Your Bed Is Too Short and Your Blanket Too Small

Today, half of the people in the United States will wake up mad and the other half will wake-up glad. 

Political elections have a way of splitting a country right down the middle. 

I may offend every American with this post. Whether your candidate lost and you are mad or whether your candidate won and you are glad, you have a greater problem than politics.

Your bed is too short and your blanket too small. 

That's a biblical way of saying your trust is in things other than the LORD. 

Let me explain.

Isaiah (761 - 686 BC) warned the people of Judah that their trust was in everything but the LORD. He chastised them for taking refuge in political leaders and in believing the deceptive lies that economic collapse and death would evade them. The Jews had seen those horrific problems plague their northern neighbors (Ephraim), but they felt confident those same problems would not face them. 

The Jews believed they were God's chosen people, and nothing like what happened to Ephraim could happen to Judah!

But Isaiah's message to Judah rang out with force and clarity (Isaiah 28). You may profess trust in the LORD, Isaiah said, but you don't possess trust in the LORD. 

You are trusting anything and everything but Him! The reason the prophet knew the hearts of his people was because he felt the emotions of his people. He knew them to be smugly confident when things went their way, and saw them openly fearful when things didn't go as planned.

If your trust is in the LORD, you are confident of the future no matter the present. 

Prophets speak for the good of the people, whether the people listen or not. The prophet's message is what the people need to hear. A true prophet is not silent when the people don't like his message. A prophet from God speaks because the principles conveyed are ultimately rewarding to the hearers, and he regards not whether the hearers are immediately receiving the principles conveyed.

To vividly describe the consequences of trusting in anything and everything other than the LORD, Isaiah summarizes succinctly and visually by saying:

 "The bed is too short on which to stretch out, And the blanket is too small to wrap oneself in." (Isaiah 28:20 NASB)

When the OKC Thunder moved from Seattle, the Colcord Hotel changed out their beds. To entice visiting National Basketball Association teams to stay at the downtown Colcord, management replaced traditional beds with ones that were fifteen inches longer.

NBA players are tall. The Colcord knew that nobody likes sleeping on a bed too short.

You are restless on a bed too short. You are uncomfortable on a bed too short. You are often sleepless on a bed too short. You are tired the next day when you sleep on a bed too short. In short (pardon the pun), life is miserable when you sleep on a bed too short. You might not notice it immediately, but you'll darn sure feel it ultimately.

So too, when you have a blanket too small, you are cold. You feel insecure and unprotected from the elements. A blanket is a true refuge on a cold winter night. But when your blanket is too small, your problems are very large. 

Isaiah tells the people of Judah that their lack of trust in the LORD is ruining their lives. The ancient prophet's message to Judah applies in 2021 to the people of America. 

Trust in the LORD and nothing else today.