I read Isaiah 54 today. It speaks to the Restoration of Israel. The future glory they we will be brought into. When reading my heart was drawn to verse 7,
“ I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion.”
Other translations use the words forsaken instead of deserted and great mercies instead of abundant compassion. Nonetheless, both contrasts in wording filled my soul. Especially when I read the commentary of David Guzik. He writes this:
In verse 7 God is explaining his restoration for Israel. He never really forsook them but yet he recognizes that they felt this way. (the Israelites felt deserted and forsaken) And for a moment he allowed them to feel this way.
The forsaken/deserted is the present tense, the great mercies or compassion are the future. But they are real and give Israel cause to set their hope and trust in the Lord though they were forsaken and deserted at the moment.
There are moments present and past that I have felt deserted by God. I didn’t understand. But I held onto my hope that lies with Jesus. That his love is never removed from me. That his promises are the peace that help me stand firm in the hope. He is my abundant.
I think it is in these moments of wandering, feeling deserted that we learn the value of trust and faith. We learn that even though we don’t understand the situation we are walking through that God will bring us through. We learn to rest in and lean into him. We learn that we can trust in his great mercies for us.
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