Isaiah 8:17

Isaiah 8:17 says, And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.  Isaiah said he waited on the Lord, Who had hidden His face from the people of Israel, and he looked for Him.  We as followers of Christ don’t have to look for God if we stray away from His commandments, since we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, but we may have to look for His guidance once more.  If we have sinned, we have to repent first, but God never hides Himself from us.  Even with the unsaved, God is looking for them to come to Him spiritually and never hides Himself from them.   

Verse eighteen adds, Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.  Isaiah said that he and those whom God had given him were to serve as signs and wonders to the people of Israel. As Christians, we need to be signs of the goodness of God to the lost and dying world.  The way we live should make others want to come to Christ.  Matthew Henry says they pointed to them as wonders, or looked on them as strange, and the world often looks on us as followers of Christ as strange people, but then again, we are supposed to be viewed that way by the people of the world.  If we are no different than lost people, then there is something wrong.   

Verse nineteen continues, And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?  Isaiah then raised the question if people of the world looked to their false gods, shouldn’t the people of Israel look to their God, the only living God. We might be tempted to allow false gods back into our lives because they amuse or entertain us, but we should never do this.  We must remain faithful to the true and living God, even if this makes us peculiar in the eyes of the world.   

Verse twenty states, To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.  Still referring to those who were supposed to be the people of Israel, at least in name, Isaiah said that if they proclaimed anything other than God's law and testified to it that the Light was not in them.  Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, and if we live in the Light, we will never turn away from God and His commandments.   

Verse twenty-one adds, And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.  Isaiah said that those who turned away from God would find themselves hungry and wander around looking for some peace and contentment in their lives, but they wouldn’t find it.  They would look to their false gods for hope, but there would be none.  People are always going to be spiritually hungry and looking everywhere for peace and contentment if they haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, but no false god is never going to bring them spiritual fulfillment.   

Verse twenty-seven continues, And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.  Isaiah said that those who didn’t look to the only true God would only find trouble and darkness and live in anguish.  I don’t believe that people can ever be spiritually satisfied and at ease in the world unless they live in the Light of Jesus Christ and follow the way that He leads them, which will be determined by His truth.