Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones.
– Isaiah 32:11
I’ll just stop there. There’s more that goes on throughout this chapter. And really, before these verses, there is a clarion call in Isaiah 32 for God’s people, and specifically, the women God is speaking to at this point, to wake up from complacency, from apathy, and realize judgment is coming. That’s the context here in Isaiah 32. Don’t pretend like everything’s great and kind of coast through life. No, wake up, tremble and shudder. Do not live in complacency.
Isaiah 32:11 points to the urgent need of the gospel.
And there is a word here for every one of us today who is a follower of Jesus. There is no place, no room for complacency among followers of Jesus, for apathy, for just kind of coasting through life. Think about what it means to follow Jesus. One, it means you have the bread of life, and you have eternal joy and peace, and hope in your life today. You have communion with God today. You have a relationship with God himself. That is cause for joy and vibrancy in your life. Jesus says, “I came so you might have life and have it to the full and abundant.” And I know, I know our emotions in this world vary, but that’s just it. We’re never just coasting. We are rejoicing and grieving. So yes, different emotions at different points, but not complacent.
And to use the context here from Isaiah 32, we know this world, everything we see around us today, is not going to last. We know eternal judgment is coming, that this world and all that it offers is going to fade away. It’s going to be gone. And the only thing that’s going to matter is whether people have Jesus, and if they don’t have Jesus, they will spend eternity in judgment due to sin. So we can’t live with complacency today. We must live with urgency to share the gospel with people around us today, to tell people, to warn people that judgment is coming. That’s the whole picture in Isaiah 32. These complacent people are being warned of a coming disaster, and we need to warn people around us.
Isaiah 32:11 reminds us to embrace the urgency of the gospel message.
So let’s not live complacent Christian lives, coasting through life in this world. God help us, we pray, to live lives of vibrancy with you in relationship with you. Lord, help us not to live bored in relationship with you. God, help us to experience the wonder, the delight, the beauty, the joy, the peace, and even amidst the heartache, the strength and comfort that you provide for us in this world. And God, we pray that you’d help us to live with urgency today for the spread of your love to people around us.
God, help us to have a feeling sense of, well, even our brothers and sisters in Christ around us, help us to live, to serve them and care for them, and love them, not to be apathetic in light of needs in their lives. And God, all the more so when it comes to people who don’t know you. Who if you were to come back right now, Jesus, would not be ready, or if something were to happen to them and they were to breathe their last breath today, they would not be ready.
Lord, help us to live with urgency to spread the gospel today. And all the more so to spread the gospel to people who’ve never even heard it.
Prayer for the Dewar People of India
God, we pray for the Dewar people of India today, for 1.1 million in this people group. God, we pray, please help us as your Church to be urgent with your Commission, to spread the gospel to the Dewar and thousands of other people groups like them, to give toward that end, to pray like we’re doing now, God, toward that end, please, please, please, we pray, not coasting through prayer, not complacent in prayer, but with urgency in prayer.
Please, oh God, save the Dewar. Cause the gospel to go through your Church in India. And through people from outside your Church in India to the Dewar people. Please, oh God, help us to be free from complacency in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray according to Isaiah 32:11. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
