God's Witnesses

Isaiah 1:19-20

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Sounds like a no brainer, doesn’t it?  Then the question must be asked, what is God asking the people to be willing and obedient to?  We must also ask is this a new word to the Jewish people, and we only have to look back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verses 11-20.  Do you recall that God has called heaven and earth as his witnesses against His children, in Isaiah 1:2, and as we explore Deuteronomy 30:11-20, it would be wise to see that these people have a history of God calling heaven and earth to be His witnesses to a covenant God is making with the Jewish people.  We who call ourselves Christian should identify with these Jewish people, for we also have entered into a covenant with our God, and we, like them, are covenant breakers.

Let’s explore what God is asking His people to be willing and obedient to do; we find the answer in Deuteronomy 30:11-20, “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Now you understand what God is requiring of His children, we know the Jewish people often ran to other god’s, god’s that made promises that they could not keep, this group that God is addressing in the passage above, have witnessed what rebellion cost, they have been wondering in a desert for 40 years, because their parents were not willing to enter the promise land on God’s terms.  They were covenant breakers; much like many in the church today they lived an independent life from the will of our Father and chose curses over blessings.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice