Has anyone tried to persuade you to believe something? Have they been unrelenting in getting you to see things differently, and your reply is, “No, I will get my help from this thing or that.” I wonder how Jesus feels when He works hard at pursuing you (and me) and you (as well as me) keeps telling Him no. While you would think after awhile, God would lose interest in pursuing you (and me) and He would move on and let us fend for ourselves.
In Isaiah 30, you read how stubborn and rebellious God’s children are. You also see the unrelenting love of God. Despite their helpless state, God’s love is never deterred. He always offers a way back to Him!
To appreciate what God does for you, it is imperative that you fully see your mulish determination in fighting His everlasting love. The battle is real, it is ugly, tiring, and unending until Jesus come for you personally or globally for His church. The battle is between your sinful flesh and Christ’s redemptive call.
Let’s look at what Isaiah has to say in what God calls mulish behavior. God says sorrow awaits those who live contradictory to His ways. He calls believers rebellious and stubborn; thus acting like mules. Believers have lost their focus and have stepped outside the boundaries of God’s blessings. They make plans contrary to God’s plans. They are doing what they want to do. They move forward in life without consulting and obeying the Holy Spirit. Essentially, they ignore God. God says their sins are piling up; see the end of verse 1.
Trusting anything except God means you are living contrary to God’s ways. This makes life more burdensome; reread verse 6. Your eyes become blinded when you put your faith in the ways of the world. The world’s promises are worthless! In verse 7, it reads “Egypt’s promises are worthless!” Egypt represents the world. God is calling you out of the world so you will follow His Son.
Mulish determination against God causes you to despise Him. You will choose to trust in the hard ways of the world rather than trust the Sovereign God who has given His all for you to be saved from your sins. God’s wonderful, gracious, and redeeming love is seen in verse 15, “Only in returning to Me and resting in Me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength.”
God gives you a choice to choose humility and repentance through Christ, or remain stubborn and rebellious against Him. While God pursues you to convince you that He is real and that He loves you, “the Lord must wait for you to come to Him.”18 You will find faithfulness, blessings, help for all things, and grace when you do go to Him.
When you go to Him, He will respond to you!
While you will toil through trials and tribulations, God will be with you. Every believer will go through His sanctification process. He must remove your sinful ways and change you into the likeness of Himself. God will personally teach you. He will reveal Himself in ways where your eyes will see Him and your ears will hear Him. You will be led valiantly from now on by the One who knows the future. You will become fruitful for His Kingdom, rather than building up your own. One is eternal while the other is not.
It’s a wonderful day when God takes a mulish-type person and changes him or her into one of His own where your strongholds, sins, enemies that keep you weighed down, have no power over you any longer. Your life is filled with streams of living water where the Son shines bright. The Lord will heal and and cure any and all things that don’t belong.
To be spiritually healed is the goal that every believer should be aiming for. A day is coming when the Lord will be returning in anger. He will make His voice heard as He displays the strength of His mighty arm. He is coming back to take down the enemy! Sin will be no more and God’s people will rejoice and celebrate. May you be on the celebratory side 🙂
Carol J German 