Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Scripture:  Isaiah 1:20 (NIV):  " 'but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.'  For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Thought:  To me, resistance against God is "futile"--so why start?

Question:  Have I confessed any rebellion I may have had against God?

Unfortunately there is always room for a wrong choice.  And God makes it very clear that if we choose wrongly we are the ones who suffer.  How we suffer is at the hands of "the sword" of the Lord, which, to me, refers to the Word of God.  God's spoken truths will cut the rebellious ones down.  They will have no footing in their lies before a God Who utters only truth.  Isaiah says they "will be devoured."  To me, this means that God's truth, and power in that truth, will wrap around or overpower these rebels, winning out over the evil of lies in them, and consuming them completely.  They will lose their identity.  Just as eaten food is digested and changed from its original form into something producing strength and growth in us, so God will consume the rebellious with His truth, changing them by devouring them, overcoming evil with His good, and standing ever stronger in His truth.  The famous Bible Commentator, Matthew Henry, used to teach that unrepentant sinners would become the fuel for God's judgment fires. 

Here we see resistance and rebellion, two words that characterized Satan in his bid to become equal with God.  We join his kind of reasoning when we, too, make a choice to stand up against God in defiance.  How foolish we are when we do this!  God's promise to devour the disobedient is backed up with His "mouth"--His spoken Word.  Nothing is more sure than God's Word.  Nothing can alter it.

We are either cleansed and filled by choosing God or we are devoured and consumed away by rejecting Him.  These two extremes are poles apart.  The consequences are as far apart as life is from death and heaven from hell.  Who would be stupid enough to willingly choose having their identity devoured away in death and their soul sent to hell?  They say the door to hell has its lock on the inside.  God, in other words, is not an oppressor Who has imprisoned anyone there against their own will.  People in hell choose to be there because they do not want to be with God.  I can't understand them.  I really want God!  Don't you?

Prayer:  LORD Almighty, forgive me for any resistance and/or rebellion I may have had against You.  I don't want to be devoured by Your truth--I want, rather, to live in it every day and forever.  Amen. 

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