CREDIT: PickPik.com
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Have you heard of taking a couple steps backward to move forward? It might seem like a defeat, but moving backwards helps us gain the perspective needed to move forward. For example, I got stuck in the snow a couple weeks ago. Trying to move forward just got me more stuck. But once I put the car in reverse, I could see a better path, gain momentum, and get unstuck.
Sometimes we hear God’s Word and wonder what He’s trying to tell us. It can seem like He wants us more stuck. For example, God says to His people, through Isaiah, “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:10) God’s people were stuck because they’d ignored His Word and gotten firmly stuck in their sin. And they kept plowing ahead hoping to unstick themselves.
To get unstuck, God’s people needed to realize they needed to listen to God first. They needed to hear the hard part of His Word called “the Law” – words we don’t like because it shows us our sin and the death it eventually brings. But if we finally realize we need to listen to God we’ll not only see our sin, but we’ll also see our Savior and what He does for us in the part of God’s Word called “the Gospel.”
Just three verses later, God promises a “stump remains … The holy seed is its stump.” (Isaiah 6:13) This holy seed points us to Jesus who will be born from the remains of God’s people. Those who pay attention to God’s Gospel will see their Savior, confess their sins, and receive God’s forgiveness and eternal life. This requires us to take a few steps backward, giving up some things that are getting us stuck. But if we listen, we’ll end up, not just two or three steps ahead, but in eternal life forever.
In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Jim