“Judah’s defenses have been stripped away. You run to the armory for your weapons. You inspect the breaks in the walls of Jerusalem. You store up water in the lower pool. You survey the houses and tear some down for stone to strengthen the walls. Between the city walls, you build a reservoir for water from the old pool. But you never ask for help from the One who did all this. You never considered the One who planned this long ago. At that time the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins and to wear clothes of burlap to show your remorse. But instead, you dance and play; you slaughter cattle and kill sheep. You feast on meat and drink wine. You say, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!” The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has revealed this to me: “Till the day you die, you will never be forgiven for this sin.” That is the judgment of the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Isaiah 22:8-14 NLT
The Lord punishes those he loves. He disciplines them to a path toward reconciliation. His judgment is not without grace and mercy. And yet, man’s ego still rages forward. Man repeatedly misses the point of that judgment until all that’s left is his own demise. How many times must we be rebuked before we will turn our hearts to him? How many ways can he show us that there is no safe place but in his arms? How low must we be made in our own folly before we choose to be low and humble? How much of our pride must be stripped away before we worship the one who is worthy to be praised? It is not for God’s vanity or necessity that he stops us in our tracks. Whether we die as fool hardy kings in the bowels of hellfire has no effect on his sovereignty or his machinations. He deigns toward us because he loves us. Because he loved us so much, he pleaded and prodded and provided for us to escape the path we are always so intent on following. He laid down road blocks and sign posts, warning us. He pulled on us and screamed at us and held us back. But still we have not listened. We march onward toward that deep divide. We are so blessed that at the end of our journey, where death meets our path, he constructed a bridge with Christ. Without him, there would be no hope at all for the hubris of men.
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