A Self-Loving God...

48:1 Hear this, O house of Jacob,

who are called by the name of Israel,

and who came from the waters of Judah,

who swear by the name of the Lord

and confess the God of Israel,

but not in truth or right.

2 For they call themselves after the holy city,

and stay themselves on the God of Israel;

the Lord of hosts is his name.

3 “The former things I declared of old;

they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;

then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

4 Because I know that you are obstinate,

and your neck is an iron sinew

and your forehead brass,

5 I declared them to you from of old,

before they came to pass I announced them to you,

lest you should say, ‘My idol did them,

my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’

6 “You have heard; now see all this;

and will you not declare it?

From this time forth I announce to you new things,

hidden things that you have not known.

7 They are created now, not long ago;

before today you have never heard of them,

lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

8 You have never heard, you have never known,

from of old your ear has not been opened.

For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,

and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

9 “For my name's sake I defer my anger,

for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,

that I may not cut you off.

10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another.

Isaiah 48 is so awesome!!! V1-2 is talking about how hypocrisy is found within God's very own people... Yeah, God's very own people being hypocrites man, how stupid is that? I think we can identify ourselves easily in our daily lives by claiming that we are doing everything for God's glory and honour or whatever, but when confronted with the question of picking up the cross and repent over your sins then we will know what Isaiah means in verse 1 'but not in truth or right'. The Israelites were confessing the God of Israel, but Isaiah says that they are not in truth or right even they're doing so, because they were being hypocrites!!!

v3-5 God declares all of His plan since the beginning because He knows that they're so stubborn that they won't obey. And He declared it long time ago, so that whenever His plans come to pass they will know it is God Himself that has purposed it to happen and not some useless god made up by humans(which kinda says that we are the gods ourselves). And this was just all the FORMER THINGS... Now that it is the present(at Isaiah's time) let's see if they will look back into history and learn from it...

v6-7 God is declaring something new to them in the same manner just that the content is a bit different. And God is also saying that it was just created not long ago so that you will not be self-righteous in saying that you already knew it long time ago. See how foolish we are?! When God declares something we don't listen, when He creates something new and declares it to us, we say that we knew it long time ago. This is where V8 comes in.

V8 says that you are so blinded because you never bothered to listen!!! And that's why God continues to say that 'For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously', yeap, God knew that we will screw everything up. Even before our parents met each other, we were already rebels. Obstinate, neck is an iron, forehead brass, super duper stubborn REBELS!!! This is the depravity of humanity that we were born rebellious. Thank God that He knew how foolish we are and He didn't do things according to our will or for our sake.

V9-11 Thank God for being God Himself that He does everything for His OWN Purpose and His OWN Sake, His OWN Glory. Thank God for defending and loving Himself!!! This might seem that God is very self-loving, but that's exactly the point. If God doesn't love Himself and loves/ defends something other than Himself that would be idolatrous!!! For goodness sake, we were told to glorify Him and if God Himself isn't seeking to glorify Himself then we wouldn't even be created in the very first place.

The Cross comes into the picture because of the special relationship between Jesus and God the Father. The PERFECT OBEDIENCE of the Son to follow the Father's will and plan. The LOVE of the Son towards the Father that He will do anything to glorify the Father and humble Himself. We, rebels are the beneficiaries of this super duper awesome unfathomable LOVE relationship between the Son and the Father.

If God is doing all this for our sake, then it simply means that God is putting us before God Himself. It's like God is serving us, which is what religiousity means, wanting God to serve us. Heck, I wouldn't want a useless weakling God like this, a Creator who has no rule and dominion over His very Own Creation doesn't deserve to be known!!!