Isaiah 30:8

Isaiah 30:8 says, Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:  Isaiah  was told by God to write what He said in a tablet or book so that the people would have His word to read forever and ever.  God has preserved His word for us since the beginning, and we have this recorded for us in the Bible today because He did.  Of course, we now have all the knowledge necessary to come to God by faith in Jesus Christ and to begin to live by His word. 

Verse nine adds, That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord:  God stated plainly what the people of Isreal, His chosen people, had become.  They were rebellious, lying children.  They were His chosen people in name only.  Of course, being His chosen people was never because they were better and more powerful than other people but because of God’s calling them into a covenant relationship with Himself.  We may call ourselves Christians and be lying and rebellious people, but we will never fool God by empty words.  We can only be one of His people by putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, and if we claim to be by any other way, then we are lying to ourselves and to God. 

Verse ten continues, Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:  Part of the way that they were rebelling and lying was by asking seers and prophets to tell them what they wanted to hear and not what God said.  There are still people today who don’t want to hear what God’s word says but want to have what they believe to become the truth.  We just need to make sure that we as followers of Christ are not that way.  It seems that today too many people who profess to be Christians want to change God’s word to fit their beliefs and not to hear what God’s word actually says.  We cannot allow ourselves to do the same thing, but we must make our lives conform to God’s word. 

Verse eleven continues, Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.  Isaiah continues to speak about what God said about the people of Israel wanting to keep God’s word from being the standard by which they lived.  No matter what else we do as Christians, we must never turn away from the truth of God as our guide, even when it doesn’t support what we might want the truth to be.  

Verse twelve states, Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:  Isaiah begins to give the people of Israel the reason God was going to allow them to be defeated.  They had begun to put their faith in alliances with other nations and in the perverseness of the world instead of putting their faith in Him.  We cannot effectively follow and serve God if we put our faith in anything other than Him.  To do anything less than putting our faith in Him is perverseness. 

Verse thirteen adds, Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.  Isaiah said God warned them that this coming defeat was close and would happen suddenly.  When we fail to follow God by faith as followers of Christ, His judgment of our actions will always be close and could happen at any moment.  I don’t believe that this always does happen, and we may go through the rest of our life without suffering for our actions, but one day, even though we are a part of God’s people, He will hold us accountable for any unconfessed sin in our life. 

Verse fourteen continues, And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.  Isaiah said that the nation was going to be totally destroyed, like the potter destroy a vessel that he decides is beyond being able to be shaped into what he desires it to be.  If we are Christians, we need to be like pliable clay in God’s hands.