Stubborn Israel
1 “Listen to this, O house of Jacob,
you who are called by the name of Israel
and come from the line of Judah,
you who take oaths in the name of the LORD
and invoke the God of Israel—
but not in truth or righteousness—
2 you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city
and rely on the God of Israel—
the LORD Almighty is his name:
3 I foretold the former things long ago,
my mouth announced them and I made them known;
then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
4 For I knew how stubborn you were;
the sinews of your neck were iron,
your forehead was bronze.
5 Therefore I told you these things long ago;
before they happened I announced them to you
so that you could not say,
‘My idols did them;
my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
6 You have heard these things; look at them all.
Will you not admit them?
“From now on I will tell you of new things,
of hidden things unknown to you.
7 They are created now, and not long ago;
you have not heard of them before today.
So you cannot say,
‘Yes, I knew of them.’
8 You have neither heard nor understood;
from of old your ear has not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are;
you were called a rebel from birth.
9 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
so as not to cut you off.
10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another.
My Understanding: God is speaking today to the church, i.e. to those who say they believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and who call themselves “Christian.” He is asking us to listen to what he is saying. He is speaking to all who have made a profession of Jesus Christ and who claim they have made a commitment to faith in Jesus Christ. He is, in particular, speaking to those who have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ, but not in truth and not in righteousness, i.e. to those who have gone through the motions of having made a profession of faith in Christ Jesus, but whose lives have not given evidence to such a heart change as what takes place when true conversion occurs in a heart when one yields himself or herself to Jesus Christ and he or she chooses to turn from sin and to turn to walk in obedience to Jesus Christ.
He is saying that he knows what is in our hearts. He knows who are truly his and who are not. He knows who make professions of faith, but not in truth and not in genuine conversion. He knows the stubbornness of their hearts and how, although they profess faith, they are giving lip service only, but their hearts are far from God. He knows their idolatry and how their hearts are really given over to their idols, not to Almighty God. And, he is calling out to all who are Christian in name only to admit their sins, i.e. to repent, to come to God in humble obedience and surrender of their wills, to leave their lives of sin behind them, and to become slaves of righteousness instead of slaves of sin and depravity.
In this case, he was telling the Israelites that he had refined them, though not completely, and that he had tested them in the furnace of affliction for his name’s sake, because his name’s sake is at stake when we say we are Christians but we act just the opposite. So, he will take us through times of testing and trials in order to refine and to test us and to grow us in what faith we already possess, to purge us of any sins we are holding onto, and/or to prove whether or not our faith is genuine, in hopes that we would be cleansed of our sins and that we would turn from our stubbornness and that we would be revived in our hearts, or that we would come to genuine faith via repentance and obedience to God.
And, Isaiah 48:17-22:
This is what the LORD says—My Understanding: God is saying to his church that he is the one who teaches us what is best for us and he is the one who directs us in the way we should go. And, he is calling out to us to pay attention to what he is saying to us. If we will pay attention and if we will yield to his control over our lives and will choose to obey him, we will have unending peace that will flow within and out through us, and our righteousness, i.e. the righteousness of Jesus Christ living in us and through us will continue to give us all we need to live righteously. Then, we will have spiritual descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore, because we will be lights for Jesus Christ, and we will be faithful in service to our Lord Jesus. We will be his witnesses in lifestyle and in words, and we will be busy sharing the love of Jesus and the truth of his words and of his gospel to a world in need of a Savior.
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river,
your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants would have been like the sand,
your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be cut off
nor destroyed from before me.”
20 Leave Babylon,
flee from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy
and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;
say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
and water gushed out.
22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
God is calling out to us to flee from the temptations of the flesh and the patterns of this evil world and to place our lives on the altar of sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, forsaking sin and not being conformed to the pattern of the world, but being transformed in the renewing of our minds so that we can prove what is pleasing to God by our lives. He is saying that, unless we come to him with child-like faith that trusts the Lord and that humbles ourselves and that turns from sin and obeys the Lord, we are not going to enter his kingdom. Unless we have changed hearts, transformed by the power and working of the Holy Spirit within us, in genuine conversion, we will not have the hope of eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven. So, we need to make sure we are not giving lip service only. We need to make sure we are not just wearing the name “Christian” yet are really living in stubborn rebellion against God by everything that we do. And, we need to repent of our sins.
If there is something in our lives that is leading us into sin, then we should get rid of whatever is leading us to sin, i.e. if it is TV shows or movies we watch, books we read, music we listen to, magazines we read, games we play, friendships that drag us down, etc. And, we need to make certain that, by our lifestyles, that we are not encouraging and/or leading believers in Jesus Christ to sin. In other words, God is calling out to all who say they believe in Jesus Christ to make sure their faith is genuine and if it is, to allow God to purify our hearts and to cleanse us from all sins in our lives and for us to be lights for him in sharing the love of Christ, the truth of his words, and the gospel of Jesus Christ so that we can affect this world of ours for Jesus Christ. If we find that we do not have genuine faith, then he is calling out to us to believe in him as Lord and Savior via repentance, humility, surrender and obedience, making him the master of our lives.
Child-like Faith / An Original Work / May 24, 2011
Based off of Matthew 18:1-9
Child-like faith He requires of us all:
“Who is greatest in God’s Kingdom?”
“Unless you change and humble yourselves,
You will never enter His Kingdom.”
“Whoever welcomes a little child
Like this in My name, he welcomes Me.
If you cause a believer to sin,
You stand in danger of God’s judgment.”
“Grief to you ‘cause of what causes sin.
Grief to the man through whom these things come.
If some part of you leads you to sin,
Throw it off, and never give in.”
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
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