Oxymoron: two seemingly contradictory words used together for effect
Jumbo Shrimp Real phony
Found missing Pretty ugly
Bitter sweet Constant variable
Safe risks Forward retreat
Genuine imitation True lies
Whole piece
I could go on you know….
In today's reading I kept coming back to one verse and saw what appeared to be God using, what at first I saw as, an oxymoron:
"Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them."
Isaiah 30:20
Do you see it? There are actually 2. The bread of adversity and the water of affliction! Ok maybe they aren't "true" oxymoron's but they are darn close when you look at it the way I did. Bread and water are the staples of a diet. They are the very basics of a meal. Even prisoners get these very basics to allow them to survive. Bread fills our bellies keeping us from being empty & water is life giving, we cannot survive without it. We hunger for bread and we thirst for water. Now I will be quick to tell you, adversity and affliction I do not hunger and thirst for. Most sane people will come to this conclusion as well. We like to walk the easy smooth path of life that is not pitted and torn up by the struggle of affliction and the pain of adversity. I do not wish to feast on adversity and drink of affliction. These terms seem to be in contrast of what I think of when I think of hungering for bread and thirsting for water (like and oxymoron). If God had said "I give you the stale bread of adversity and the stagnant water of affliction" at least I would understand the use of bread and water. But God doesn't say it that way. He calls it simply bread and water as if it is something good for me to digest and have be a part of my being. Why? How?
Why? Because I am a prisoner. The people of Israel were a prisoner too. We are prisoners to our sins. Prisoners of that which keeps us from living the lives that God has already planned for us. He has Jeremiah 29:11 plans, which are to prosper us. So sometimes those plans require God to give us what we need not necessarily what we want. The only way to get the Israelites out of their bondage to sin and keep their hearts yearning for God was to let them experience the adversity and affliction of physical bondage. To let them experience physically what our hearts can experience spiritually. Sometimes it is exactly what our bodies need to feast on in order to turn back and stay on that Jeremiah 29:11 path.
How? In John 6:48 Christ calls himself the bread of life and Jeremiah 2:13 God calls himself our living water (as did Christ in John 4). It doesn't say that this bread of life and living water is always going to satisfy our taste buds (otherwise know as our wants). But God, our bread of life and living water, will always supply what we need when we need it (Philippians 4:19). Sometimes we need to taste adversity and sip upon afflictions in order to bring us to a place were God desires us to be. A place where God knows it is better for us to be. God gives this gift to us from the depths of who he is: a God who loves us and loves us so deeply that he wouldn't let us stay separated from him by our sins. This bread and water is from who he is, from his just, loving and gracious heart. It is a gift, a very precious gift (even though it hurts to partake of it). Remember, the cross was a cup of affliction that Christ prayed would pass from him if possible but he knew that it was about repentance and reconciliation so he drank of it and we reap the blessings. He was our example.
This bread and water in Isaiah 30 is meant to help bring us to a place of repentance and understanding. To keep us reconciled to God. To cause us to rid our hearts of the sins and struggles we find ourselves in and to make sure we only have eyes for Jesus.
Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, "Away with you!" Isaiah 30:22
Once we have eaten of this bread and drank of this water we are able and ready to hear, to learn, and to grow in our faith. We are better able to let God have the reigns in our lives rather then trying to steer where we think is best.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." Isaiah 30:21
What is great is that the bread of adversity and the water of affliction are only temporary.
He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. Isaiah 30:23
We face adversity and afflictions on some level every day. Some of our afflictions last longer then others. Our greatest affliction is sin but one day the Harvest will come and Christ will reap what is his and bring us home to a place of no more suffering. No more adversity or affliction. Only bread of eternal life and water of living praise for us.
I hope you found my thoughts on this to be a source of encouragement. I know that I have been enduring some physical afflictions for a long time now without any answers or understanding. I go for a test tomorrow to try to gain some insight into what may be going on inside one part of my body. What I gain from this reading is that God has a plan and a purpose for my life. It isn't always an easy life. Sometimes I get tired and I don't understand why things are happening. At those moments I can choose to look to the Lord and grow in my faith and trust during the challenging times or I can be frustrated and angry that I don't have any answers after years of searching for them. I need to give to God my idols of impatience, self-reliance, bitterness, doubt, envy, and fear and let his gentle voice guide me as I take each step. I don't know if in this life I will ever have answers to my affliction but I know that one-day I will live in only his abundant love and mercy for all eternity.
So the world may see bread of adversity and water of affliction as possible oxymoron's but I see them now as God intended, gifts given to keep me close to him.
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