September 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Isaiah 1:1-9

¹The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
²Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
³The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
⁴Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
⁵Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
⁶From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
⁷Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
⁸And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
⁹Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Devotional:

In the Song of Solomon we have a poem of love on the human and on the divine level. It is a beautiful pastoral symphony.

In Isaiah we have an abrupt change. The beauty of language and thought rubs shoulders with the starkness and ugliness of sin. Right here in the second verse we see pictured a home whose spiritual climate is fraught with rebellion!

Are we parents surprised when our children are rebellious? Let us read this verse: 'I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me!' says the Lord God (1:2). Can it be said that God is not the perfect Father? If His children turned from Him and His truth, why should it be so surprising that sometimes the children of imperfect human fathers are prodigal?

Parents who have prayerfully sought to train their children for the Lord must not condemn themselves unmercifully if they are greeted by rebellion. They must examine themselves, and ask the forgiveness of God as they discover areas where they have failed. They must continue to pray and wait the Lord's time for their children's return. In the end they must kneel to His providence in adoration and love.

We cannot possibly see what God is doing. How often a period of youthful rebellion and waywardness is turned by the Lord to blessing! Sometimes it is blessing to the parent as he learns new truths about himself and God's way. Often it is a blessing to the young person involved as he experiences God's forgiveness. Many times it is a blessing to other people as they observe a transformed life which can be nothing but the work of God's Spirit!

But let not parents whose children do not experience an open, dramatic period of rebellion, glory in their own abilities in child-rearing or their own piety. They may not say, 'See how our children have turned out. That is what comes from obeying God in the home.' These parents, too, must bow before the Sovereign God and humbly thank Him for His grace!