Isaiah 16

There is a special kind of ache in the heart that can only be felt by a parent with a hurting child—especially when it’s the sort of hurt that you can’t do anything about. Now, imagine how that ache would be magnified if you were in a position to ease the hurt, but your child refused your help. I think that could almost make you go crazy.

This is the kind of ache I sensed behind the words of today’s chapter: “Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards; no one treads out wine at the presses, for I have put an end to the shouting. My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail.” (vs 10-12) Especially at the end of that passage, you can sense God’s desperation at being ignored as the solution to His children’s problems, while He watches them “wearing themselves out” instead.

It reminds me a great deal of Jesus’s desperate cry as He wept over Jerusalem: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matt 23:37)

I can’t imagine the ache it brings to the heart of God to watch us wearing ourselves out, running around in religious circles, and doing everything we can to avoid surrendering to Him—all the while knowing full well that He is the only one who is able to help us. We may try a hundred different avenues, but the only thing we will do is wear ourselves out.

God wants to help you. Whatever your problem, God has the solution. Whatever your predicament, God has the answer. You won’t find help at shrines in high places or with friends in low places. You will find it in the God who longs to gather you under His comforting wing.

He is longing to help you. Today. Right now.

Are you willing?