“The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’”
Isaiah 1:1-3 NIVUK
Isaiah started his massive book of prophetic writings with a vision that spanned the years from about 740BC to 700BC, across the reigns of the four kings quoted in the first verse of chapter one. So in a sense, these initial verses in Isaiah form an overview of what was to come, and he didn’t hold anything back. We don’t know who Isaiah’s father was apart from his name, Amoz, but Isaiah based all his prophetic messages on the covenant between God and His people, Israel, and, straight away, we see a charge laid against the Israelites for failing to understand who their Master was. It is quite a poignant start, as any parent will understand, in that the Lord declared that He has reared His children but then they rebelled against Him.
How many parents today can echo the same theme, as their teenage children find that they want to plough their own furrows and move on, rebelling against their parents’ authority. They may drop out of college, or school. They may get into the wrong company and start on the slippery slope into moral and physical ruin, riven by drugs and caught up in crime. There was a Biblical character who did just that, and he became the subject of one of Jesus’ parables. We read, “Jesus continued: ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them” (Luke 15:11-12). Here we have it: a rebellious son bringing heartache and shame to his father, with a lack of respect and honour. Straight away, we can see Jesus’ take on the complaint made by God 700 years before. But the story continued in the next verse, as predicted, “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living”. The Israelites rebelled against their Father in Heaven, the One who created them, and the younger son rebelled against his father, who brought him up.
But after a while, the son found that a life of debauchery failed to satisfy him, and eventually he ran out of the means to keep living that way. There was nothing like hunger pains and the demeaning task of feeding pigs to bring common sense back into his life, and the son returned to his father. But what was the first thing that he thought about, through the fog of hunger that was clouding his mind? His father. He must have gone over and over in his mind what he would say in that moment when he knocked on the front door of his father’s house, and we read, “When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants”” (Luke 15:17-19).
But what about his father? He didn’t stay inside, mourning and moping, wondering what he had done wrong in his child-rearing days. Instead, we read in the next verse that he kept watch, “ … But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him”. Back in Isaiah, we overlay the actions of the prodigal’s father over the way the Lord must have felt after rearing his children, the Jews, only to find them rebelling and going their own way. The prodigal’s father had the pleasure of welcoming a repentant son back into his house, but God had yet to see the fruit of His patience with His rebellious children.
The Lord’s complaint against Israel compared the limited knowledge of an ox and a donkey, animals that knew the source of all they needed for life, with the lack of knowledge of the Jews, who failed to understand who their Source was. Worse, they proceeded to work out their rebellion by pushing God away. So God looked on, yearning for them in the same way that the prodigal’s father yearned for sight of his own son.
We pilgrims were redeemed from a life of sinful rebellion against God. After all, what is sin, other than rebellion against God? God, as any loving parent would, set out the right way to live before His children. He warned them that choosing any other way would only lead one day to ruin. We pilgrims know the same, but we are thankful for the Holy Spirit within us, gently whispering in our ears, “Not that way; go this way”. Yes, we too get it wrong sometimes, but God, the Father, is always looking out for us, heading back into our arms.
Heavenly Father. We thank You that You are always there for us, and always ready with open arms to welcome us back home. We worship You today. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 