Isaiah 55:6–13
6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
(ESV)
A Squiggly Line
I had a college professor who used to depict the relationship between God and humans with a
thick, squiggly line drawn in Expo marker which he called “the Infinite Qualitative Distinction.”
In other words, that squiggle represented the chasm that exists between the ways and qualities of
a finite human being, versus the ways and qualities of an infinite, almighty, powerful God.
The squiggly line is on full display in Isaiah 55, summarized best by the prophet relaying
God’s own words in verse 8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways, declares the Lord.” God draws His own squiggly line to show us just how much we need
His ways, and not our own.
Now a quarter-century of the way through the new millennium, “our way” has left us in
quite a pickle: Our politics are a mess, depression and anxiety rates in young people are through
the roof, we’re addicted to all kinds of things that glow, and one can’t help but feel a creeping
sense of daily cynicism toward the world we are leaving for our children.
This is why we need God’s thoughts and God’s ways. We need what is on the other side
of the Infinite Qualitative Distinction. We need a God whose words “accomplish that which [He]
purposes.” We need something that is completely unlike us and yet we need that same
“something unlike us” to become someone like us.
This, of course, is the promise of Jesus. He is the God who traversed to the other side of
the squiggly line while maintaining His God-like distinctiveness. And it is He alone who can
create a world that “goes out in joy” and “leads forth in singing”—I think I like the results of that
way a lot better.
Ben Nussbaum