"Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."
Isaiah 28:14-18
This is God's way of telling us not to play with fire. It's so easy, isn't it, to think we're being cool by rebelling or walking on the edge, or going over the line further and further but thinking we can do it without getting caught? We go to the very edge of the cliff, but somehow believe that we can't fall.
This is the same thing that God means when he says "my Spirit will not always strive with man" (Ether 2:15). God will save us, help us, and do whatever we can to give us chance after chance, but there is some point (pray we never get there) where we are completely hardened and the spirit can't get through at all anymore, and we've walked off the edge of the cliff for the last time. And at that point, God isn't going to spare us from the consequences. We're going to hit the ground, hard.
This doesn't mean at all that repentance doesn't work. If we can still *want* to repent, then we still can... and we should. We need to run with all our strength away from the edge of that cliff and into God's arms, because *he* is the way that we save ourselves from becoming hardened and hopeless and slaves to the evil that we have consistently chosen.
Today, let's walk away from death and hell and the chains of sin. Let's return to God and make things right. He can help us to understand, to desire good, to find true happiness. We just have to turn to him and work with him, and we can be free even of our own worst choices. We don't have to suffer if we turn to Christ. He is willing to take on our burden if we return to him in faith, willing to change.
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."
Isaiah 28:14-18
This is God's way of telling us not to play with fire. It's so easy, isn't it, to think we're being cool by rebelling or walking on the edge, or going over the line further and further but thinking we can do it without getting caught? We go to the very edge of the cliff, but somehow believe that we can't fall.
This is the same thing that God means when he says "my Spirit will not always strive with man" (Ether 2:15). God will save us, help us, and do whatever we can to give us chance after chance, but there is some point (pray we never get there) where we are completely hardened and the spirit can't get through at all anymore, and we've walked off the edge of the cliff for the last time. And at that point, God isn't going to spare us from the consequences. We're going to hit the ground, hard.
This doesn't mean at all that repentance doesn't work. If we can still *want* to repent, then we still can... and we should. We need to run with all our strength away from the edge of that cliff and into God's arms, because *he* is the way that we save ourselves from becoming hardened and hopeless and slaves to the evil that we have consistently chosen.
Today, let's walk away from death and hell and the chains of sin. Let's return to God and make things right. He can help us to understand, to desire good, to find true happiness. We just have to turn to him and work with him, and we can be free even of our own worst choices. We don't have to suffer if we turn to Christ. He is willing to take on our burden if we return to him in faith, willing to change.
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