During the campaign in which the Assyrian army laid waste to the northern kingdom of Israel, they also besieged Jerusalem. Isaiah predicted this siege which took place during the rule of Hezekiah in 701 BC as well as God’s remarkable deliverance. And it happened just as he said it would. God did indeed come and scatter the Assyrians like dust before a storm. This ‘near death experience’ would be a wake-up call to the people of Jerusalem who were now spiritually blinded by their pursuit of pleasure. Sometimes a harsh wake-up call like this is what we need, but it is not good to be in need of such a thing. Jesus warned us to remain spiritually awake. Unless you are very intentional about remaining spiritually alert you will inevitably slip away into a kind of worldly hedonistic delusion. You will begin to cloud your spiritual senses with the opiate of self-satisfying pursuits. Israel and Judah were sleepwalking into a monster’s mouth. Israel was leading the way and Isaiah has declared that she would be swallowed. Judah would ultimately be spared, but Isaiah declares here that she would get bitten hard enough to wake her up. Have you ever been asleep and dreaming and have realised that you were asleep and dreaming? If you are walking through life in a cloudy dream, God is warning you to wake up before you walk into your ruin. You can wake up by calling out to God. Call out loud and keep calling until you are awake and the cloudiness of slumber has lifted off you.
Call out to God to wake you up.
Read Isaiah 29
