How much notice do you take of warnings? Every day we see warning signs telling us to slow down on the road, to take corners at a safe speed or warnings about the dangers of smoking or alcohol or overuse of painkillers. Too often people ignore the warnings and trouble results.
Isaiah contains a number of warnings for God’s people. In verse 14, God through Isaiah, warns of the dangers of scoffing and treating God’s Words lightly. Jerusalem thought they were okay because they were God’s people. But that does not mean a license for them to do as they like, any more than it does for any of us who claim to be God’s man or woman to do as we like.
We need to build our lives on a solid foundation Matthew 7:24-27. This point is also stressed in Isaiah 28:16, where God says He is laying ‘a cornerstone for the foundation.’ Verse 16 is surely a promise of Jesus –the ‘costly cornerstone’ of faith. Those who believe in Him will not be disturbed – no matter what happens around them. God is just and merciful in his dealings with men. He provides a way – the only way, that we can be made right with Him and asks only that we trust in the Way He has provided. John 14:6. In this way God cancels our punishment and descent to hell, verse18. But for those who choose to ignore God’s way judgment and destruction will come, verses 19-22. See also John 3:18.As troubles and disasters come in your life, do you ever wonder if God sees what is happening? Perhaps even if He knows what he is doing? Like the farmer who God instructs in verse 26, God knows what is appropriate and when. Do you doubt it? Take it up with God and then look in His Word for the answer. God’s Word assures us he knows, cares and knows exactly what He is doing.
We so often only see part of the pattern. We don’t see the big picture. He does. Times will change, circumstances will change. God knows just when to stop the hard times, Isaiah 28:28.
God promised woe for the city of Ariel, and judgment but then vengeance on the enemies of Ariel, Isaiah 29. It is pointless to pit ourselves against God. And yet people do it all the time – ignoring God’s plan of salvation, ignoring God’s Word and thinking they can live as they please. They can. But ultimately such living will take its toll. Whether they like it or not judgment will come – as it did on Jerusalem – as it did on those how ignored God’s prophets and thought they could live as they pleased and not follow God’s way, Isaiah 30:1.
God calls his people who refuse to listen, ‘rebellious people, false sons’ Isaiah 30:9, for they refused to listen to the seers and prophets God sent to them and they prophesied of the Holy One of Israel, verse 11. People today refuse to listen too as people talk of Jesus, the Holy One of Israel. My prayer is that you are not one of them.
Bible references from The New American Standard Version
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