2174.) Isaiah 64

Isaiah 64   (ESV)

The Prayer of the Remnant

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
² as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³ When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

⁴ From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.

⁵ You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
⁶ We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

I believe that justification by faith is the foundational truth of Christianity. You cannot know true rest and peace until you are convinced you can never be made right in God’s eyes by your own works of righteousness.

If you don’t understand the perfect righteousness of Christ that is yours by faith, you will lead a life of toil and sweat. You’ll spend your days trying to please God through legalistic, hopeless attempts to establish your own righteousness. But the truth is, you’ll never have any righteousness to bring to the Lord!

No doubt you are familiar with the passage in Isaiah that says all our righteousness is as filthy rags in God’s sight (see Isaiah 64:6). This does not mean God despises our good works — not at all. We should do good works, but if you think your good works merit your salvation, that they allow you to stand holy before God, then they are nothing but filthy rags!

You may feel good because of the good works you do and even enjoy a moment of victory whenever you resist temptation. You feel righteous, that God’s favor is on you.  The next day, however, you fail. You fall back into a sin and suddenly you lose all your joy. You think the Lord is angry with you and wonder if you have lost your salvation.

It is a roller-coaster ride of emotional highs and lows — of up-and-down, hot-and-cold, sin-and-confess — according to how good or bad you think you have been on any given day. It’s a life of misery because you are trying to please God in your flesh!

Beloved, no righteousness of the flesh will ever stand before God. Even the best people among us, the most moral, godly saints, have fallen short of God’s glory. None of us can ever be accepted in the Father’s eyes by our good works. We are accepted by Him only as we are in Christ!

“For ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). When we turn to Jesus with saving, self-emptying faith, we become one in Christ. Being “in Christ” means God credits Jesus’ righteousness to us. All our sins are washed away because of His work, not ours!

–David Wilkerson

⁷ There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

⁸ But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

Old Spanish saying seen in a potter’s studio in Spain:
“God made the first pot and it was man.”

⁹ Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
and remember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.
¹⁰ Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹ Our holy and beautiful house,
where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
¹² Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?
Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

_________________________

Music:

Choices today!

HERE  is “He didn’t throw the clay away” — Michael English.

HERE  is “You are the potter, and I am the clay” — Judy Moore.

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

potter.    http://www.heartlight.org/graphics/gallery/isaiah64_8.jpg

verse 4.  https://jacquelinejoseph.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/is644-01.jpg

We all fade like a leaf.    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3185/3055905163_7f9633030d.jpg

potter’s hands.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/i64-potters-hands-at-work.jpg

We are the clay . . . three pots, by Diane Hall.   https://ih0.redbubble.net/image.31314367.8670/flat,1000×1000,075,f.jpg

2173.) Isaiah 63

Isaiah 63   (ESV)

The Lord’s Day of Vengeance

A question and an answer:  Who is this?

Who is this who comes from Edom,
in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save.”

This is the Lord’s reply to the question in the prophecy. He identifies Himself by what He says (I, speaking in righteousness) and what He does (mighty to save).

A question and an answer:  Why is your apparel red?

² Why is your apparel red,
and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

³ “I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;

In God’s great plan of the Ages, Jesus will accomplish two things alone. First, He atones for our sin alone. He alone hung on the cross, bearing the weight of all our guilt. Second, He judges the world alone. God does not need us to execute His ultimate judgment; we leave that to Him.

I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood spattered on my garments,
and stained all my apparel.
⁴ For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and my year of redemption had come.

It is a mere day of vengeance, but an entire year of redemption. Each phrase is simply a poetic way of saying “time,” but God fittingly uses the picture of a day in communicating His vengeance, and a year in expressing His grace.

⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me salvation,
and my wrath upheld me.
⁶ I trampled down the peoples in my anger;
I made them drunk in my wrath,
and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

The Lord’s Mercy Remembered

⁷ I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,
the praises of the Lord,
according to all that the Lord has granted us,
and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

from Whispers of His Power,
by Amy Carmichael

All kinds of things are reminders of the lovingkindess of the Lord. Friends, letters, flowers, pictures, all these and many more speak of the wonderful lovingkindness of our God to us who are unworthy of even one of His good gifts. As we think of all His love has already given us, and of the multitude of His lovingkindnesses which we have experienced, our prayer becomes glad and grateful and full of thanksgiving. Prayer starts from a place of joy and confidence.

