“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I, the LORD, have created it!” (Isaiah 45:8 [ESV])
Almost everyone has stood dominoes in a row on their ends on a flat surface or has seen this done. When any domino falls over, others fall as a reaction of the first fall. People call this phenomenon the domino effect. An action causes a reaction. Our lives are like that. At times, we choose not to follow what God told us. After disobeying, we find the result is not bad, so it becomes easier to go against God’s will more. Before we realize it, we walk so far away from Him that we cannot hear His voice and we find ourselves in trouble. What God said through Isaiah speaks about this.
Isaiah 45:8 records several commands from heaven. In it, He commands the heavens to shower from above, tells the clouds to rain down righteousness, tells the earth to open so salvation and righteousness may bear fruit, and tells the earth to cause them to spout. The last section of this verse declares who commanded these actions, the LORD God.
Notice the Creator commands different parts of creation to act. From the highest part of creation, the heavens, God commands showers, continual flows of righteousness and salvation, to fall. Descending to the next level, He commands the clouds to rain down righteousness. Finally, God commands creation at humanity’s level to bear fruit and cause it to spout. What does God mean by each of these commands?
The first command declares that righteousness and salvation come from the heavens. In biblical understanding, the heavens denote the place God lives. The “showers” spoken of by God are flowing waters. Throughout the Bible, the writers mention a river flowing from the fountain, from God’s mercy seat. He is the source of true salvation, righteousness, grace, and mercy for all people. This means God’s showers from the heavens continually flow from Him with mercy and grace to give salvation and righteousness.
The second command God gives is for the clouds to rain down righteousness. Again, only God gives righteousness and salvation. Righteousness is God making a person right, cleansed from sin and made holy. Righteousness is part of God’s character. He is righteous; He never sins. God is holy. A person’s being made righteous by God occurs when he or she professes faith in Jesus as the Son of God and confesses his/her sins for salvation. The salvation by God of a person gives righteousness from God to that person. God alone provides salvation and makes believers righteous. Until a person professes faith in Jesus, the flowing river of God’s grace and mercy does not affect him or her. God does not have to give righteousness and salvation, but He chose to provide for it when He created all creation. He knew people would sin because He gave them freewill to decide what they will do in each situation. This means, before God made a verbal covenant with humanity in the Old Testament, an implied covenant by God to people existed. He planned to provide salvation from sins, guilt from sins, and the judgment of eternal death away from Him for each person.
With God’s third command, He orders the earth to open so salvation and righteousness will bear fruit. God addresses the last level of creation, earth. When “earth” appears in this verse, He means people. Once a person professes faith in Jesus, God gives salvation. Salvation is His restoration of each believer to sinlessness in His eyes, a cleansed, righteous relationship with God by Jesus’ death. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” Paul said in Ephesians 2:8 [ESV]. Once a person receives God’s grace (undeserved forgiveness at the expense of holy God) through faith, a relationship with God occurs. This relationship, like any relationship, requires communing with Him in devoted love. Staying in communion with God requires a person to be open to God and grow to know Him better. This explains the analogy God commands that “the earth opening to salvation and righteousness.” A believer devotedly loving God shown by drawing near to Him each day causes growth in his or her relationship with God.
The last command God gives through Isaiah is for the earth to cause salvation and righteousness to sprout. God’s fourth command expresses the causal effect of command three for command four. This means open to God and His gifts and you will have a relationship with and spiritual growth from Him. Without a growing relationship with God, spiritual growth, fruit, will not occur. Sanctification becomes stagnant. In this instance, the domino remains standing, but not strengthened in its foundation for stabilization. Spiritual growth may seem the obvious effect from salvation. Yet, some believers reach the end of the honeymoon phase and their find life trouble-free. They begin not relying on God every day and not communing with Him. This causes the stagnation of a believer’s spiritual growth. When times are troublesome, almost every believer seeks God. He or she desires Him and seeks Him through prayer and Bible study. God spoke to this human tendency of not communing with God daily in the fourth command of this verse. He told His children to let their salvation and righteousness “sprout”. Let it grow by devotedly loving God. Devoted love for Him results in believers setting aside time to be with Him each day through prayer, Bible reading and studying, fellowshiping with other believers, and private and congregational worship. Communing with God nurtures and matures the believer to be more like Christ, who is wholly righteous. The result of this maturation of the believer is the bearing of fruit that come from salvation and righteousness. This fruit then leads to obedience to God requiring action and/or thought. Each person will only understand what thought or action God desires by relating to Him through a continual relationship with Him.
Stay connected to the Vine. Being connected to the Vina is devotedly loving and communing with God. Once a grape leaves the vine, it withers and dies. Remaining connected to the vine allows the grape to receive nourishment and grow. John said this in John 15:1-2 when wrote, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit [ESV].” Only God’s righteousness causes growth. Attempts by people to manufacture righteousness fail. God is the author of salvation and causes its growth when a person professes faith in Jesus and stays in a continual relationship with Him.
The believer becomes more like Christ and becomes more sanctified when he or she stays in a devoted relationship with God. This shows salvation is for now and for eternity. A growing relationship with God produces a greater faith and sanctification. The growth of righteousness shows by fruits of the Spirit growing in the believer. Paul listed some fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God will perfect the believer’s sanctification when he or she dies on earth and arrives in heaven. Salvation is for now, tomorrow, and eternity. God did not intend for it solely to be for eternity. God, through Isaiah, commands the “earth” (people) to “open” (command three) and commune with Him. This means God desires for each believer’s salvation and righteousness to grow (command four).
Isaiah 45:22 reiterates verse eight with another command. God commands in this verse, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” A person cannot save him or herself. Sinfulness cannot beget purity like a mule cannot beget a horse. Do not look elsewhere for salvation and a possible way to be righteous. Turn toward God and look to Him. Keep on looking at Him and don’t look elsewhere. When a person takes his or her eyes off God, the dominoes begin falling. Later, after many dominoes have fallen, that person who looked away will recall his or her life while clinging to the Vine. He or she will realize how and when he or she disconnected from God. When we are at that point, we must pray, repent, and return to God. He will restore righteousness to each person who calls on Him. In 1 John 1:9, John wrote, “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Being saved by God is a continuous action. God saves a believer at a point in time. That person, like all believers, is being saved from death, temptation, sin, and guilt each day. One day God will complete in heaven that believer’s sanctification, purification that leads to holiness. Repenting, which leads to confession, means doing a 180 degree turn to look at God. The believer turns and keeps turning toward God and He continues to sanctify him or her each day as he or she repents and confesses his or her sins. Each day, the believer must look and keep on looking at God. Commune and keep on communing with God. Jesus spoke in His Sermon on the Mount about God wanting a relationship with each person by telling people to seek, knock, and ask in Matthew 7:7-8. He said,
“Ask (and keep on asking), and
it will be given to you. Seek (and keep on seeking), and you will find. Knock (and
keep on knocking), and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
[ESV]
The Lord created everything that exists, including you. He
gives righteousness and salvation to you when you believe in Jesus Christ and
confess your sins. You only need to cling to the Vine by devotedly loving and
obeying God (Jeremiah 2:2). Don’t let the dominoes in life cause a domino
effect in your life. Don’t let things in your life lead you away from God. Stay
connected to God. Grow in sanctification and righteousness.
