Consent and obey or refuse and rebel, nothing has changed.

Isaiah 1-2 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Rebellion of God’s People

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

² Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the Lord speaks,
“Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me.
³ “An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger,
But Israel does not know, My people do not understand.”

⁴ Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers,
Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord,
They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him….

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil, ¹⁷ Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.

¹⁸ “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.
¹⁹ “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land;
²⁰ “But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.”
Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken….

A Day of Reckoning Coming

¹² For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be abased.
¹³ And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up,
Against all the oaks of Bashan,
¹⁴ Against all the lofty mountains, Against all the hills that are lifted up,
¹⁵ Against every high tower, Against every fortified wall,
¹⁶ Against all the ships of Tarshish And against all the beautiful craft.
¹⁷ The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased;
And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,
¹⁸ But the idols will completely vanish.
¹⁹ Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground
Before the terror of the Lord And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
²⁰ In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats Their idols of silver and their idols of gold, Which they made for themselves to worship,
²¹ In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs Before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble.
²² Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; For why should he be esteemed?

 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.  “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land;  “But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken

It amazes me how often people want to hold God to His promises of provision and blessing yet believe that it should be completely unconditional on their part. Today’s text is clear and consistent with the rest of scripture, there are two outcomes laid out. One if you consent and obey God and another if you rebel and refuse God’s way.

God created man with a free will, the ability to choose. It is the responsibility of each individual to choose well. In the beginning there was only one rule for Adam and Eve. They were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s rules are never meant to deprive us of what is good. God isn’t withholding things from us. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil scripture says: Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.(Genesis 3:7) Adam and Eve became fully aware of good and evil. With knowledge comes responsibility. Now rather than follow the one rule God had set before them they were responsible to choose between good and evil in everything they did.

We are born into that same knowledge of good and evil and so too that same responsibility to choose. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we know within ourselves what is right and what is wrong. It is true that the farther we go down any wrong path we begin to lose sight of what is right. Rather than going back to the place we turned from right, we redefine right and wrong. We make right and good relative to our standards, not God’s and not what we originally understood. It has been said that: “if you continue in the direction you are going, you’ll wind up where you’re headed”  That accurately describes the path of our culture. If we continue on the path we are on, choosing to go farther and farther from the good path God has set before us, we will wind up in a future without God.  

God has not changed. In Deuteronomy  30:19-20, after giving the Israelites the law, He said:  "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."  

Adam and Eve failed to follow God’s one rule for them and so they became responsible to choose between good and evil. God gave the Israelites the law, 613 rules and regulations to help them to choose and follow the path of God and live in His blessing. Thankfully we now live in a time when God has once again simplified our path to Him to one choice. Throughout man’s history, he has shown an inability to choose good over evil. So:   God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)  Jesus, God’s Son, whom He gave, says: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6)

It is true that Jesus is not the only path that we can choose. There are many paths to many gods. People say that it is narrow minded to believe that Jesus is the only way to God. I guess in some ways they are right. Jesus Himself says:  “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. ¹⁴ For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.(Matthew 7:13-14)

Each one of us has an ability, a responsibility, the ability to respond to the choice God gives us,  “consent and obey ” or ”refuse and rebel”, “ life and death, the blessing and the curse.”, the “narrow gate” or “wide”  It’s not a matter of what is fair or right. Whether we choose to admit or not we know what is right and as much as we justify and rationalize it, wrong does not become right.  We can choose to receive what is fair, living a life apart from God we choose an eternity apart from God. On the other hand we can choose to receive what we don’t deserve, we can choose the path that leads to God, choosing Him today and for eternity.

Jesus says:  Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. ²¹ He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.(Revelation 3:19-21)

The choice, the response is up to you.

Thank You Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit. You created us with a free will, an ability to choose for ourselves. Thank You for making the most important choice we have a simple one. I choose Christ. Amen.