God's Warning Shots

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word:

 

Isa 9:8 The Lord sent a word against Jacob, And it has fallen on Israel. 9 All the people will know-Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria-Who say in pride and arrogance of heart: 10 "The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars." 11 Therefore the LORD shall set up The adversaries of Rezin against him, And spur his enemies on, 12 The Syrians before and the Philistines behind; And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still. 13 For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them, Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts.

 

This particular judgment pronounced by Isaiah is aimed at the Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes of Israel, but if the shoe fits, we would do well to wear it….to take heed.

 

The Lord sent this word to the people through His prophets, and He does the same thing today. He speaks to us through those who proclaim the full counsel of His Word….Law and Gospel!

 

Few people are willing to admit that God still sends judgment to the nations in the form of economic blight or plagues, or the warring strategies of other nations. He can use any and all of these negative circumstances to get our attention.  But how do the nations respond?

 

Our buildings are in shambles? No problem, we’ll build new and better ones. Forests laid bare, no worry, we’ll replant. A plague among us? We’ll create a cure. Economic hardship? No problem, we’ll print more money.  No need to turn to God, we’ll fix it ourselves.

 

And hell is filled with people who try to fix it themselves apart from God! Eph 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. You and I cannot fix our sin problem, we can’t turn God’s wrath against sin away by what we do. It’s His grace alone that spares us!  Repent and believe the Gospel!

It’s an age old problem spelled out for us here in Isaiah. God uses hard times to get our attention, but for the most part we refuse to turn to Him or seek His face. We blow off the words of  Isa 45:22 "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.