So here is the part that hurts. A Good hurt if we allow it, but hurt hurts and there are very real consequences to our choices, Good and bad. 

I read this passage from Ezekiel 9:10 yesterday: “…They all say, ‘God has forsaken the country. He doesn’t see anything we do.’ Well, I do see, and I’m not feeling sorry for any of them. They’re going to pay for what they’ve done.”

In our world, the only time we hear, “They’re going to pay for what they’ve done,” is in regards to seeking revenge, perhaps we even picture an actor sneering while saying it. But when I read this yesterday, a different story was brought to my mind. This isn’t a direct quote, but when I was a very rebellious youth, my mom said something like this to me: don’t drink and drive. Please. I don’t want to lose you, but that wouldn’t even be the worst case scenario. What if you killed someone? You would have to live with that your whole life… in essence, in the kindest tone a mom could speak, you will pay for what you’ve done. No revenge, no threat in her tone. Simply the heart of a mom trying to help a daughter make better choices. My mom did not feel sorry for me and my poor choices; I was no victim… but I was perfectly blind. So this brings me to the part that cuts deep… we have to admit we don’t know most things (truly know as we are meant to Know) and that we aren’t Good on our own – and it seems we will not relent to this Truth easily.

In the first part of the Isaiah 42 we received His promise: He will prevail mightily against His enemies. The second part of Isaiah 42 he begins to reveal the truth about our human hearts… while promising not to leave us ‘undone’. He is going to lead us along an unKnown Way… a Way we can’t reach with human reasoning. In verse 18-22, God shows us that in this worldly knowing – we have lost true Knowing, and we are now hidden away in prisons. God points out through Isaiah that the more sure we become of what we think we know, the more lost we are. He is Truth – not us, and it is not for us to own or hold – it is for us to allow Him to Live in us. These prisons of the heart where we live in bondage to the world – those are the prisons God will destroy with the fire… a fire that will eventually burn within us, The Holy Spirit alive in us, so that we may Live – but first, we have to see ourselves for what we truly are without Him – so that we may turn away from our way and receive Him.

And He did not need anyone to testify concerning man and human nature, for He Himself knew what was in man [in their hearts –– in the very core of their being]. – John2:25

Here is the rest of Isaiah 42: 

“I [the Lord] have been silent for a long time, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will moan like a woman in labor, I will both gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills And wither all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into coastlands And dry up the ponds. I will lead the blind by a way they do not know; I will guide them in paths that they do not know. I will make darkness into light before them And rugged places into plains. These things I will do [for them], And I will not leave them abandoned or undone.” Those who trust in carved idols will be turned back, And utterly put to shame, Who say to cast images, “You are our gods.” Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant [Israel], Or deaf like My messenger whom I send? Who is blind like the one who is at peace with Me [in a covenant relationship], Or so blind as the servant of the Lord? You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but no one hears. The Lord was pleased for His righteousness’ sake To make the law great and prove to be glorious. But this is a people despoiled and plundered; All of them are trapped in holes, Or are hidden away in prisons. They have become a prey with no one to rescue them, And a spoil, with no one to say, “Give them back!” Who among you will listen to this? Who will listen and pay attention in the time to come? Who gave up Jacob [the kingdom of Judah] for spoil, and [the kingdom of] Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, He against whom we [of Judah] have sinned, And in whose ways they [of Israel] were unwilling to walk, And whose law and teaching they did not obey? Therefore He poured out on Israel the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And engulfed him in fire, Yet he did not recognize [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach]; It burned him, but he did not take it to heart. -Isaiah‬ ‭42:14-25‬ amp