The Lord reveals his dismay at the unresponsiveness of his people to his entreaties. He repeatedly came, willing and powerful to deliver and redeem with an outstretched hand. But his people did not experience that power. They responded to him in unbelief. There is a word of exhortation here as well. To be sure, we cannot fully comprehend the mind of God, and so there may be any number of reasons why he might not give deliverance (from a besetting sin or hard trial) when we ask of God. But those reasons never include weakness or reluctance. Rather, God is able and willing to deliver, but not when we are hanging back in sullen reluctance and haughty fault-finding
; he wants us to step forward in the eagerness of repentance and faith.
1 If he is able to direct all things in nature, whether in the sky, on the earth, and under the earth (Isaiah 50:2–3), he is able to deliver those who are his.
2 Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.