Isaiah 63:15-19 – To honor God is a conscious choice!

Isaiah refused to entertain the thought that the loving and kind God who had rescued and delivered His people in the day of Moses would ignore them. He knew that in God’s lovingkindness, He would not allow them to remain in their plight, since He alone could bring about the restoration. Here in Isaiah 63:15-19, he earnestly pled with God to intervene in their plight as He did in ancient times.  

Identifying with God’s people, Isaiah wished to experience the zeal and mighty works of God which He had demonstrated in delivering His people in time past. He yearned for God to show His compassion and not be seemingly nonchalant about their desperate condition. Here the prophet gave reasons why God should do something for them. Firstly, He was their Father. Despite how they had strayed from their covenant relationship enacted through their forefathers, Abraham and Jacob, God remained their Father. As a Father, he would certainly have feelings and thoughts for them. Secondly, He was not only their Father but also their Redeemer. And as Redeemer, He certainly could do something to bring about their redemption and restoration.  

Verse 17 appears as if  Isaiah was blaming God for their plight, but he was not. Here He was acknowledging God’s Sovereignty. This is the belief that nothing will ever happen to God’s people if He does not allow it. Nothing can ever happen to us if God does not give His permission. God has granted us a will to freely choose our course in life, so He will not violate that will. When we have chosen a wrong path, God will only allow the consequence to awaken us to our wrong decision and return to Him. However, here Isaiah’s wish was that  God had intervened and not allowed them to stray and ended up in their predicament. He wished God would not give their enemies the opportunity to continue to suppress them, leaving them feeling deserted by Him.  

A passage like this leaves us with the lesson that it is important to make the right choice in life. Every decision we make has consequence. If we choose to do things that contradict God’s will, we will have to bear with the consequences that come with those decisions. We are free to choose but we are not free to choose the result of the decision. Therefore we must choose rightly and wisely. We must choose to honor God in every decision, it is the wisest thing to do!