Tuesday, July 28, 2015

THE LORD SPEAKS (PART 2)



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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—a people who continually provoke Me to My very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick.

Isaiah 65:2-3

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

How does the Lord view the people of the world when He evaluates them today? What would He say about the way we’re living?

This question is at the heart of the second devotion in this seventeen part series, The Lord Speaks, as The Christian Walk Ministry finishes the study of the Book of Isaiah.

So what view did the Lord have of the Israelites in the time of Isaiah?

He tells us as He speaks in verses 2 and 3 of Isaiah 65. Look again at His words here:

All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—a people who continually provoke Me to My very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick.  Isaiah 65:2-3

It isn’t exactly a glowing assessment, is it?

Frankly, it’s a failing grade on the marking scale of obedience to the Lord that they are to serve willingly and willfully. They have flunked the test administered by their Maker and Master.

Where were they going wrong? The Lord details the errors of their ways as follows:

1. They were an obstinate people.

Obstinate is just a fancy word for being stubborn. In other places in the scriptures, you will find the Lord using the word “stiff-necked” to describe His people and it was true. For over and over again in the Old Testament, we find the Israelites choosing to violate God’s commandments, particularly when it came to their worship practices. They lived among pagan communities that worshiped many different gods and idols, and the people of God found themselves tempted into adopting those practices themselves. God sent consequences onto His people on more than one occasion and, after they had repented and changed their ways, He restored them to His favor.  But then, they would backslide right back into the old habits that got them in trouble in the first place. Indeed, they were an obstinate people.

2. They worshiped in ways that angered the Lord.

False worship is really no worship at all.

That’s the way the Lord sees it and we need to see it the same way.

All the Israelites accomplished through offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on brick altars, both pagan rituals, was provoking the Lord they should have been fearfully obeying.

Only a fool would intentionally do something that they knew would incite the Lord’s wrath and we can definitely say that the people of Israel were fools. They knew they weren’t supposed to do the things they did but they did them anyways.

Did I mention they were stubborn?

3. They walked in ways that weren’t good.

This is biblical code for simply saying they walked the path of sinfulness. For there are only two paths we can travel in life. One is the narrow path of righteousness that leads to life today and for all eternity, the path that Jesus told us to travel, the path that we enter through Him and a life modeled after Him. The other path is the wide path to death and annihilation and the scriptures tell us that many will travel it (Matthew 7:13-14).

It’s this wide path to destruction that the Israelites were walking on. We know it because the Lord tells us that they were walking in ways that weren’t good.

4. They pursued their own imaginations.

We have no idea what was in the imaginations of the people of God but we know that the Lord wasn’t present there. Had they had Him in mind, they would not have exercised lifestyles marked by wickedness and actions that made them His enemies.

If only the Israelites had made the Lord their number one priority, their sole treasure and object of focus. Their story would have been so much different.

Friends, let’s go back to the opening questions for the world in the here and now.

How does the Lord view the people of the world when He evaluates them today? What would He say about the way we’re living?

I hate to say it but I believe He might see a people much like the Old Testament Israelites of more than 2,000 years ago, a people who are obstinate, worshiping things that anger Him, walking in ways that aren’t good and pleasing in His sight, and pursuing their own imaginations.

We had better wake up. For the Lord has spoken and here’s what He had to say to the Israelites of old and to us today:

“I despise obstinate people who choose to walk in sin and chase after their will and desires, those who have no problem with provoking Me with their disrespect and disregard.”

Are we listening?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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

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