#DailyDevotion Is Your Heart Far From The LORD Your God
Isaiah 29:11–14 11And to you the visions of all this will be like writing in a sealed scroll that men give to one who can read. “Please read this,” they say. “I can’t read it,” he answers. “It’s sealed.” 12Then they give the scroll to one who can’t read. “Please read it,” they say. “I can’t read,” he answers. 13The Lord says: “These people come near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from Me, and their way of worshiping Me is with rules developed by men. 14This is why I will again do something wonderful with these people, something wonderful and marvelous. The wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the intelligence of their intelligent men will vanish.”
Eventually as God’s people turn away from his word that word becomes a closed book. That is what is happening to the Israelites and in particular here the Judahites. They ignored what God’s word, the Torah was teaching them. Not only did they ignore it, their prophets, priests and rulers taught things contradicting it. Since they were rebelling against his word the LORD is not in Isaiah taking that word away from them. He is sealing up the meaning of the book. It is as the LORD told Isaiah in his call in chapter 6, “Go and tell these people: You may go on hearing but never understand, I and go on seeing but never know anything.’ 10 Make the heart of these people sluggish, deafen their hearing, shut their eyes that they may not see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
The Judahites honored the LORD with their lips but their hearts were far from it. Lip service we call that. Sure they had the temple, the festivals and the like but they did not do what the LORD their God commanded them to do in faith. If they obeyed anything at all they hated doing so. When they looked like they were following the LORD’s command, closer inspection would yield wounded and imperfect sacrifices, short changing the tithe and other offerings, and violence instead of mercy, loving-kindness and help towards those who needed it. They had developed their own worship practices instead of those which the LORD in the Torah had commanded them.
What was the LORD going to do with these people? He strangely uses the words wonderful and marvelous. These words do have a more negative meaning to them. Imagine watching a huge forest fire up close or being in a earthquake and watching the ground swallow up a building. The sort of feeling you would have seeing that. Well the LORD is going to make the wise men perish and the intelligence of the intelligent perish. This is not good news.
As God’s people of the New Covenant we are called to pay attention to God’s Word as well. Some take the LORD’s grace, mercy and loving-kindness in Christ Jesus as an excuse for their sins, calling good evil and evil good. They really do not have faith and love towards Jesus. They love his inclusivity but hate his particularity. So they really do not love Jesus. We are called to have faith in Jesus. He wants all of our heart, not just the parts that like some of him. Because Jesus gave us his all with his death on the cross so we may have eternal life, he wants our whole heart to be dedicated to him, to love his discipline as well as his grace, mercy and kindness. He desires his teaching to be carried out in our lives and for us to repent when we do not.
Heavenly Father, by your grace do not shut up your word from us but through faith in Jesus keep our hearts dedicated to you and you word. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.