Isaiah 48:1-11 - Don’t take God for granted

Beginning in chapter 44, Isaiah prophesized about the rise of King Cyrus, the Persian monarch who would deliver Judah from their exile in Babylon. We have said that what was foretold about his coming took place a hundred and fifty years before he arrived at the scene. God even called him His shepherd, meaning he would care for God’s people enough to grant them their liberty. Chapter 48  closes the segment in the book of Isaiah concerning the coming of Cyrus. Isaiah 44-48 had been termed the book of Cyrus.

Here again, we are reminded of God and His word. The emphasis is on what God had said concerning Himself to prove that He alone is God and no one else. Here Yahweh again called Judah to listen to His word. As we explored in the book of Cyrus, we cannot help but sense the reluctance of God’s people to readily receive His instruction. That accounts for why God seemed to be repeating Himself again and again. 

 

In the opening verse of Isaiah 48, God called the people of Judah to attention and to listen to Him again. Though He recognized that they had called upon Him and invoked His covenant name, He saw in their approach lacking sincerity. God reproached them for their hypocrisy and insincerity. God saw their stubbornness and said of them, “your neck is an iron tendon and your forehead bronze.” God took pain to declare to them the former things. Why? He wanted to make known to them in advance what would happen to them so that they would not attribute His works to that of the work of the idols. God knew they were a treacherous people and had the tendency to profane His name. Hence what He had done would be to preserve His own name and dignity.  He would not share His glory with another.

 

These verses show how magnanimous God truly is. He would inform His people why they would be sent into captivity. Yet at the same time, He would assure them that He Himself would deliver them from the heavy dealing of the Chaldeans whom He would use to chasten them. He did it all for His own sake and for His own name. If God did not intervene, they would be obliterated. Their afflictions, He assured them, was to purify and perfect them.  

 

We must never take God for granted. His goal is to perfect us as we walk with Him. When we choose to respond to Him with obedience, we find ourselves being transformed quickly. When we choose not to respond to Him willingly, we find ourselves confronted with hard times. Even then they are meant to make us better. God will use the hard times we encounter to perfect us. Let us learn to be sensitive to His dealings with us.