Tuesday
Some years ago, one of England’s Bible teachers had just finished speaking at a meeting, one of a weeklong series of nightly evangelistic meetings. Following the meeting, he hurried to catch a train back to his home. At the station, just as he was about to board his train a man ran up to him and asked to speak to him. “Sir,” the stranger said, “I was in the meeting tonight and I heard you say that we can find peace with God, but I didn’t understand all that you said. Could you please stay and talk with me? I need your help!”
The whistle blew indicating that the train was seconds from pulling out of the station. “I’m sorry,” said the Bible teacher, “This is the last train tonight, and I mustn’t miss it. But I will tell you what to do.” The teacher handed the man his battered King James Bible and said, “Take this Bible and go the nearest lamppost. Turn to Isaiah 53:6. Stoop down low and go in at the first ‘all.’” Then he stepped onto the train, which was slowly pulling forward.
“But where…?” the other man said, holding out the Bible.
“Isaiah 53:6!” the teacher repeated shouting over the chugging of the engine and the clack of the wheels on the rails.
The man stood for a minute, watching the train pull away. Puzzling over the strange instructions he had just received. Then, shrugging, he took the Bible to the nearest lamppost and opened it to Isaiah 53:6.
Then he read aloud, “’All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way,’ Oh, I see! That’s the first ‘all!’ I see what he meant! I need to stoop down low and go in at the first ‘all.’ I need to admit that I have gone astray, that I’ve turned away from God and gone my own way.”
It was a moment of revelation and eternal insight in that man’s life The next night before the meeting, he went up to the Bible teacher handed the old King James Bible back, and said, “Here is your Bible. I want you to know that, last night under that lamppost, I stooped down and went in at the first ‘all’ and I stood up straight and come out at the last ‘all.’” (a)
That is the Good News, found here in the Old Testament. Isaiah has proclaimed the message of salvation throughout his book and we are privileged to be able to read this and know that through the shed blood of Jesus that we can go in low at the first “all” and stand up straight at the last “all”! Because Jesus is our “All in All.”
Blessing on this day and on the reading of Isaiah the prophet!