7/5/11

Unbearable!!!


Oh, NO; not again!  That's what this picture says to me!!!  If you have raised children, then you know all about this feeling.  Sometimes kids make the same stupid mistake, over and over and over again, until you think it will drive you crazy.  You love them, but it becomes unbearable to watch their antics.  I can imagine that is how God must feel, when HE sees us sin, over and over again.  Listen to what the prophet Isaiah says...


Isaiah 1:1-14 (WEB)
1) The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2) Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3) The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”
4) Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.
5) Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6) From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.
7) Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8) The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.
9) Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.
10) Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
11) “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?,” says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.
12) When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?
13) Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t bear with evil assemblies.
14) My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.


Unbearable!!! OK, its a play on words, but it IS appropriate.  God hates sin and it must be difficult for him to watch the nonsensical things we do.  The book of Isaiah goes on like this passage for 39 chapters, but the last 26 are among the most positive in the Bible.  Isn't it amazing that God can see hope in the midst of failure?  Without that hope, where would we be?  In very deep trouble, I am sure!!!  So, the next time your children (or grandchildren) do things that just make you sick inside, remember the book of Isaiah and have hope.  The seemingly unbearable becomes a victory with God's help.