January 21, 2019: Day 51 – Isaiah 47

We get a not very dignified image of a woman who has been stripped and her nakedness has been uncovered.  It is the image of God stripping Israel because of her unfaithfulness to the Lord.  He says in vs.6 that he was angry with his people because they had become a mistress to foreign gods.  He had just in the previous chapter told the people of Israel not to sell themselves out to foreign gods, but they had.  I mean, everyone else is doing it, so it is so very tempting to fall into the trap of what other nations and people around them are doing.

He is a little more specific in vs.8 when he speaks not about idolatry but about them pursuing pleasure as an idol.  Okay, now Isaiah is speaking to the 21st century church.  People are so secure in who they are and in their own abilities that they never believe that anything negative will befall them.  You see this reflected in vs.8-9 where people say I will never be a widow or see the death of my children.  Tell that to people who live in areas where gun violence is an epidemic.  There are more widows and losses of children than we would like to admit.  It happens today.

God says that those who are so secure in things other than in the Creator can stay just like they are.  But they are like stubble and in a flash can go up in flame.  We know that about life.  It can change within an instant.  This quote is foreboding: “They all wander about in their own paths; there is no one to save you.”  This chapter is very, very sobering.