Thus says the LORD your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you in the way you should go:
“If only you had paid attention (hearkened) to My commandments!
“Then your wellbeing (shalom) would have been like a river
[constant, flowing, life giving]
“Your righteousness like the waves of the sea
[constant, rolling, unceasing, unstoppable, powerful, rhythmic, beautiful, surfable]
“Your seed [masculine] would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your inward parts [feminine] like its grains.
“Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from
“My presence.” Isaiah 48:17-19
~~~
To hear, be attentive, heed, incline the ears, listen.
Not just hearing. Really hearing. Take to heart. Internalize. Be changed. Change my thinking. Change my attitude. Change my behavior.
“Has the LORD as great of delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
Hearken. Not only has the word fallen into disuse, so has the practice. My inclination is toward amusement, which literally means to “stop thinking” (“a” to nullify + “muse” to think or dwell upon). Succumbing to our media crazed age will cripple my attention giving. Frenetic activity will distract me from God’s voice. To hearken is first to stop. To slow down. To start with quietness, attentiveness to God’s voice, in scripture, by His Spirit, however He would choose to speak. And then to respond with quiet, willing, humble, persistent obedience. To hearken is a skill set for me to acquire and cultivate.
To what would God have me hearken? His commandments.
The result:
Wellbeing. The Hebrew is “shalom.”
Peace, but so much more. Completeness. Soundness. Safety. Health. Prosperity. Quiet. Tranquility. Contentment. Friendship, with human relationships, and with God, especially in covenant relationship.
This shalom would be as a river, a stream. Including underground streams. Peace regardless, in spite of, circumstances. An abiding, internal peace.
Righteousness. Rightness.
Justice. Rightness of government, of a judge, ruler or king. Rightness of law. Rightness in a case or cause. Rightness in ethics. Vindication. Justification. Salvation. Righteous acts. Correctness.
Wrongness set right, corrected, made the way it should be.
Like the waves of the sea. Traveling thousands of miles. In a pattern. With huge energy. Delivering a washing, cleansing power, or even a crushing blow.
Seed like the sand. Heritage. Legacy. Descendants not merely enduring, but enjoying God’s presence.
Why would I not hearken to God’s commands? Perhaps the delusion, the deception, that I supposedly know how to achieve my own welfare better than God.
Or the cosmic error that God does not want my welfare, but that He is like some malcontent school marm looking for every chance to jump me with an angry scourging. Israel was mistaken in just this way. Out of Egypt, in the wilderness, their confession was that it was because “the LORD hates us” that He has brought them into the wilderness to die. They thought leeks, onions, slavery and oppression were better. They could not appreciate that the wilderness they were in was God’s very highway to blessing.
Obedience sounds oppressive to me. The mere word sends me running for what I perceive to be freedom, independence and autonomy. But what does God promise me from obedience? Blessing.
The Isaiah passage above opens with a reminder that it is the LORD who teaches me to profit. He promises the result of hearkening is shalom, vindication, and a godly heritage. Jesus said those who hear His words, and do them, will be like a house built on the Rock, able to withstand storms and tumult. Where is the oppression in all of that?
Hearken. Boundless blessings await.
LORD, make my ear sensitive to Your voice. May I earnestly attend to Your every whisper.
~~~