Isaiah 30:8-11 NLT
8 Now go and write down these words.
Write them in a book.
They will stand until the end of time
as a witness
9 that these people are stubborn rebels
who refuse to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions.
10 They tell the seers,
“Stop seeing visions!”
They tell the prophets,
“Don’t tell us what is right.
Tell us nice things.
Tell us lies.
11 Forget all this gloom.
Get off your narrow path.
Stop telling us about your
‘Holy One of Israel.’”
It is a human trait to avoid bad news, especially about ourselves. We want to hear compliments and kind things that boost our self-worth and make us feel good. In my working life, as a manager, I can remember two people who were opposites in this respect. With one, I had great difficulty in bringing a different idea or alternative method, even gently, because at the slightest hint that they were not doing things the right way, they would dissolve into floods of tears. The other was so thick-skinned that no amount of correction would change their thinking. A manager can only do so much to change their team members’ thinking. Good news can boost productivity and build the right work environment, but bad news is hard to deliver because people don’t want to hear it.
But there is a world of a difference between a working environment and the relationship of a nation with the God who created them, and who chose them to be His special people. The Lord asked Isaiah to write a book containing some bad news about the behaviour of the Judeans. And this book was to stand as a witness that they had been told the error of their ways, and had ignored it. So in the event that dire consequences followed, they could never say that they had not been warned and knew nothing about their problems. This list of problems was damning in its scope. The Judeans were “stubborn rebels” who refused “to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions”. In a schoolroom, home, office, or factory, instructions are there for a number of purposes. They could be for safety reasons, with children being told not to do something because if they did it then they were endangering themselves and their fellow students. A worker might be required to use goggles to protect their eyes if they were fabricating a metal object that required the use of a grinder. Workers in an abattoir are required to use metal mesh gloves if cutting meat. In the office, fire regulations are instructions that must be followed. To the Judeans, the Lord’s instructions were clear, and they started with a principle that Jesus explained to a Jewish religious lawyer. The lawyer’s question was, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” (Matthew 22:36). We then read Jesus’ response: “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). But Jesus didn’t just make up His response; He quoted Scriptures that were available from the Book of Deuteronomy, a Book that was also available to the Judeans. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 reads, “Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength“. And Jesus then quoted Leviticus 19:18, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD”. After Jesus answered the religious lawyer, Mark’s account records that the lawyer said, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbour as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law” (Mark 12:32-33). The next verse is interesting. We read, “Realising how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions”.
Jesus knew what God required of His people, and so did the religious lawyer, but the Judeans in Isaiah’s day apparently didn’t want to know. Whenever the prophets and seers had visions or sayings that were supposed to draw them back to God and His instructions, the people told them “Stop seeing visions!” and “Don’t tell us what is right. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies“. And they concluded, “Forget all this gloom. Get off your narrow path. Stop telling us about your ‘Holy One of Israel’“. Isaiah wrote all this down in his book, and it is still before us today to remind us of a people who were “stubborn rebels”.
There is a Book today that also records the acts of God towards His created people throughout time. Mankind’s rebellion started in a Garden when sin disrupted and destroyed the relationship between God and His creation. It was a creation that God loved, and we read all about it in Genesis 1:27, 31: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. … Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! … ”. Sin developed, destroyed and corrupted mankind, and human wickedness on the earth became so prevalent that everything human beings thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. In response, one of the saddest verses in the Bible can be found in Genesis 6:6, where we read, “So the LORD was sorry he had ever made [human beings] and put them on the earth. It broke his heart“. In relational terms we hear how the bad behaviour of a spouse destroys a relationship, breaking the other party’s heart, meaning that the wronged person has been deeply affected by the other. But how much more was God’s heart broken by the behaviour of “stubborn rebels who refuse to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions”? Instructions, I should add, that were there for the people’s benefit, not God’s.
The Bible is still with us today, and it has become the best-selling book of all time. But as well as being a handbook of God’s love for His people, and containing the instructions that lead to life for those who read it and obey it, it is also a book that I suspect will be opened at the end of time, as a witness in the final trial in a Heavenly court. I love the Bible, and I will keep on loving it until I can read it no longer, instead being with God in a new and wonderful Heavenly home. But it will still be there I suspect, until what Jesus said in Matthew 5:18 is accomplished, “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved“. I deeply regret the time when I have disobeyed the instructions contained therein, and pray for God’s grace to hear my prayers of repentance, bringing my redemption.
We pilgrims neglect reading God’s Word at our peril. We may squirm in discomfort at the words we read, but they are there for a reason, as Paul reminded Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). And so we pray together …
Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your Word and all it contains for our lives. The devil may try and confuse us and introduce doubts into our minds about its authenticity, but we stand firm and praise and worship You today and every day, thanking You for all that You have done for us. Please forgive us for all our sins, and lead us in Your ways forevermore. Amen.