But sometimes we are tempted to discouragement. So often we have believed that what we asked was about to be given, and then have been disappointed. But delays are for the trial of faith, not for its discouragement. Often we have had to wait for years for our best and dearest gifts. When they came we looked up to our Lord in adoration, “Lord, this was worth waiting for.” So it will be again.  He has done so much for us. Will He not also do this that we ask Him today?

⁸ For he said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely.”
And he became their Savior.
⁹ In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence (that is, the Messiah) saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Yes — sometimes kicking and screaming —  🙂

¹⁰ But they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
and himself fought against them.
¹¹ Then he remembered the days of old,
of Moses and his people.
Where is he who brought them up out of the sea
with the shepherds of his flock?

Psalm 106:8-12   (NIV)

Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,
    to make his mighty power known.
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
    he led them through the depths as through a desert.
He saved them from the hand of the foe;
    from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them.
The waters covered their adversaries;
    not one of them survived.
Then they believed his promises
    and sang his praise.

Where is he who put in the midst of them
his Holy Spirit,
¹² who caused his glorious arm
to go at the right hand of Moses,
who divided the waters before them
to make for himself an everlasting name,
¹³     who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert,
they did not stumble.
¹⁴ Like livestock that go down into the valley,
the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
So you led your people,
to make for yourself a glorious name.

Prayer for Mercy

¹⁵ Look down from heaven and see,
from your holy and beautiful habitation.
Where are your zeal and your might?
The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion
are held back from me.
¹⁶ For you are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us,
and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is your name.
¹⁷ O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways
and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
¹⁸ Your holy people held possession for a little while;
our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
¹⁹ We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,
like those who are not called by your name.

Music:

A treat for you today!  HERE  is the Robert Shaw Chorale and “Praise the Name of the Lord” from Vespers by Rachmaninoff.

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

lovingkindness.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/january25252c2011252cisaiah63-7.jpg

Isaiah 63:7.    http://healthysimplicity.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Isa-63-7.jpg

carried and dragged, cartoon by Kris Straub.    http://www.journella.com/uploads/editor/394/resize_1345688486_journalImage.jpg

crossing the Red Sea.    http://api.ning.com/files/6V81SuvLHxhnPs2AYBmHXlObpABRn69JNINstE0hxHhbmHPSOnuXMI8y-DSURdRG7A3FnDG2l4iJTUBuFt77XixmxJQMuH0W/crossingtheredsea.png

strong tower.    http://praisemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/strong-tower1.jpg

2172.) Isaiah 62

Isaiah 62   (ESV)

Zion’s Coming Salvation

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,
until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
and her salvation as a burning torch.
² The nations shall see your righteousness,
and all the kings your glory,
and you shall be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will give.

³ You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

Jeremiah 13:11   (NRSV)

I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.

⁴ You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,
and your land Married;
for the Lord delights in you,
and your land shall be married.
⁵ For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.

⁶ On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night
they shall never be silent.

The watchmen are there not because God needs any reminding, but because we, as people, do. God loves us so much that He puts such mechanisms in place so that we can see how seriously He takes His covenant obligations. We hear the prophets reminding God of His promises or read about the angels interceding for Israel and we know that God, being good, will honor His word. It is for our benefit, not His, that He does this.

–Gail Sanders

You who put the Lord in remembrance,
take no rest,
⁷ and give him no rest
until he establishes Jerusalem
and makes it a praise in the earth.
⁸ The Lord has sworn by his right hand
and by his mighty arm:
“I will not again give your grain
to be food for your enemies,
and foreigners shall not drink your wine
for which you have labored;
⁹ but those who garner it shall eat it
and praise the Lord,
and those who gather it shall drink it
in the courts of my sanctuary.”

Revelation 19:9   (NIV)

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

¹⁰ Go through, go through the gates;
prepare the way for the people;
build up, build up the highway;
clear it of stones;
lift up a signal over the peoples.
¹¹ Behold, the Lord has proclaimed
to the end of the earth:
Say to the daughter of Zion,
“Behold, your salvation comes;

Luke 2:10-12   (ESV)

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.”
¹² And they shall be called The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord;
and you shall be called Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.

_________________________

Music:

HERE is “Surely Your Salvation Is Coming” composed by Esther Mui.  The pictures of Jerusalem and Israel are quite lovely.

