Isaiah 48:1,4 English Standard Version
Israel Refined for God’s Glory
1 Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.
4 Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,
Leaving out verses 2 and 3 allows us to examine the more troubling conditions. There is confession and swearing but not in truth or righteousness. There is an unwillingness to listen to reason.
This chapter deals with these conditions because Israel is God’s chosen and He will put them through the refiner’s fire and remove impurities.
History repeats itself and considering that Israel is God’s chosen and that we are His chosen for Jesus Christ then the warnings of Isaiah 48 might also be true of some church age denominations.
We are experts at lying to ourselves. We can swear up and down that we worship God with truth and righteousness and the signs that might indicate we have it wrong is an unwillingness to listen to reason.
It should be noted here that we are looking at denominational strains and not individuals. All we can do for the moment is to take inventory of our surroundings. It is every individual’s responsibility to seek God’s approval for the place in which we worship. This can only happen if there is an honest and open discussion with what we see around us in the light of God’s Word.
How free are we to speak about church issues? Can we approach authority with concerns or are they shielded from contact by guardians of the flock? Do we concern ourselves with the practices of our church administration or is there something in us that indicates an infection of the mind that says as individuals we have become unwilling to listen?
How involved are we?