Isaiah 5:26,30

In Isaiah 5, God continues his judgment on Judah and all Israel for their sin. First he tells the story of a man who owned a vineyard which however much he pruned it and watered it and did everything he could to make it better, still brought up ‘wild grapes’. Then he goes on to say that one day all excesses will be judged, and categorizes them into 5 woes to different sins. The judgment will be this:

'He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will whistle to them from the end of the earth;
Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly.

…

In that day they will roar against them
Like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks to the land,
Behold, darkness and sorrow;
And the light is darkened by the clouds.' (Isaiah 5: 26,30)

What awesome imagery! What hit me out of this though is the fact of verse 26. This is world history. This is the major plotline of western history. The dominant empires (who you can play as in Age of Empires!) who thought themselves the most mighty and unconquerable. Unquestionable. Non-accountable. And yet, here is history from God’s perspective. He is whistling to them! It’s like they are just his little puppies, doing whatever he wants. Obeying His call (without knowing it, so it doesn’t really get credited to them as obedience). Now, if He is that sovereign and powerful over the mighty powers of world history, then who can doubt His sovereignty and power over our own lives?

It is easy to lose sight of God’s sovereign control over our lives at times, and get all caught up in what we are going to do about such and such a problem, whether it is at school (exams, anyone?), relationships (who knows how to deal with them??), jobs or whatever else we do. Life is tough, life is complicated, and more often than not we don’t know the answers or how to deal with things. Problem is, more often than not, we try anyway. Which is sort of a good thing except that in doing so we forget about God being able to sort it out much easier than us.

Let’s look to God in all things in our life, hard and easy. In the end, we will end up obeying Him whatever we do, but would it not be more beneficial to both God ad us if it were because we wanted to obey Him?