In  Isaiah 5:25, we read that the Lord “raised His hand against them [His people] and struck them.”  Why? Because they “rejected” His “instruction” (v. 25) and, did so, because they “despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel” (v. 24). The results were nothing less than devastating: from head to foot she was beaten so severely that there was hardly a place left for further injury. Yet, even after such a punishment because of their turning from God’s Word, they still refused to repent (9: 13). So, God threatened them with more of the same: “His hand is still raised to strike” (9: 17, 21).

When  believers recognize the ways in which that same hand has beaten our nation in the recent past—tornadoes, floods, wars, financial loss, scarcity of jobs, foreclosures, etc., etc., it is hard for them to see anything else but that arm swinging again, inflicting even  more wounds! BAD—BAD ENOUGH! But look—the hand is raised to strike even again, and again, and—if necessary-again!

Should not a country that not merely neglects God’s Word, but often makes fun of it, suffer more?  If there is no concern for the Bible in the near future, who knows where will He strike next? Isn’t repentance essential?