{"id":5441,"date":"2014-06-13T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T07:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5441"},"modified":"2014-06-12T21:28:34","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T04:28:34","slug":"until-your-hair-is-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/06\/13\/until-your-hair-is-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Until Your Hair is White"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cListen to me, descendants of Jacob,
\nall you who remain in Israel.
\nI have cared for you since you were born.
\nYes, I carried you before you were born.
\nI will be your God throughout your lifetime\u2014
\nuntil your hair is white with age.
\nI made you, and I will care for you.
\nI will carry you along and save you.
\n\u201cTo whom will you compare me?
\nWho is my equal?
\nSome people pour out their silver and gold
\nand hire a craftsman to make a god from it.
\nThen they bow down and worship it!
\nThey carry it around on their shoulders,
\nand when they set it down, it stays there.
\nIt can\u2019t even move!
\nAnd when someone prays to it, there is no answer.
\nIt can\u2019t rescue anyone from trouble.
\n\u201cDo not forget this! Keep it in mind!
\nRemember this, you guilty ones.
\nRemember the things I have done in the past.\u201d Isaiah 46:3-7<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We\u2019re not on our own. The Assyrians invaded Israel around 722 BC and took captive a little less than 30,000 of the people, mostly the upper classes and the well-to-do: those who were most likely to lead an uprising. God spoke to the Israelites left behind after that destruction, who would be wondering what the future might hold, who might think that God no longer cared about them.<\/p>\n

Even though they might not realize it, God had been carrying them, watching them, taking care of them since before they were born and he would continue carrying them until they were old and white-haired. There was no stage of life where God would not be present. They could not get away from him, no matter how hard they might try. There was no way that God had, or ever could, abandon them.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the idols that the Israelites had focused so much of their energy on were nothing more than the wood, stone or precious metals out of which they were manufactured. How could God ever be compared to them? They were worthless, but God was valuable: he would always be there for them. We don\u2019t carry idols any longer. But it is all too easy to trust in our jobs, our abilities, our technology. But if the economy goes bad, if we get sick or disabled, if the batteries run out or we can\u2019t find a plug, what then? God never gets sick, his arm is never weak, and his batteries really will keep going and going and going. <\/p>\n

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\u201cListen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel. I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime\u2014 until your hair … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5443,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5441\/revisions\/5443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}