No Expectation of God

Isaiah 43:14-28

Often we hear someone tell us their opinion on many things, from raising children to running the country, but we do not have an Isaiah proclaiming a message in this manner: “This is what the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says:” and if God blessed us with such a messenger would anyone listen?  We have to some degree covered the history of how Babylon came to power in the seventh century B.C. to defeat the Assyrians, thus establishing the Neo-Babylonian Empire.  The Chaldean tribe’s home base was at the point of two great rivers that emptied into what is called today the Persian Gulf, so shipping was of great importance to them.  And now this great empire will wander from place to place after their defeat.

While having dinner one evening with some dear friends from middle school days, we were discussing the mess we as a culture are leaving for our children and grandchildren.  By the time that conversation was over, I was depressed, and this morning I was excited to listen to Isaiah.  How America needs an awaking to our LORD, our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, and to listen to what He has said, and remember what He has done.

That is what God is telling His people coming out of Babylon, to recall what God has done for them, how He freed them from the Egyptians and lead them through the Red Sea, and crushed the great army of Egypt with the waters He had parted so that His people could walk through the sea on dry land.  God is telling His people coming out of Babylon to no longer dwell on the past, for He is doing a new thing, and do they understand, do they see what He is up to in this new exodus?  Not by the sea but in the wilderness He will reverse nature, with rivers in the desert and it will bring about a water source for both His people and the wild animals.

I wonder are we the Church making God weary, are we like Israel when God tells them they have not called on Him, “you have become weary of Me.”  We do not know if Israel quit making sacrifices or if it was a heart attitude of going though the motions with no expectation of God hearing and acting on their prayers.  I have a family member who has had little or no contact with a daughter for 15 years, and for many years our prayer has been asking God to make that relationship right, and this morning I heard God had answered our prayers, a time to rejoice!  But when we pray with no expectation it wearies the heart of God, and how we need to understand it is God’s time line, it is His plan for us, and many of us need to pray; not my plan but your best is what we seek.

If verse 25 does not warm your heart, run quickly to 2 Corinthians 13:5 and do what it instructs you to do.  “It is I who sweep away your transgressions for My own sake and remember your sins no more.”  Having God who knows your thoughts, chooses to not only forgive your sins but to remove your sins from His memory; for His Son Jesus became sin for us, taking it and nailing it to a cross.  Sin and death have been defeated, we are free to choose, sin no longer has control that is unless we make the wrong choice.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice