Isaiah 54:7 For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. 

I don’t usually write about the doctrinal texts, but today’s main passages left me uninspired. So here is a verse from Isaiah 54 which promises God’s mercy after a time of apparent abandonment. The people of God would be killed in large numbers, the Promised Land occupied by other nations, surviving Jews sent to exile in Babylon, but God would ultimately rescue the survivors and bring them home.

This is a key theme of the Old Testament. God would bless the people who would respond by… worshipping other gods. So God would withdraw protection and the people of God would get clobbered, only to be rescued and restored by God. This happened over and over again.

In the New Testament our Lord Jesus says something different. In Matthew 28 he tells his disciples to “remember I am with you ALWAYS to the end of the age” (my emphasis). In Jesus Christ we are no longer abandoned when we fall away from the Lord. We may miss out on many blessings by walking away, but we are never left to ourselves. Ever. That’s a good word brothers and sisters. In Christ we are NEVER alone.