Five Questions God’s People Ask During Chastening

God spoke to a future group of people in the last half of the book of Isaiah. His message was a message of hope and edification to a generation of His people that were suffering the consequences of His chastisement of the nation. Technically, the young people deported to Babylon were suffering the consequences of the sins of their parents and grandparents more than their own. But they too would have joined in those same sins had God not stepped in with His chastising hand and stopped the cycle.

As I read Isaiah 47-48, I can easily hear the questions the captives are asking in the answers God gives.

Is God against me?

When God blesses your enemies and frustrates your own plans it is really hard not to feel abandoned. However, God makes it very clear in the first four verses of chapter 47 that He knows exactly who His people are and that He has not abandoned them. The Babylonians called themselves by the name of another god, but according to verse four, His people still see Him (Jehovah) as their Redeemer and rule. God’s people may lose God’s favor and His blessing, but never His love. Even harsh chastisement is evidence of His love. He is “for” us in chastisement more than we can possibly imagine.

Is God ignoring injustice being done to me?

Just because God allows us to fall or fail does not mean He has abandoned justice. In this case, the Babylonians were the instrument He used to teach His people Hard lessons, but He also holds the Babylonians responsible for their injustice toward His chosen people (Isaiah 47:6). The rest of Isaiah 47 lays out the pronouncements of judgment that would come and did come upon the Babylonians for their abuses against His people. God never ignores the sin of the wicked. He is a God of justice.

Is there any way back to God, if He even wants me back?

Of course, there is! His chastisement is a manifestation of His pursuit of His people. God ALWAYS was a true, righteous, and intimate relationship with His people. He wants His people to be focused upon Him (48:12-13). He wants them to think of Him when they go to sleep and when they arise. He is not content to be an accessory in their lives, He wants to be the priority of their lives.

Did I actually have a choice or was this God’s plan all along?

Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants also would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; His name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me. (Isaiah 47:18-19)

Satan drops this little tidbit in our ears. “This sin was unavoidable.” He will say. “This whole episode was part of God’s plan.” It is sometimes comforting to tell ourselves that God’s sovereignty somehow absolves us of our responsibility before Him, but when we do this we make a mockery of scripture itself. Even in this passage, God presents the “would haves” as a real and sincere choice that His people could have made. Yes, I had a choice.

Can there ever be real joy again?

We cannot change the past and the scars of chastisement often remain. Even scars are evidence of healing. Those that returned from the exile remembered its hardships. Much was lost, but the way forward is filled with hope if we learn the lessons of the past.

What joy these words must have been in the ears of the Babylonian captives!

Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing, declare, proclaim this, utter it to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!” And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out (Isaiah 48:20-21).