Isaiah 55:8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”
The word for thought here is not sh’ar as it is in Proverbs 23:7: Here the word is chashav. Sh’ar has the idea of thinking to make a decision; this thinking is to invent or create or to lay out a plan. In the context of Isaiah 55:8 it would be to lay out directions. Hence your directions or maps are not God’s maps. Your ways are not God ways. The word way is derek. Derek has the idea of following a path that leads to God’s purpose.
This is clearly Hebrew poetry using the discipline of parallelism. I once knew a guy who had a PhD in Poetry. The University where he taught had published a book of his poetry. Some would read his poetry and question whether it was really poetry as some of his poems did not rhyme or have a certain meter. But to say that because a particular work was not poetry because it did not rhyme would be like saying a painting of a house is not art because it does not look like a house. This poet told me that rhyme and meter were disciplines of poetry, but not poetry itself. The poetry laid in his choice of words, the hidden meanings, and the ability of his words to say many things to many people.
Hebrew poetry is just like poetry in English except it has different disciplines. Poetry is still embedded with hidden and mysterious meanings and interpretations. Poetry is universal in its ability to paint a picture with words.
In this verse we have a picture of person taking a journey. This could be a journey of life; it could be a journey in a relationship, a journey in a job, or a journey in a ministry, or even a sermon. When you take a journey you start out with directions. When I check my GPS I find I have certain options. I can choose directions that will involve the use of the Toll Road or highways. I can take the shortest route or the longest route. There are a number of roads that will lead me to my destination. This is the picture painted with poetic words here. There are various options to reach God’s purpose, there are various roads that lead to God’s purpose.
I drive a bus for the disabled. Yesterday I had to drive to La Grange for a pick up. When I received the call I was a least a half hour to forty five minutes away. I needed to pick the route that would get me there the quickest, so I chose the quickest route. However, the quickest route took me past a school just letting out and then railroad tracks where I had to wait for a long freight train to pass. The shortest route, the route I thought best ended up taking me longer to reach my destination than had I chosen the longer route. I took the way which seemed right unto me but the end thereof was a way which made me late for my next pick up.
Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Again we have the word derek for ways. As derek represents a path to God, the derek of death would be a way of spiritual death.
History is littered with the dry, sun baked bones of Christians who convinced themselves
that their thoughts were God’s thoughts and ended in on a path that was not God’s path. Many times we reach God’s purpose but because we chose the path which seemed right unto us and was not God’s path we ended up going over some very rough road. Many end up getting discouraged before reaching God’s purpose and just give up and end up spiritual dead.
We often say that God is testing us, or putting us through trials to strengthen us. Perhaps so, but far too often the reason we are going through such struggles is that we have chosen our own route to God’s purpose and not sought and took the time and effort to know the thoughts of God.
So how do we know the thoughts of God, how can we know what is the right path to take. I believe Paul answers that in I Corinthians 2:16: “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” The word for known in the Greek is egno which comes from the word ginosko. This is the same word that Mary used when told she would have a child and ask how that was possible since she knew (ginosko) no man. Ginosko is an intimate knowing. No one can be intimate with God enough to know or be intimate with His thoughts except Jesus Christ and Paul is saying that as believers we have the mind of Christ. It is through Jesus Christ that we can ginosko or be intimate with the mind of God when we enter an intimacy with Jesus Christ. Though Jesus Christ we can know God’s thoughts and His ways. It is through Jesus Christ who through His death and resurrection has made it possible to be intimate with Him and thus to be intimate with God and to know the thoughts of God.
My parents were married for 67 years. I used to listen in amazement as they spoke to each other. “You think we should visit…” “Yes, I would love to see them, how about…” “This evening would be fine.” They had spent so much time together and grew together in such intimacy, that they could anticipate what the other was thinking. So too in knowing the thoughts of God. The more time you spend with Him, the more intimate you become, the more you can anticipate His thoughts.
Years ago when I was a Junior High School teacher I used to tell my students, “You have a mind, use it.” Well, as believers we have the mind of Christ, so use it. The problem with many Christians is that they are like my students, it was a lot easier for someone else to tell them the answers rather than spend time doing their homework and studying to discover the answers. They would rather someone else tell them the answers rather than use their own minds. So too with many believers, they would rather someone else tell them the mind of God rather than use the mind of Christ within them and spend time in fasting, prayer and studying the Word of God growing intimate with Him so that they will know the thoughts of God and discover His answers or directions themselves.
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