Who do you seek?
This week's Bible study is on Isaiah 65:8-12:
God chooses us who choose him. He wants people to seek him, not fortune, luck, or destiny. You can't just do evil and then pray to God as an insurance plan or as a fun gamble. What are his desires? Who is he? Those are the questions we should be asking.
God is saying basically, "do you want me for me, or just to use me?" People use God for protection, provision, knowledge, and blessing, without necessarily loving him or wanting to know him. It's the difference between a successful marriage and a failed one: Do the husband and wife love each other, or do they just love being in love, or being provided for, or having a wedding? If we can't manage our earthly relationships it's not a far stretch to think our divine one may be in similar trouble.
God says that those who just use him for his blessing will be cursed. In the verses, Assyrians are revving up to rampage through and take over Israel and if the Jews are just going to use God, he's got no reason to stop the Assyrians from doing what they want to do. The people who worship him out of superstition or selfishness will be killed by the Assyrian army.
But what a blessing God has for those who seek him! Sharon was a swampy plain that is now the most densely populated part of Israel. (After Islam made it worse by deforesting it.) And yet God turns that substandard farmland into a pasture for flocks.
Achor is "the valley of trouble." And yet God turns that into a resting place. But only for those who seek him.
We live in a time where love and commitment are quaint and forgotten. The divorce rate is catastrophic, and that's just the people that even make it as far as to get married! People uproot and move constantly during their adult lives. They take a wife because they want sex, or a husband because they want kids. They move to a community because their job is there or the schools are good. They go to church because they want to feel good about themselves for having a religion. Nothing connects them to deep relationships. They seek an answer to their needs, not something outside of themselves.
God chooses us based on the slightest criteria. But who chooses him for his love and his greatness? We people who can't even commit to marriage, or a community, or a church are no good when it comes to committing to God. And yet choosing God and loving him is the most important thing.
This is what the Lord says:
“As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes
and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it,
there is still a blessing in it,’
so will I do in behalf of my servants;
I will not destroy them all.
I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah those who will possess my mountains;
my chosen people will inherit them,
and there will my servants live.
Sharon will become a pasture for flocks,
and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds,
for my people who seek me.
“But as for you who forsake the Lord
and forget my holy mountain,
who spread a table for Fortune
and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,
I will destine you for the sword,
and all of you will fall in the slaughter;
for I called but you did not answer,
I spoke but you did not listen.
You did evil in my sight
and chose what displeases me.”
God chooses us who choose him. He wants people to seek him, not fortune, luck, or destiny. You can't just do evil and then pray to God as an insurance plan or as a fun gamble. What are his desires? Who is he? Those are the questions we should be asking.
God is saying basically, "do you want me for me, or just to use me?" People use God for protection, provision, knowledge, and blessing, without necessarily loving him or wanting to know him. It's the difference between a successful marriage and a failed one: Do the husband and wife love each other, or do they just love being in love, or being provided for, or having a wedding? If we can't manage our earthly relationships it's not a far stretch to think our divine one may be in similar trouble.
God says that those who just use him for his blessing will be cursed. In the verses, Assyrians are revving up to rampage through and take over Israel and if the Jews are just going to use God, he's got no reason to stop the Assyrians from doing what they want to do. The people who worship him out of superstition or selfishness will be killed by the Assyrian army.
But what a blessing God has for those who seek him! Sharon was a swampy plain that is now the most densely populated part of Israel. (After Islam made it worse by deforesting it.) And yet God turns that substandard farmland into a pasture for flocks.
Achor is "the valley of trouble." And yet God turns that into a resting place. But only for those who seek him.
We live in a time where love and commitment are quaint and forgotten. The divorce rate is catastrophic, and that's just the people that even make it as far as to get married! People uproot and move constantly during their adult lives. They take a wife because they want sex, or a husband because they want kids. They move to a community because their job is there or the schools are good. They go to church because they want to feel good about themselves for having a religion. Nothing connects them to deep relationships. They seek an answer to their needs, not something outside of themselves.
God chooses us based on the slightest criteria. But who chooses him for his love and his greatness? We people who can't even commit to marriage, or a community, or a church are no good when it comes to committing to God. And yet choosing God and loving him is the most important thing.
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