Isaiah 9:13-16 - Those who are guided are led astray

9:13-15

It was the Lord who struck the people. Nations were used as instruments, but it was God’s hand behind it all. Yet Israel nor Judah returned to the Lord. So Israel would be utterly decimated. Head and tail would be removed, the leaders being the head, and the false prophets the tail. This implies that at this point the defeat of Assyria was actually reversible, if only Israel had returned to the Lord. But she did not, so the defeat would become final.

9:16

In verse 16 we have criticism of the leaders, they are misguided and so mislead the people. The effect of this is that people are led astray. Today there are many churches where the leadership is misleading people with regard to sexuality and gender. In doing so they are causing people harm, for people are misled because of them. They may claim to be acting out of love (“love is love”) but whether they mean to or not, they actually cause harm to people. All of us involved in leadership need to watch ourselves very carefully to ensure that we do not mislead the people.