Isaiah 44: 1 – 28
The Lord’s
“Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. 2 Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; 4 They will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.’ 5 One will say, ‘I am the LORD’s’; Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; Another will write with his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel. 6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God. 7 And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them. 8 Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’” 9 Those who make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things shall not profit; They are their own witnesses; They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed. 10 Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing? 11 Surely all his companions would be ashamed; And the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together,
Let them stand up; Yet they shall fear, they shall be ashamed together. 12 The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails; He drinks no water and is faint. 13 The craftsman stretches out his rule, he marks one out with chalk; He fashions it with a plane, he marks it out with the compass, and makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. 14 He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak; He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some of it and warm himself; Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;
Indeed he makes a god and worships it; He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. 16 He burns half of it in the fire; With this half he eats meat; He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!” 18 They do not know nor understand; For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. 19 And no one considers in his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire, yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it; And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; A deceived heart has turned him aside; And he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” 21 “Remember these, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me! 22 I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” 23 Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel. 24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; 25 Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, and drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness; 26 Who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ and I will raise up her waste places; 27 Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’; 28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”’
If you are one who takes notes I want you now to write down something that is very important. In fact, if you do so, you will be fulfilling scripture. Write down these two words, ‘The Lord’s’ Look at verse 5 again. It says, ‘Another will write with his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ Consider for a moment what you have just written and think of its awesome insight. You have fulfilled this scripture verse by writing down that you belong to the Lord. Awesome! You are the LORD’s. You are His son or daughter because of His Wonderful work at Calvary. Thank You Holy Father, Adoni Yahweh. Thank You Wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus, Adoni Yeshua. And Thank You Precious Adoni Holy Spirit, Precious Holy Ghost.
Having described Israel’s current state the question would be asked, what can change the situation? The answer is now given. The only hope is the direct intervention of a gracious God.
“Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen.
Please note the reversal of order of the names Jacob and Israel. At present Israel His hardened servant is more like scheming Jacob. But the nation as an entity is still His chosen. Thus not all of them will become ‘devoted to destruction’ and ‘a reviling’. Implicit within the descriptions are that they are the seed of Jacob, and therefore of Abraham.
2 Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
You can see the loving intense heart of our Holy Father as He reveals how the nation had been made, fashioned and shaped by Adoni Yahweh right from the time of conception. They are His firstborn. Thus He will not desert them but will help them.
The change of Israel’s name to Jeshurun is significant. It refers back to Deuteronomy 32.15-17 which says, 15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 16 They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear.
Deuteronomy 32 appears to be re-echoed in this passage. Consider for example the reference to the Rock and the use of Eloah (in verse 8), the latter being the poetical word for God. There in Deuteronomy Israel, under the name of Jeshurun, (which is actually an affectionate term, ‘O upright one’), was castigated for growing ‘fat’ and prosperous, and thus forsaking God and lightly esteeming the Rock of their deliverance, moving Him to jealousy with strange gods, and provoking Him to anger with their abominations, sacrificing to god who were not gods at all, but demons.
The name Jeshurun occurs elsewhere only three times, in Deuteronomy 32.15; 33.5, 26. It probably means ‘upright one’. It may well therefore indicate the spiritual true Israel, while also through Deuteronomy 32.15 indicating rebuke.
So the mention of them as Jeshurun is in fact both a rebuke and a comfort. A rebuke because they had done exactly what Moses had said, and a comfort because He is promising to help them because He has in mind those who will yet be truly upright through His grace. It is a reminder that it is the upright ones who are the true Israel.
3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring;
Here the emphasis is totally on spiritual transformation. The great change to take place in God’s people will occur through the direct activity of God.
4 They will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.’
The Spirit of God is again pictured in terms of water poured down and the streams that result. The ground is dry until God’s Spirit works on it. But once His Spirit, His active, personal blessing, has come on Israel’s seed and offspring, they will spring to life like vegetation among the grass. They will grow like willows beside plentiful water.
Only someone who has lived in a similar climate to Canaan can picture the scene. First the dry barren ground, with everything brown and dead all around. And then the rain comes and suddenly as if from nowhere greenery springs up everywhere. It almost seems like magic, but it is really the result of the Creator’s work.
