Are You Listening? (Isaiah 48)

Isaiah 48:18 If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea

God was telling the Israelites that he had given them the future in his words. He had already told the of the trouble that would come through his prophets. But they refused to listen and still turned to other idols. Now he is again saying if they would just listen to his word, they would prosper.

How many times have I asked my children, “Are you listening?” When I ask them to do a chore, and yet they don’t hear me. Really they do,  it choose to pretend like they don’t because they want to do whatever they are doing. So many times I say, “It’s easier to hear me the first time and do what is asked, instead of getting in trouble for not listening.”

So many times as an adult, it also seems easier to do what we want instead of what is right. Or what we are called to do. And so we try to continue on our own and wonder why things aren’t going as planned. Or why it seems we end up in some kind of trouble. If we stop and listen to God’s word, or even ask for his help, we will see that he knows better and will make our plans grow. He did not let the Israelites thirst in dry land, and he will not have us thirst either. He offers us the water of everlasting life through Jesus. He wants us to never be thirsty again. We just need to listen to his word.