09.24.2014 Old Testament: Isa 1.7–9

To read the Bible in a year, read Isaiah 1–3 on September 24, In the year of our Lord 2014

By Don Ruhl

How many times had Israel sinned over the centuries? Yet, the Lord continued to show compassion on His people, but sometimes that compassion showed up after He had punished them severely, as Isaiah said,

Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard,
As a hut in a garden of cucumbers,
As a besieged city.
Unless the Lord of hosts
Had left to us a very small remnant,
We would have become like Sodom,
We would have been made like Gomorrah.
(Isaiah 1.7–9) 

The Lord had made His country desolate, yet, not as desolate as Sodom and Gomorrah. He always found a remnant who had remained faithful to Him, but unfortunately that remnant had to experience the disaster because of the sins of their brethren.

Why has the world continued to this present hour? Is it not because of the Lord’s endless compassion?