Isaiah 49:4 Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
Never in Vain
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to waste energy. I like it the least when I feel as if my efforts are thwarted when I am doing something that I think is really important. Who likes to paint a wall for an hour only to find out you have the wrong color? Who wants to figure up some numbers for an hour or two only to realize you have one wrong number that messed up the whole thing? Who wants to set up some event only to have it cancelled for some reason? It is a bad thing to waste time, and it is even worse when you feel like what you were doing was really important.
Sometimes it is easy to feel like serving God is in some way a waste. Isaiah 49 reminds us that God’s work and our obedience are never in vain. Think about the Lord Jesus. To the casual observer of the day Jesus’ work seemed thwarted. But Isaiah says prophetically regarding the Lord Jesus, “Yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.” Jesus’ work accomplished everything it was intended to accomplish.
In Luke 24, after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus met a couple of disciples who were disillusioned and discouraged. They said to Jesus, whom they did not recognize, “We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.” But they felt like they had been thwarted. Jesus later replied, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?”Jesus work was not wasted, and in your life, just as in the Messiah’s, God’s work and your obedience are never in vain.
Then again, think about Israel. When Israel was conquered and appeared ruined, God said of them, “Yet will I not forget thee.” God hadn’t forgotten them. In verse 22 God said of this conquered people, “I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles.” In verse 23 God says, “Thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” Verse 26 says, “And all flesh shall know that I the LORD am the Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.”
At the end of the day, rebellion is a waste of effort and God-given personality because God is going to win. That is something you gather over and again, certainly from Isaiah 49. The conquest of Israel was part of God’s plan. It wasn’t an abandoning of His people; it was a chastening of His people.
If you have trusted Christ by faith, then you are a child of God. I don’t know what work you are endeavoring in today, but be aware of the fact that no matter if you can see it now or not, God’s working and your obedience are never in vain.