Looking for a Fall Guy
Read Isaiah 7:1–12:6
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11. The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,
12. “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
13. Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble.
14. He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah he will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.
15. Many will stumble and fall, never to rise again. They will be snared and captured.”
16. Preserve the teaching of God; entrust his instructions to those who follow me.
17. I will wait for the Lord, who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my hope in him. Isaiah 8:11-17
Blame shifting kicks into high gear whenever someone has been caught. You can almost guarantee that the guilty person will try to blame somebody else (or some overpowering circumstance) for the offense.
Sadly, some believers do this, too, without even thinking about it. But this is nothing new for God’s people. The Judeans, Isaiah predicted, would start pointing fingers as soon as the consequences of their sin came upon them. As you read, notice who gets blamed here.
This reading is an interesting mixture of hope and despair. Note the famous prophecies about Christ (Isaiah 7, 9, 11); the harsh words about conceit and favoring the strong (Isaiah 9–10); and the kind words for those who remain faithful to God (Isaiah 10, 12).
The people of Israel listened to false prophets instead of to Isaiah, and as a result they went “from one place to another, weary and hungry” (Isaiah 8:21). They blamed God for their troubles. After rejecting God’s plan for them, the people tried to indict God for rejecting them!
Unfortunately, that’s how we often behave. We blame God for problems that we have brought on ourselves instead of admitting that we deserve what has happened and making the appropriate changes.
How do you respond to the unpleasant results of your choices? Be honest with yourself and God—admit your sins, ask forgiveness, and, if necessary, make restitution.
