Isaiah 5:18-19 – Bad Fruit: Defiant Bravado – Part Two
When reproved, this bad fruit of defiant bravado comes out even more strongly. One might think that the people who have fallen away and their leaders would be getting a little nervous, would be getting a little anxious, a little edgy, but you’d be wrong. That’s not what’s happening. Instead, like a defiant child, they dare God to do anything about it. They assert that God can’t do anything to them. They assert that His sovereign will, His decree, His counsel is vain and empty. Hard judgment comes upon them in Isaiah’s lifetime. There is a shattering invasion of the Assyrians who lap up all the land except for Jerusalem itself. Jerusalem is only saved through a miraculous intervention. Then, after God gives Judah breathing space and room to repent, He gives them a wonderfully godly king in the person of Josiah. Once Josiah is dead the people revert immediately to their apostasy. There is vast destruction and deportation by the Babylonians. God again delivers them. And in the time of Jesus Christ they reject, in the most ultimate way, the Word of God. They reject Him Who is the Word become flesh. Judgment comes upon them, through the destruction by the Romans.
Those who profess to be the people of God reject God, and they become rejected. So it happens, even today; societies that reject King Jesus and defy Him to do anything, can expect similar destruction. We need to give warning to others and to remember it ourselves that it’s a very bad sign in any land that knows the Gospel when it continues into grosser and grosser sin and defies King Jesus to do anything about it. Let us pray that this bad fruit will wither and be replaced by the good fruit of our land turning to righteousness, our land covenanting to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray for revival, for God’s church. Let us pray for reformation of our society, for in no other way can we escape punishment from God. Let us pray that God will have mercy upon us and exalt King Jesus in the land.
Questions
- What judgement comes upon the people of Judah and Jerusalem?
- Will God judge those who reject King Jesus today?
Prayer Points
- Pray for reformation and revival.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.