Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and dies for water. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
Isaiah 50:2-3
Can you imagine that God is looking for someone who will just believe and finds no one? Could that have been the way things were in Isaiah’s day? Could Isaiah also have been in that condition? Remember when the Seraphim touched his lips and he received his commission from God what the Lord said to Him? “Go, and tell this people, hear indeed, but understand not; and see 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.” (Isaiah 6:9-10) Imagine what you would feel like if you preached all your life and never had, even one convert. That was what God said it would be like at the preaching of Isaiah; and Jeremiah for that matter.
Why would they not believe? Why is this generation becoming so calloused to the preaching of the Gospel? Why indeed? Is it because they have not truly seen the power of God at work? Is it because the church world has invited in the sins of the world in, rather than bring a powerful message against sin. Is it because we have called, what is sin, just errors or mistakes in judgment rather than name it for what it is?
Perhaps it is time that we take a realistic look at ourselves and ask ourselves the hard question, “Do we really believe that God’s arm is not shortened and that He still has all power to deliver.” If we still believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that every Word is divinely inspired then God should not have to look for someone who believes and acts on that belief.
If God says, “Pray for the sick” then pray for the sick. If God says, “Cast out devils” then cast out devils. If God says, “Raise the dead” then raise the dead. If God says, “Call judgment on the nations” then do so. If we truly believe, we will not just say we believe but we will be up and about the Father’s business. Jesus came to set the captive free so if He puts the keys to the prison doors in your hands then use them to unlock the doors that hold the prisoner’s captive.
Let’s not be a generation that would cause God’s to say “I looked for someone but found none.” Let’s believe and doubt not. God is still God! He has not grown old or weak—so we can trust Him to do what He said He will do. Amen.
