Tired Of God? (Isaiah 43:22-28; 44:1-5) Series

One of the most common questions that any human being can ask another, is this: "How are you doing?"

And in my circles, there are a few really common answers to this: "I'm fine. I'm alright. I'm really busy." There's also one more: "I'm tired."

It seems today as though everyone is always tired. Some of us have schedules that are too full, and don't we don't take the time to just slow down, and stop, and rest, enough. Some of us have alternative lives online. It feels like our true selves are our online persona-- our League of Legends account, or our Fortnight character. And we abuse our actual physical bodies, and neglect them, so that we can pour our true selves into our digital selves. Others of us are just unhappy, and one of the weird things about that is that we tend to stay up late, and abuse our bodies that way, when we feel that way. We make our bodies feel as tired and worn out, as we feel on the inside. And others of us just have too many stressful things in life to worry about, or too many kids to be anxious about, for us to sleep. How can you sleep very much, when there's so much to worry about (and lest we pick on that too hard, 2 Corinthians 11:28; there's a perfectly normal type of "anxiousness")?

So we're tired. We look tired. We feel tired. We try to compensate, perhaps, by sleeping more, or drinking more coffee, or pounding energy drinks all day. But we live tired.

Some of us are also tired in different ways, in relationships. We're tired of fighting our kids, or our parents, or our coworkers, or our boss. We're tired of bad attitudes, and poor work ethics, and complaining, and feeling like everything at the end of the day has to be done by us, if it's to be done at all.

A few of us, perhaps, are tired in a different way. We are tired spiritually. Now, what would that mean, to be tired spiritually?

Any talk about spirituality starts off by feeling broad, and fuzzy. But if someone told me they were tired spiritually, my gut reaction would be to assume they mean something like this: "I'm tired of church. I'm tired of worship. I'm tired of reading my Bible, and getting nothing out of it. I'm tired of praying."

A really transparent Christian might even take this a little farther. If you were brave, and honest, you might admit that you were tired of God. You're tired of Him seemingly doing nothing. You're tired of Him being far away, of Him not looking at you, of Him not listening to you (Isaiah 8:17). You're tired of praying, and getting nothing from God. No response, no help. Nothing.

I'm not sure I've ever met a Christian who was quite so transparent, or honest, or brave. I'm not sure that we tend to be aware of when we've reached this place. We don't spend enough time in the psalms to realize that these feelings are common the experience of God's people. We don't realize that the psalms help us fight through this, and fight for God's attention, and closeness. What we tend to do instead in this situation is just drift away from God, and from God's people, and we turn to someone or something else. When we get tired in marriage, it tends to lead to divorce. When parents get tired of their kids, it tends to lead to inattention, and neglect. When we get tired of God, we tend to turn to a different god (pointing toward next week's verses).

That's basically what's happening in today's passage. God's people, stuck in exile, are tired of God. They're tired of being his servants, of being his people. God doesn't listen to them. He ignores them. He doesn't help. And so they're tired of crying out to God, and getting nothing. They're tired of being in a one-sided relationship where they serve God, and God does nothing. They're tired of praying, of worshipping, of trying to maintain hope in him. God's people can't leave Babylon, because they've been conquered, and they're stuck. But there are a couple things they can do. They can be open, and transparent, about how they feel about Yahweh. They can leave Yahweh, and turn to other gods/idols. And that's what they've done.

In our passage today, we read Yahweh's response to this. It's another argument/disputation kind of passage. God's people are tired of him. How does God feel about that? And what does God say, and do, in response?

Isaiah 43:22:

(22) Now, not to me have you called out, O Jacob, ["not to me" is focused]

but you have become weary of me, O Israel.