Isaiah 1:3 “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.”
Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord referred to Israel as “my people”. In the New Testament, the Lord broadens the phrase to include His “people” among the Gentile nations: “As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.” (Romans 9:25). Our Lord extends His providential care to all His “people” in every nation; for, “God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (II Corinthians 6:16). Furthermore, our Lord expands the name “Israel” to include His “people” among “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6); referring to them as “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). In many ways “the Israel of God” in our day tends to behave like “the Israel” in the Old Testament. There is a slipping away from a life of worship and service that is “in simplicity and godly sincerity” (II Corinthians 1:12). Paul warns us this way, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (II Corinthians 11:3). The problem is that “people” are becoming more and more self-satisfied and forgetting Who their “Owner” is and Who their “Master” is! Even the “ox” lovingly knows and serves “his owner” and “the ass” faithfully returns to “his master’s crib”, so let us actively love and serve our Lord and present ourselves for worship when the Lord’s Church meets! But the sad truth is that we are not learning from Old Testament Israel; for, today’s “Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider”! Let us take to heart and mind our Lord’s Words, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:14)! Now is the time for us to “humble” ourselves before our God, to urgently “pray” that He will grant us repentance, to worshipfully “seek” His Blessed “face” in His Beloved Church, and to faithfully “turn from” our “wicked ways”; for, in doing so, He will mercifully “heal” our “land”!