August 1 - Isaiah 18-22: Looked and Looked

You assessed your defenses...[you] inspected your arsenal...You found the weak places...You secured the water supply...You took an inventory...[you] tore down...You built a large cistern...You looked and looked and looked... Isaiah (22:8-11)

This sounds like a speech given at someone's retirement party or when they've successfully finished a project.  It's a list of accomplishments that most people would love to hear - an appreciation of their achievements.  I could be quite impressed if one of my children came up to me at the end of the day and said, "You cooked three nutritious and delicious meals for us today; you paid the household bills and balanced the family budget;  you washed my clothes and picked up the house; you engaged in meaningful conversation with me during our drive home; you encouraged and helped me in my difficult homework."  After I picked my jaw up off the floor, my response would probably be, "Wow, you noticed all that!  I didn't think anyone even knew what I did all day."  I like to be appreciated and for my hard work to be noticed.

But, these verses are not a pat on the back for the Israelites' work.  No flowery speech of recognition here. While God is not condemning the acts they did, He is admonishing them for not looking to Him, not consulting the Planner, the Designer and the Giver of this city.

 "They made use of all the means they could think of for their own preservation; and it is not for doing this that they are blamed, but, in doing this, they did not acknowledge God... Whatever service we do, or endeavour to do, at any time to God’s Jerusalem, must be done with an eye to him as the Maker of it; and he takes it ill if it be done otherwise. It is here charged upon them that they did not look to God. They did not design his glory in what they did. They fortified Jerusalem because it was a rich city and their own houses were in it, not because it was the holy city and God’s house was in it. In all our cares for the defence of the church we must look more at God’s interest in it than at our own. They did not depend upon him for a blessing upon their endeavours, saw no need of it, and therefore sought not to him for it, but thought their own powers and policies sufficient for them."  [Matthew Henry, commentary]

I'm the same.  I wake up in the morning believing that my physical stamina, my intelligence, my abilities will get me through the demands of the day.  I do not wake up with a thought to "design God's glory" into my work.  It seems ridiculous to even write that I feel that self-sufficient and independent, but I do.  That is unholiness.  That is where God is speaking to me in Isaiah

"The hard-rock reality is that prophets don't fit into our way of life.

"For a people who are accustomed to 'fitting God' into their lives, or, as we like to say, 'making room for God,' the prophets are hard to take and easy to dismiss.  The God of whom the prophets speak is far too large to fit into our lives. If we want anything to do with God, we have to fit into him." [Peterson, Intro. to Prophets]

God, thank You for not putting up with me trying to fit You into my life.   Thank You for disrupting my plans and accomplishments to cause me to look to You, "the One who has long had plans" for me.