Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all. Isaiah 65:8
You pick up a cluster of grapes. Some of the grapes have gone bad. But you don’t throw them all away because some grapes in the bunch are good. You sort out the good from the bad.
God says, “That is what I will do with religious people who claim to know me.” Our Lord Jesus tells us that one day God will bring all people to account—secular people and religious people. On that day, some religious people will tell God what they have been doing for him, and Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you; depart from me” (Mat. 7:23).
That is what God is saying through Isaiah here. God seeks out people who don’t know him, and he sorts out people who claim to know him. It really doesn’t matter if we are secular people who don’t know God, or religious people who claim to know God. All of us need God’s saving intervention in our lives.
Paul talks about this in the New Testament: Jews (the religious people who claim to know God) and Gentiles (the secular people who don’t know God) alike are all under sin. As it is written, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10).
You may want to come to God today and say, “Save me from a secular life that ignores you,” or you may say, “Save me from a religious life that provokes you.” Either way, all of us need to come to him.
Will you come before God today and ask him to intervene in your life?