This is thus a picture of new life, of a new creation. It was what our Lord Jesus meant by being ‘born of water, even of the Spirit’ and being ‘born from above’ as taught to us in the Gospel of John chapter 3, 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
5 One will say, ‘I am the LORD’s’; Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; Another will write with his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.
‘One shall say, ‘I am Yahweh’s’, and another will call himself by the name of Jacob, and another will subscribe with his hand (or ‘write on his hand’ [like you just did) to Yahweh, and surname himself with the name of Israel.”
Then those on whom the Spirit works will boast in being Yahweh’s, they will write on their hands Yahweh’s name as a token of ownership, and they will gladly take the name of God’s Israel and become true ‘children of Israel’.
This pouring out of the Spirit was the great reality for the early church. It outwardly began at Pentecost as the Holy Spirit fell on Jews and reached out to Jews who were there from all over the Roman world, although the Spirit had unquestionably been at work throughout our Lord Jesus’ ministry and had been imparted in a special way to the Apostles in the upper room.
It is unscriptural to see the church and Israel as two separate bodies. The separate bodies are unbelieving Israel (which is not really Israel at all) and believing Israel, and the church became one with the believing Israel. The church is not ‘spiritual Israel’. It is physical Israel, made up of all who truly believe and are made one in the covenant. It is literal Israel. Israel had always been made up of descendants of the patriarchs and all who had been co-opted in. All through the centuries, from the very time of Abraham, people had been able to enter within the covenant and become ‘Israel’. It included many of Abraham’s servants and the foreign servants of the later patriarchs, it included the large number of foreign people who joined the Exodus and were confirmed as ‘Israel’ at Sinai, it included Uriah the Hittite and many such, it included proselytes through the ages, and it included all who through baptism and new birth entered the Israel of God. They did not replace Israel. They became Israel. And all who did not believe were seen as cut off from Israel.
Thus these words found their final fulfillment in the ministry of Jesus, the One drenched (baptizo) in the Holy Spirit, and through the ministry of the Apostles, when they welcomed men of all nations by the Spirit into the Israel of God. As Paul could say in the book of Romans chapter 8 verse 9 , ‘If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ he is not His at all’.
Please note the progression, ‘will say’, ‘will call himself’, will subscribe with his hand’, ‘will surname himself’. The commitment begins and becomes ever deeper and more personal.
6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.
Here our Great Adoni Yahweh is described as both King and Redeemer to Israel. This was His purpose, that He might rule over them and deliver them. Note that ‘King’ comes first. It was as their King by His own choosing that He planned to redeem them. Note also the contrast between Yahweh the king and Yahweh of hosts. First He is King and Overlord and then He goes into battle on their behalf. Thus all happens because ‘Yahweh reigns’.
He lets them know What He is. ‘I am the first and the last.’ That is, He sums up time. He begins it and ends it. And He was before all things and all things will be summed up in Him. There is thus no room for other deities, for where could they fit into His all-encompassing being? And which of them could have done what He has done? God has laid down the past and the future. What has happened and what will happen is under His hand. And He has declared Israel to be His people and what will come about through them. Who then can bring out anything comparable with that?
7 And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them.
God challenges anyone to show themselves as comparable with Him, to have revealed what He has revealed and to have done what He has done. Let them proclaim it, solemnly declare it, and lay out their facts about it cogently, so as to prove it.
8 Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’”
I remember as a youth stanchly defending the Roman Catholic religion. Although I lacked knowledge I made up for it in my zeal to be a protector of the faith. I was told that Peter was the first Pope. Thereby, it had to be the truth. He was called a rock by our Lord Jesus Christ and assigned to be the first leader of our Lord’s church. Amazing as I have studied the bible I do not find all those mis-information. Let’s see what the scriptures really say. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 we read this, “13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.”
There you go some may say. Peter was called a rock. See, it says that our Lord Jesus put Peter in charge because He gave him the keys to the kingdom. Really?
Look at the scripture again which says, “18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
No, it says that Peter [ whose name means pebble or stone] had confessed that the Lord Jesus Christ Is God’s Son The Messiah. The Rock has been and will always be Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High. Look again at the verses in Isaiah, “Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’”
You see the term our Lord Jesus said to Peter, ‘upon this Rock’, refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. He told Peter that this information is the key to heaven.
