Isaiah 50:1-3 – God is more than able to us through

In captivity and far from their homeland, even though God had assured them many times of His deliverance, the people of God in exile still felt forsaken. It could also well be that while in captivity they heard of remarks that disparaged God and accusing Him of abandoning them. Some remarks could even be maligning God, saying He had no power and lack the ability to save them, that was why He left them in captivity. This could be why they remained so despondent.

So in Isaiah 50:1-3 Yahweh responded to all the insinuations. God had never divorced Himself from Israel. If they thought He had, God challenged them to prove it by showing Him the certificate of divorce. Neither did God sell them into slavery to settle His debt. In the last line of verse 2, God told them the true reason for the separation. It was because of their wrongdoings. Their transgressions made it necessary for God to deal with them and sent them into captivity. God was not to be blamed for what they had to go through. They had chosen not to heed God’s message through His Prophets.  

Their abject condition and depressive feelings were a making of their own. It was impossible for anyone in that condition to be able to see God’s ability to deliver. So the Lord asked two rhetorical questions to provoke them to think. He asked, “Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem? Or do I have no power to rescue?” He then pointed them to what He could do, He said: 

“Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke,
I turn rivers into a wilderness;
Their fish stink for lack of water,
And die of thirst.
I clothe the heavens with blackness,
And make sackcloth their covering.”

Never doubt the capability of our God. There is not a problem in our life that is too big that God is not able to help us deal with it. Our doubt about God’s ability to rescue is often due to our own apathy. Paul in Ephesians 3:20 assures us that God “…is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” “Nothing is too difficult for You (God)” so said Jeremiah 32:17. What say you? Remember, He made the heavens and the earth by His great power. And Jeremiah is right, nothing is indeed too difficult for Him. Trust Him even when we are in the lowest ebb of life. He will see us through. He will never leave us unassisted. Great is our Lord God Almighty!