Title: Using the Mountain as a Road
Contents
Bible Text: Isaiah 49:8-13
make the mountain a road
Looking at the Haiti incident, we see a deserted land like a wasteland. In the midst of a land of despair where many people lost their lives and lost their families, they questioned whether God really exists. Many people leave without an appointment, relying on small boats. The history of Israel in the Bible was no different. There have been countless wars in their land. They were invaded by numerous great powers, including Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and Turkey. Their land was a land of despair, but God gave them hope again.
Wasteland Enterprises
The historical background of today's text is that God will not forget Israel who were taken into captivity and will restore them again with 'compassion' for them. It is a message of hope to the people of Judah who were taken captive by Babylon. It is a message of recovery.
“I will protect you, and I will make you a covenant with the people, and I will raise up a kingdom and give them an inheritance in the desolate land” (verse 8). The God who made the covenant with Israel will never leave them alone, but will restore them. . He commands the captives and the captives to come out, and He says that He will appear to those in darkness. It is the news of hope that they will return and that the wasteland will once again become a land of abundance. This news is also good news for those who are having a hard day living in Haiti. It is also a message of hope for all God's people who are going through a difficult day.
There are people who have experienced the wasteland of life. He had difficulties from the beginning of his life. It is difficult to win the competition even if you start on the same line. How difficult would the race of your life be if you started behind others?
Wendy's Hamburger founder Dave Thomas, who runs a hamburger company called Wendy's, started his life far behind others. Born an illegitimate child in New Jersey in 1932, he was adopted by a couple within six weeks, and lost his adoptive mother at the age of five. Working in a restaurant since the age of 12, dropping out of high school at 15, his life was thrown into a wasteland. But he had a dream. When he was young, he felt happy eating out with his stepfather, and seeing happy families, he dreamed of a restaurant. Although he dropped out of high school, he never gave up on his dream. He nurtured his dream by enlisting in the military and serving the meals of 2,000 soldiers in a restaurant. He started his own plague hood business after his daughter's nickname, Wendy, and became the founder of Wendy's Hamburger, a chain of 10,000 restaurants.
Dave Thomas was thrown into the wasteland, but became a world-class entrepreneur. So is our life. The wasteland can be transformed into a prosperous business. Even in the wasteland, the flower of hope blooms. Even in the wasteland of Haiti, hope slowly blooms. It is none other than through the church. In the desperate situation of the land of Haiti, God shows through countless people, especially the local churches, that the church is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, the head. God is working to save them through us.
. make the mountain a road
God gives a message of hope to Israel in captivity. We meet mountains in life. If you want to cross one mountain, another mountain is ahead.
Mountains are not necessarily obstacles in our lives. Mountains become a way to draw closer to God. Rather, the Israelites could be reborn as a new Israel through the Babylonian captivity. When they could not worship in the temple, they realized the value of the temple. As they look back on their history, they not only make amazing theological developments, but also experience God who is with them. Babylon was definitely a high mountain, but it was a place where you could meet God closely and deeply. Clearly, in a spiritual sense, a mountain is a way closer to God.
There are many stories about mountains in the Bible. The place where Moses met God was a bush on Mount Horeb, and the place where the Israelites met God and received the Ten Commandments was at the foot of Mount Sinai. It was on the Mount of Transfiguration where Peter, John, and James met the changed Lord and the glorious Lord. The place where the disciples saw Jesus ascending to heaven was the Mount of Olives opposite the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is located at an elevation of 800 meters above sea level. Their temple is located in this Jerusalem fortress. Here they worshiped God.
Today's text is not to make mountains a mountain, but a road (verse 11). Instead of complaining that it is a mountain, see it as a mountain where you can experience the presence of God. See the mountains as opportunities, not obstacles. And they say that there is a way of God over this mountain.
“I will make all my mountains a road, and I will build my highways” (verse 11). He shows them dreams of returning to their homeland through the desert, over the mountains, and through the highway. This is the dream of reaching the Promised Land again, overcoming all obstacles from the present land of Iraq to Israel. God is leading the way on this path. God turns mountains into roads. In verse 12, Isaiah speaks of returning from afar, from the north, from the west, and from the land of Egypt, where it is written, “Land of Sinim.” New Israel who follows God from all four directions, east, west, north, and south, will return. This is God's dream and the people's dream.
Faith that moves mountains
The text of the Gospel of Matthew is the story of a man who met a great mountain even though we have not read it all. One day, a parent of a child with epilepsy asks his disciples for healing. But the disciples did nothing. What Jesus is saying to them is that with faith as small as “a mustard seed,” they can move mountains and throw them into the sea.
“Truly, I say to you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, if you say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20) What does this mean? Does that mean we should actually pray for the mountains to be moved? If the mountain does not move, do I not have the faith of a mustard seed? What do you think when you hear these words? How do you feel? As we hear these words, don't the disciples have faith as small as a mustard seed? will ask you. There are two possible reactions to this. One thing is that Jesus is the Son of God, so it is possible, but we cannot. If this happens, these words become words that have nothing to do with us. In other words, they have an attitude of not even starting because they do not dare to put it into practice. We often want to adopt this attitude when we hear about faith. I believe in the power of the word, but avoid the word becoming my power.
However, although the principle of faith is very simple, it is quite different from the general logic of human beings. To a human being, faith means that I have to believe hard. However, faith is not a destination that can be reached if we pray diligently, sing praises, and do more evangelism. Faith is not what I do. Mountains are not moved just because I work hard. God must move the mountain. So, faith is total trust in what God does. Only by relying entirely on God can you have the experience of moving mountains. The problem is that we still try to believe in ourselves, wondering if I can do a little. There is nothing we can do. We confess that we are a people saved by grace, not works.
It's too difficult when I try to go over the mountain. But when God removes the mountain, a highway will be opened in front of us. The experience of salvation is the experience of God moving mountains. These mountains disappear at the moment when I confess that I can do nothing and now I only depend on God. This is faith the size of a mustard seed. It is not my great faith that is trying to do great things, but a small faith that I completely entrust to God, a faith the size of a mustard seed moves mountains.