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

bridegroom rejoicing.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/isaiah62v5b.jpg

Revelation 2:17.    https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/02/18/17/0218179c85173e53c6b908b22abadab0–verses-in-the-bible-scriptures.jpg

crown.    http://endoftheworld.net/Jesus/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/imperial_crown_small.jpg

watchman.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/i62-watchman.jpg

wedding supper of the Lamb.   http://www.pawcreek.org/media/2010/06/MarriageSupper.gif

olivewood nativity set.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/starofwonder300px.jpg

2171.) Isaiah 61

Isaiah 61   (ESV)

The Year of the Lord’s Favor

Luke 4:16-21  (NLT)

When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
    that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
    and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

We are familiar with this passage as a proclamation of Christ’s victory over death and sin. Yet Isaiah is using the language of Jubilee here. He is saying, “Let the trumpets blast announcing the cheerful, joyous year of liberty our Savior has given us!”

This passage also refers to the scene of Christ’s ascension into glory. The heavenly Father, after beholding the awful sufferings of His blessed Son, prepared for Jesus a glorious entrance into heaven. Indeed, as Christ made His ascension, He was escorted by a host of angels and multitudes of chariots: “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high” (Psalm 68:17-18).

Our finite minds cannot begin to conceive of this glorious event. As Christ approached the eternal city of God, riding on His white horse, He was escorted by this huge procession. And as He entered the gates, the trumpets of God began to sound: “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet” (Psalm 47:5).

This was the joyful sound—the trumpets blaring, announcing the believers’ year of Jubilee! The sound proclaimed to all humankind, “I have made provision for you to walk out of prison, to be restored to your family, and to have everything you need for a fulfilled life. You are free to live without fear of any enemy. Enter now into My joy!”

–David Wilkerson

⁴ They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.

_________________________

Music:

HERE  Rebecca St. James sings “You Make Everything Beautiful” while the verses above are presented in calligraphy.

_________________________

⁵ Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
⁶ but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
⁷ Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.

⁸ For I the Lord love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Hebrews 13:20-21   (NIV)

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

⁹ Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.

¹⁰ I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹ For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

beauty for ashes.     http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-set/BQcDAAAAAwoDanBnAAAABC5vdXQKFlRWQWcyTENvUjZPSnNSUW5xMGJaOXcAAAACaWQKAXgAAAAEc2l6ZQ.jpg

Jesus teaching.    http://www.pastorken.com/blog/uploaded_images/Jesus-Teaching-716314.jpg

trumpets.    http://dedication.www3.50megs.com/jpg/trumpets.jpg

rainbow, a sign of Noah’s covenant.   http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/rainbow-covenant-will-borden.jpg

dress, drawing by Dana Hixson.   http://year27.com/wp-content/uploads/120619_Isaiah61_10_DANAHIXSON.jpg

2170.) Isaiah 60

Isaiah 60   (ESV)

The Future Glory of Israel

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

from My Utmost for His Highest,
by Oswald Chambers

THE INITIATIVE AGAINST DRUDGERY

“Arise, shine . . .”

We have to take the first step as though there were no God. It is no use to wait for God to help us, He will not; but immediately we arise we find He is there. Whenever God inspires, the initiative is a moral one. We must do the thing and not lie like a log. If we will arise and shine, drudgery becomes divinely transfigured.

Drudgery is one of the finest touchstones of character there is. Drudgery is work that is very far removed from anything to do with the ideal — the utterly mean grubby things; and when we come in contact with them we know instantly whether or not we are spiritually real. Read John 13. We see there the Incarnate God doing the most desperate piece of drudgery, washing fishermen’s feet, and He says — “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.” It requires the inspiration of God to go through drudgery with the light of God upon it. Some people do a certain thing and the way in which they do it hallows that thing for ever afterwards. It may be the most commonplace thing, but after we have seen them do it, it becomes different. When the Lord does a thing through us, He always transfigures it. Our Lord took on Him our human flesh and transfigured it, and it has become for every saint the temple of the Holy Ghost.

² For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
³ And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.

This prophecy has been fulfilled day by day since the coming of the gospel.

Acts 11:18   (NIV)

They praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

⁴ Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from afar,
and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
⁵ Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and exult,
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
⁶ A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.

