Today’s Reading: Isaiah 45, 46, 47 & 48

Much has been said and written, in this blog and elsewhere, about the foolishness of human beings, but some of it bears repeating. We are convinced that we know what’s right and we don’t need any help. We insist that the good things that happen to us are the work of our own hands and that the bad things that happen to us should be blamed on someone else. We put God on a shelf to be looked at occasionally and called upon when we’ve run out of other options. And more than anything, we convince ourselves that we don’t need rules – that they are too restrictive. Like an immature child, we buck against any authority and complain about how ridiculous the rules are.

But, also like small children, we need rules. We need someone to restrict us from doing the things that we are too naive to avoid on our own. We need someone to save us from ourselves – our curiosity, our selfishness and our ignorance. Fortunately, we do have someone who has gone to great lengths to do just that. And yet, all we can seem to do is buck against him.

“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.

If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river,
your well-being like the waves of the sea.

Your descendants would have been like the sand,
your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be blotted out
nor destroyed from before me.” (Isaiah 48:17-19)

If only we would just listen when God tells us something, our lives would be much better. Instead, we go out and do our own thing and then cry “why God” when something bad happens. How long will it take us to realize that he truly has our best interests in mind – that he wants greater things for us than we want for ourselves? How long before we realize that we are better off with him in control than with us at the helm?

Year after year, decade after decade, millennium after millennium, God watches as we fail to follow his ways. He watches as we do our own thing and get ourselves into bad situations. And he watches as we try to get ourselves out of those situations. He waits and watches and asks, “Are you sure you don’t want my help?” We insist that we don’t, until ultimately we have no other choice. Then we come to him and he helps us.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t blame him if one day he just threw up his hands and walked away – leaving us to figure it out on our own,