The Ox Knows His Owner, And the Ass His Master's Crib, But Israel Doth Not Know; My People Doth Not Consider - Part 2446

And He said, "Go, and tell this people -- hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed."

Then said I, "Lord, how long?"

And He answered, "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy Seed shall be the substance thereof ..." (Isaiah 6:9-15)

You see, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Nevertheless, the Lord God implemented a plan of salvation, wherein He Himself became our Saviour. After His kindness and love did God appear toward men. He came into the world and the world was made by Him but the world knew Him not.

Still, He continues to speak to those who will give ear unto His words. Those who will hearken their hearts to the King of kings and Lord of lords. His Name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sins. Emmanuel, being interpreted, God with us. (Matthew 1:21-23; I Timothy 3:16; John 1:10-11; Titus 3:4-7; Acts 20:28)

But as the Lord also admits, some have rebelled against Him (including Israel who does not know). These have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, and indeed have gone away backward. (Isaiah 1:3-4)

As the Lord states, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and petrifying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate; your cities are burned by fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers ..." (Isaiah 1:5-7)

Or as David the psalmist wrote, "We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are around us." (Psalm 79:5)

But salvation hath appeared to all when God declared peace and good will to one and all. His salvation has come, and His righteousness revealed.

Thus, "now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in His holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us ... to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem." (Ezra 9:8-10)

Like Jesus so clearly stated, He will never leave us nor forsake us. That He -- Jesus is the Bread of life. That He -- Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! That when we drink of His living water, we will never thirst again. Indeed, the risen Jesus -- the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Great I AM!

Our counsel?

"And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah."

Let them with ears to hear, hear. Stand in the offering plate!