Wide Awake…Again Part 2

Hmm, then there was the whole vengeance thing that popped into my head with the whole “‘D’” is for dangerous” thoughts that I had during my sleepless night. (You’ve got to read the previous entry for this to make any sense at all.) But as I thought about what it means for God to be a dangerous God, I knew that his danger was directed at anything that separated his people from him. Sin does that and the enemy does that and life on earth does that so the dangerous God would unleash his anger and vengeance against anything that messes with his children.

I know and I cannot emphasize enough here that when I am talking about the vengeance of the LORD, I know that I do not “struggle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

But I really need God to make the wrong things right. To exercise his justice against the enemy. Justice for the poor, abused, aborted, poor, wounded, and on and on. Justice is a major of the theme of God’s heart. And a prevalent theme in scripture. That would make an interesting word study.

I’ve digressed again.

This morning I went to look up vengeance in response to my sleepless alphabetizing, and I found Isaiah 35 again. It is written out here in whole, because I am praying that it will minister to you the way that it has touched my heart this morning.

Be blessed today! God is for you…who can be against you in the face of a dangerous God.

Isaiah 35
1 The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus
2 It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon
They will see the glory of the LORD,
The majesty of our God.
3 Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
4 Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not
Behold, your God will come with (J)vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the Arabah.
7 The scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
8 A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
9 No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
These will not be found there
But the redeemed will walk there,
10 And the ransomed of the LORD will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads
They will find gladness and joy,
And (Z)sorrow and sighing will flee away.