A father raises his children. He invests in their upbringing. He encourages their education. He provides structure, a home, food on the table and hope for the future. He watches over them while they sleep and teaches them when they are awake. He wants them to grow up and be strong. He wants them to have a great future free from strife and anguish, sorrow and misery. He gives them stability. He encourages them to work and to improve themselves—to flourish under his protection and guidance.
Then one day, a child declares, “I’m not your child. Look what I have done for myself, how great I am, how strong I am and how prosperous I am. I do not have to obey you, and I will not recognize you as my father.” How many times this type of situation has played out in families throughout time, but few more are tragic than in God’s family. Isaiah wrote, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider” (Isaiah 1:2-3).
Some parents will not admit the truth about their children’s condition. They will hide from reality. They will say things like, “They’re good kids; they just got in with the wrong crowd.” God is more honest than that. God said of His children, “Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward” (Isaiah 1:4).
The people of Israel, the nation of God, the descendants of Abraham, had become a brood of corrupters. The root meaning of this word is “to decay.” Their influence was rust to metal and disease to a body.
Israel had become an influence for moral and spiritual decay in their world. They were supposed to be the light of the world. They were supposed to be the salt of the earth. However, they had become “good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” (Matthew 5:13).
What kind of child of God are you today? How do you live, and what is your relationship to the Father in Heaven? What would He say about your life and your relationship with Him? God called Israel to reason with Him and to cleanse themselves, but He also sent them a warning, “If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isaiah 1:19-20).
