¹⁸ Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

¹⁹ For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When He hears it, He will answer you. ²⁰ And though the Lord has given the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teacher. ²¹ Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. ²² You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, “Get away!”

in the corner….

This is a prophecy of restoration after defeat and exile. Scholars note that that compared with the authentic words of the first Isaiah it is a little unsure in its rhythm and content. Be that as it may, the opening phrases are wonderful: The Lord’s delay is IN ORDER THAT he may be kind; his insistence upon his own holiness is IN ORDER THAT he may show mercy. Divine planning serves kindnesss, divine holiness serves compassion. These are wonderful insights, which contradict the nonsense peddled by those who belive in a vicious God who plans in advance to send some people to hell; or whose holiness requires the torture of his Son.

The other splendid teaching in this passage is the assurance that God the teacher will not be stuck in the corner as he has been during a time of idolatry. Rather, He will be present to the eyes and ears of faith, guiding his people in the true path, whenever there is a choice to be made. Christian believers would say that the Holy Spirit prompts people according to the wisdom of the Creator and the example of Jesus. When Christian people do wrong it’s not because we don’t know the right way, but rather because we’ve stuck God back in the corner again.