Isaiah 16:12 And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail
I admit to having a soft spot for enjoying disaster genre. I don’t know if that is what it is actually called, but these books are basically spook stories for people who like to backpack or get into the great outdoors. Into Thin Air is about disaster on Mount Everest. The Perfect Storm is about disaster on the sea. Death in the Canyon is about disaster in the Grand Canyon. Touching the Void is about disaster abroad. Into the Wild is about disaster in Alaska. There are all kinds of stories of people who survived, and in some cases people who did not, just absolute disaster.
Isaiah 15 and 16 are all about disaster for the Moabites. Let me give you some highlights of the disaster that is prophesied on Moab by Isaiah. Isaiah 15 says things like “laid waste,” “brought to silence,” “baldness,” “every beard cut off,” “sackcloth,” “howl,” “weeping abundantly,” cry out,” “life shall be grievous,” “cry of destruction,” “desolate,” “withered,” and “blood.” Doesn’t that sound like cheery reading for a weekday morning? That is just chapter 15.
If you go to chapter 16, there is more of the same: “howl,” “mourn,” “stricken,” “weeping,” “thy summer fruits and thy harvest is fallen,” “gladness is taken away,” “no singing,” and “very weary on the high place.” There is disaster on every turn, and the disaster, though it was carried out by the Assyrian army in the future as Isaiah prophesied it, was really the result of God’s judgment on these people of Moab.
The irony is that they were fleeing the wrath, but were ignoring the God who sent the wrath. The thing that is so ironic is that this entire nation was descended from Lot and his daughter. It is a sordid, incestuous story. We often hear that Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom and that Lot went the wrong way. I don’t contest any of that, but the main problem with Lot was not that Lot was in Sodom. Lot’s problem was that Sodom was in Lot. What happened? Lot and his family fled the judgment of God on the city of Sodom but found destruction in a cave after he had fled. Then, generations later the people of the nation that he founded are fleeing the judgment of God again, but are ignoring God just as Lot did. Pride ignores the problem. Pride is fleeing wrath but ignoring or avoiding God.
Isaiah 16:6 says, “We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.” Moab is notorious for his pride. You find this later on in Isaiah as well. The bottom line is that you cannot solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. So many people are trying to flee their problems but are taking their problems with them because their problems are inside. If you don’t change your thinking, you just take your problems with you.
Here is Lot fleeing Sodom and taking Sodom with him. Here is Moab fleeing the wrath of the Assyrians and never turning to God. It says it this way in verse 12, “And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail.” Moab would continue to seek the gods who had given nothing. God, in Isaiah 16:1 encouraged them to go to Israel because Israel had Jehovah. Now, Israel had their own problems and had turned their back on Jehovah as well, but the prophet said to send tribute to Israel and turn back to God. Moab did not do that. Pride ignores the problem. Many times, I see a problem and it doesn’t occur to me that the problem is internal; it is me. It is the way I am responding to things. All of us face difficulty, but we don’t need the kind of problems that come from rebellion against God or ignoring God.
So, think about two things. First, acknowledge the problem. Acknowledge the issue and ask God to give you guidance and humility of mind to know what the issue is from. Is it internal? Is the greatest enemy within? So many times we are fighting enemies without when the real enemies are the desires, ambitions, and pride that is within. So, acknowledge the problem. That is what God was trying to do with His own people, to try to get them to acknowledge the issues.
Second, acknowledge the answer. The answer is not gods that we ourselves can make. Any god I can make is unworthy of the name. People make gods; God made us. Things go awry when we try to make our gods instead of living in submission to the Creator who made us.
Today, I don’t know what you face. I know there is a God in heaven and that He is a judge and also a God of mercy. Much of that depends on our pride, our response to our lives. Pride ignores the problem. Today, acknowledge the problem and acknowledge the answer.