The Lord Corrects His People
March 16, 2020
Commentary
As we read this passage we need to understand that the Jews had become comfortable and complacent in their captivity and did not want to leave. They had followed Jeremiah’s suggestions (Jer. 29:4-7) and had families, houses and gardens and it was not easy for them to pack up and go to the holy land. However, this was where they belonged and where God had a work for them to do.
This passage is addressed to the “house of Jacob” which includes both Israel and Judah (v. 1). God admonishes the hypocrites among His people “who make mention of the God of Israel” in lip service but do not follow “in truth, nor in righteousness” (vv. 1-5). They took oaths, involving God’s name, but they were not righteous. They had disregarded the previous prophecies so God would give her new prophecies so their physical and spiritual deliverance would come, not from their own goodness or their own plans but from God’s grace (vv. 6-8).
The Lord would delay His wrath so His people could return to Judah (vv. 9-11). In spite of all the tragic judgments that were to come upon Judah and Israel, God reminds them that he has “chosen them in the furnace of affliction“ (v. 10). Why would a loving God allow all kinds of unpleasant experiences come to His children? The reason for the severe treatment of His people is that they might emerge from their afflictions and they might reflect His glory and greatness among them. Even though they deserved to be obliterated from the earth, He had promised to preserve them. This verse shows us plainly that God tests us in the “furnace of affliction.”
Application
What kind of adversity are you currently facing? Do you find it easy to complain when your life becomes complicated or difficult? Rather than complain, my response should be to turn to God in faith and rejoice in my sufferings (Rom. 5:3; James 1:2-4). Without testings I would never know what I am capable of doing, nor would I grow.
Isaiah 48:1– 11 (NET)
1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’ and are descended from Judah, who take oaths in the name of the Lord, and invoke the God of Israel— but not in an honest and just manner.
2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; they trust in the God of Israel, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
3 “I announced events beforehand, I issued the decrees and made the predictions; suddenly I acted and they came to pass.
4 I did this because I know how stubborn you are. Your neck muscles are like iron and your forehead like bronze.
5 I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, ‘My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’
6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence! Will you not admit that what I say is true? From this point on I am announcing to you new events that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.
7 Now they come into being, not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, I know about them.’
8 You did not hear, you do not know, you were not told beforehand. For I know that you are very deceitful; you were labeled a rebel from birth.
9 For the sake of my reputation I hold back my anger; for the sake of my prestige I restrain myself from destroying you.
10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have purified you in the furnace of misery.
11 For my sake alone I will act, for how can I allow my name to be defiled? I will not share my glory with anyone else!