December 4: Isaiah 2:6-9

Key Verse: Isaiah 2:6
You, Lord, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practise divination like the Philistines and embrace pagan customs.

Devotion:
This is what Isaiah saw as visions and words from God. He knew there would be a division between people where few would call others to worship God and many would succumb to the ways of the world. They describe people abandoning everything they once stood for so they can follow after money and other riches instead; the very things God warned them about years beforehand.

God know we give in to the temptations of the world very easily because we lack the riches of the world. What is being described here is the love for money instead of for God, the love for superstitions instead of the laws of God, and the ways of the strangers instead of the ways of God.

The more we get entrapped in the ways of the world, the more we lust after them and the less we an focus on God because our hearts and minds have been taken over by these things, temptations and greed which surround us.

Isaiah does not want God to forgive and forget the sins of the people – why should he have to work so hard and sacrifice so much only to see those who do not care living the lives they seek. But it is not our choice as to whether God will forgive them or not – that is Christ’s choice alone because He came to give His life instead of us having to face the price for our sins.

Points to Ponder:
Do you just go with the flow and follow what others are doing?

Or do you try to live a separate life with Christ?