Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"You are those who forsake the LORD"
Text: Isaiah 65:11
THOSE WHO FORSAKE THE LORD
There were many in Israel who forsook the LORD. Two of the deities in Israel were mentioned by God. He was fully aware of Israel’s idolatrous ways.
“But you are those who forsake the LORD,
Who forget My holy mountain,
Who prepare a table for Gad,
And who furnish a drink offering for Meni.
Therefore I will number you for the sword,
And you shall all bow down to the slaughter;
Because, when I called, you did not answer;
When I spoke, you did not hear,
But did evil before My eyes,
And chose that in which I do not delight.”
Isaiah 65:11-12
1. Evidence of forsaking God.
a) All that God had done were forgotten.
i) This is not a lapse of memory.
ii) This is wilful and deliberate forgetting of the LORD.
iii) The holy mountain here is a reference to Mount Zion.
b) Israel chose to offer worship:
i) To Gad:
He was the deity of fortune and wealth.
ii) To Meni:
He was the deity of one’s destiny or fate.
2. Israel was afraid of the future.
a) The future seemed to portend war and disaster.
b) Israel could end up being very poor with many killed in war.
c) Hence many prayed to Gad and Meni in the hope of being spared.
3. God’s judgment.
a) Israel’s act of forsaking God would lead to severe consequences.
b) Gad and Meni cannot save anyone.
c) Many would be slain and slaughtered by the sword.
4. God had called Israel.
a) To repent.
b) To return to the LORD.
c) But Israel turned a deaf ear.
d) The nation refused to listen to God and to give heed to the prophets.
5. Israel’s choice.
a) To choose the path of evil.
b) To do that which was not a delight to God (idolatry).
c) God would determine the fortune and fate of Israel and not any false deity.