Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you. You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you. So you may plant the finest grapevines and import the most expensive seedlings. They may sprout on the day you set them out; yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them, but you will never pick any grapes from them. Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain. [Isaiah 17.10-11]
Why? Why what?
Why are "Their largest cities... like a deserted forest, like the land the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when the Israelites came here so long ago. It will be utterly desolate." [Isaiah 17.9]
Why? Because God's people had abandoned Him.
How in the world could we twist such direct explanation of suffering to mean something entirely different? But that is what we have done when we arrogantly declare innocence and instead interpret God's punishment as some kind of blessing designed to help us grow!
If, in order to declare my innocence, I make myself my own judge with no regard for God's clear definition of blessings and curses, I am ignoring every story and account in the Bible that defines curses on people's lives as a punishment for sin. This is pride and arrogance in it's purest and most vile form!
Father, I keep coming back to the same conclusion that we have been proud and arrogant in refusing to repent when suffering comes our way. Please forgive me for even the thought of innocence when I suffer.
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