As the years pass, I realize more and more my own personal helplessness to chart a course for my future. There was a time I thought my life journey would cease to be one of change and reach a plateau of stability. However, after observing the lives of others, and six decades of personal experience, I understand life is in a constant state of change. There are some predictable passages. We pass from infancy to childhood, childhood to adolescence, adolescence to young adult, from young adult to middle age, from middle age to senior years. Yet none of us can predict what happens during those years or whether we will make it from one passage to the next. In every passage there are some easy choices. At other times, decisions are more difficult. The future is more uncertain and unsettling.
Some years ago, I found myself crossing between two of those passages. With pen in hand, I wrote a poem/prayer. It represents a dialogue with God, where I was asking questions and God was whispering answers. There were things I couldn’t know, and I was struggling to trust God with my future. I’m sure you are also struggling. I will include the poem at the end of this message. The commitment I was able to make is based on a commitment God makes to guide the life of His people.
I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them, I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone. Isaiah 42:16
This is one of the most remarkable promises in the Bible. It is precious to those of us who have known it and needed it at various points in our lives. I want to break it down and look at it phrase by phrase in an effort to discover the true riches of this promise that God has made us.
The Basis of This Promise Rests on God Himself.
This promise doesn’t depend at all on the one who claims it but altogether on the One who has made it. No less than five times in this verse, God affirms His determination to fulfill this promise. I will lead the blind. I will guide them. I will make darkness into light. I will do it. I will not leave them undone.
There are other promises that are conditioned upon our obedience. However, this promise rests entirely on the grace of God. He shoulders the complete responsibility of bringing it to pass. As I understand God’s work of salvation, that too is His work. A work he begins, He will continue to perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. We are, after all His workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). The Greek word translated workmanship is poiema. It is the word from which we get our English word poem.
This is a Promise Made to the Helpless.
The people to whom this promise is made suffer from a compounded helplessness. It is absolute and utter. He calls them “the blind”. We might say that this is spiritual blindness, but it is also physical blindness. It is the blindness faced by a person who is confronted by one of the passages of life or by some major life decision. It is a blindness compounded by that which is unfamiliar. A person who is physically blind can navigate in familiar territory. But in new and unfamiliar territory it represents an almost impossible challenge.
In the journey of life, it doesn’t represent spiritual weakness to say I don’t know which way to turn. It is an acknowledgement of the truth that I face because of who I am and the limits of human knowledge. I am blind to the future. That is true whether that future is near or distant. I don’t know what is around the corner of my life. Walking by faith, is so some degree walking blind. It is not something we accomplish using the best of our human senses. It is admitting our absolute and utter dependence on God.
First, this is a promise that rests on God Himself. Second, it is a promise made to the helpless. Not only so,
This is the Promise of God’s Leadership.
The question in my mind, more often than not, is: “How will I get from where I am to where God wants me to be.” The more I ask that question, the more I begin to look down the familiar roads of God’s leadership. I begin to think, “Well this is how God worked before. Perhaps this is the way God will work again.” Therefore, I begin to look for God’s activity in ways I have known in the past—ways with which I am comfortable. I suppose I think I can navigate those roads on my own because I have traveled those roads before.
But that is not the promise of God in this verse. Here, He promises to lead by a way that is new to us. Not only is it new to us, it is completely unknown to us. This is how God teaches us to depend on Him. Rather than leaning on our own understanding, we must look to God and wait on God. In my own experience, more often than not, God’s leadership comes in a way that is unexpected. It takes us by surprise. Moses didn’t expect to meet God at the burning bush. Apparently, Isaiah was surprised to meet Him in the temple. God knows where we are. He knows how we think and how we pray. Jesus saw Nathaniel under the fig tree before his brother approached him about introducing him to Jesus. Nathaniel didn’t plan his meeting with Jesus. Jesus arranged it for him.
How will you get from where you are to where God wants you to be? You have God’s promise that He will lead you. And when you have God’s promise, that is all you need. You don’t need a road map, all you need is Him!
First, this is a promise that rests on God Himself. Second, it is a promise made to the helpless. Third, it is the promise of God’s leadership. Fourth,
It Includes the Promise of God’s Presence
A leader may only point the way. A guide is someone who walks with you in the way. God affirmed the promise of His presence to Jacob in Genesis 28:15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
A leader points you in the right direction and leaves you to go there on your own. A guide insures that you make it there safely by placing on Himself the responsibility for your journey. How will you make it from where you are to where God wants you to be? Wait on Him and His leadership. Don’t worry or fret when you don’t know the way. You don’t have to. Your God is your guide, and He will not leave you until He has done what He promised you.
First, this is a promise that rests on God Himself. Second, it is a promise made to the helpless. Third, it is the promise of God’s leadership. Fourth, it includes the promise of God’s presence. Fifth,
God Accepts Full Responsibility for the Risks Involved in Following Him.
There will be dark places, and there will be rugged places. During those times it is not up to you to provide light in the dark or to make the rugged smooth. Your responsibility is simply to keep walking when the way is dark and to keep trusting when the way is rough.
God will be your guide in the darkness of difficulty. As you depend on Him, He will make a way where there seems to be no way. There will be times when you, like David, will say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night.” But you will find as He did, that… Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the light is as bright as the day.” Psalm 139:11-12
The Father’s charge to His Son is found in Isaiah 42: “I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.” Isaiah 42:6-7
He will also hold you by the hand and bring you out of the darkness into the light of His presence. First, this is a promise that rests on God Himself. Second, it is a promise made to the helpless. Third, it is the promise of God’s leadership. Fourth, it includes the promise of God’s presence. Fifth, God accepts full responsibility for the risks involved in following Him. Finally,
God Reaffirms His Promise.
“These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone.” That doesn’t mean there will never be times of uncertainty. In fact, at every passage of life there is uncertainty. You won’t know which way to turn and you won’t see or sense God’s guidance. You will be lost in the darkness of your own discouragement and unable to find your way. God will always bring you to the end of yourself before He brings you to an understanding of His will. In your blindness and in your darkness, He will shine the light of His presence!
I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them, I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone. Isaiah 42:16
Troubled Waters
The Holy Spirit stirs the waters
Deep within my soul.
God is calling to HIs servant,
And He doth require the whole.
What is this the Lord is saying?
How can I now know the way?
"Wait ye, wait ye at My Table,
And in stillness watch and pray."
O, but Lord, thoughts alarm
My sinful heart and clouded mind!
"Watch My child and walk behind Me,
Then thine eye the path will find."
Where in life will this path lead me,
Trembling now for loved ones dear?
"Pray My child, and walk behind Me,
I will make Thy future clear."
Looking t'ward that new horizon
With less days than those I've passed
What, O Lord, is my purpose
The Mission that shall be my last?
"If I will that you should be here
When the clouds My glory share,
I will always walk before you,
Where I am, you shall be there."
If that be a dark horizon
that forbids the slow of heart,
Give me grace to meet my trial,
For Thy glory do my part.
Waiting quietly at Thy table
for the portion called my own,
I am trusting as Thy servant,
O my Captain, lead me Home!
Eddie Davidson, October, 2005
Photo by Geran de Klerk