Matthew 2:11   (NIV)

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

These valuable items were standard gifts to honor a king or deity in the ancient world: gold as a precious metal, frankincense as perfume or incense, and myrrh as anointing oil. Perhaps these three were chosen for their special spiritual symbolism about Jesus himself—gold representing his kingship, frankincense a symbol of his priestly role, and myrrh a prefiguring of his death and embalming. But in Isaiah 60, as we look to the future glory of Israel, there is no myrrh. Myrrh speaks of suffering; Christ’s atoning sufferings are finished forever! There will be only gold/glory and incense/fragrance.

⁷ All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;
the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;
they shall come up with acceptance on my altar,
and I will beautify my beautiful house.

⁸ Who are these that fly like a cloud,
and like doves to their windows?
⁹ For the coastlands shall hope for me,
the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring your children from afar,
their silver and gold with them,
for the name of the Lord your God,
and for the Holy One of Israel,
because he has made you beautiful.

¹⁰ Foreigners shall build up your walls,
and their kings shall minister to you;
for in my wrath I struck you,
but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
¹¹ Your gates shall be open continually;
day and night they shall not be shut,
that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations,
with their kings led in procession.
¹² For the nation and kingdom
that will not serve you shall perish;
those nations shall be utterly laid waste.
¹³ The glory of Lebanon shall come to you,
the cypress, the plane, and the pine,
to beautify the place of my sanctuary,
and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
¹⁴ The sons of those who afflicted you
shall come bending low to you,
and all who despised you
shall bow down at your feet;
they shall call you the City of the Lord,
the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,
with no one passing through,
I will make you majestic forever,
a joy from age to age.
¹⁶ You shall suck the milk of nations;
you shall nurse at the breast of kings;
and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

¹⁷ Instead of bronze I will bring gold,
and instead of iron I will bring silver;
instead of wood, bronze,
instead of stones, iron.

Each material is replaced with something better, stronger, more valuable.

I will make your overseers peace
and your taskmasters righteousness.
¹⁸ Violence shall no more be heard in your land,
devastation or destruction within your borders;
you shall call your walls Salvation,
and your gates Praise.

¹⁹ The sun shall be no more
your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
give you light;
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.

Revelation 21:23   (NIV)

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

²⁰ Your sun shall no more go down,
nor your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.
²¹ Your people shall all be righteous;
they shall possess the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,
that I might be glorified.
²² The least one shall become a clan,
and the smallest one a mighty nation;
I am the Lord;
in its time I will hasten it.

_________________________

Music:

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

Verse one of this chapter has often been put to music. Today I give you a selection from which to choose!

HERE  for Integrity Kids.

HERE  for the Crystal Cathedral Choir.

HERE  for an arrangement for choir and organ by John Rutter.

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

Arise, shine.    http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Inspirational-Images/large/Isaiah_60-1.jpg

three magi.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/journey_of_the_magi_large.jpg

Ecclesiastes 3:11.   https://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/1-ecclesiastes-3-11-he-hath-made-everything-beautiful-susan-savad.jpg

Psalm 60:12.   https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/e4/43/13/e4431300221009173f9190b4da4ecf03.jpg

digital art for the glory of God.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/gloryofgod.jpg

2169.) Isaiah 59

Isaiah 59   (ESV)

Evil and Oppression

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;

God’s people wondered why God did not seem to rescue them from their trials. They wondered if perhaps God had diminished in strength — if His hand had become shortened. Isaiah the prophet assures them that this is not the case.

This touches on one of the greatest problems in practical theology: how can there be a God of love and all power when there is human suffering? If we loved someone and had the power to end their suffering, wouldn’t we do it? Isaiah addresses those who wondered if God wasn’t all powerful, and that is why their suffering continues.

In 1978 Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a remarkably wide-selling book titled When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It sold more than a half a million copies before going to paperback and was on the New York Times best-seller list for a year. The whole point of his book is to say God is all-loving but not all-powerful, that God is good but not sovereign. So when bad things happen to good people, it is because events are out of God’s control. Kushner advises his readers to “learn to love [God] and forgive him despite his limitations.” This certainly is not the God of the Bible, because the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. Isaiah simply says, “Behold this. See this.”

–David Guzik

² but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.

It is Israel’s sin that holds God back from delivering them; the fault cannot be laid at Jehovah’s door.  Their hands, fingers, lips, and tongue are all active in evil and perverse activities.  Sin controls every area of their lives — what they do, where they go, what they think.

