READING: Isaiah 17-19, Ephesians 5:17-33
“For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge.”
Isaiah 17:10
The Israelites would, Isaiah said, suffer God’s judgment, and the reason was clear: “For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge” (Isa. 17:10). God had been their salvation and their strength. He had called them into existence, guided them, protected them, and loved them. He had kept His promises to them, and they had no reason not to trust Him fully.
Still, they forgot Him. They did what Moses had indicated: “You ignored the Rock who gave you birth; you forgot the God who gave birth to you” (Deut. 32:18).
It seems so strange, actually. How would the people of God forget the One who was their God? As I think about it, though, it seems that all of us are guilty of such sin; in fact, it’s possible that our forgetting God is somehow at the root of all our sin. When we choose to disobey God, we’ve apparently forgotten both His grace and His potential judgment. We worry because we’ve forgotten the ways God has taken care of us in the past. We turn to idols we hold in our hands when we forget that God is sovereignly in control, even when we can’t sense His presence. We stop reading His Word when we forget the words are His divinely-inspired message to us. We chase false gods just like the Hebrews did when we forget the God who gave us life.
God has given us these Old Testament stories as examples, however, so we would not long for evil things like the Hebrews did (1 Cor. 10:6). Rather, we must turn to God, cling to Him, love Him – and never forget Him. May He help us to meditate on Him all day, rejecting the enemy’s lures and following His commands.
ACTION STEPS:
- Think about the evidences of God’s grace throughout your life.
- God is a refuge, so turn to Him with any difficulty you face today.
PRAYER: “God, sometimes I do act as if I’ve forgotten You. Please forgive me.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Isaiah 20-22, Ephesians 6