Isaiah 7:13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
This fall my family and I have been hard-driving. We have been in West Virginia one Sunday, eastern North Carolina the next Sunday, and Arizona the next Sunday. In between those meetings we have had events at the Bill Rice Ranch. We are heading to Michigan next. We have had a lot of two-day drives, or sometimes we drive for three hours after an evening service and then finish our trip the next day. We have done a lot of driving!
Sometimes we end up a little bit weary when we reach our destination. Sometimes we humans are weary because of work, and sometimes we are weary because of people. I wonder, do you think God ever gets weary? Could a God Who could speak the universe into existence, a God Who is the sovereign of the universe, be weary?
Well, there is a place in the Bible where it says that it is possible, as unlikely as that may sound. God sent a prophet named Isaiah to talk to a king of Israel named Ahaz. Isaiah said to Ahaz, “Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?” What is he talking about? What would weary God?
Ahaz was being attacked by a confederacy of other nations, including a divided Israel, and God said to him, “Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted.” God said, “I am going to take care of these two nations.” Later God said, “It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.” In other words, God was going to take care of Jerusalem. God was going to take care of them.
In verse 9 God says, “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” It is a play on words in the Hebrew, something like, “If you will not confide, then you will not abide.” Basically He is saying, “If you won’t confide and depend on God, then you will not abide or be established.” God was giving this promise to Ahaz.
Ahaz, on the other hand, was not depending upon God. God said, “Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.” Ahaz responds very piously by saying, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.” That sounds very pious. He is saying, “I am not going to tempt God or ask God for too much.” But what was actually happening was that he was determined not to do what God would have him to do.
Ahaz was inclined to make some kind of alliance with another country, and he wanted to continue on in his idolatry. What he was saying was, “Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t need God. I’ll just stay where I am. I‘d rather have this trouble here than to have the obligation of being subservient to God Almighty.” That is where we get the answer, “Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?”
We weary God by working when we should be asking. Now, we should work; there is no doubt about that. But we weary God when we are working and not asking. It is not just ourselves that we weary; it is God that we weary.
Sometimes we think to ourselves, “Well, this is a spiritual matter. There are souls to be saved and homes to be restored. I’ll ask God for that.” But when it comes to things that we just want and are just daily issues we think, “I can take care of this. I don’t need God.” “Well,” you say, “What if I shouldn’t be asking for a certain thing?” I can’t think of a quicker way to find that out than to start asking with a submissive heart. Let God show you that your desire is wrong. Anything is better than thinking, “This is my life, and these are the things I pray about.” No, it is all God’s life. It belongs to God.
As the chapter continues God says, “The land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.” He is saying, “The kingdoms coming up to you are going to be shaved clean like a man shaves his face. They are going to become an open pasture. They are going to be infested with weeds growing up and become a vast hunting ground.” And repeatedly God says, “It shall come to pass.” In other words, God knows the past, the future, and God knows you. So, don’t weary God by being independent. Put your dependence and rest in God, and God Himself will give you rest.