From One to Many - Isaiah 51

For the average reader, the Book of Isaiah, must in some ways be viewed as simply a poetic delivery of the infallible Word of God, as the prophetic elements of Isaiah's penmanship can become difficult for the average Bible student to maneuver his way through. For instance, trying to perceive in which sections he is talking about present-day events of his time, versus, when was he looking much further into the future can be very challenging.  However, despite its challenges it is overall a fantastic book and in my opinion holds within its pages more prophecies concerning the arrival of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, than any other Old Testament book.  In all truth, Isaiah may have been the most poetically-gifted writer in the entire Bible.

Today, as I got past all of the theological evaluation and simply read through its pages I found the first few verses of Isaiah's chapter 55 to be particularly encouraging...

• Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord; Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave birth.  When I called him he was but one and I blessed him and made him many... Isaiah 51:1-2

You can feel all alone at times in your pursuit of righteousness (right-standing before God) but if you look throughout the course of history you will find that fantastic testimonies abound.  Elijah felt as though he was the only one being called to stand for God, yet he eventually found out that 7,000 more had likewise not yet bowed their knee to Baal. Jonah thought his situation was so hopeless that he believed preaching the message God had given him would be useless, yet after several pit stops he declared the word and an entire city responded with repentance!

Abraham was old and Sarah was incapable of bearing children; however, God spoke and that settled it--a son would be born!  As a result, what began as the dream of one man became a mighty nation.

God called you and you may currently be the only one on your jobsite pursuing right-standing before God--or at least you feel that way. Maybe no one wants to seek God in your family or even attend church, but I encourage you to keep up the fight of faith.  He that endures to the end shall be saved.  You may start "as one, but in the end God will bless you and you will become many!"  It is the way of God. He seems to be enthralled with exponential multiplication--just check out the Book of Acts or the miracles of Jesus sometime.  Even Jesus, Himself, was one, but now he has become the first-born of MANY brethren!

I assure you, greater things are yet to come!