Isaiah 48:14-22
14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken and called him; I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. 16 Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit. 17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. 18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; 19 your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” 20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!” 21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out. 22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
Do you ever wonder why God commands us to be sexually pure? Why all these do's and don'ts? Verse 17 gives us an answer: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit". The NIV translates this as "who teaches you what is best for you". The commands of God are not just reminders of His arbitrary authority, but are there for our benefit. Think about it: God created the universe, and you and me. If anyone knows what is best for us, it would be the One who created everything. Yet repeatedly we question and distrust the commands of God, thinking that they are preventing us from experiencing true happiness. This was the mistake Adam and Eve made, and that we continue to make. Yet God knows that an illicit sexual experience will not bring the satisfaction that we seek. In fact, the opposite occurs; as verse 22 reminds us, "there is no peace for the wicked".
Heavenly Father, help me to trust You and Your commands. You do know what is best.
14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken and called him; I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. 16 Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit. 17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. 18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; 19 your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” 20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!” 21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out. 22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
Do you ever wonder why God commands us to be sexually pure? Why all these do's and don'ts? Verse 17 gives us an answer: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit". The NIV translates this as "who teaches you what is best for you". The commands of God are not just reminders of His arbitrary authority, but are there for our benefit. Think about it: God created the universe, and you and me. If anyone knows what is best for us, it would be the One who created everything. Yet repeatedly we question and distrust the commands of God, thinking that they are preventing us from experiencing true happiness. This was the mistake Adam and Eve made, and that we continue to make. Yet God knows that an illicit sexual experience will not bring the satisfaction that we seek. In fact, the opposite occurs; as verse 22 reminds us, "there is no peace for the wicked".
Heavenly Father, help me to trust You and Your commands. You do know what is best.