God preached a sobering sermon to some nations in the first chapter of Isaiah. Perhaps because I belong to a Christian mission where we make many prayers, that phrase, of the entire sermon, caught my attention. And although this sermon was to a nation God destroyed, He used it to warn and woo His people – you and I.
In Isaiah 1:11-17, God brought a charge against the nation. Mercifully, He also prescribed the remedy for destruction in the same sermon. “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts?
Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies; I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates; they are a trouble to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you [g]spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.
Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good. Seek justice,
rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless and plead for the widow.”
We Learn Not to Make Many Prayers
That is quite a mouthful for God, but He wanted to ensure we knew the deal. Do not make many prayers. Instead, stop doing evil, seek justice; do not endorse the oppressor, but defend the fatherless and plead for the widow.
By highlighting God’s sermon today, we learn to take caution from the warning as we continue to enjoy the promises of God. We can also obtain solace from the wooing. Please note that whatever God writes to entire nations also applies to individuals. So, as you read along, do not ignore the warning and do not take the wooing for granted in your personal life.
This is particularly important if your nationals make many prayers, like mine. And that is why, as I write, I am learning from the warning and rejoicing in the entreaties of God. God has not given up on me; there is still hope. You may wonder how God both warns and woos us. Well, wonder no more.
He does it by His kindness, to ensure that we are not consumed. God saves us because of His mercies that are new every morning, not because we are better than those nations that are no more. In Isaiah 1.9, we read the following: “Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
The Remnant Must Be Careful
Are we saying you should stop praying? Never! Jesus began with prayer and ended with prayer; why should we not do the same? But Jesus also cautions us by saying we think we shall be heard for our many words. Struggling churches respond to their problems by multiplying prayer sessions; they choose to make many prayers.
Is that the answer? They, themselves, will tell you that establishing multiple prayer sessions does not resolve their struggles. It simply divides the number of members at each session. Perhaps, deep down in our hearts, we have a sense not to make many prayers. But why would that be so?
God says to His people (the faithful remnant) that He is not deaf, which means He heard us the first time we prayed. And although God’s Son exhorts us to pray until our joy be full, subsequent prayers should be more of thanksgiving. We thank Him that He heard us, thank Him that He can do what we asked, thank Him that He is God, etc.
What We Need
Rather than make many prayers to God as though he were a stubborn child, we should repent. That my nation is still standing, even though we make many prayers, is nothing to feel arrogant and complacent about. We must be on our spiritual toes so that what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah does not happen to our nation.
Since what God says to a nation applies to the individual, God is preaching to you and me here. I pray we will heed the warning. Remember, Sodom was destroyed in one day, and God can do it again. My prayer is that we shall not be destroyed. God will help me to repent, plead for the widow, stop endorsing the oppressor, and defend the fatherless from today.
Maranatha!
