Isaiah 9:13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
Perhaps the most dangerous person in the world is the person who makes a habit of saying, “Yeah, I know.” You can’t tell them anything because they already know. I can very easily be guilty of this. My wife or a friend will suggest something and my instinct is to say, “Yeah, yeah, I know.” That is how people get lost on the road. They don’t stop and ask directions. That is how people make horrible mistakes. They don’t stop to realize what it is they don’t know.
Isaiah 9 and 10 are chapters that talk about arrogance, the arrogance of God’s people and the arrogance of the pagans. In Isaiah 9:13, talking about the arrogance of Israel, God says, “For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.”
God’s own people were living in pride. Ephraim was saying in pride, “Hey, the bricks are falling down, but we will build with hewn stones.” In other words, “We have seen destruction. God’s hand of judgment has been upon us, but, hey, we will make things bigger and better. No problem.” They weren’t paying attention when God was trying to get their attention in order to lovingly bring them back to Himself. They were ignoring God and His chastening. They were acting as if nothing had happened. It reminds me of our own day. Our churches are diminished, God’s people have no power, and we are saying, “Hey, it’s okay. It’s fine. No problem. We know what to do.”
You find Israel’s pride delineated in verse 9. You see the Lord’s chastening in verse 11, “Therefore the LORD shall set up adversaries.” God sent judgment against them, but they did not turn. God says in Isaiah 10:3, “To whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? So, you find the arrogance of God’s people.
In chapter 10 you find the arrogance of the pagans. In verse 5 God speaks to the Assyrians, “O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.” God was going to chasten His own people using the pagans, the Assyrians. The Assyrians just thought they were conquering the world. They didn’t think they were doing God’s bidding. Verse 7 says, “Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so.” The Assyrians didn’t think they were serving God; they just thought they were doing what they wanted to do. But they were stout of heart, they had glory, and high looks, and God was going to take care of all that.
In the last two verses of chapter 10 God says, “And the haughty shall be humbled. And he [God] shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.” Assyria had been God’s axe to chop Israel down to size, and now Assyria, pictured as a forest, would be chopped down to size. So, Assyria was in ignorance. They didn’t know what God was doing.
Which is worse, the arrogance of Israel or the arrogance of Assyria? Both were ignorant, and arrogance is ignorance of God. The difference is that Assyria was ignorant in the sense that they just didn’t know, but Israel was intentionally ignorant. Israel ignored God. In both cases their ignorance led to the same absence of wisdom and understanding.
Today, you will work with people who do not know the Lord Jesus. They are in ignorance of Him. It is important that we as believers acknowledge the truth we want our friends to learn. Sometimes we are willingly ignorant. We don’t acknowledge that we know what it is we know because we are afraid this would compel us to live differently than we are living now.
This week I am in a church in the Midwest, and just down the road is an old, mainline denominational church building that is now proudly a brewery. The old church sold it to the brewery against the objections of Bible-believing people in the area. The old church made their money, and now there is a steepled church building that proudly boasts a brewery.
Which is worse, the arrogance of the brewery inside that old building or the arrogance or the people who sold that building to them? Which is worse, an old church building that houses a brewery or a believer who has a cavalier attitude toward alcohol? You are the temple of the living God. It is not a building; it is a Person.
We are living in a day when the people who know God ignore Him, and the people who need to know Him cannot because they are not being given the light by those who belong to the Lord. Let’s acknowledge the truth, live the truth, and be a light!