Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Competency, Obedience
- Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.
- Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity. Our true identity comes only from our Father.
When we
look at Isaiah 10, we see that it is largely a chapter of warning and
judgment. I’m going to focus on the
middle third of this chapter today. But
in order to do that, I need to talk about some history. After King David, the kingdom of Israel split
into two nations: Israel (north) and Judah (south). Both kingdoms gradually slid into disobedience,
but Israel did the slide far more quickly than Judah. As such, God lifted up the nation of Assyria
to come and bring judgment upon the nation of Israel.
When we
look at this from an angle of competency, the nation of Assyria was certainly
competent enough to conquer the nations around it. It was competent enough to be quite
victorious on the battlefield. It wasn’t
long before Assyria had subdued the land around it and it was the leading power
in the land.
However,
when we look at both obedience and competency we see where Assyria failed. That’s where most of the scripture for today
comes into play. God tells Isaiah that
the king of Assyria took the power that God gave to him. But the king of Assyria gave no credit to
God. The king of Assyria did not
recognize where the power came from. He
thought the power was all his own. He
was competent enough to go out and conquer, but he was not competent enough to
be obedient. He was not obedient enough
to be humble before God. He was not
competent enough to reflect the glory and honor upon God where it deserved to
be placed.
Most of
us are competent. God gives all of us
the ability to do something well. But
are we competent enough to obey God?
When we do obey Him, are we competent enough to give Him the glory and
honor?
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