Israel’s Stubbornness
“Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, who have descended from the line of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness— who indeed call yourselves after the Holy City and lean on the God of Israel; the LORD of Hosts is His name.
I foretold the former things long ago; they came out of My mouth and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze. Therefore I declared it to you long ago; I announced it before it came to pass, so that you could not claim, ‘My idol has done this; my carved image and molten god has ordained it.’
You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not acknowledge them? From now on I will tell you of new things, hidden things unknown to you. They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot claim, ‘I already knew them!’
You have never heard; you have never understood; for a long time your ears have not been open. For I knew how deceitful you are; you have been called a rebel from birth. For the sake of My name I will delay My wrath; for the sake of My praise I will restrain it, so that you will not be cut off. See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act; for how can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another.
Deliverance Promised to Israel
Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called: I am He; I am the first, and I am the last. Surely My own and founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand up together. Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD’s chosen ally will carry out His desire against Babylon, and His arm will be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I have brought him, and he will succeed in his mission.
Come near to Me and listen to this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time it happened, I was there.” And now the Lord GOD has sent me, accompanied by His Spirit. Thus says the LORD your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been as countless as the sand, and your offspring as numerous as its grains; their name would never be cut off or eliminated from My presence.”
Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare it with a shout of joy, proclaim it, let it go out to the ends of the earth, saying, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!” They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out. “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
Just in case the Israelites are laboring under a misapprehension that they had fooled God, God nails all those who have been playing spiritual games. ““Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, who have descended from the line of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness… For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze. Therefore I declared it to you long ago; I announced it before it came to pass, so that you could not claim, ‘My idol has done this; my carved image and molten god has ordained it.’”
OUCH! No doubt about it, God knows all the games the Israelites have been playing and wants to demonstrate graphically that he knows the future as well as the past. Repeatedly, God has tried to correct the Israelites and they have essentially shoved their fingers in their ears and chanted meaningless stuff to avoid hearing Him. “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been as countless as the sand, and your offspring as numerous as its grains; their name would never be cut off or eliminated from My presence.” As it is, many Israelite families will be decimated by Babylonians or Assyrians, never to be heard of again. And now God is issuing a new warning: Leave Babylon!!
God knows that the Medes and Persians will take over the Babylonian empire, putting all its citizens at risk. There are many Jews living in Babylon who have become quite comfortable there; why leave when business is so good? Now God has to use the threat of another invasion to shake these people up and also to remind them that “there is no peace for the wicked.”
APPLICATION: When I was growing up on a Midwestern farm, we raised pigs in open pastures with small individual hog houses. The pigs got part of their nourishment from the vegetation in those pastures; however, eventually, the pigs would nibble the clover, alfalfa, and timothy down to the nub, forcing us to move them someplace else. Using a front-end loader on the tractor, we would move those hog houses into a new pasture, and then the fun would begin. We would open a gate hole and begin driving those pigs toward it. Do you think those pigs would welcome fresh new pasture with delicious things to graze on? Are you kidding? Those pigs liked the old pasture; they were comfortable in it and it was familiar. Nope! No new pasture for them, thanks! So we would have to drive the pigs toward the gate hole and then form a three-sided pen with three people each manning a long gate. We would keep reducing the size of the pen, forcing some of the pigs through the open gate hole. The most conservative pigs would continue to face us as we gradually reduced the space where they were standing. Frequently, we would have to bump those pigs on their noses – the only tender spot on a pig – before they would finally RELUCTANTLY go through the hole and inch their way into fresh green pasture.
Most people are just as short-sighted and as stubborn as those pigs; certainly, that was the case for the Israelites. Once they had settled in, it took invading armies to drive the Israelites in the direction God wanted them to go. But are any of us any better? God has a perfect plan for our lives, a plan that would bring us rich contentment. The fruit of the Holy Spirit as described in Galatians 5:22-23 are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self – control. God wants us to have victory right in the midst of our problems. Sadly, many of us refuse God’s great gifts, deluding ourselves that we will find rest and peace somewhere else through our own efforts. In our own way, we are just as foolish and as short – sighted as those pigs were all those years ago.
How can we access the fruit of the Holy Spirit? We must first acknowledge that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves from the consequences of our sins. Then, we must recognize the blood sacrifice that Jesus Christ has made on the cross at Calvary, a sacrifice He has made for the sins of the whole world. If we pray, asking God’s forgiveness and accepting what Jesus has done for us, we will become followers of Jesus. At that point, the Holy Spirit can come alongside us as our unseen Helper who can lead us into all truth. But if we refuse, insisting that we can save ourselves, we remain in our sins and we will have no peace.
God says that there is no peace for the wicked. The choice is ours: peace and contentment or continual turmoil. Choose wisely!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Jesus, thank You for dying for our sins and shedding your blood as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Lord, help all those who read these words to believe in You and what You have done for us, so that they may enjoy Your peace. In Your mighty and precious Name, King Jesus. Amen.
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