8:14,15
If we do fear the Lord, instead of fearing what the world fears, we will find Him to be a holy place. The Lord will be a place of goodness. He will also be a place of common sense and rationality, while the world continues in its madness. The Lord is different from the world. As we will read (a long time in the future!) in chapter 55, His ways are not our ways, and they are higher than our ways. To be with the Lord is the best place to be. But for the people of Israel and Judah, and Jerusalem, He would be a stumbling block, a trap and a snare. This should not be. If they had trusted in the Lord He would have been a refuge, a place of safety, but because they rebelled He would be their enemy. We need to make sure we trust in the Lord. Israel’s failure to trust in the Lord would result in many of the falling, and this is what indeed did happen.
8:16,17
Isaiah is told to “bind up the testimony”. Judah would refuse to pay any heed to God’s words, but they would be preserved for a later time as proof that God had warned the nation of what would happen, so that a future generation would choose a better way. Isaiah knows that God is hiding His face from Israel. His reaction is not to go off in a huff, but to wait patiently for the Lord, to put his trust in Him. So often today we want to bend God’s ways to fit our ideas of how things should be. This is a very foolish approach to take. Far better to submit our thoughts and emotions to Him.
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