Thinking Too Small (Isaiah 49:6)

Isaiah 49:6 (ESV)

he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

 

            Do we set our sights too low? Have we forgotten the power and sovereignty of our God? Do we settle for meager survival when something glorious is before us?

 

            Reading that little paragraph, it sounds like a prosperity preacher. All that needs to follow is some call to “claim the promise” and you too can have the material wealth you have always dreamed of. But I’m not thinking about health, wealth, and prosperity. No, I’m thinking of God’s plan to win the world and build his kingdom.

 

            In Isaiah 49, God tells Isaiah that there is more to his life and mission than Isaiah ever knew. Isaiah was not merely called by God to bring Israel back to their Lord. No, that would be too small a thing. God was going to use Isaiah and the divinely inspired message that God gave Isaiah to bring the nations to the Lord. Isaiah would be a tool in the hands of the Master to bring about the building of God’s global kingdom.

 

            In the Old Testament, such a plan was mysterious. How could God rescue the gentiles too? But by the time we see Jesus Christ, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, lay down is life for all who will come to God from any nation, the global vision becomes more clear. God truly has always intended that his kingdom be filled with people from every nation on earth. God will not fail. Christ did not fail. God’s kingdom will be established.

 

            Now, back to my question of small thinking. Do we think too small? God told Isaiah that the return of Israel would be too small a task. That would be too easy, too little. No, God had a gigantic task for Isaiah. Isaiah would be a voice calling the nations to their King.

 

                But Isaiah is not the only one with such a call. Jesus commissioned his disciples by calling us to take the good news of Gods’ forgiveness to the nations. We are to make disciples of all peoples. A vision of a surviving church, or even a thriving church in a local community, is too small a vision. We need to think like God thinks. We need to pray for God to truly glorify his name. Would God not say to us just as he said to Isaiah, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth?” And if God would say this to us, how do we obey? It is time that we think bigger, pray bigger, and direct our plans globally. Yes, we are to reach our communities with the gospel. But we are also to take the gospel to the next town, the next county, the state, the nation, and the globe. O Christians, do not think too small when thinking about the building of the kingdom of our God.