“God says, “Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones so my people can return from captivity.”
Isaiah 57:14 (NLT)
Who is God speaking to here? Who is He speaking about? Why? What’s the point of this instruction? How should we respond?
God is speaking to His already repentant children, about His children who are still living in sin and rebellion, because He LOVES His children! The point is that we need to get the obstacles out of the way of those who need to repent and be restored so their road back to God will not be so hard.
Our response should be to identify the obstacles (stumbling blocks) we or others have placed in their way.
What are those stumbling blocks? The biggest one I can see today is the people of God abiding by cultural cues regarding tolerance or out of fear of appearing judgmental, or in an effort to simply get them in the door—but then not making the truth clear by refusing to call sin sin. We ignore the gaping wounds and soul-killing cancers and apply band-aids, when what we need to do is to diagnose the (sin) disease, do the hard work of excising the wound (leading them in repenting of and rejecting the sin, and returning to God in obedience and surrender to Him), and THEN applying a hefty dose of God’s forgiveness, grace, and further instructions on proper wound care. (e.g., if you’ve been burned by a specific sin you stay away from the fire associated with that sin….and continue to press into and rely upon God for healing and freedom from the clutches of that sin.)
The important thing to note here is God is talking to those He has already restored and set free to do the right thing by clearing the way for others who are still in bondage.
It’s not loving to not tell people their sin is destroying them. If we who have been healed, restored, and set free don’t tell them, who will?
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