Isaiah 8:19-22 – Live wisely and discerningly

Ahaz and the people of Isaiah’s day would not trust God despite God’s magnanimous extension of His grace. They persistently rejected this grace, so God would set them aside and turn to a remnant that would be faithful to Him. In Isaiah 8:9-18, we were shown the characteristics of the remnant. They were not only marked by the presence of God but also the fear and the truth of God. And such people we must be if we are to bring the light of God into a darkened world.

However, the questions asked in verse 19 reveal that there were those among the people of Judah, whose lives showed how detached they were from God. They were turning to medium and spiritists for guidance and direction. The questions Isaiah asked were poignant. “Should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead, on behalf of the living?” How senseless could they get! Why would they want to turn from the only safe guide, the law of God, and His testimony, to the words of medium and spiritists? It was sheer stupidity! They had the privilege to the truth, yet would not value them. Instead of embracing the truth, they were pivoting to the words provided by medium and spiritists. No one could get any worthwhile direction from necromancy because those mediums had no dawn. They did not have any internal light, hence no illumination within them. They could never tell the truth.

Here we see how contrasting it can be between genuine faith and spurious faith. To embrace genuine faith is to have light and to embrace the latter is to take on total darkness. Both genuine and spurious faith could be staring at the Word of God, one would bring discernment, and the other yield naught and force one to turn totally in the wrong direction. One leads to light and joyful relations with God and the other misguides and leads to a catastrophic world of darkness and gloom.

We conclude this chapter with the question that Isaiah asked, “should not a people consult their God?” We who fear the Lord know that only in Him can we discover true wisdom. In Him, we find discernment and discover the true purpose of living. Here’s an encouragement from 1 Corinthians 2:9 that says, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” What a privilege!