Prayer: Father, awaken Your followers to the reality that the United States could become the nation You are speaking against through Isaiah. Does the same indignation apply to all nations who forsake You? May we awaken before it is too late. Amen.
Reading: Isaiah 10 key: vs. 5-7 “Oy to Assyria, the rod of My anger— the club in their hand is My indignation! I am sending it against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My fury I am commissioning it, to take spoil and plunder, to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet that is not what Assyria intends, nor is that what he is thinking about. Rather his heart is to destroy, and to cut down nations—only a few!”
Attention: All the elements which were in place in Israel, are in place within the borders of America. Unjust legislation, injustice against specific people groups, moral corruption, persecution of specific ethnic groups, persecution of followers of Adonai, targeting by special interest groups, and churches who embrace state alliances and narratives. Have we like Israel and Jerusalem, forsaken Adonai?
I encourage you to stand back from the forest of American political culture and consider if certain countries are being used by Adonai’s indignation. Indignation is not a word we hear often in today’s American culture. So, what is indignation? Here are a few synonyms which provide us a clearer picture. A quick internet search yields words like resentment, anger, vexation, annoyance, offense, and upset.
Could you ever imagine that our actions or inactions could anger the Lord? Were you aware that God has emotions? The first words in our key scripture convey God’s anger, “Oy to Assyria, the rod of My anger—the club in their hand is My indignation.”
By comparison, I remember provoking my dad to anger a couple of times. Have we as a nation ever provoked God? Have we individually ever provoked God to anger?
We can understand the world’s narrative as being opposed to God’s Word, but how does God view those who claim to follow Him, yet embrace the narrative of the world? If we embrace an improper view of God as only love, as only our friend, and never as a God of who can be provoked, we will continue to deceive ourselves and be deceived.
God can be provoked, my friends, and this chapter in Isaiah proves it, along with scriptures like Genesis 6 and 19, Exodus 32, Deuteronomy 9, Numbers 11, Judges (entire book), Jeremiah 32, Psalms 78 and 89, 2nd Kings 13, and Ezekiel 7. Your rebuttal is those are only Old Testament examples. Well, here are a few from the New Testament which mirror the Old Testament image of God, Matthew 3 and 21, Romans 2:5, Hebrew 10:26-31 and Revelation (entire book). Shall we hope that God is only a God of love and not a God of discipline and judgement? What is the book of Revelation all about? Shall we continue to deceive and be deceived about who God is? He tells us through the scriptures who He is. Can we do any less than believe Him?
Action: I choose to believe the Word of God as represented in the scriptures.
Yield: I choose to submit my life to the God (Adonai) of scriptures.
Engage: I choose to engage with the Holy Spirit in rightly interpreting the Word of God.
Relationship: I choose to live in intimacy with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, may we not be deceived about Your discipline and judgement when we continue to act ignorantly about Your Word. Help us to rightly interpret and apply Your Word to our lives. Amen.
Memory Verse: Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived—God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he also shall reap.” TLV
Music Video: The Hooker Family—The Judgement lyrics https://youtu.be/uvjde7i7pIs?si=2WZD7LfrA3oKG718
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”