–William MacDonald

³ For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.
⁴ No one enters suit justly;
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
⁵ They hatch adders’ eggs;
they weave the spider’s web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
⁶ Their webs will not serve as clothing;
men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
and deeds of violence are in their hands.
⁷ Their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.
⁸ The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
no one who treads on them knows peace.

Isaiah now confesses their sin and acknowledges their injustice, unrighteousness, blindness, and deadness. They have denied the Lord and wandered far from him.

⁹ Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind;
we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
¹¹ We all growl like bears;
we moan and moan like doves;
we hope for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
and we know our iniquities:
¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord,
and turning back from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

Judgment and Redemption

¹⁴ Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the public squares,
and uprightness cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
¹⁶ He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm brought him salvation,
and his righteousness upheld him.

The Lord was grieved that there is no justice.  And since no person on earth was capable of handling the situation, He steps in and does it Himself.

¹⁷ He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;

St. Paul writes the same thing in Ephesians 6, urging us to put on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. God will do His work through us when we are willing to fight for His kingdom!

he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
¹⁸ According to their deeds, so will he repay,
wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;
to the coastlands he will render repayment.
¹⁹ So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west,
and his glory from the rising of the sun;
for he will come like a rushing stream,
which the wind of the Lord drives.

²⁰ “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.

After speaking in the third-person through the prophet, now the Lord speaks in the first-person through the prophet. When He speaks, He declares: the Redeemer — the goel — will come to Zion.

The goel — sometimes translated kinsman-redeemer, here simply as Redeemer — had a specifically defined role in Israel’s family life. The kinsman-redeemer was responsible to buy a fellow Israelite out of slavery (Leviticus 25:48). He was responsible to be the “avenger of blood” to make sure the murderer of a family member answered to the crime (Numbers 35:19). He was responsible to buy back family land that had been forfeited (Leviticus 25:25). And he was responsible to carry on the family name by marrying a childless widow (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). In these, we see that the goel, the kinsman-redeemer, was responsible to safeguard the persons, the property, and the posterity of the family.

–David Guzik

²¹ “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

God gives us His abiding Spirit and His enduring Word! Now there is grace to help in every time of need!

_________________________

Music:

It is one of my favorite names for Jesus:  Redeemer.  HERE  is Nicole C. Mullen beautifully singing “My Redeemer Lives.” Mullen is the only African American artist to win the Dove Award for Song of the Year, in 2001 for this song.

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

trapeze artists.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/isaiah59_1.jpg

sin separates.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/0694_sin_christian_clipart.jpg

nothing you confess.    http://faithtap.com/images/lg/nothingtoConfess.jpg

Ephesians 6.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/3c53d-1496494183538.jpg

Christ the bridge.    http://angelcheron.blogspot.com/2012/10/sin-separates-us-from-god.html

Word and Spirit.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/word-and-spirit.jpg

2168.) Isaiah 58

Isaiah 58   (ESV)

True and False Fasting

“Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
² Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
³ ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
⁴ Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord?

Luke 18:9-14   (NLT)

Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

God wants a fast that is accompanied by helping the needy neighbor.  Social justice is measured in doing loving things for others.

⁶ “Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

This upcoming passage shows several characteristics of a life right with God:

• It is an enlightened life: Your light shall dawn in the darkness.
• It is a guided life: The Lord will guide you continually.
• It is a satisfied life: And satisfy your soul in drought.
• It is a fragrant life: Like a watered garden.
• It is a freshly sustained life: Like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
• It is a productive, healing life: You shall build up the old waste places.

–David Guzik

I want a life like this!!

⁸ Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
¹⁰ if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
¹¹ And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
¹² And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.

_________________________

Music:

Click  HERE  for a powerful song by Shirley Booth.  “Worship” is based on this chapter, Isaiah 58.

It seems so far away, the thought of suffering, hunger and need.

Lord, we’re so comfortable. They’re only pictures on the TV screen.

Oh, we fast but we know we can eat the next day

and we travel to church in a car.

There are carpets to comfort our knees as we pray

and no danger in being what we are.

 

Are my praises so loud that they drown out the cries?

Do I fail to stoop down because my hands are raised too high?

Are my eyes shut so tight when I pray I won’t see?

Am I worshiping God for only me?

 

You say that worshiping, Lord,

is more like something I should do with my life.

Not just at Sunday school.

No Lord, you’re calling me to put these things right.

There are hungry to feed.

I have so much to spare.

For the naked and downtrodden too.

So much hurting around me.

