Wash Away

Isaiah 4:4-6  ⁴ The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. ⁵ Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. ⁶ It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain. 

One of the great joys of life is a shower in water at just the right temperature. It can ease sore muscles. It can remove the grit and grime of a hard day’s work. And here in Florida, it can wash the salt of sweat off your skin and bring relief from the heat. All this from running water.

We take these small things for granted sometimes. We flip the switch and the lights come on. We adjust the thermostat and it gets comfortable. We go to the door of the refrigerator and get ice and cold water without even opening the door. We click the mouse and the purchase is on its way to our house.

And then there are times when some of those conveniences are not there. Like when the hurricane knocks out the power because trees have taken down the power lines. Or the grocery store doesn’t have your favorite flavor chip or brand of toilet paper and your world comes crashing down! (The last one isn’t real. Just checking to see if you are paying attention!) Or like our present moment when most employment has shifted radically or ceased all together. Life’s routine gets interrupted.

The prophet Isaiah’s ministry takes place before Judah is sent into exile. It is the last ditch effort by the LORD to get His people to wake up and repent. He has wanted simple obedience and instead He has gotten pigheaded rebellion.

You might expect there to be a lot of “I told you so”‘s in Isaiah, and there are. But there are also many shining beacons of hope in the middle of their darkness. This is what we need in the middle of distress, the knowledge that the present circumstances won’t last forever, that they are time-limited.

So the LORD through Isaiah gives hope to those about to be cast into exile in Babylon. The first light of hope comes in the cleansing that will happen. You see the LORD’s people must be clean to enter into His presence. We call this process sanctification. It is the process the LORD uses to clean us up, sometimes very rapidly and sometimes over time. Some sins are removed immediately and some we have to repeatedly yield over time. But it is the LORD doing in our lives what we could never do.

And then we need the LORD’s presence to be seen and felt. We read the history of God’s intervention in the lives of His people in the Scriptures and then we experience His presence and purpose in our lives. The LORD didn’t just work in the past, He is working in the present as well.

The symbol of the LORD’s presence was the pillar of cloud by day and if fire by night. The visible symbol let the people know that the LORD was present. The LORD didn’t need the pillar, the people did. He was always present. But the people needed the reminder of His presence. They would forget.

So the LORD cleans us up, shows us His presence, and then he provides what we need each day. In our text He provided shelter. Think about it. Torn out of their homes and sent on a months long journey. What would they need more than a tent? One of the first things after water that refugees need is a tent, a makeshift place to hold off the cold and rain. Look at the pictures of refugee camps in the news. What do you see? Tents!

The LORD is a very practical God. He knows what we need and promises His people, right in the middle of the chaos of impending captivity, that He will bring them the essentials of life. He is faithful.

Now I hope that we return to a new normal again. I pray for renewed work and employment. I pray for safety and healing for those in the middle of the struggle.

But even more so I pray that in the middle of the struggle people would come face to face with the LORD. I pray this struggle would cause a humbling and yielding that would transform our world into one of greater surrender to Him.