9 Those who make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things shall not profit; They are their own witnesses; They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
Today we may look at these verses and think to ourselves how ignorant these people must have been - To make an image of something and call it their God. Yet, before we start pointing fingers at these people we need to take a hard look at ourselves. Is there something that we put before God? I see some people give up on God for the man or woman of their dreams. Would you not agree that this person is taking the place of El Shaddai – Almighty God?
10 Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing? 11 Surely all his companions would be ashamed; And the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; Yet they shall fear, they shall be ashamed together. 12 The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails; He drinks no water and is faint. 13 The craftsman stretches out his rule, he marks one out with chalk; He fashions it with a plane, he marks it out with the compass, and makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. 14 He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak; He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some of it and warm himself; Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; Indeed he makes a god and worships it; He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. 16 He burns half of it in the fire; With this half he eats meat; He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!” 18 They do not know nor understand; For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. 19 And no one considers in his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire, yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it; And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”
Have you ever thought about why our Creator God gets so upset about these stupid idols? In the book of Exodus chapter 20 we read about the 10 Commandments. Right after our Holy God declares that He is the LORD and that we shall have no other God, He lists in His second Commandment that man shall not make any graven image nor bow down before it. So, again why is He so strong on this issue?
I think the answer lies in the fact that we do not understand how Holy He Is. Stop and think about this for a moment. There are three Holy Ones in Trinity. They are all the same. They are perfectly One together. Mathematically, they are not 1 + 1 + 1 = 3. They are 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. Just stop and think about how they have always existed. At some point they decided to make angels to minister to them. Then in Their amazing power and wisdom they created the heavens and the earth and finally us little dirt balls. Now, of course some are pretty dirt balls but dirt balls none the less.
We read in chapter 3 of the book of Genesis how our ancestors Adam and Eve fell into sin and all of us now are in a fallen state. So, here is my point. Our Great God Is at the top of the list. Here we have fallen man way down on the list making an idol, which is below even his lowly state. He now calls this idol God and worships it. He has taken our Holy Majestic Supreme Ruler and has insultingly lowered Him below the status of himself. Now can you see how this angers our Most Holy God?
20 He feeds on ashes; A deceived heart has turned him aside; And he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
Please take note of the statement, ‘He feeds on (over) ashes.’ This may be an abbreviated way of saying that the part of the tree that cooked his food has now turned to ashes while he feeds. It may signify that what he feeds on spiritually is but ashes, it has nothing left in it that is worthwhile. It is like ashes to the mouth. It is only fit to be spat out.
Either way the main point is that his heart is deceived by something that could by nature become ashes. And this source of potential ashes has turned him aside from the living God so that he is unable to deliver himself from its grip and recognize that it is but a lie, a deceptive thing. ‘He cannot deliver his soul.’ That is he is so deceived that he cannot deliver his inner self from this thing that has taken hold of him. He is a slave to a piece of wood that could easily be turned into ashes.
Having contemptuously dismissed the gods that men worship Yahweh now calls on His people to recognize how different He is.
21 “Remember these, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me!
God’s people are now told to remember all that He has said to them. For all will come about. And especially let them remember that they are His chosen servant, shaped and fashioned by Him. They do not shape their God, their God shapes them. And let them remember that they are a servant of His, and that He would never forget them. They do not serve branches of trees, they serve Yahweh the living God, Who formed and shaped them to be His servant. What a purpose was theirs, and what resources they had, and what a certain hope. Now they could go forward to fulfill their function. They could be sure He would not forget them.
22 I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
Indeed God has potentially removed all their transgressions and sins. They have been blotted out as by a thick cloud. They will no longer be remembered. So let them return to Him because He has redeemed them. The potential for complete forgiveness is before them because of the price He has paid in order to deliver them, both in their redemption from Egypt and in their subsequent deliverances, and in what it costs Him to bring about their cleansing through a multitude of sacrifices. For He has even constantly given up some of His creation to death, so that they might live. And we will learn shortly of an even greater sacrifice yet to be paid which we will come up in the great chapter 53.
