Isaiah 48:10
The Bible says in Isaiah 48:10-14, “Behold, I
have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of
affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I
do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto
another. Hearken unto me, O Jacob and
If you are a believer, you belong to
Christ. He will never give up on you because He has a purpose for your
existence in this world of His. God is patient, He is determined, and He does
not give up. He also will continue to work in your life because He is eternally
faithful. But notice that Jesus said in Isaiah 48:10, “I have
refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of
affliction.” The word “affliction” refers to “misery.” A person who is afflicted is a person who
has had miserable circumstances fall upon him. God is saying very clearly that
He allows miserable things to happen in the lives of believers in order to help
each believer become a better Christian. That is exactly what the Apostle Paul
said happened in His life. Paul wrote in Romans 5:3-5, “And not only
so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh
patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope. And hope maketh not
ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us.”
In Isaiah 48:11 the Lord tells us a
couple of reasons why He refines Christians in the furnace of affliction. He
says, “For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how
should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.” Jesus says,
“for
how should my name be polluted?” Christians are called by the name of Christ.
Once you become a Christian through faith in Christ, you become one of the few
people in the world who honor the name of Jesus, and the people of the world
will know that you honor the name of Jesus. Someone once said, “The worse thing
about Christianity is the Christians.” God does not want it to be that way.
Jesus wants to make our life into something so that we attract people to Christ
by the way that we live and by the people that we are. It is a terrible thing
when the name of God becomes “polluted” in the eyes of the people of the world
because of the bad actions of those who call themselves Christians.
In Isaiah 48:11 God gives an
additional reason that He puts Christians through the fires of affliction.
Jesus says, “I will not give my glory unto another.” Because of
our afflictions, when we turn to the Lord and trust in Him and He takes us out
of the affliction, we give Him glory for what He has done for us. The heart of
man is so proud and so deceitful that even Christians would often take the
glory to themselves for what is accomplished. But when they have no choice but
to trust in the Lord, Jesus receives the glory as He should.
In Isaiah 48:14, God tells us the primary
reason for a church assembly to take place. He says, “All ye,
assemble yourselves, and hear.” Notice the word “hear.” What should
people be hearing at a Christian assembly? They should be hearing the Word of
God. The purpose for a church is so that believers can assemble together to
hear the Word of God. All of the activities and committees that have been put
into modern churches often take away from what the purpose is supposed to be:
the preaching and teaching of the Bible. Nothing is more important in a church
assembly. The attacks against the churches have been so very subtle to break
down the importance of the preaching of the Word. The attacks sometimes come
from those who do not preach the Word: the deacons and other church members, so
that they will desire activities other then the preaching and teaching of God’s
Word. Other attacks come in the form of the preachers and teachers themselves
not properly presenting the Word of God. Maybe they will too much emphasize
personal stories or other illustrations instead of expounding the Word of God.
Of course, we are all well aware of the attacks that have come from supposed
Christian seminaries and so-called Christian scholars who sometimes cast doubt
on the authenticity and authority of the written Word of God; or who create or
support translations that depart from the original texts such as New Testament
translations that are not based upon the Textus Receptus. These “loose”
translations become a slow but ever-degrading departure from the Word of God
that was given in the original languages. That is one of the reasons that the
King James is good to use: it has not changed for hundreds of years, so there
is no possibility of modern “scholars” changing the translation. There are
warnings given in the New Testament that need to be heeded. For example, it
says in Romans 16: 17-18, “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which
cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned;
and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but
their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the
simple.” It also says in First Timothy 4:1, “Now the
Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”
There is at least one other important
thing to notice in Isaiah 48:14. After the Israelites are told to assemble to
hear the Word of the Lord, they are told what that Word will be about. It says
in Isaiah 48:14, “All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath
declared these things? The LORD hath loved him…” The most
important message about Christ is the message about His great eternal
love. “God is love,” it says in
First John 4:8. The Bible says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son.” It says in First John 4:10, “Herein is
love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be
the propitiation for our sins.” The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans
8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.” There is no message more
important than the message about the love of God through Jesus Christ. This is
a world where there is much too much hatred, cruelty, unkindness, and
prejudices. Everyone needs to hear about the love of God. You are not preaching
God’s message unless you are preaching that message. It says in First
Corinthians 13:1-2, “Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding
brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and
understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so
that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” And it also says in First Corinthians 13:1, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but
the greatest of these is charity.”
The Lord is continuing to speak, and
the Bible says in Isaiah 48:15-17, “I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have
called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. Come
ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit,
hath sent me. Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel;
I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the
way that thou shouldest go.” The Lord said, “I have called him…” This tells
us something important about the Lord. He calls people. Jesus said in Matthew
22:14, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” Jesus
called the disciples when He passed by them and said in Matthew 4:19, “Follow me,
and I will make you fishers of men.” The New Testament has a lot to say
about the calling that a Christian receives from the Lord. As we see in the
example of the disciples, the “calling” starts when a person first comes to
Christ. That is because we can only come to Christ when He touches our heart
and awakens us to our need of Him. This salvation experience is termed a
“calling” because God speaks to the heart of a person. Jesus Christ visits
every individual at some time in their life and “calls” them. Of course, we
must respond to His calling in a positive way with faith and repentance in
order to be saved by Jesus. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 22:14 “For many are
called, but few are chosen.” Once we have responded to the calling of
Christ, then the “calling” takes on a further extension.
The calling refers to salvation, and
it also refers to all that the Lord wants us to become in this life and in the
next. He has called us from our own sinful selfishness, and called us to become
all that He wants us to be. For example, the Bible says in Ephesians 1:18, “The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened ; that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling,
and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” It also
says in Second Timothy 1:9, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”
Notice that in Isaiah 48:15-17 that
after the Lord mentions our calling, He then talks about leading those who have
been called. God said in Isaiah 48:15, “I have brought him, and he shall
make his way prosperous.” And the Lord also said in Isaiah 48:17 that he “leadeth thee
by the way that thou shouldest go.” It is a wonderful benefit to
salvation to be led by Jesus Christ wherever you go in this world. When you
make a decision, make sure that you go God’s way because He promises to lead
you. It says in Psalms 23:1, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He
leadeth me…” Joseph Gilmore understood this blessing of having God as our
guide. He wrote a great Christian song that contains the words: “He leadeth me,
O blessed thought. O words with heavenly comfort wrought. Whate’er I do,
where’er I be: still tis God’s hand that leadeth me.”
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Copyright; 2009 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved