One of my favorite things about my phone is the maps app. If my GPS knows where we are going, then I rest secure, I simply follow the voice’s directions. My GPS offers regular reassurance, little sound effects so I know when I am getting closer to where I have to turn. But that is not all! My GPS has a moveable map with my path highlighted, warning me of what lies ahead. The voice knows the names of the roads I am traveling, the app knows how fast I am going, and when I can expect to arrive. I am in capable hands and so long as I follow the GPS I get to where I need to be.
But sometimes, even with all that, I miss a turn. Perhaps, at first, my GPS assumes I am on the right course, but the sad fact is, I really am on the wrong road, and if I insist on staying on it, I am going to get farther and farther away from my destination. When I hear the voice reassuring me that with a turn here, or a redirect there, I will be safely on my way on a freshly rerouted plan. If I refuse to heed that voice, I will go farther and farther astray, far away from where I originally intended to go.
That is what God had to say to God’s people in Isaiah’s final two chapters.
Seriousness of Sin
Of the many ways to understand the concept of sin, in this context it means knowing the way of God, and the way to God, yet refusing to walk in those ways. Isaiah acknowledged this is what the people of God had been doing, and seemed bent on continuing to do. Isaiah was broken-hearted, and wondered why God would allow them to stray, and so far, for so long.
Now, Isaiah had just finished praying, Will you come, God? Will you bridge the gap of sin that we have created? God gave Isaiah a reply.
“I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
Isaiah 65:1-2 (NRSVUE)
to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that did not call on my name.
I held out my hands all day long
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices”
Here I AM, Come to Me
God was already there, making God personally available, spreading out God’s hands (so to speak) in invitation, saying, Here I AM, come to me. God from the beginning made it possible for all people, for the gap of sin to be bridged through Messiah, Jesus.
God is personally available even to those who did not know to call on the Lord, and the Lord redirects and disciplines those who do know God, yet are rebellious against God.
The apostle Paul applied both of these verses to the salvation of the gentiles, in his letter to the believers in Rome.
“Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
“‘I will use those who are not a nation to make you jealous;
with a foolish nation I will provoke you.’“Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
“‘I have been found by those who did not seek me;
Romans 10:19-20 (NRSVUE)
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’”
Paul was explaining that as the Jewish people closed themselves off to God’s offer of salvation through the Lord Jesus, so God was opening the way for the gentiles to come to faith. Jesus taught the same thing in his parables about the wedding banquet. When the invited guests refused to come, the host opened the banquet up to any who would accept his invitation.
“Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
Matthew 22:8-10 (NRSVUE)
God described the sins of God’s people that kept them from receiving the Lord. They were a people who resisted God’s grace and God’s loving appeals, even though the Lord held out welcoming arms to them and spoke to them through God’s word.
Isaiah 65:2, they rebelled against God even as the Lord held loving hands out to them. They walked in a way that is not good, following their own mental constructs, their own philosophies for life instead.
Isaiah 65:3, the people provoked God in God’s presence, offering sacrifices and the incense of prayer in their own gardens and on their own makeshift altars rather than at the temple.
Isaiah 65:4, they participated in spiritism, spending nights in tombs, hoping to hear a word from the dead. It was an affront to God, Who expressly forbade the people from trying to talk to the dead, to use witchcraft or to get involved with the occult and demons.
They also openly flaunted God’s laws concerning clean food and made sacrifices to idols in areas that they had made sacred to the gods of other nations. The people were not trying to find God, they were intrigued with the mysterious and exotic religions of the surrounding cultures.
Idolatry
Isaiah had been warning the people about the dangers and spiritual adultery of idolatry all throughout his book. Certainly, during Isaiah’s time, it was a cultural norm to worship a variety of gods, and part of that worship involved offering sacrifices and votives to a physical image of some kind. A few cultures worshipped what archaeologists call an “aniconic” deity, a god that has no form or likeness. Israel’s God is (and remains) aniconic.
But at a deeper level, at a spiritual and emotional level, an idol can be made out of anything that seems to have more power to satisfy than the love of God. Certainly, love for God will move to love for the idol, and the idol will be served. Whatever it seems necessary to do to keep the idol’s favor will become more important than God’s way, and the way to God. Certain questions can help discern if there are idols hiding in our emotional and spiritual closet.
- How willing would we be to disobey God in order to continue to serve, or keep, whatever it is?
- Would we stretch the truth in order to achieve it?
- Would we spend money we do not have to get it?
- Would we go against our understanding of Scripture or godly counsel to gain it?
- Are we willing to step over someone or harm someone in order to obtain it?
Sometimes an idol can start out as a good thing, something you and I feel comfortable wanting, maybe even justified, or holy in wanting. But the desire for fulfillment in that thing goes bad when it is taking too high of a place in our ambition and affection.
The attraction of an idol is that we think we can control it. We are afraid that if we yield to God, the Lord may not allow us to have whatever it is that we are certain we need for life fulfillment, or for happiness and joy. We fear God may steer us in a direction we do not want to go, or ask sacrifices of us that seem unnecessary or too painful or are unfair, including the sacrifice of that very thing we are certain we must have to be happy.
In spite of all this, however, the people considered themselves a very holy people.
How could they think that?
Because they also continued to keep up their religious lifestyle in other ways. That made it a lot harder for them to discern their idolatry.
