Devotionary

God had not forsaken Judah. He had great things in store for them, and He wanted them to keep their eyes focused on the future, when they would become once again, the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, sought out, and a city not forsaken.

A day is coming when God will get the glory He deserves and not just from Israel. The entire earth will glorify Him for who He is and all that He has done. He will bring glory to Himself by restoring His rebellious people to Himself – all by Himself.

While the majority of the Jews, His own people, rejected Jesus as their Messiah, there is a day coming when He will return again. When He does, He will restore His rebellious fellow Jews to a right relationship with God. And that’s the rest of the story.

While it can be easy to look at the current state of affairs in the world and lose hope, we must always remember those three powerful words that hover over all time and history: But the Lord… He has a plan and He will bring it about.

Despite generations of rebellion and a lengthy track record of rejecting God, the people of Israel would one day find their darkness illuminated by God’s light and their status as His chosen people restored.

While the people of Judah had refused to extend justice to one another and had failed to help the oppressed in their midst, God was going to show them justice and provide them release from their oppressors. He would do what they had refused to do.

Isaiah had the guts to admit that God was fully justified in bringing judgment upon His disobedient children. After all, they were guilty of refusing to dispense justice and offer deliverance to the poor and needy among them. And God had had enough.

The problem in Judah was that the peace they desired remained elusive because their sin remained more attractive to them. It was all they could think about. Their world remained dark and the future dim because they preferred pleasure over peace.

God is all about self-denial and self-sacrifice. Self is not a god to be worshiped, but a false idol to be destroyed. And God loathes lip service, pretending to honor Him through acts of self-denial, while your own needs remain your number one priority.

Judah could turn to their false gods or humbly turn to God and admit that they were sinners. That point was non-debatable. But were they willing to confess it and place their hope and trust in the only one who could save them?

God is going to give Judah an ultimatum to make their final choice. Which god were they going to serve? If they wanted options when it came to their deity, that was up to them, but they were going to have to live with the consequences of their choice.

While Isaiah was preaching a message of repentance, these men were saying that all was well, there’s nothing worry about. Claiming to speak for God, they were actually lying in the name of God. Something God takes quite seriously.

God did not choose Judah because they somehow deserved it. Now, He wanted them to extend the same kind of mercy to those around them. He wanted their behavior to live up with their beliefs, and with the character of compassion found in their God.

In a world filled with people who are dying of spiritual thirst and trying to quench that thirst with anything and everything but God, He continues to offer the spring of the water of life without payment. But the offer only has value if it is accepted.

The book of Isaiah has made it clear that God brought His loving discipline upon the people of Israel, but He had never given up on them. He had made them, married them, repeatedly rescued them, and He assures them, one will one day He will restore them.