GOD CAN NEVER STOP CARING

(A series from the book of Isaiah: chapter 50)

The background of chapter 50 is that the people of God in this prophetic message was throwing their complaints and pouring their hearts out to blame God with the difficulties they had. They said to themselves that because their situation was that difficult and hard it just proved that God has forgotten them and forsaken by God.

Human as I am, I hear their voice and I hear their cries. I hear the words that express doubts of God’s love. I hear their troubles and their struggles to make sense of what was happening in their lives. Life was not just making sense. Life was not just fulfilling the purpose you see your life should be living. Everything was just getting dimmer and dimmer every day, there was just no hope of escape and assurance of deliverance from the situation they were in. It was just simply a feeling of frustration because they were getting what they think they should get, and depression because they are not seeing any chance that their situation will improve. No one to blame too but to look at God and claim what they heard from their parents. I could imagine hearing them say, “I thought, we were a chosen people. Why life is as bitter as this? Why are you not caring for us and taking us out of this difficulty? You promised to be our God and where are you? We want relief and we want to be out from this misery.” And the longer there was silence the longer the pain is numbing your heart and you just declare God never cares and He will never ever care for me.

These lines just perfectly fit the words I have spoken to God when life was just exactly what I wrote in the previous paragraph. Not realizing my own sinfulness and my own wrong decisions I stepped out in boldness and blame God and ask God for the care I deserve because He said so. I missed seeing who I was as a person towards my life and most especially towards God. It was just so easy to rant on God about Him not caring about me and forgetting what kind of person I am who was never even worthy of God’s love.

I was living life just in confidence that I am in the Lord’s will and everything I do is right because I was following all the commandments and laws that were prescribed for me to follow. I thought I had a perfect life of faith because I know the Spirit of Prophecy and the Bible so well. I mean I know how to find the verse to preach to the church on how to live a perfect life and perfect overcoming of your temptations. I was on fire and I was blazing to correct, to make wrong things right, and to point to people that they are doing bad in the eyes of the Lord. I stand as a rebuke to all who are not faithful. And when life became hard and inconvenient, I couldn’t understand why it happened to me. I thought I was doing right in the sight of God. (Many aspects of life, I wasn’t able to understand, like not only good things happen to faithful people, but here I am coming from wanting and only choosing a comfortable life.) I HAD MY OWN DEFINITION OF GOD CARING FOR ME. HIS CARE IS WITH MY OWN TERMS. IF IT IS NOT IN MY DEFINITION, THEN HE DOES NOT CARE.

Friends, this is exactly the picture of fallen Israel. In confidence of their own thoughts of righteousness, they thought it never wrong to appreciate and worship the foreign gods. They thought is not a big deal to appreciate the works of those people who do not believe in God and join them in marriage and enjoy also the real life. What is wrong with the unbelievers? They are supposed to be the light for the unbelievers but what happened was they wanted the life that the unbelievers enjoy more than the life God was providing for them to stay to be a light to the nations around them. They thought there is nothing wrong with what they were doing. The measure of their righteousness was their ability to still think right and do right.

“Nothing was wrong with us, Lord.” In their eyes. The whole chapter 50 of Isaiah narrates to His people what happened and who they really were and that after all, it was not God’s fault. It was theirs and all those times God was doing His best to keep His chosen people. Hoping that hardship will make them realize their lack. Isaiah 50:1-2

1This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce

with which I sent her away?

Or to which of my creditors

did I sell you?

Because of your sins you were sold;

because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.

2 When I came, why was there no one?

When I called, why was there no one to answer?

Was my arm too short to deliver you?

Do I lack the strength to rescue you?

By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea,

I turn rivers into a desert;

their fish rot for lack of water

and die of thirst.

God was reviewing to their memory who they really were. God was all the while caring for them and in this chapter, He even declared the greatest promise of God’s care and love for His people and He is Christ who will come to them in the form of a servant. God never stopped caring for them even a second and has even prepared the future deliverance for their children and all the people of the world.

Christ's ministry is all coming from the love of God for His people. God has never in a moment forgotten to look after us. Have we ever realized that it was us who really did not love Him as He deserved to be loved by us?

Christ described His ministry in this chapter this way…

5 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;

I have not been rebellious,

I have not turned away.

6 I offered my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from mocking and spitting.

7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,

I will not be disgraced.

Therefore have I set my face like flint,

and I know I will not be put to shame.

Friends, God’s care is always there… No matter how dark your life may seem to be God cares and no one can take that truth away. Your hardship does not define how God loves you. Your difficulty does not paint the picture of God’s abandonment. Whatever is your situation God loves you and nothing and no one can ever take that away from you. May you see Christ’s love amidst your pain.