89:6-8; Isa. 40:25).
Source:
Our Daily Bread 2012
