Who are You angry with?

Isaiah 9:8-21

Have you read this account of a people blessed by the LORD and yet in pride and arrogance have chosen to live independently of God?  As I read these verses, I wonder are we in the Church also following this same path?  Shall we see the hand of God’s judgment on the children because we refuse to repent, and are we doing the same thing? 

“The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel; and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart: “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.” (Isaiah 9:8-10 ESV)  Many of us who claim to be followers of Christ know the bricks have fallen, but we have not humbled ourselves before the LORD, but with pride and arrogant hearts have set out to turn the tide with our giving to the causes that want to build back with dressed stones, and put cedars in the place of the sycamores.  Would we not be wise to revisit the account of Abraham’s plea for Sodom, when he began the plea, if it was the will of God to spare the city for 50 righteous people, and the plea went down to 10, and the Lord answered, “I will not destroy it on the account of ten.”  (Genesis 18:32b)  We know that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed and yet Abraham engaged God for a wicked people to save the few who were righteous.  For the people of Abraham and Isaiah’s time were just like the people of today, because their city and nation were collapsing politically, morally, and spiritually and they refused, because of pride and arrogance, to confess their sins and beg God to forgive their foolishness and to forgive their sins first and do as Abraham; pled for the righteous.

So the hand of God was against Israel, “But the LORD raises the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies. The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the LORD of hosts. So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day— the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail; for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.” (Isaiah 9:11-16 ESV) 

As you read the last few verses of Isaiah 9: 17-21, ponder on this, could Isaiah be talking about our nation, has the hand of God been removed from our Nation?   Are we a people of contempt for the ones who are on the other side, do we despise those who live off the dole, are we not angry, and yet whom are you angry with?   The enemy is not the other party no matter how wrong they are, the enemy is that old serpent, the devil, the one God addressed as the thief who came to kill, steal and destroy.  So as one who has missed the mark many times, look to Jesus no matter what is happening in the culture, or the nation; Jesus came to give us life to the full, and to give peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Only Jesus can do that in you, if you are willing.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice