Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
“How long?” is a question many of us have probably asked often in our lifetime. As a child during the school year, perhaps you often asked, ‘how long until summer break’? As an adult when your job seemed unbearable you wondered ‘how long till retirement’? As a college student perhaps you wondered ‘how long till I can stop studying & taking exams’? If you’ve had a family member overseas on military deployment, I’m sure the ‘how long’ question is one you asked often, especially if their ‘tour of duty’ was extended!
Did you know the Bible has that question asked in several situations. Psalm 13:1 says: “How long O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?” I don’t know exactly the situation the Psalmist found themself in, but I have no doubt you have found yourself in that ugly place, perhaps several times. How did you express your breaking heart to God and how did God respond to you?
Maybe you are in that dark place today! If so hang on friend, God is watching you, He is fully aware of all that is going on in your life. But have you ever considered that God asks that ‘how long’ question as He watches us human beings living our lives without giving any attention to God even though God always continues to do everything needed for us to live as He provides air, water, food, family etc. Is there something causing God to ask ‘how long’ as He looks at your life and mine today?
Yesterday I left you with Isaiah as he was wrestling with God’s commissioning message to him. In brief God commissioned Isaiah to be God’s spokesman to the people but then God warned Isaiah that the people would hear but not understand, see but not perceive what God was saying to them, because they had such hard hearts.
Hard hearts are nothing new to the human race and the Jewish people, so I’m confident Isaiah would be able to predict what his future, frustrating life would be as God’s prophet! He sure had many previous examples to choose from, didn’t he? Probably you have had several experiences in your life when you tried to speak truth and wisdom to a person, maybe in your own extended family, but they refused to make any attempt at understanding or embracing your words. So naturally Isaiah wanted to know HOW LONG this fruitless assignment would last!
God’s answer must have broken Isaiah’s heart when Isaiah asked: “For how long, O LORD?’ And God answered: ‘Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitants, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remain in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” (Isaiah 6:11-13)
As you listen to those words do they seem to hit you with an avalanche of despair? Can you imagine it? In many ways it’s a picture of the devastation of the Kibbutz villages which were ravaged in Israel near the Gaza Strip on October 7th, 9 months ago. You’ve seen the pictures many times over the past few months and it’s gut wrenching each time we see them isn’t it? It’s also a picture of what happened in Isaiah’s lifetime as over the following several years Isaiah proclaimed God’s warning messages to the kings of Israel but they refused to hear or respond.
As we read God’s prediction it raises lots of questions in our hearts doesn’t it my friends? WHY of course is the most prominent question. WHY would God allow this vast devastation of His land and His people? WHY would the Israelites refuse to hear the warnings of the prophets, the spokesmen of God? WHY would the leaders of God’s people, the kings both in Israel and Judah, continue to allow idolatry and wickedness in their land and worse, why would some of those leaders actually lead the people in turning away from the God of Israel?
We know the answer, don’t we, my friends? It’s the same answer for your country or your city today as it was for the people of Israel and Judah in Isaiah’s day. The prophet Jeremiah explained it this way: “The human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9,10)
It’s your heart and mine and the heart of every person who has ever lived in our world. Selfish, prideful, angry, deceitful, lustful, and the list of evil attributes which destroy our hearts, our relationships, our families and our cities is well known by us all, but still we find ourselves trapped, shackled by these self destructive attitudes and choices which harden our hearts.
While Jeremiah said “The human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” he was right, but only for those people who refuse God’s help, God’s answers, God’s rescue and deliverance! Repentance can change everything, isn’t that true? We saw that graphically in the account of Jonah and his warning to the wicked people of Nineveh! (Jonah 3:10) I’m confident Isaiah knew that story even though he likely had not met Jonah. I’m also confident Isaiah knew very well the promise God had made to King Solomon at the dedication of the great Temple.
No, I don’t mean the promise that we often quote hoping for God’s great blessing. Isaiah knew about the warning promise God had made to Solomon on that great Temple dedication day: “If you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from My land, which I have given them, and I will reject this Temple I have consecrated for My name… This temple will become a heap of rubble.” (2 Chronicles 7:19-22)
As Isaiah’s great vision turns to his lifetime commission as a prophet of God, I’m sure Isaiah wrestled greatly, but did you notice the very last part of God’s forewarning to Isaiah? “But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” (Isaiah 6:13) This was a brief message of HOPE in the devastating prediction. God would not abandon His people even in judgment! Do you know what it means my friends? This one of many messages God would give Isaiah about His Messiah whom He would someday send to His people.
On Monday we’ll look at this word of hope in the midst of the despair and we’ll see how God much more fully explained who this ‘stump‘ is! For today, let’s thank God that even in His times of judgment, when His warnings are disregarded, God is always prepared to give a glimmer of HOPE! Here’s a song to help us with that wonderful truth, my friends, and I’ll see you right back here on Monday.
Today’s Scripture: Isaiah 6:11-13.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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