Please help me to care.

Lord I want to start worshiping you.

 

But are my praises so loud that they drown out the cries?

Do I fail to stoop down because my hands are raised too high?

Are my eyes shut so tight when I pray I won’t see?

Am I worshiping God for only me?

 

You make me shine like the sun

and your glory will shelter me.

When I cry out, you come.

You restore me Lord.

Setting me free.

 

But are my praises so loud that they drown out the cries?

Do I fail to stoop down because my hands are raised too high?

Are my eyes shut so tight when I pray I won’t see?

Am I worshiping God for only me?

_________________________

Exodus 20:8-11   (NLT)

“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”

¹³ “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
¹⁴ then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Sabbath commanded here and observed by Israel was a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ (Colossians 2:16-17). We have a rest in Jesus that is ours to live in every day. Therefore, since the shadow of the Sabbath is fulfilled in Jesus, we are free to keep any day – or no day – as a Sabbath after the custom of ancient Israel. However, though we are free from the legal obligation of the Sabbath, we dare not ignore the importance of a day of rest – God has built us so that we need one.

–David Guzik

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

I want you to share.    https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/439056510967361536/u_Vlulns.jpeg

fast food.    http://teamorthodoxy.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/fasting_eating_fast_food_monks_1079795.jpg

Pharisee and Tax Collector.   https://friarmusings.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/pharisee-n-tax-collector3.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1

God’s Sabbath rest.    http://s3.hubimg.com/u/4030078_f260.jpg

2167.) Isaiah 57

Isaiah 57   (ESV)

Israel’s Futile Idolatry

The righteous man perishes,
and no one lays it to heart;
devout men are taken away,
while no one understands.
For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;
²  he enters into peace;
they rest in their beds
who walk in their uprightness.
³ But you, draw near,
sons of the sorceress,
offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman.
⁴ Whom are you mocking?
Against whom do you open your mouth wide
and stick out your tongue?
Are you not children of transgression,
the offspring of deceit,
⁵ you who burn with lust among the oaks,
under every green tree,

Here, the Lord begins to expose the spiritual adultery of His people. They are “hot” with passion for other gods, worshipping them in the ritual worship places of Canaanite paganism (every green tree . . . among the smooth stones of the stream . . . on a high and lofty mountain).

In this picture, the Lord is the husband of Israel, and their passionate, chronic attraction for idols was like the lust of an adulterer. His people pursued the false gods like a lover runs after the focus of their love, and they yield themselves to the idols as a lover yields themselves to their beloved (you have uncovered yourself to those other than Me).

–David Guzik

who slaughter your children in the valleys,
under the clefts of the rocks?

One of the Canaanite gods the Israelites worshiped was named Molech, and he received children as sacrifices. Molech was “worshiped” by heating a metal statue representing the god until it was red hot, then by placing a living infant on the outstretched hands of the statue, while beating drums drowned out the screams of the child until it burned to death. Molech was one of the “lovers” God’s people went to in their spiritual adultery, when they forsook the Lord.

⁶ Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;
they, they, are your lot;
to them you have poured out a drink offering,
you have brought a grain offering.
Shall I relent for these things?
⁷ On a high and lofty mountain
you have set your bed,
and there you went up to offer sacrifice.

“According to the presentation of verse seven, the whoredom of Judah is compared to that of an adulteress who has become so impudent that she no longer commits her sins in secret but publicly and shamelessly. She acts without and restraint and refuses to blush with shame.”

–Harry Bultema

⁸ Behind the door and the doorpost
you have set up your memorial;

In Deuteronomy 6:4-9, God told Israel to inscribe His name and His word on every door post. Today it is known as a mezuzah. Here, there is a perverse twisting of that — to remember their pagan gods “behind the doors and the doorpost.”

Geoffrey W. Grogan writes, “The sensitive Israelite reader would, of course, remember that it was the word of God — and, most aptly, the assertion that there is only one God — that was the be inscribed on the doors.”

for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed,
you have gone up to it,
you have made it wide;
and you have made a covenant for yourself with them,
you have loved their bed,
you have looked on nakedness.
⁹ You journeyed to the king with oil
and multiplied your perfumes;
you sent your envoys far off,
and sent down even to Sheol.
¹⁰ You were wearied with the length of your way,
but you did not say, “It is hopeless”;
you found new life for your strength,
and so you were not faint.

