The musings of Peter

Dear Brothers,

I’m not even sure these are technically the chapters we’re “up to,” but I spent time this week in Isaiah 48 and 49, and I couldn’t pass them by without writing to you. Of everything we’ve read so far, these might be my favorites — because here God is no longer lecturing. He is no longer warning. He is no longer cataloging Israel’s failures.Here, God stands tall — in full majesty — and simply says:Look around.

Is there any God like Me?

I told you what would happen — and it happened.

I worked miracles — and you saw them.

I stayed faithful — even when you weren’t.

I called you My people — even when you embarrassed Me.

And then He makes the greatest declaration of all:

Now I am sending One who will lift you up — One in whom My blessing will rest — One through whom My glory will be revealed with power and authority that no one on earth can stand against.

We know who He was speaking about.This is Christ.This is the victory lap before the victory was visible.

Augustine once wrote that God does not merely speak promises — He becomes the promise.

Everything God pledged to Israel takes flesh in Jesus Christ. Isaiah is not simply predicting history — he is unveiling the heart of God preparing the world for His Son.So we see a God who is faithful.A God who loves His people.A God who stays intimately connected to their lives.But the harder question is — do we see that same God in our own lives?

Teresa of Ávila warned that one of the greatest obstacles to holiness is not sin — it is self-reliance. She wrote that souls often trust their own reasoning more than the quiet guidance of God, and in doing so, delay the very peace they are searching for.

I recognize myself in Isaiah 48.I recognize my stubbornness.I have had many aspirations in life. Some I brought honestly to God. Others I quietly decided were “my own.” I have never met a person who successfully improved God’s plan — and yet I have tried to do that more than once.

My business partners used to say I was “lucky.”But now I see something else: God was feeding my family. God was carrying us through closed doors and unexpected openings. Even the successes that collapsed were mercies — because had they succeeded, I might have grown bolder in my pride, tempted to look upward and say, “See, Lord — my way worked.”

John of the Cross wrote that God sometimes withdraws visible success so that we will learn to desire Him more than His gifts. He called this purification a dark night of mercy.

Israel walked through that same night.They were once a small but successful nation protected by God — then they were conquered, humbled, and stripped of everything except prayer. And in that stripped-down place, they finally became faithful. Then God went silent for four hundred years.No prophets.No miracles.Just waiting on a promise.The promise was a Savior.And when He came, He did not come to terrify — He came to restore.

Irenaeus wrote that the glory of God is man fully alive — and man becomes fully alive when he beholds God. That is exactly what Christ did — He returned dignity, hope, and life to a weary world.

1 John 3 tells us something astonishing:“See what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called children of God — and so we are.”We are not merely forgiven.We are adopted.We are claimed.We are made heirs.And John continues:“What we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”This is the deeper promise hidden inside Isaiah’s words — not just rescue, but transformation.God does not merely free captives.He makes sons.So when Jesus appeared after the Resurrection, He did not thunder from the sky. He came quietly, gently, personally — to grieving friends — and said simply:Peace.Because sons do not need to be terrified.They need to be healed.And Isaiah had already sung this mercy centuries before:“To say to the captives, ‘Come out,’and to those in darkness, ‘Be free.’They will neither hunger nor thirst…He who has compassion on them will guide them…”And then the Lord makes this breathtaking promise:“Those who hope in Me will not be disappointed.”

Brothers — look at history.Look at the Church.Look at your own life.How can we doubt Him — when His faithfulness is written across centuries and written again inside our own stories?The better question is: why would we?He has already come as close to us as He possibly can.Now it is our turn to move toward Him.To trust Him.To stop trying to improve His plan — and finally let it save us.