“For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.”
–Isaiah 10:4
It’s interesting. You look back in Chapter 9 and then here into Chapter 10, four different times we see this refrain. We see the sinfulness of God’s people. We see their unwillingness to turn from sin, their lack of repentance, which leads to this refrain over and over and over again. “In all of this God’s anger has not turned away and still his hand is stretched out.”
Run from sin that you have become comfortable with and live a life of repentance.
What’s remarkable is that the people of God at this point around them are experiencing all kinds of devastation and collapse socially. They’re seeing the effects of sin and yet they still don’t turn from it. As a result of their not turning away from sin God’s anger is not turned away from them and His hand of judgment remains stretched out over them.
Isaiah 10:4 Wants Us To Turn To God When Stuck With Sins
The clear reality behind Isaiah 10:4 is that people need to repent. They need to turn back to God, but they’re not doing it. They’re not repenting. I just think about my own life. I think about times when I have been slow to repent or when I have continued in sin time and time and time again. And particular sin and just not turned from it. It’s like I’ve been living in the effects of sin and yet I continue in it. What foolishness and yet I’m prone to this foolishness and I’m guessing you are too.
This Verse Asks For Help Turning Away From Our Sins
And so I just want to encourage us based on Isaiah 10:4 to run from sin, to turn away from sin in our lives. From sin that we become casual with, from sin that we become comfortable with, almost kind of excused because of this reason or that reason. No. God help us. Let’s pray. God help us to turn away from sin. God help us to repent. God would you show us today, show me today, show each of us today any, every area of our life where there is need for repentance. Where we don’t want Your anger, or the effects of sin to continue upon us. We don’t want your hand of judgment and the consequences of sin to remain stretched out over us. God, we want to be free from sin, from its effects, from its deadly, disastrous consequences.
Isaiah 10:4 Wants Us To Repent For Our Sins
So, help us to turn from sin. We praise you for your grace that allows us to repent of sin, so help us to take full advantage of this grace. Help us to repent today, to turn from sin and as we do, God, would you grant your grace, would you show your grace to us, not only in forgiving us of our sins, but in keeping us from going back to these sins. Please, oh God, help us to live lives of repentance. In Jesus name we pray and plead. 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.
