Gone Astray

An American couple had the once in a lifetime opportunity to take a European vacation, and they looked forward to visiting Capri, and island off the coast of Italy. When they left their hotel they accidentally typed Carpi into their GPS, which is a city in Italy about an eight-hour drive from Capri. Because they were tourists, they did not realize they were travelling in the wrong direction, and when they finally arrived, they were almost a day’s drive off course.

Isn’t that an unfortunately accurate picture of life? You’re driving through Italy so sure that you will soon arrive at your destination, only to find out how far off you really were. There are people going through life convinced they are doing everything right, but in the end they will learn that they put their trust in the wrong things. Isaiah 53:6 says all people, “like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned—everyone—to his own way.” We are born in our sin and separated from God; we have gone astray like wandering sheep. We are like that couple who ended up in Carpi when they were headed for Capri. That is what sin does to us all. Isaiah doesn’t say that is what happens to the worst of us, but to all of us. We are off course and unable to do anything about it.

If that describes you—still astray and off course—then let me share a story about an old 19^th century preacher. After he came into town and held a week of services, he went to the train depot to head to the next town where he would be doing the same thing. As he was boarding a man ran frantically up to him and told the preacher he needed to know how to be saved. The preacher told him he was going to miss his train, but if the man would read Isaiah 53:6, he would see how to be saved. The preacher told him, “Go in with the first all, and go out with the last all.” When the man found a Bible and read the verse, he realized it began and ended with the same word all. It begins, “All we, like sheep, have gone astray.” But it ends, “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

We can all go in on the first all because we are all like those sheep who have gone astray. But we can all go out on the last all, because all of our sin has been placed on Jesus and dealt with at Calvary. You don’t have to keep wandering astray in your sins because Jesus is the Way to the Father.