At the beginning of Isaiah we see the vision that addresses a people who although they have been brought up by God, externally directed by him, they have lost a true view of him. In their rebellion they have lost sight of God as their owner, that they are his people, and they have lost sight of their master,he is their Lord. There is a fascinating view of what this means for Israel in the picture Isaiah lays out in the beginning of verse 4."Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity." What an insight into the picture of our rebellion. That without a true understanding of God as our owner and Lord we are weighed down with our sins. Worry for instance is when we believe we know what the future should be and we weigh ourselves down with the effort of obtaining that. Or if we lie about something in an effort to present ourselves in a better light we are in fact weighing ourselves down with a self expectation that without we are of less value. All these sins weigh us down and we end up carrying them all around with us. In the end they will break us and drag us down. But the solution is not one of determination to try harder... oh next time I won't lie because I understand that I only make things worse for myself. Or... next time I won't worry because in worrying I never changed anything. These solutions bring their own burden, the religious burden, the moral burden. They will never work as Isaiah puts it we are offspring of evildoers what hope do we have. Even in a religious attempt to see God as owner and Lord we will fall. But there was one who did succeed and his name was Jesus. Through his victory on the cross he offers us a new burden to carry. His yoke is easy his burden is light. Through the Holy Spirit we can be empowered to understand truly God the Father as owner and Lord and out of that truth and only out of that we can be in a position where there is no need to lie, there is no need to worry. The burden of the future and the burden of our self image is lifted from our shoulders and in its place a knowledge of Gods sovereignty and Gods view of us that while we were still rebels he laid down his life for us.
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