Hope
The line along which the future creeps backward in time to extend a hand to the present and draw it to a better place.
The anchor which holds the line is God, and the material from which the line is woven is trust.
Security
Everyone feels the need for it. How is it best attained?
wealth, power, ritual, good deeds ?
Don't we labor hard for resources to ensure adequate security?
Don't we try to leverage whatever pull we have to influence and control others toward our comfortable/security benefit?
Aren't many of our deliberate actions done with little thoughtful consideration, being largely just traditional forms performed to attempt to control the mysterious that threatens our security?
Aren't we even tempted to perform good deeds as a means of enhancing our own security?
Isaiah's core idea is that security is only found in God.
God's goal is to lead his people to repentance and trust
Isaiah claimed that the troubles falling on Judah were God's means of cleansing his people (1:25). The cleansing, as terrifying as it is, is the installation of a change of heart that brings trust.
The effect of trust is righteousness. The effect of righteousness is peace and abundance‹security.
Four postures of true power:
surrender‹surrender to God all that one perceives as essential for survival
trust‹either the motivator for or the consequence of surrender
active relationship with God‹cultivating a heart which seeks to dwell in God's presence
sincere plea to God for help‹the sincere request of God to occupy the center of one's camp
True power often looks like weakness. The power of such weakness is unexplainable unless one has returned to the center‹to God.