Isaiah 17
Have you ever seen a hamster in a cage that has a little wheel in it? That hamster can spend all day long running, running, and running, and that wheel will go ’round and ’round, but when the day is over and the hamster is exhausted, he’s still in the cage. Poor little guy.
I glimpsed something in this chapter of Isaiah that made me realize that, as humans, we are in danger of ending up like the hamster: “You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.” (vs 10-11)
It’s true. Forgetting God is just about the worst thing we can do. For when we try to live life without Him, we end up just spinning our wheels. Even when it looks like we’re getting somewhere, we’ll eventually discover that all of our “successes” don’t really amount to anything. We may think the plants are growing and budding, but we will end up waiting forever for a harvest that will never come.
Photo © Unsplash/William Bossen
There is only one path to everywhere, and it is God. All other roads lead nowhere. They may look like promising avenues, but if God is not in them, they will become dead-ends. His is the only road worth taking.
It really is that simple.
Photo © Unsplash/Patrick Fore