What are the characteristics of a fool? What are the characteristics of a rogue? What are the characteristics of a noble man? Maybe you are wondering as to why I am asking these questions. The answer is simple for me. I wish to be more Christ-like in all that I do, like many of us wish. As I worked through Isaiah 32 in my Bible study time this week, I found myself thinking on these questions and looking at myself for the way in which I could answer them in my own life.
I began to think back to when I first came to know the Lord. Do you remember that time in your life? Didn’t we tell everyone about our newfound relationship with the Lord? Were we not all about evangelizing so that all of our friends, family, and coworkers were hearing us talk about Jesus? Now, think about how you just answered that question, particularly the part about coworkers. Very often when I talk to believers about evangelism and bring up coworkers the discussion is that “well I cannot talk about my faith at work.” I certainly do not want anyone to lose their job, but didn’t instances occur back in the beginning when a way was found to evangelize to our coworkers? How about when we were early on in our walk with the Lord, or maybe it was early on when a ministry opportunity was fresh and new? We were all in with the ministry; we were serving the needs of others, loving our neighbors, and seeking justice for others. The fruits were there for all to see, our faith was reflected in our works. I am going to make a hard statement here, but I am taking it from the Book of James. “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself” (James 2:17).
Let us get back to the questions I originally posed based on Isaiah 32. In verses six, seven and eight Isaiah speaks to the areas of being a fool, being a rogue, and being a noble man. It is in verse six that a fool is characterized by acting in an ungodly way and not serving the cause of the needy. It appears that the fool is described as one making excuses for not seeing to the needs of others, and as it states, “to speak error against the Lord” (Isaiah 32:6). Are there excuses that we come up with as to why we do not serve the needs of others like we used to? I know, I am being kind of rough here, but I did in the beginning of this blog post tell you that I was answering these questions myself. Look at verse seven as Isaiah speaks to the life of the “rogue.” This person seeks “to destroy the afflicted with slander” (Isaiah 32:7). Have we ever fit this description? Maybe not in the beginning, but have we gotten a bit hardened towards others? None of us want to see any of the characteristics of the fool in ourselves, and the rogue that God’s Word speaks about in these verses is not something we want to be associated with in our lives. Lord, hear our prayers, return us to our first love that we had when You found us, and we loved like You do.
I am going to wrap up here with a look at the noble man. “The noble man devises noble plans” (Isaiah 32:8). The most noble of men to ever live, and His name is Jesus Christ. Our first love is Jesus. He has loved us, even in our unlovable moments. His love has never changed, but in Him we can serve a world with the characteristics that we see in Jesus. I know that I need a reminder of my first love. “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God” (Revelation 2:4). Be encouraged, return to the first love in all of our lives, and love just as Christ loves you.