Ok, have it your way!

Psalm 81:10-13 AMPC

I am the Lord your God, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. [11] But My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. [12] So I gave them up to their own hearts' lust and let them go after their own stubborn will, that they might follow their own counsels. [13] Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!

Can you hear the loving sadness in God's Voice expressed in this Psalm?

It's the echo of every parent talking to a wayward son or daughter. The voice of reason trying to guide a beloved in the right path, only to give up and say: "ok, have it your way!"

How many parents have watched in dismay as their children have gone down the path of destroying their lives - in drugs or gang violence?

Here the Lord is reasoning with His people: "I Am your God, I want to bless you and take care of you. Go My Way, listen to Me and I will provide for and protect you."

Yet Israel won't listen, stubbornly, like many of us, we want to do it our way.

That's the peril of free will. We are not automatons, nor AI robots.

If we want to do it our own way, God let's us!!

How sad to go on that path only to find it's a dead end.