It is interesting to see all the memes based on the way that Charlie Brown’s cartoon teacher communicated. One response from Lucy to Charlie Brown is “Psst… are you getting any of this?” I am sure that there are times that all of us might feel like that when reading our Bible, or listening to a sermon. It all goes right over our heads. It was interesting to come across a passage where we see a similar response from God’s people.
No, there are no “Wah Wa Wah Wa,” dialogs in the Bible. But in Isaiah we have a section of Scripture where the Jewish leaders mimicked the Prophet Isaiah’s message to them from God. This quote is attributed to the religious know it alls, “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.””(Isaiah 28:9–10) It is a “wah waw ah wa” mockery of the prophet Isaiah “lecturing” them. The issue is that Isaiah is just God’s mouth piece. They are really mocking God’s intention to help them through the prophet’s admonition.
While it is easy to chastise God’s people for not listening to God, we need to be careful that we do not fall into the same pit. It is easy for us to write off those portions of Scripture that challenge our life style or opinions. I picture them cupped hands over their ears saying, “nah nah nah nah,” to drown out God’s message of correction, a demonstration of His love!
The problem with ignoring God instruction is that He is forced to use others ways to get the attention of His people. He reminds them a little later that if they did not respond to his “lecturing,” he would send a people, a foreign people, whose language they did not speak. They would be forced to listen to the “wah wa wah wa” from the foreign lips of the Assyrian invaders that would deliver God’s message of judgement. “For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.” (Isaiah 28:11, 13)
When tempted to disregard God’s message to us, it is important to remember that God always gets the last word! God’s desire was to bring His people to a place of rest. “to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.” (Isaiah 28:12)
-Pastor Joe Parkinson