Judgement Comes When We Don’t Follow God

Posted by Lorren on August 8, 2008

One theme that I’ve seen consistently in the Bible is that God wants us to love him with our whole hearts. Even Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. If you’ve read the story about Saul before, you might remember that he decided that sacrificing the animals that God told him to destroy was better than following the rules, but Samuel rebuked him, telling him that to obey is better than to sacrifice.

The same themes can be found in Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet who warned Israel that they were about to be carted away by their enemies, but he also had something to say for us who live in the last days. But like much of what the Bible says, even the non-prophetic parts have something to say to us.

The Israelites were not loving God with all their hearts, and were pursuing idols and putting their trust in them. Evidently, they were still offering temple sacrifices though, because the Lord said that “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.” (Isaiah 1:11) Was it because God was getting bored? No, it was because he wanted people to obey him rather than to sacrifice.

Do we do the same things sometimes? How many of us go to church on Sunday mornings because that is what we are supposed to do, but it’s really just something to do? Do we follow God the rest of the week? Do we offer “now I lay me down to sleep” prayers but really don’t mean them? When we act like that, aren’t we acting a little like the Israelites?

Isaiah goes on to talk about what will happen to the Israelites. He says that “your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards.” (Isaiah 1:23) Does that sound like some of our politicians today? Many of our leaders are swayed by special interest groups and campaign contributions. Just recently it was leaked that Nancy Pelosi told some of her Democratic friends that it was okay to lie about their stance on drilling if it would help them get elected… essentially they are following after rewards by doing whatever they think it will take to preserve their power.

Isaiah describes a land where people sin and they don’t care what people know about it… “they declare their sin as Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves.” You don’t have to search too hard to find this. People will beat up other people and post their videos on YouTube. People live with their significant others and have children with no intention of getting married, and don’t care who knows. That’s our ordinary people. If you look at the cover of any celebrity magazine, you can see stars who barely dress themselves, use drugs to get high, or live immoral lifestyles without caring at all that there is a God who is watching them.

God has declared what will happen to all people: “Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” (Isaiah 3:10-11) God offers blessings to those that follow him, and curses to those that do wickedly. While it is not always apparent or immediate, that’s what the Bible says, and we will receive justice for whatever we do, whether good or bad.

I pray that we do the good, because I don’t exactly want to feel the curses and judgement of the most powerful being in the universe.