"Then His people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people---where is He who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of His flock?" (Isaiah 63:11a) It's important to note that although the Lord allowed them to be conquered and taken captive, they are still "His people". He did not allow these calamities so He could make an end of them as a nation; He allowed hardship in order to bring them back to Himself---in order to cause them to recall the days of old and to repent of their waywardness.
We continue looking at the thoughts they pondered. "Where is He who set His Holy Spirit among them, who sent His glorious arm of power to be at Moses' right hand, who divided the waters before them, to gain for Himself everlasting renown, who led them through the depths?" (Isaiah 63:11b-13a) They are asking, "Where is God? Is He still with us? Why did He not rescue us from our enemies as He rescued Moses and the group that came out of Egypt?"
It is wise to ask ourselves "why" when hardships befall us, for the answer is sometimes that we brought the hardships upon ourselves through sin. This is not always the case but this should be our first consideration. Have we strayed from the right path? Have our thoughts or actions become displeasing to the Lord? Submitting ourselves to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to reveal to us anything that is displeasing about our life, is the first and best thing to do. David set a wonderful example for us when he prayed to the Lord, "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24)
We don't always recognize it when we've drifted into a wrong attitude or when we've begun to compromise with the world. These things can happen so gradually that, in the busyness of everyday life, we don't notice them until troubles bring us up short and we ask ourselves, "Why is this happening?" The thing to do is take this question to God and ask, "Why is this happening? Are my thoughts or actions offensive to you? I submit myself to You so that You may reveal to me anything for which I need to repent."
As Isaiah's people consider their defeat at the hands of their enemies, they think back on the times when the Lord gave them miraculous deliverances from their enemies. Their ancestors were rescued from defeat and capture in the days of old. "Like a horse in open country, they did not stumble; like cattle that go down to the plain, they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord. This is how You guided Your people to make for Yourself a glorious name." (Isaiah 63:13b-14)
The people weren't sinless while the Lord guided them through the wilderness. When we studied that era we found many of them grumbling against the Lord. But they didn't have the same advantages as the people of Isaiah's day and beyond. They couldn't yet look back on the way the Lord led them and provided for them through those years, feeding them every day, making sure their clothes and shoes didn't wear out, defeating the tribes of Canaan and setting them up in their place, making them into a nation that their neighbors feared because their God fought so mightily for them. Much of this was still in the future during the time of Moses. But in Isaiah's day the name of the Lord was recognized throughout the known world because of what He had done for Israel. The Lord would never have allowed Isaiah's nation to fall if the people had continued to revere His name in the sight of their enemies.
Instead the majority of them had begun to revere the names of false gods---the names of gods that the tribes of Canaan had worshiped---gods that had been unable to protect their worshipers from Israel and from Israel's God in the days of old. They had begun to worship the false gods of the people with whom they traded, such as the Phoenicians. Many of them had even sacrificed their children in abominable rituals to pagan deities. The Lord could not overlook such things. If He had overlooked such things, His great name would have fallen into disrepute and then how could anyone have been saved? The entire world would have erroneously concluded that He was just like any other god, that He was unrighteous, that He was very much like carnal mankind. For the sake of His holy name He could not allow this to happen. For the sake of human souls He could not allow this to happen. He had to discipline the people of Isaiah's nation in order to show them and the whole world that He alone is God and that He is a righteous and holy God.
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