“I will destine you to the sword. All of you shall bow down to the slaughter because when I called you did not answer. When I spoke you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in.”
– Isaiah 65:12
These are somber words from God to people who have turned away from him. As I read them I prayed. God, I don’t want this ever to be true in my life. I don’t want any of these things to be true in my life. I don’t want any of these things to be true in my family. And I don’t want them to be true in the church that I’m a part of and the people around me that I pray for regularly.
This Verse Reminds Us of the Consequences of Rejecting God’s Call
Obviously, I don’t want this to be true in anybody, but this is a picture in God’s word of saying judgment is coming for those whom God has called, but they don’t answer, who when God spoke they didn’t listen, who do what is evil in his eyes and choose what he doesn’t delight in as Isaiah 65:12 states. You hear that phrase. In your own heart, in my own heart, I see this tendency to choose things that I delight in instead of that which God delights in. God very clearly in his word is saying don’t do that. Choose what I delight in. Let’s pray for our lives, our families, our churches, the culture around us. God, please help us. Help us to hear you when you call.
We have a tendency in our hearts to choose what we delight in instead of what God delights in. And God warns us against this.
This Verse Reminds Us to Listen to God and His Word
When you speak help us to listen. God, we see how we have so minimized your word, not just in our culture but even in the church today, how much biblical illiteracy there is, how much it can be said even about the church today. When you spoke we did not listen. God, may that not be so. God, restore the supremacy of your word in the church today, the proclamation of your word in the church today, the proclamation of your word in our lives, the adhering of it, and the obedience to it. And God, please, may it not be said of us that we didn’t listen to your word. Help us to listen to your word every day.
God, help us to listen to your word in our personal lives, as families. Help us to gather around your word as the church. And help us to make your word central in all that we do. As we do listen to you, keep us from doing what is evil in your eyes. Please, God, keep us from choosing that which you don’t delight in. God, there is so many things that our flesh is prone to delight in, that you don’t delight in. We look to you. We know. Your word says it so clearly, that you are the supreme delight of our souls, that righteousness leads to life, that wickedness, sinfulness leads to death, not delight.
Isaiah 65:12 Reminds Us to Live According to God’s Delights Rather Than Our Own
God help us. Wean us off the delights of this world. Help us to turn from them to find our delight in you and that which matters to you. God, we pray that you would have mercy on us in all of these ways. Help us not to choose anything in which you don’t delight. May these words not be so in our lives, our families, our churches. God, may this commentary not be true of the culture, country we live in. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
