God’s punishment

It Is Not God.

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Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. To me they cry, “My God, we — Israel — know you.” Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. – Hosea 8:1-6 ESV

Ever since the split of the kingdom, the northern nation of Israel had made a habit of ignoring God, transgressing His covenant and rebelling against His law. It had all begun with King Jeroboam’s disastrous decision to make his own gods, in an attempt to keep the people from going back to Jerusalem in the south to worship.

So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. – 1 Kings 12:28-31 ESV

Jeroboam had deemed himself a god-maker and led the entire nation into idolatry. And now, years later, after decades of unfaithfulness to God, the Assyrians were poised, ready to wreak destruction on the people of Israel – as part of God’s punishment for their blatant forsaking of Him as their god. But now that their world was falling apart, they had suddenly decided to call on God, saying , “My God, we — Israel — know you.” But nothing could have been further from the truth. Had they truly known God, they would not have committed the blatant acts of unfaithfulness that had marked their brief and less-than-stellar history. They had appointed kings without God’s approval. They had set over themselves princes and leaders without seeking God’s direction. And the original two golden calves had not been the only idols they erected and worshiped. Idols to Baal and other false gods were located throughout the kingdom.

But God condemned their idols, made with human hands, and He declared, “It is not God.” They were going to discover the simple truth behind that statement as they called out to their false gods in hopes of escaping the wrath of the Assyrian army. And when their idols failed to provide them with a miracle of deliverance, they would finally turn to God. But it would prove too little, too late. Their return would not be heartfelt and would lack true repentance. Their sorrow was not for their sins against God, but because of their circumstances. They weren’t repentant. They were simply remorseful. And their calling on God was nothing more than a last-minute attempt to escape the disaster looming over them.

It is not God. That is the key lesson they were to learn. Their false gods were not gods at all. They were man-made objects lacking life and devoid of any ability to provide help or hope. Their golden calves would end up broken and destroyed. Their places of worship would be torn down. Their reliance upon Egypt and other foreign powers would prove futile. Their real hope should have been in God alone. As the psalmist wrote, “Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalms 20:7 NLT). The prophet Isaiah warned against placing your trust in anything other than God. “What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the LORD, the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 31:1 NLT).

But how easy it is to trust in what we can see. How quickly we can turn to those things that appear to be real and worthy of our trust – instead of trusting in God. But as God’s people, we are to place all our confidence in Him. He is to be our strength, our comfort, protector and provider. But God is not to be treated like an in-case-of-emergency button. He doesn’t want to be our go-to God when all else fails. And yet, so often, we turn to God only after we have exhausted all other options. When we no longer have any tricks up our sleeves, we reach out to him for help. Our desperation prompts us to display an insincere form of remorse. But what God wants is true repentance, a brokenness of heart that causes us to reach out to Him in love and sincere sorrow. David said it well. “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God” (Psalm 51:17 NLT). The prophet Joel provided a picture of the kind of response God desires from His people:

That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse. Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine to the Lord your God as before. – Joel 2:12-14 NLT

God desires hearts that are sincerely sorrowful over their sin. He longs for His people to return to Him in heartfelt repentance, legitimately willing to turn from worshiping false gods and ready to place their hope in Him. If our only goal is to escape His judgment, we miss the point. If our repentance is not motivated by His love and a desire to be restored to a right relationship with Him, we are treating Him as nothing more than a get-out-of-jail-free card. Sometimes our difficulties and trials are an opportunity for us to realize that the thing we have been worshiping is not a god. The things we have been putting all our hope in is incapable of delivering what we have been expecting. It is not God. But He is. And He wants to be the God of our lives, providing hope, healing, help, and an ever-increasing holiness of character in our lives.

How Long?

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Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly? – Isaiah 64:10-12 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah’s prophetic ministry spanned the reigns of four successive kings in Israel. He had lived long enough to have seen God’s warnings of judgment come true. King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian troops had laid siege to Jerusalem for years and had eventually entered the city, pillaging and burning the temple of God, and taking captive many of the citizens of the city. As Isaiah surveyed the aftermath of all that happened, he knew two thing: They had gotten what they deserved and God was the one who brought it upon them. Their stubborn refusal to turn from their sin and back to God had led to their fall. God had not only allowed the Babylonians to defeat Judah, He had invited them to do so. They were acting on His behalf, as His agents of punishment. Jeremiah had recorded the words of God, warning, “behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation” (Jeremiah 25:9 ESV).

The sad state of affairs in which the people of Judah found themselves had been brought on by their own sin and had been sanctioned by the very God they had refused to obey. And Isaiah knew that as long as God remained angry with them, they had no hope. There was nothing they could do to change their circumstances. Their redemption lay completely in the hands of God. Only He could restore them, which is why Isaiah called out to Him. He knew that as long as God remained silent, the people would remain enslaved, impoverished, hopeless and helpless. It is interesting to note that the people of Judah had refused to obey God and serve Him alone, but now they were having to obey a foreign king and live as slaves to his will. They had rejected the one true King and found themselves serving a pagan, human king. But Isaiah was not willing to accept their current circumstances as final. He turned to the only one who could do anything about it. His prayer was for God’s redemption and restoration of His people.

But when God redeems, He offers more than just release from the guilt of sin. He desires more than just a release from the pain and suffering caused by sin. He wants to restore the relationship necessary for men and women to exist peacefully and pleasantly in His presence. The people of Judah needed more than just release from captivity to Babylon or the physical restoration of the temple and their city. They needed God. They needed their hearts restored. They needed their character transformed. And only God could bring those things about. God’s silence would only mean more suffering. God’s decision to delay His salvation would only prolong their pain. Isaiah knew the people of Judah well enough to know that, in spite of all that they were having to endure, they were hardheaded enough that they would never repent of their sins and return to God. So He was appealing to God to do what only He could do. Save.

All the way back in chapter 44 of Isaiah, God had spoken these words to Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
who frustrates the signs of liars
and makes fools of diviners,
who turns wise men back
and makes their knowledge foolish,
who confirms the word of his servant
and fulfills the counsel of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’
and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built,
and I will raise up their ruins’;
who says to the deep, ‘Be dry;
I will dry up your rivers’;
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’
and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” – Isaiah 44:24-28 ESV

Just as God had ordained and orchestrated the fall of Judah through the king of Babylon, He was going to one day restore the fortunes of His people and rebuild the temple through another pagan king. God was not done yet. He was not finished with the people of Judah and had not forgotten all the promises He had made to Abraham and David. Judah had to be restored. Jerusalem had to be rebuilt. The temple must be reconstructed. Why? Because one day God’s final solution to man’s sin problem would be born into the tribe of Judah, walk the streets of Jerusalem, minister in the temple courtyard and be crucified outside the city walls. All as part of God’s redemptive plan for the world.

Isaiah would never live to see that day, but he hoped in it and longed for it. So should we. We live in a time when men are enslaved to so much and held captive by the oppressive rule of so many things. Even believers find themselves living as slaves to sin, when they have already been set from its grasps. Our world longs for release from its pain and suffering. As believers we should long for the day of God’s salvation – the Day of the Lord. Our daily prayer should be, “How long?” We should long to know how much longer God will delay before He brings about His restoration and redemption to the world. How long will it be before He sends back His Son to call home His bride, the church? How much longer will He delay before He brings the final fulfillment of His redemptive plan for the world? Only He knows. But we can cry out for His salvation to come. We can long for His redemption to take place. Because only He can bring about the transformation this sin-sick world needs.