My Thoughts Are Not Your Thoughts

Isaiah says in chapter 55:8

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.

What does it mean that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts? 

Let’s think about the thoughts that the original hearers of Isaiah’s message might have had. 

“We are in exile and God has forgotten about us.” 

“We’ve played the whore and there is no way God wants us back.” 

“Our enemies have reduced us to a shameful, pitiful nation of slaves and sojourners. And it’s what we deserve.” 

“This is the end of the road for Israel. There is no going back to the glory days of David and Solomon.” 

“Surely our sin piled up over so many generations have canceled out God’s ancient promises” 

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We tend to think the same kinds of thoughts.

“How can God possibly be pleased with me when my life is such a mess?” 

“God’s love has conditions, right?” 

“God must secretly harbor some resentment for all the trouble we have caused him.” 

“Surely God puts up with our foolishness like an exasperated father.” 

“No doubt our many sins have exhausted the compassion of God.” 

“The bright future God has promised is too good to be true.” 

But God’s thoughts are not like our thoughts. His ways are different from ours. 

If we really think about it, we can’t imagine how God could love people like us – wayward wives prostituting ourselves to the things of this world. We can’t fathom that God would actually want us and delight in giving us far more than we can ask or imagine. Our thinking is so small and cramped compared to the way God thinks. 

At the end of chapter 55, Isaiah says this:

Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will come up.

Our thinking is more along the lines of the thornbush and briers – a scarce grace and reluctant compassion. But God has plans of junipers and myrtles – in other words, grace in abundance and a blossoming of fresh mercy. 

And it is all possible because of Jesus. He walked among the thornbushes and briers of our sin-scarred world so that no matter how ugly our sin or deep our wounds, we might have the hope of abundant new life. God’s thoughts are not like our thoughts – Praise God!