Daily Read (Isaiah 22-24)
Scripture:
Isaiah 22:4 “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.”
Observation:
Isaiah delivers a prophecy about the city of Jerusalem. As is typical of God’s messages to the ancient Jews of Judah, the message is one of despair and despondency. God grieves because His chosen people have turned from the truths of His law and commandments. They had become idolatrous, rebellious, self-seeking, proud, arrogant, boastful, ungrateful, and more in their concern for the things of God. Their self-reliance was like spitting in the face of God saying, “We can do it ourselves; we don’t need You, who brought us up out of Egypt across the Red Sea and Wilderness of Sin into the Promised Land of Canaan.
Application:
So many times in the Old Testament we read of God’s impending judgment coming on the nation of Israel for their rebellion against Him and non-observance of the Mosaic Law. God told His chosen people who if they walked upright before Him by keeping the Law, blessings would abound in their lives. However, if they failed to observe the Law and keep His commandments, curses would come upon them. We have plenty of evidence throughout the Old Testament scriptures of this sinful behavior of the nation of Israel. It is no wonder then that God eventually cast out of His presence both the upper kingdom of Israel and the lower kingdom of Judah. He said it would happen, and it did.
Isaiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah as did many of the OT prophets God sent to them trying to get them to turn from their wicked lifestyles and return to the God of their fathers. The people of Israel decided rather to walk after their desires and lusts instead of the Lord’s plan for them. Therefore, they eventually suffered the fate they brought upon themselves. With each despair God provided Israel a chance of hope to repent of their sins and return to Him. He is a God of compassion as well as justice.
Here, though, we get to see a softer side of God revealing the pain that He feels when His people choose to reject Him for their wants, desires, and lusts. With the accounts mentioned above we usually read of the anger that is aroused in God causing Him to desire to wipe out His chosen people save the remnant that truly follow Him. Here Yahweh tells the people through Isaiah to just leave Him alone and let him weep over His chosen.
This thought of God crying over the destruction of His people gives me cause to pause and examine my life. I love my Lord and Savior and have given my life to Him. None of us has arrived as Paul described of himself. There is always room for improvement because none of us have gotten to heaven and been translated into an immortal body. The day will come when mortal will take on immortality and corruptible take on incorruptibility. Until then, we need to examine ourselves all the time and ensure that we hare continually submitting ourselves to God and obeying His Word. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). If God’s Word to us is His marriage contract, if you will permit me to say such, to the bride of Christ, then we can understand how such a loving, compassionate God would weep bitterly for His only love, who would turn her back on Him again and again over the millennia.
We need to be sure that our hearts are committed to and submitted to God in all areas of our lives. No one is perfected as of yet, so there are going to be areas of our lives whether big or small that God will need to deal with. When we were saved, our spirits were immediately saved and made justified in God’s eyes. Our souls, however, are another story. It is the part of us that makes us unique individuals with the ability to reason, choose, and will things. It will either side with our flesh or with our spirit. We must bring our souls into submission to our spirits and our spirits into submission to the Spirit of God. When we keep God’s commandments and love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, we please Him because we are exercising our faith that God will lead us and guide us in all truth through His Spirit.
Prayer:
Father, I feel some days like Isaiah when he said that he was a man of unclean lips because he had seen You in all Your glory. I have never experienced the Holy of Holies in heaven as some people have and that I know personally. However, I don’t have to be standing in the midst of heaven to know that there are times in my life that I have done wrong or areas of my life that aren’t completely in submission to You. All of me should be submitted to You, and I ask You to reveal to me those areas that need to be. I want You to be pleased with me and to live a life that reflects the presence of the Almighty living inside me, guiding my steps, and teaching me all that I need to know. I love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Posted by jd 
