The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Isaiah 1:2-3,
"Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth!
For the Lord has spoken:
'I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its master,
the donkey its owner's manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.'"
God elected to bring into his family all mankind who would embrace him in faith. He found Abraham as a man who expressed that kind of faith he desired in people, so he made a covenant with Abraham that he would make a great nation of him. Initially this nation would be comprised of his own physical offspring. (Eventually it would include all people who emulate the faith of Abraham, his "spiritual offspring". See Romans 9:6-8; 30-33) His specific purpose for that nation, Israel, was to be the vehicle through whom he would bring his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to pay for the sins for all mankind.
When God called Isaiah to his prophetic ministry, sometime around 740 B.C., Israel was in great need of a course correction, hence the need for Isaiah's ministry. In the verses above we see the Lord as very unhappy with his people. They were on a trajectory that would preclude them as profitable for his purposes (bringing Jesus Christ into the world). He sent Isaiah as a warning, and as things worked out, it was a formidable and horrific change in direction God charted for them. God's will and his purposes would not be thwarted.
I have to ask myself this morning: am I useful to God for what he intends of me? Am I due a course correction in my life? I would hate to find myself in the predicament Israel placed herself in.
For the Lord has spoken:
'I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its master,
the donkey its owner's manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.'"
God elected to bring into his family all mankind who would embrace him in faith. He found Abraham as a man who expressed that kind of faith he desired in people, so he made a covenant with Abraham that he would make a great nation of him. Initially this nation would be comprised of his own physical offspring. (Eventually it would include all people who emulate the faith of Abraham, his "spiritual offspring". See Romans 9:6-8; 30-33) His specific purpose for that nation, Israel, was to be the vehicle through whom he would bring his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to pay for the sins for all mankind.
When God called Isaiah to his prophetic ministry, sometime around 740 B.C., Israel was in great need of a course correction, hence the need for Isaiah's ministry. In the verses above we see the Lord as very unhappy with his people. They were on a trajectory that would preclude them as profitable for his purposes (bringing Jesus Christ into the world). He sent Isaiah as a warning, and as things worked out, it was a formidable and horrific change in direction God charted for them. God's will and his purposes would not be thwarted.
I have to ask myself this morning: am I useful to God for what he intends of me? Am I due a course correction in my life? I would hate to find myself in the predicament Israel placed herself in.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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