Isaiah 43:22 - Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel!

There are whole groups of people today walking away from God - a long line of leavers, the deconstructors.

At least a couple dozen reasons exist for this self-imposed exile.

And I wonder if part of the explanation doesn’t go like this…

At root, we’ve grown bored with God - “you have been weary of me, O Israel!”

It’s hard to deny; almost easy to see.

Many of us will listen to a dozen podcasts from others before spending even 10 minutes quiet before God and crying out to him in sadness.

We abandon the Bible because it feels so wooden. We can’t make sense of notes like these:

Romans 15:4 - For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

What “Scriptures” does Paul mean? The only Scriptures they knew - the Old Testament!

How are these encouraging? Because they show us a pattern of how God has dealt with his people in the past, and, how his people have dealt with him:

Deuteronomy 8:2 - And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

His tests reveal to us what’s truly in our hearts.

What do we see? Are we alive to God? Or are we wearied by him?

Isaiah 41:1 - Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength…