Rest From Our Pain

And it will be in the day when the  LORD gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved.   (Isaiah 14:3, NASB).

I heard the above verse when Sue read it to me.  We have a verse of the day calendar which Sue reads to me everyday to get our day started.  The calendar has a picture of God’s glorious, beautiful creation and the verse.  It’s a great way to start our day. As I listened I thought I could write an essay about it.  After all, who wouldn’t want to be relieved of “your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved.” 

Actually, the context for this verse is entirely different.  The first two verses explain:  “When the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the Lord as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressor.”  Israel had been defeated by Babylon, and many people of Judah taken into exile.  Isaiah prophecies here about the day when the people will return to their Homeland and be restored in God’s sight. 

I still claim this third verse.  But I’m not in any chronic pain.  I suppose I’m in turmoil, as I’d prefer not to have the ALS that’s in my body.  But God’s plan is far superior than mine.  I have to keep reminding myself of this.  The “harsh service in which [I’ve] been enslaved” is the ALS in my body.  Actually, I can’t say that I’m suffering.  I’m well cared for.  Sue leads a team of great caregivers (I hate this term, because it makes me the careTAKER, although it accurately describes what they do). 

Still, I look forward to the day when Jesus heals me, whether on this earth or in heaven.  In heaven, we’re told, there is no more death, nor illness, no more suffering, nor crying.  Who wouldn’t want this?