Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of
the Lord! For the Lord
has rejected his people, the descendants of Jacob, because they have filled
their land with practices from the East and with sorcerers, as the Philistines
do. They have made alliances with
pagans. Israel is full of
silver and gold; there is no end to its treasures. Their land is full of warhorses; there is no
end to its chariots. Their
land is full of idols; the people worship things they have made with their own
hands. So now they will be
humbled, and all will be brought low—do not forgive them. Crawl into caves in the rocks. Hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord
and the glory of his majesty. Human
pride will be brought down, and human arrogance will be humbled. Only the Lord will be exalted on that day of
judgment. Isaiah 2:5-11
It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. Hebrews 10:31
The Psalmist and the Prophet both tell the tale of Israel’s
political prowess and her inclusive diversity of religious tolerance; they also
pity both, because all that power and prayer will come to nothing…they are to
be pitied on the day they fall into the hands of an angry God.
Shows of religious piety are despicable in Heaven. The Psalmist, praying for God’s strong arm to
come defeat their enemies is hardly more than a show. You cannot hide motive from God. Times used to be good when Israel was the
strong new kid on the block, fresh from the concert of Jericho’s walls
crumbling, and Philistine heads rolling.
Now the worm has turned, and Israel is falling apart on every front.
The prophet points to warhorse military solutions, and idols
made of stone and wood Israel counted-on in any crisis. Isaiah warns the time was at hands to dump
the idols, and ride the horses to a caves to hide from their real enemy…God!
And the New Testament preacher to God’s beloved Hebrew
nation reminds them it’s a bitter pill, being on the wrong side of God’s
history. Once they were the humble
slaves released from Egyptian bondage, blessed with the might of God’s covenant
in a land flowing with milk and honey; now they are back in bondage, supposedly
God’s chosen, chosing pagan ways and means to chart their
lives, proud, arrogant, and a stench in God’s holy nostrils. It only takes a brief look at the history of Abraham’s
descendants to see how judgment falls over and again, when people forget God to
go their own way.
In this country we have a 246-year history. Compared to Israel’s 4,000 years since
Abraham, we are merely toddlers. But
there is a parallel between the two nations that is obvious. We have our warhorses (nuclear armed drones) and
flag waving parades to sing God Bless America (in place of
shrines and carved idols), but our motive is identical – invoke the name of
God, and, like a magician’s spell, all will be well again.
In the words of all the other fools of history….yeah,
sure…that’ll work!
For You Today
It seems our prayers for God to bless us for
our righteousness haven’t worked all that well.
All that’s left is the plea of sinners for mercy. Time to bend the knee, Amercia.
There are about 2,000 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper on
today’s topic, explore some of these: Falling Into the Hands of the
Living God and
A Dangerous Freedom
[1] Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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