Time to break off barrenness

In Isa. 49 is God shouting out that he’s doing a new thing. HEY! Heads up!

But...He wants to know if we see it. He's looking for our response.

Please stop thinking this passage is just about some MACRO kind of thing out there. He’s doing a new thing in and around YOU but He’s waiting to see if you’ll act upon it and move forward….or not.

We’re in the 2nd month and it’s linked to the tribe of Issachar. (Gen. 29-30.) Issachar is the break of the cycle of barrenness that afflicted Leah.

You know Leah - the unattractive one ('weak eyes' - Hebrew: ‘defective’) who had to work so hard to gain her husband’s affection. Leah who was incredibly fruitful – who had birthed 4 kids but then...silence: nothing. What was a fruitful area of her life suddenly stopped.

Has that happened to you in an area of your life? Something that once was moving so well but now...

It’s a funny and strange story in Gen 30 with how she leverages a resource of mandrakes to set herself in a position to break off the bareness. (Okay…so she basically hires her husband’s, ahem, ‘services.’) But then the scripture says, ‘And God listened to Leah.’ Crazy God that He is.

She’s been calling out to God all this time, but then there’s a trigger – a recognition of an open door and she bursts through that door and calls out to God. Timing is critical and there is nothing at all ‘passive’ about her approach. She's prayed. She acts. She calls out. The barrenness is broken and Issachar is his name.

Fast forward a couple thousand years (but in sync in God’s calendar between Passover and Pentecost) and there's the road to Emmaus. (Luke 24) There’s a barrenness of hope here. Two followers now fleeing the disaster in Jerusalem. It didn’t turn out remotely as they had thought it would.

Jesus (the cunning one) joins them in disguise and forces them to retell/relive their deep disappointment and discouragement.

Then He takes them to school. He connects the dots they couldn’t see. He doesn’t reveal himself because He needs them focused on the scriptures.

But that wasn’t enough. It’s not enough just to know these things. Their eyes were still not open. It’s only when they ACT like Jesus (by inviting him to stay and eat) that they SEE Jesus. Breakthrough happens – barrenness is gone. In their restored joy, they reverse course and hightail it back to Jerusalem.

So, what barrenness is operating in you? Place your emotional disappointment on the table and He'll listen. If Emmaus is a pattern then He’s been speaking into this already. You’ve already been hearing/seeing Him connect the dots but it has yet to click. Your eyes are not yet open. Why not?

Well, what ‘action point’ is in front of you you've yet to take? What door is open but you must not just walk through it - you have to burst through it? Do you see the door yet - the new thing that He is doing in/around/though you? Ask Him to open your eyes but be willing to ACT upon the sign of the ‘mandrakes’ or the presence of the ‘stranger’ along your current path.

It’s time to break out of that barrenness. It’s a role Issachar plays. It’s a card God plays now. Do we not see it?