Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"Oh, that you had heeded My commandments"
Text: Isaiah 48:18
BLESSINGS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN RECEIVED
Israel in choosing to forsake the LORD forfeited many blessings. If only the nation had listened and drawn near to God, great would have been their blessings!
“Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Your descendants also would have been like the sand,
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;
His name would not have been cut off
Nor destroyed from before Me.”
Isaiah 48:18-19
1. Sadness felt.
a) Because Israel had not heeded God’s commandments.
b) Many blessings had been withheld because of sins unconfessed.
2. The blessings that Israel missed out on:
a) Peace like a refreshing river.
i) There was hardly any peace.
ii) The country had experienced many wars.
b) Righteousness like the mighty waves of the sea.
i) The nation was not righteous.
ii) There were blessings that could have come with being righteous.
c) Descendants
i) They would have been as numerous as the sand.
ii) Their offspring could have been as numerous as grains of sand.
d) Name
i) Their name would have been established.
ii) They were in danger of being cut off.
iii) They were now so close to destruction.