The Consequences of Rebellion

Judah has rejected God's word, trusted in a lie, and relied upon "what is devious."  (Isaiah 30:12b) What will be the consequences? Jehovah, instead of leaving the scene as the nation wishes, will cause the nation to cease to exist!  This will happen suddenly and completely, as Isaiah stresses with an illustration.  The rebelliousness of the nation is like "a broken section about to fall down, a swelling out in a highly raised wall, the breakdown of which may come suddenly, in an instant.'  (Isaiah 30:13)  Just as a growing bulge in a high wall will eventually cause the wall to collapse, so the increasing rebelliousness of Isaiah's contemporaries will cause the collapse of the nation. 

With another illustration  Isaiah shows the completeness of the coming destruction:  "One will certainly break it as in the breaking of a large jar of the potters, crushed to pieces without one's sparing it, so that there cannot  be found among its crushed pieces a fragment of earthenware with which to rake the fire from the fireplace or to skim water from a marshy place."  (Isaiah 30:14)   Judah's destruction will be so complete that nothing of value will remain-not even a potsherd big enough  to scoop hot ashes from a fireplace or to skim water from a marsh.  What a shameful end!  The coming destruction of those who rebel against true worship today will be equally  sudden and complete. -Hebrews 6:4-8; 2 Peter 2:1.

Next time: Jehovah's Offer Rejected

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, 2000