It came like a storm. All who faced the onslaught were slack jawed and surprised. Amid their furious activities–all was lost. Isaiah describes Judah’s exile in detail. It was as if he was watching an epic newsreel on the big screen . Homes abandoned, fields lay waste, and people who previously were endeavoring and partying like there was no tomorrow; suddenly found that overused cliché to be true.
As the armies advanced and families were separated and led away, the scrolls lay untouched and undisturbed. Isaiah’s words most certainly would have been fitting and accurate to the end of the kingdom of Judah and Benjamin. Still, they did not know when or by whom the end of Israel’s inhabitance would come. Nebuchadnezzar ordered the recalcitrant nation destroyed and its people exiled. He and those that followed had no idea that God’s hand would also change their worlds.God remains in charge.
Both then and now, People continue to fool themselves into thinking that they can, in some way, take charge and direct their own fates. God sighs, slowly shakes His head, and continues to execute His plan for His creation. What is left, for those that diligently seek him, is to pray and to trust Him to keep His word–to prepare, protect and to provide amid all the trouble.Pray without ceasing, seek the Lord with all your heart. We neither know the time or the method of God’s plans for us–but we do have a long history of the Lord completing what He has started. In our world, it has become notorious to follow the Lord and to speak candidly of the state of the culture.
If we, as a nation, continue on the current track, then there will not be a nation left to carry God’s banner and align with His people. Let us pray and seek the Lord and His mercy–as Hezekiah did when Isaiah told him to get his affairs in order. As David’s friend Jonathan quipped to his armor bearer, “Perhaps the Lord will work for us.”God Bless You
The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
“Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres[d] of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”[e]
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
that they may run after strong drink,
who tarry late into the evening.
as wine inflames them!
12 They have lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord,
or see the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people go into exile
for lack of knowledge;[f]
their honored men go hungry,[g]
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure,
and the nobility of Jerusalem[h] and her multitude will go down,
her revelers and he who exults in her.
15 Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty[i] are brought low.
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted[j] in justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,
and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
who draw sin as with cart ropes,
19 who say: “Let him be quick,
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
and let it come, that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!
24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will be as rottenness,
and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,
and the mountains quaked;
and their corpses were as refuse
in the midst of the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
26 He will raise a signal for nations far away,
and whistle for them from the ends of the earth;
and behold, quickly, speedily they come!
27 None is weary, none stumbles,
none slumbers or sleeps,
not a waistband is loose,
not a sandal strap broken;
28 their arrows are sharp,
all their bows bent,
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like a lion,
like young lions they roar;
they growl and seize their prey;
they carry it off, and none can rescue.
30 They will growl over it on that day,
like the growling of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
behold, darkness and distress;
and the light is darkened by its clouds.
Walking With God 