23 Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.
So let the whole of creation unite in singing about what Yahweh has done and intends to do. The heavens, the earth down below, the mountains and forests, yes, and every tree, let them all join together in shouting and singing because of what God’s purpose is, and what He will accomplish in Israel. For Yahweh’s plan for His Servant will yet come to glorious fulfillment. We note here that the very trees from which idols are so foolishly made, they give praise to Yahweh. They know Who is Lord and Creator. Here then Yahweh declares that He will bring about His sovereign will in His own.
24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;
This new section begins with confirmation of what has gone before. Yahweh is Israel’s Redeemer, and as the One Who formed them from the womb and as their Kinsman Redeemer with a special interest in their welfare, because He had formed them from the beginning as His own in a special relationship. He had brought them to birth. And He now stresses that He alone is the Creator of all things, and that He has done it all alone, with none other with Him. He, and He alone, had stretched out the heavens, He had spread abroad the earth. None was there with Him. It was all His work. Thus there is no limit to what He can do. The whole earth is His.
25 Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, and drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness;
He also makes a fool of those who seek to discern the future. When those deceivers, the soothsayers, make use of their different methods of foretelling, He makes their tokens say the wrong thing, and He affects the minds of the diviners so that they continually err. The wise men (men wise in the occult) He turns back on themselves, and what they say is finally revealed as foolish. This is the constant experience of man. None know the future apart from Him.
26 Who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ and I will raise up her waste places;
In contrast He Himself confirms the word of His own prophets, and ensures the fulfillment of what His own messengers declare and advise. Thus men can determine Who to believe in, because it is only His prophets who reveal the truth, and whose words are fulfilled. This is one of the central thoughts in Isaiah that what Yahweh has said, He does.
In support of His prophets’ words He declares the certainty of the continuation of Jerusalem. Whatever happens, she will be inhabited. The parallel with the cities of Judah may indicate an expectancy that there will also be a necessity for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and if so it suggests that Isaiah had a premonition of what was going to happen to it. On the other hand the contrast between Jerusalem ‘being inhabited’ while the remaining cities of Judah would have to ‘be rebuilt’ may point to the situation after the relief of Jerusalem, when only Jerusalem was left standing. Unlike the cases of Babylon and Edom, however, Yahweh wants all to know that her future is secure. Whatever happens she will be inhabited. And He guarantees also the rebuilding of the cities of Judah, and the restoration of the waste places. As promised He will make a way in these wildernesses. While Judah may have been devastated by Assyria, it will be re-established, and God will ensure that His Servant has a base to work from for the sending out of His Law.
27 Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’;
In contrast to what Assyria has done, not only can Yahweh ensure the inhabiting and building of cities, but He can also dry up nations and peoples. Here the point is that He is so mighty that not only can He ensure the inhabiting of cities, but He can also remove the very lifeline of all nations. He can even dry up the sea, and the rivers that flow from it. He is the controller of the seas, and of the water supplies of nations, and thus He determines the future of those nations.
28 Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”’
That the inauguration of the new era was to be brought about by Cyrus, a Persian king, was indeed a new prophecy and remarkable. And the question would be asked, why should a king of Persia be interested in such things? The brief answer given here is that it is because Yahweh the great Shepherd has appointed him as His under-shepherd. He Who is sovereign over the nations can do what He will. He Who could use Assyria as the rod of His anger, could now use the house of Cyrus as His shepherd to watch over His people’s interests.
As you know our God’s thoughts and ways are not the same as our thoughts and ways. Most of the time when we come up with a solution it is far different then what God comes up with. The prophet Habbbakkuk had a similar issue with our Great Holy Master. Let us take a firsthand look at his interaction with our Maker.
“The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save. 3 Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. 4 Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds. 5 “Look among the nations and watch—Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you. 6 For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. 9 “They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. 10 They scoff at kings, and princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. 11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, ascribing this power to his god.” 12 Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. 13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he? 14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? 15 They take up all of them with a hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. 16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet; Because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful. 17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?
I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. 2 Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4 “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.
The next time you need to make an important decision remember this truth and seek God’s answer. You will then have the right way to go.
