Isaiah 42:24
Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
The question who handed Jacob over to plunder and Israel to robbers is answered in the verse itself, for the Lord himself did so because his people had sinned against him, refusing to walk in his ways and refusing obedience to his law, and in that judgment are revealed the claims he holds upon men. The whole chapter where this stands is to be studied together with Isaiah 40 and with 2 Peter, so that the work may be carried forward on deeply spiritual lines. That study brings a call for reformatory work, for thorough reformation with nothing haphazard about it, led out by men of clear understanding who are worked by the Holy Spirit.
The set time to favor Zion will soon come, for God has provided both men and means, he will not leave his people to shame, and he will accomplish his work exactly as he ordained it to move. Anyone who steps in between his fellow men and their God to turn them aside into paths not cast up for the ransomed will meet his judgment, and his work in many places of the world would now be much farther advanced had not man thus interposed with a work God never appointed. His kingdom comes not with outward observation but by the gentleness of the inspiration of his word and by the operation of his Spirit in the soul, and all his works have been known to him from the beginning. Covenant with Christ joins together the majesty of an omnipotent King with the gentleness and tenderness of a caretaking shepherd.