Isaiah 3:8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings [are] against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
Everything about The Lord is glorious. His Name and His glory are one and the same. The holiness of God is glorious. The people of God were ruined and fallen, because their tongue and doings provoked the eyes of His glory. Another version reads, Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence. What are causes for mankind’s ruin and fall? Our words and deeds that provoke His eyes of glory. What patience, what long suffering God extends towards this planet of rebels who refuse to have Him reign over us.
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” (1 Corinthians 10:22) Personalize those questions beloved. How do we provoke The Lord to jealousy? Do we foolishly think that we are stronger than He? Thank God for His incredible grace! Not cheap grace, but redeeming, sin-covering grace. Life-transforming grace. Grace that transforms us and enables us to walk in ways that are pleasing to His eyes of glory. As Christians there is a kind of provoking that ought to be real and alive in our church families. “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24,25)
