“For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Isaiah 57:15 (NIV)
The lives of Isaiah and Micah overlapped, for they prophesied together under the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. So, the themes of Micah’s shorter prophecy are very similar to the themes of Isaiah’s longer prophecy. In Isaiah 57 we can see that Isaiah is treating with great detail the problem with high places that Micah identified in Micah 1:5. Verse 7 of Isiah 57 – “You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill; there you went up to offer your sacrifices.” - is an example of Isaiah’s exhaustive approach. Not only is he identifying the idol worship that occurred in the forests and on the high hills as sin, but it reveals that God’s people are in an intimate relationship with those idols to such an extent that behind the doors and doorposts on which they have the Law written (Dt 11:20), are the symbols of those idols they worship on the hills.
We love to believe the lie that we can separate one area of our life from another.
We love to believe that God is interested in us when we are at church, and what we do away from church has no effect on us and God.
No!
What we do away from church reveals whom we worship.
Whoever we worship while away from our church is who we are really worshipping while we
are at church.
are at church.
Do you get the point from Isaiah about sexual intimacy here in verses 5 thru 12?
If we are engaged in sexual immorality away from church then we are engaged in idol worship, and when we come to church to worship God without repentance – we are actually worshipping idols instead of God.
The high places seem to represent our natural tendency towards pride and self elevation, that place where we do what we want, no matter what God has said.
Isaiah reveals the falseness of this high place concept when he speaks the truth about where God dwells;
For this is what the high and exalted One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
The only true high place is the place where the LORD lives, and we have the promise of the One who lives in that high and holy place to come and live with those who are lowly and contrite!
So why will we not humble ourselves before this wonderful God, and be revived?
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