59 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short
That it cannot save;
Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His [a]face from you so that He does not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken falsehood,
Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one sues righteously and no one pleads [b]honestly.
They trust in confusion and speak lies;
They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web;
He who eats of their eggs dies,
And from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth.
6 Their webs will not become clothing,
Nor will they cover themselves with their works;
Their works are works of iniquity,
And an act of violence is in their [c]hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
And they hasten to shed innocent blood;
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity,
Devastation and destruction are in their highways.
8 They do not know the way of peace,
And there is no justice in their tracks;
They have made their paths crooked,
Whoever treads on [d]them does not know peace.
We have another rebuke of the Israelites in this chapter, but before it gets that far, God sets the record straight in v. 1. He wants to make sure they know that there is no shortcoming with God, and that His ear is not deaf. Rather, their sins have separated them from God, just like they can with us. Truthfully, we should call it what it is, rebellion.
As we read vv. 3-5, you might think, “Well, my sins aren’t that bad. My hands aren’t defiled with blood, and I haven’t conspired against anyone else.” Yet the same is still true, whether our sins are less or worse than those of ancient Israel. As Paul wrote “the wages of sin is death…” compared with “He who eats of their eggs dies…”
Ultimately, all of our scheming and planning doesn’t amount to much (v. 6), and it will all fall by the wayside. In the short term, it seems like it is going to work out great, but eventually it all falls apart–and leads to death. Finally, in v. 8, we see a repetition of an earlier theme, “They do not know the way of peace… whoever treads on them (their paths) does not know peace.”
It always come back to peace somehow, and oh how we crave that. We want to feel settled, firm, established. When they interview contestants on a beauty contest, they ask about world peace. We are always obsessed with it, and yet on our own, we are always working against it.
So we see that we shouldn’t tread these paths, and there is no peace in them. The lesson comes back to v. 1, that God’s arm is not short, and He can always save, and always hear… when we admit our sin and put it aside (repent). We can’t really move that barrier all by ourselves, but when we are finally ready to try, God will help us 10x.
Instead of taking our own way, hoping we will find a way on our own (which we cannot), we need to ask God to show us His way. And then? Then, we need to actually walk on it, step by step, day by day. When we start to wander off to the side, we must listen for His call. His ears are always working, but we shut ours down too easily. When we listen, we will hear His Spirit nudging us back to the path, rescuing us from death and destruction, bringing us back to life and peace in God.