Isaiah Chapter 2 v 22
As with so much prophecy, God speaking through Isaiah has several layers applying to – the present situation, the future and the end times “Thy Kingdom Come” where a God of Justice and peace will be seen to reign.
In v 22 “Trusting” - has different definitions. We quite rightly trust our good friends. Here, Isaiah seems to be saying that “You are putting undue faith in man to solve all your/world’s problems and are leaving God out of the equation of your thinking. You are living a man-centred life which equals Idolatry – Man trusting in man alone. You shall have no other Gods before me.
In the current “credit crunch”, very few people are not affected by this through savings, investments, redundancy, stock market, insurance policies and I’m sure there are more. – We could also add the Lottery, gambling, getting bigger houses, getting more possessions. Many of the above can be shown for what they are: Man centred, built ‘on sand’. (Although Jesus did talk about being good stewards of time & possessions so don’t oversimplify!)
Isobel Kahn (a missionary) wrote in 1940, ‘Build for Eternity, Live for eternity’ Her approach to life was the opposite of man-centred living.
Jesus said “Where you treasure is, there your heart will be”. Is He trying to get our attention through world events?
God says of this approach to life (man centred) in Isaiah 2 v 22 ‘..of what account is he? Man is dependent upon God for his life ‘ who has put breath into your nostrils’
Yet we can often live our lives independent of God. God is saying ‘Stop trusting in man’
We quite rightly stress that God is a God of love but he is faithful to all his attributes including… anger and judgment as Judah was to find out and… what about us?
Clinton Grant
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Thinking about trusting (v22) - it seems to me that there are many reasons you could say God is to be trusted above other things. Here the argument is about time and permanence when everyone else is temporary, in other places in the Bible it effectively says trust God because He knows you, He has the best plan for you, because he has been dependable for his followers throughout history etc. It would be interesting to compile a list of reasons to trust in our God. What is your key reason today?
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