Isaiah 50:1

Isaiah 50:1 says, Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.  God said that He had never put away those who were a part of the covenant relationship with Him by a bill of divorcement or by selling them to pay off credit He was owed.  The people of Israel being once more in captivity by another nation was their own fault.  They had sold themselves into captivity by turning away from their covenant relationship with God.  God has never abandoned anyone or sold them for His benefit, so if we find ourselves in bondage to sin once more as followers of Christ, it is because we have failed to continue to live in obedience to Him.  If someone has never accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, it is also their responsibility, because Jesus Christ died to give them forgiveness from sin if they will accept it.

Verse two adds, Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.  God then asked if the people of Israel thought that He was not powerful enough to set them free.  He asked if in the people of Israel,  there was not even one person who had listened to Him when He called out to them.  We better hope that as the church today that we never reach a point where we lose faith in God’s power and fail to listen when He speaks to us. 

Verse three continues, I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.  God said He was in control of the heavens as well as the earth, so the implication was why did the people of Israel not believe in His power.  If we believe that God is the Creator and Sustainer, we should never question His power to keep us safe spiritually, and we should never fail to hear Him when He calls us.