Isaiah 32:8

"But the noble man makes noble plans and by noble deeds he stands."

I keep getting drawn back to this verse. I have never preached on it or even really noticed it before. However it stands out, especially as I am reading the challenging "Be a hero" at the moment.

In an earlier verse (v5)Isaiah looks to a day when "No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected."

It reminded me of years ago when I was studying English Lit at School. We were doing Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and there was a discussion about which of the main characters were the most appealing. Tess, the heroine of the book was ruled out, she was too much of a victim and so was Angel, the decent and moral character. He was too wet and too boring. No, the one most of the girls in class liked the best was the unscrupulous seducer, "D'Urberville. Those in the acting profession almost always seem to prefer playing the villain. Goodness is so often depicted as bland but a person's immoral lifestyle is often described as "colourful"

But the reality is, as Isaiah points out in v 6 the ungodly person "leaves the hungry empty and from the thirsty he witholds water."

Our world needs noble men who make noble plans and who stand by noble deeds."

What I deduced from a tentative study of this verse is that the heroic and the noble Christian life cannot be lived by accident. It has to be on purpose. We must make it a priority. There is a link between noble men and noble deeds. It's noble plans.

Just some musings

God bless

Carol