Don't Take God For Granted

1: The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3: The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4: Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

5: Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6: From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

7: Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8: And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9: Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

1 Isaiah prophesied under (4) kings, Uzziah when he died (Isa.6:1), Jotham; the son of Uzziah reign 16 years and he died, Ahaz who reigned 16 years and he died and Hezekiah who reigned 29 years and he died. Isaiah is at this time prophesying under the second king Jotham when he wrote these words. I would not have been written except Jotham did not enter the house of the Lord for worship. He wanted to do the right thing in bring the people to God. He however did not worship the Lord God. We cannot just talk the talk; we need to walk the walk. Then there is Hezekiah who was a king that walked right before the Lord. In all the four kings Isaiah preached a total of 61 years. He could only do this by not taking God for granted.

2 Isaiah at the command of God calls the heavens and the earth to attend to hear and give ear to the accusations that God has against the children of Israel. They are His because He is the One that brought them out of bondage, that took care of them, preserved them from all that would hurt harm and devour them. He who has been by their side through thick and through thin. He who through His love , care and compassion birthed a nation that was no nation and He therefor has the right to refer to them an His own. This is the accusation : I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. This is not unlike what we have in our society today. We bare children, care for them with loving care, give them food to nourish their bodies and provide for them the best that the Lord will allow and what rewards do we expect? We expect our children to grow up strong and to become successful in their own right and many times this happens; however on the other hand it is totally the opposite. Our little ones learn to rebel. Yes the start to rebel as soon as they are able to make the smallest decisions. As an infant when they are hungry they eat what we give them to eat. As they grow to 7 or 8 months old they start to take the food and spit it out, to turn their precious little heads away as we try to feed them. They further rebel when they become toddlers. We instruct them to not climb on tables and when we are not looking they attempt to climb on the tables. We tell them to play in the yard and before we know it they are playing in the neighbors yard or in the street. And through out the teenage years we find that there are curfews broken, chores done when it is convient for them and not when it should be done, and later in life the teaching that have been put into them through the word of God get pushed aside for the life that the world has to offer. All of this is nothing but rebellion and God takes notice of it. God is therfore competent and just and fair when He says that His children have rebelled. The people have taken God for granted.