*Note: Check out our Holy Week Playlist on Spotify (linked here) as you read and reflect on the following. Today’s songs are Rescue by Lauren Daigle and God Will Heal Our Wounds by Communal Hymn.*
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 56: 1-8
The idea that stuck out to me the most in this scripture was the idea of hope of justice. God is justice. God is coming to rescue us. But what about right now?
As I write this, my heart is heavy. God, I love you, but where is your righteousness? This set of scripture is titled “Blessings for All Nations” but I have a hard time believing that right now. How can all nations be blessed when people are being killed because of their ethnicity? Where someone of one skin color is taken into police custody alive when someone of a darker skin color would have likely been killed?
God is for everyone. Whoever commits themselves to God, regardless of who they are or where they from, is saved. It did not matter where they were from. In the New Testament, Jesus welcomes all, Gentile and Jew. How do I reconcile that when earthly humans murder someone because of who they are?
God says to be just and fair and do what is right and good. I think it is alright to question this. To question this when bad things that are not just or fair or right or good happen. Still in my questioning, I turn to God with my heavy heart.
I do my part by praying but also call to action. I pray to God to guide leaders to make change. I pray for God to extend his righteousness upon the justice system. I can do what is good and just in the meantime as God does his work.
As I turn my mind to Holy Week, I think it’s a good symbol for what is to come. We know that Jesus is resurrected after he dies on the cross. But there was a period of waiting. A period of darkness. In my mind, I turn to God for hope and justice even now in a period of waiting. We have the hope of Jesus resurrected and there is hope of good to come.
I’m using this time to grieve with God and wait for His righteousness to come. The God of all nations and all people to restore His right to the world.
Reflection Questions:
- How do you help invite everyone, people from all backgrounds and nations, into the kingdom of God?
- What do you do in the waiting for God’s righteousness to be enacted? How do you help follow His laws of being just and fair to all in this waiting?
- What does God coming to rescue us look like right now? What are ways God is rescuing us right now? Is He moving through anyone in your life or community?
Written by Allie Scheu