“I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.”
Isaiah 57:15
In the year 722 BC, right in the middle of Isaiah’s ministry, the northern kingdom was overrun by the Assyrian army. The people were deported, forcibly relocated to foreign lands, and they would never see Jerusalem again.
Then 150 years later, something even worse happened. The Babylonian army marched against the southern kingdom and destroyed the Holy City. The ark of the covenant was lost and has never been found. Jerusalem lay in ruins for 70 years, with God’s people reduced to a small group of refugees living in Babylon.
Try to put yourself in their shoes: You know God lives in heaven, but you can’t go to meet Him there. You know that God has promised to meet with His people in Jerusalem, but the city is destroyed; you can’t meet Him there. So what hope is there for finding God when his Holy City is destroyed, the temple is in ruins and the ark of the covenant is lost?
Then you hear the words of the prophet Isaiah: “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit’” (57:15).
This is mind-blowing stuff for these deported people who are miles from Jerusalem and feeling far from God. And it is mind-blowing stuff for all of us who feel far from God today.
Do you feel far from God today?
