Isaiah 9:13 For the people turneth not unto him that smitheth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
Years ago, on the Bill Rice Ranch, when I was sixteen, I was trying to fetch a horse in a one-acre lot behind the barn. The horse would run away from me and go up into the corner of the lot where the fence came to a point. He would stick his head up in that corner and point the double barrels of his hind legs at me. Only a fool approaches a horse that way.
My boss that summer was a cowboy from Wyoming, and he taught me something I‘ve never forgotten. He taught me to run the legs off that horse. I stood in the center of this lot, swung a rope over my head and got the horse to running. I didn’t wear myself out trying to catch him; I wore him out trying not to be caught. He was faster, stronger, and probably smarter than me, but my boss was smarter than him. What I found was that eventually he was so tired that when he went up into that corner and I approached him carefully, well out of hoof range, he turned his head toward me. Now, it was subconscious, but it was body language that was exhibiting a change in his mind.
People are that way too. God left His people Israel. Israel had been divided into two different kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom, Israel or Ephraim, and the Southern Tribe, Judah. In both cases, they had been judged and given grace by God, but they had not turned to God. Isaiah 9:9 says, “And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria [the capital of the Northern Kingdom], that say in the pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.”
God had sent judgment, but instead of taking stock and taking heart, they thought, “Hey, the bricks have been torn down and our sandcastle has been kicked over, but we will just build something better.” The point wasn’t destruction; the point was change. Instead of realizing that God was trying to talk to them, they just ignored Him and plowed on without thinking. It was pride. Because of this, Syria, the very people Israel had sought for strength instead of God, would turn on them. In fact, the Bible says in verse 12, “The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind: and they shall devour Israel with open mouth.” Their allies, who were not their friends, would turn on them.
The bottom line is in verse 13, “For the people turneth not unto him [God] that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.” The Lord of hosts means He is a powerful God of battle. Now, God’s sword was to defend Israel and His hand was sometimes to correct Israel, but His goodness and His judgment were also to correct them. The Bible says that the goodness of God leads you to repentance, which is a change of mind. You and I are not Israel, but God is God. He has not changed. We can learn from this that the quicker you learn, the less you suffer.
First, don’t try to fix problems that are not problems. Israel thought their problem was the destruction of some brick homes that they would just rebuild with something better. That wasn’t the problem. Pride was the problem. If they didn’t change their minds about pride, they weren’t changing the root of their problem.
Sometimes we have problems in life that are self-produced. We think that money or health is the problem. No, our problem is our relationship to God. To be sure, the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and both just and unjust people suffer. But not every trial is the judgment of God. I do believe that when God sends judgment to lovingly correct His people, He does it on time and specifically so that we know what the issue is and what we should do about it. He is not arbitrary or vague. He is specific. So, don’t try to fix problems that are not problems. Turn to God.
Second, don’t make friends with those who are only and merely allies. Syria was not a friend to Israel, it was merely an ally of convenience. When that changed, it became the problem. The Bible tells us, “They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his [God’s] anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” God was continuing to judge because they were continuing to ignore Him.
Years ago, I was talking to a friend who had worked with me when I was a teenager, and as an adult he had drifted far from God. His daughter had begun going to a church that loved the family and her. She would come back and tell her father what she had learned in Sunday school. He was convicted. He should have been teaching her. She shouldn’t have been teaching him. But, he was ignoring God. Later, he went to a concert, become drunk and very violently ill, and he nearly died. As he was telling me this, my friend without any hint of irony, paused for a moment and said, “You know, Wil, it is almost like God is trying to tell me something.” Well, you think?! Of course God is trying to tell you something! God made you. God loves you. God’s goodness, gentleness, and judgment are to correct you for your own good.
In Psalm 32 it says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” The psalmist basically says later, “I kept silent, but that did not go well. Then I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not hide my iniquity. When I did that, you covered me.” Then he says in verse 9, “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.”
Friend, you are smarter than a horse and more valuable than a thing. If you put your faith in Christ, you are the valuable child of God, and in any event you are the creation of God. God loves you, made you, and has plans for you. Both God’s gentleness and judgment are to bring you to a change of mind so you can live a life of peace.
In Isaiah 9 we read about the Messiah that God would send, the child who is the Prince of Peace. Friend, there is not peace inside, regardless of what is happening in the world, without coming to the Prince of Peace. The quicker you and I learn from life, the less we suffer.