“Listen to this…”

Verse 8a reads like this in ‘The Message’:

“You’ve never been good listeners to me.
    You have a history of ignoring me…”

A great, much-respected Christian leader was in a meeting with a colleague, and he was momentarily distracted and not fully attentive. His colleague noticed this and mentioned it to him. Immediately, without making any excuses, the great man apologised sincerely. He said it is a basic element of Christian courtesy to give your full attention to someone who is speaking to you, and he was truly sorry he had failed to do so.

Israel, as a nation, had not been good at giving undivided attention to their God, and this is one of the themes of chapter 48. (See vv.1,12,16-18). There is a sadness in the air; His people were the losers for this failure to listen. As we are going to see, their unwillingness to listen to God meant that they didn’t experience the peace of God.

“He has given them his law; he has spoken to them through his prophets, but they have not listened, and they are still not listening! How different their history might have been, and how different their present relationship with God might have been, if only they had listened to his word (18-19)! And because this problem is still unresolved, their return to the land will not bring the fullness of blessing they hope for. They will spoil the next chapter in their history, just as they have spoilt all the previous ones.’ (Barry Webb: Isaiah, p.191).

What about us? Can we really point the finger? How well do we listen?

In his outstanding book, ‘Reading the Bible Supernaturally’, John Piper calls for ‘patience and aggressive attentiveness’ to the text of Scripture.