Isaiah 22
12 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.
13 But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! "Let us eat and drink," you say, "for tomorrow we die!"
14 The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: "Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for," says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
Or is God kinda like us where he just gets so angry sometimes that he might say some things he doesn't really mean? Seems like God should be above that sort of thing. And does this jive with the all-things-are-forgiven God/Jesus of the New Testament?
Is this being too nit-picky? Do you just toss something like this out because it's a specific case and not generally applicable?
In the New Testament there is reference to an unforgivable sin as well. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I will not even attempt a definition of what that is but I am pretty sure it is a very conscience and very deliberate action. Is this a case of that? I don't know. Maybe God with all of his foreknowledge knew that atonement would not be asked and therefore not given. Ah but then we get into free will vs. predestination...
ReplyDeleteGod asked the people to atone for their misdeeds, but the people went on drinking and making merry. Perhaps the fact that they deliberately disobeyed God at a critic time is the sin He won't forgive. Sure we sin, and Jesus paid that price. But there are some sins that really make God angry and Denny mentioned grieving the Holy Spirit. That could get you into BIG trouble.
ReplyDeleteThe sin is very clearly stated in verse 11--it is self reliance/God ignorance. Verse 8a sets up the passage; i.e., their "defenses ... have been stripped away." 8b-11a lists the man-made defenses that they relied on. 11b states the sin (offensive act/attitude) that God is addressing: "... you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago." They relied on themselves, rather than call out to God. God tried to warn them, verse 12 states that He called them to repent and seek him. But, instead of seeking God, they decided to have a party. They were "whistling in the dark," which is to say that even though they knew they were in grave danger, they chose to act like it wasn't real. They turned away from God and chose to depend on their own capacity. The result is that they were conquered by their enemies. They rejected God's offer to help and suffered the consequences of their own arrogance. As a result, their lives came to a very short end. When they had the chance to go to the temple and pray, they chose to party instead. The result was that their sins were not atoned for. The method of atonement was available, but they chose not to do it. Since they died in the battle, their sins were not atoned for. Verse 14 is not referring to unforgivable sin. Rather, it is a reference to the fact that sometimes stupid arrogance is fatal. When that happens, no opportunity for atonement remains.
ReplyDelete2 Timothy 2:11-13 states, "Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself."
The word "disown" can also be translated as reject or deny. I prefer the word "divorce," because it conveys conscious intent--rather than temporary naivete. When someone says to God, I don't want anything to do with you and I'm willing to take responsibility for this decision, God does not force himself (or his solution to the problem at hand) on that person. In the Isaiah passage, the Jews have made a conscious/intentional decision to reject God and go their own way. Since they died shortly thereafter, their decision turned out to be eternally short-sighted.
The word I had to type in to verify that I am a real person and not just a program hijacking the blog:Trite. Ow!
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