In Isaiah, chapter one, verse seven, “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.” In an effort to bring Judah to repentance, God allowed their land to be plundered by foreigners, as in Second Chronicles five, verse eighteen. The people’s sin had cut them off from God’s blessing and protection, and judgment had already begun. Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army would ultimately destroy the land and people. Persistent sin by unrepentant sinners will always bring God’s judgment and eventual destruction.
“Your country is desolate” is the theme title. It could mean isolated, forsaken, ruined, or all of them. A statement like that indicates something went wrong with the person receiving it. Often, when a person is left alone in a situation that did not work out, it usually means wrongdoing was involved. For believers, sin is a setback. It literally means to “miss the mark.”
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” as in Hebrews ten, verse thirty-one. The severe punishment awaits those who abandon faith in Christ, as in Deuteronomy thirty-two, verse thirty-five, “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” Anyone considering apostasy should remember these verses.
In marriage, to go the way of life with someone and keep the vows, and turn against that innocent one, the guilty one might get away with it without any severe problems later in life. However, a believer who has a relationship with God and decides to quit and return to worldly ways may not find it as easy as they think.