God Heals By Humbling

 by John Piper

“I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him.” (Isaiah 57:18–19)

In spite of the severity of man’s disease of rebellion and willfulness, God will heal. How will he heal? Isaiah 57:15 says that God dwells with the crushed and humble. Yet the people of Isaiah 57:17 are not humble. They are brazenly pursuing their own proud way. So, what will a healing be?

It can only be one thing. God will heal them by humbling them. He will cure the patient by crushing his pride. If only the crushed and humble enjoy God’s fellowship (Isaiah 57:15), and if Israel’s sickness is a proud and willful rebellion (Isaiah 57:17), and if God promises to heal them (Isaiah 57:18), then his healing must be humbling and his cure must be a crushed spirit.

Isn’t this Isaiah’s way of prophesying what Jeremiah called the new covenant and the gift of a new heart? He said, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. . . . I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33).

Isaiah and Jeremiah both see a time coming when a sick, disobedient, hard-hearted people will be supernaturally changed. Isaiah speaks of healing. Jeremiah speaks of writing the law on their hearts. And Ezekiel puts it like this: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

So the healing of Isaiah 57:18 is a major heart transplant — the old hardened, proud, willful heart of stone is taken out, and a new soft, tender heart is put in, which is easily humbled and crushed by the memory of sin and the sin that remains. 

This is a heart that the lofty One whose name is Holy will dwell with forever.

The Sickened Head

"5

"Where will you be stricken again,


As you continue in your rebellion?


The whole head is sick

And the whole heart is faint.

From the sole of the foot even to the head


There is nothing sound in it,


Only bruises, welts and raw wounds,


Not pressed out or bandaged,


Nor softened with oil."

~Isaiah 1:5-6

Have you ever put yourself out there, no longer hiding from who you know you are? Laying yourself bare is what many call it. Here is me laying myself bare, in a very small but synoptic nutshell. 

Growing up, I was a strong-willed and arrogant child. I became very familiar with discipline and punishment (there is a difference). I appreciated the discipline more than the punishment. It took my parents having the patience of God not to murder me or stone me. Thank God for the New Testament. 
In my ignominious display of total depravity and sinfulness, the goading that was my upbringing taught me to appreciate the full height of justice. 

The point is, any inflection of righteousness however great or small, will bear discipline or punishment of some sort. Can't escape it. That is what Judah is to understand. That is what the people of Jacob were to understand. Now that Christ has come, that is what the whole earth is to understand. Let us take full advantage of the fact that we have Jesus Christ - Prophet, Priest and King, and ultimately our Advocate who absorbed the full wage of our sins. The Lord God, The Holy of Holies is merciful, yet just; painstakingly patient to the point of our repentance and salvation. May any full reward that we seek today and forever be found in Christ Jesus alone.