Complacency the enemy of Spiritual Growth

Isaiah 32:9-20

Isaiah is addressing women; warning them of being complacent, and the results of being complacent.  Is this a message for our time, or better said is this a timeless message, for each and every one of us?  What does complacency look like? The word is defined in this way: Complacent: “showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements.”

As a follower of Christ having a complacent spirit will render a person unusable, for we are told in Romans 12:1-3, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship.  And not to let the world mold us in its mold of self-centeredness and self-reliance, but to be transformed by the renewal of your mind, and this requires testing to discern the will of God.  Verse three makes it clear that as a follower of Christ there is no place for a complacent spirit; “For by grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

The prophet of God, Isaiah has addressed the women of Jerusalem earlier in Isaiah chapter 3:16 through 4:1.  This is what God is saying about these women; “The Lord also says:  Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, walking with heads held high and seductive eyes, going along with prancing steps, jingling their ankle bracelets, the Lord will put scabs on the heads
of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will shave their foreheads bare.”  (Isaiah 3:16-17)   

Now in chapter 32:9-20 God is addressing them as complacent and overconfident women.  These women in the community of God’s people are prideful in what they and others have done, not in what God has done.
These women are putting misplaced faith in the produce of the land, but Isaiah is proclaiming in one year the crops will fail.  Isaiah is telling them to begin mourning now for the judgment that is sure to come and the land will produce thorns and briers instead of grains and vines.  But that is not the worse judgment the city of Jerusalem will be turned into a place of wild animals.

But they, like us have a Redeemer, and God will in the future transform the land and the city, I’ve witnessed what God has done in Israel, and I’ve seen what He has done in the lives of many.  Praise His Holy Name!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice