INDICATORS OF WICKED LIVING (PART 1)

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Come, all you beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!

Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge. They are shepherds who lack understanding.

Isaiah 56:9, 10a, 11b

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We invest a lot of time poring through the word of God to find out how He wants us to live, seeking the way to righteousness. Perhaps equally important is looking at the way He doesn’t want for us to live, examining the way the wicked live and then avoiding that kind of lifestyle.

As we are going to see in the remaining verses of Isaiah 56 and a good part of Isaiah 57, God is speaking to His people (and to us as well) about the matter of wicked living, passing on indicators of someone who is living counter to His righteousness. We will examine these over the next twelve devotions.

Let’s look at today’s scripture verses as we examine part one of this series:

Come, all you beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!

Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge. They are shepherds who lack understanding. Isaiah 56:9, 10a, 11b

First, we see how the words of the Lord conjure up visions of judgment and punishment for the wicked. There is no doubt that the Lord hated and still hates sin and the behaviors it manifests. Those who balk at His ways and choose to follow the depraved ways of the world will experience consequences. We need to always remember this.

Next, we get to today’s indicator of wickedness, the conduct that has drawn His ire.

Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge. They are shepherds who lack understanding.

God had appointed leaders (the watchmen) to guide His people in His ways. He had entrusted His people to their care and in turn, His appointed and anointed leaders were to honor Him by directing them toward righteousness and holiness.

But that would only happen if Israel’s leaders had the same vision as God did and that obviously wasn’t the case. God called those leaders blind and lacking in knowledge and understanding. Those God chose to shepherd His people into His green pastures were instead leading them off the cliff of sinfulness to their demise.

It was a sad state of affairs then. I think it has been a sad state of affairs since the days of Isaiah. And I think it’s still a sad state of affairs today.

For look at the world we live in and its individual nations. How many of those nations have leaders (watchmen) who are sharing God’s vision for how they lead their people?

You may have trouble counting them and that’s a sad testament to where we are and where we are heading. The leaders of today are just as spiritually blind and lacking in God’s knowledge and understanding as the Old Testament leaders mentioned in today’s scripture. We are sheep without proper shepherds.

Friends, this should be a concern for all of us. For the only way our world has a way of being a better place, living outside of judgment and in the favor of an almighty God, is if we are led in the right direction and the only right direction is the direction that God desires for us to move in.

Please join me in prayer today and every day that our leaders would come to have the same vision as the Lord who made them and blessed them with the opportunity to shepherd His people. It’s the only way they will avoid traveling the path of wickedness and taking God’s beloved along.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com