¹¹ Whom did you dread and fear,
so that you lied,
and did not remember me,
did not lay it to heart?

Here, the Lord confronts the fact that His people do not fear Him, and that they do fear someone or something else. Their superficial relationship was connected to a low view of God, and their lack of respect for Him.

Have I not held my peace, even for a long time,
and you do not fear me?

Why did God’s people lack respect for Him? In part, because He showed mercy and did not punish their sin immediately. They made a crucial error, common to fallen humanity: they mistook God’s mercy and forbearance for weakness or lack of resolve. 

–David Guzik

¹² I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,
but they will not profit you.
¹³ When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!
The wind will carry them all off,
a breath will take them away.
But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land
and shall inherit my holy mountain.

Comfort for the Contrite

¹⁴ And it shall be said,
“Build up, build up, prepare the way,
remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”

In the next verses, Isaiah teaches the people what they need to know to be right with God.

1)  They must understand and respect His great majesty.

2)  They must be humble and contrite before the Lord who is holy and high and lifted up.

3)  They must believe that God acts out of love.  Even His discipline is meant for their ultimate good.

4)  They must know that lasting peace comes only from God and God is willing to bestow it upon His children.

¹⁵ For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
¹⁶ For I will not contend forever,
nor will I always be angry;
for the spirit would grow faint before me,
and the breath of life that I made.
¹⁷ Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry,
I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,
but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.
¹⁸ I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
¹⁹     creating the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord,
“and I will heal him.

This promise is fulfilled perfectly in Christ.

Ephesians 2:17   (NLT)

He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.

This peace is God’s shalom, which is more than the absence of hostility; it is the gift of precious well-being.

²⁰ But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
for it cannot be quiet,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
²¹ There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

_________________________

Music:

No peace for the wicked, but we who have confessed Christ as Lord have peace in Jesus, the Prince of peace.  HERE  is Mark Condon and “Peace of God, Cover Me.”

Peace of God… Cover me
Cover me… Cover me….
Peace of God. Cover me…
Through the Storm.. Cover me..

Only in You I am safe
Only in You I’m secure
Only in You I find peace
So Cover me… Cover me….

Cover me when I am hurting
Cover me when I’m not strong
Cover me when I am going through
The Storm………
Cover me when all seems hopeless
Cover me when my faith is gone
Let the Peace that passes all I understand
Cover Me….. Cover Me…

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

rainbow.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/i57-rainbow.jpg

drawing of Molech.    http://www.whale.to/b/020105bgrove6.jpg

mezuzah.    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GpSb9CLRWzc/0.jpg

The Lord is not slow.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_1373_b.jpg

Shalom.   http://hebrewgarments.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Shalom-Dove-8100-Stitches-3.64-x-3.911.jpg

2166.) Isaiah 56

Isaiah 56   (ESV)

Salvation for Foreigners

Thus says the Lord:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
for soon my salvation will come,
and my righteousness be revealed.
² Blessed is the man who does this,
and the son of man who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

We are to continue with these good things—keeping justice, doing righteousness, honoring the Sabbath—in anticipation of what God will do! Perhaps your life has been hard recently, and you are a little tired and even discouraged. Take heart! God is blessing your obedience!

³ Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;

Who can be saved? Not only the Jews! All sorts of others, be they local or far-away, young or old, sick or well, rich or poor—all who turn their hearts truly towards God! Those who obey the Word of the Lord will belong to Christ’s kingdom! Here we will find true diversity and sincere unity combined!

and let not the eunuch say,
“Behold, I am a dry tree.”
⁴ For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
⁵ I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.

Yad Vashem  is Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Yad Vashem is the second most-visited tourist site in Israel, after the Western Wall.

The name “Yad Vashem” is taken from a verse in the Book of Isaiah:  “Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name (yad vashem) better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off” (Isaiah 56:5). Naming the Holocaust memorial “yad vashem” conveys the idea of establishing a national depository for the names of Jewish victims who have no one to carry their name after death.

–Wikipedia

⁶ “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”

Mark 11:15-18   (NLT)

Jesus Clears the Temple

When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching.

⁸ The Lord God,
who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
“I will gather yet others to him
besides those already gathered.”

Israel’s Irresponsible Leaders

⁹ All you beasts of the field, come to devour—
all you beasts in the forest.

Beasts of the field — a metaphor for hostile nations.

¹⁰ His watchmen are blind;

Blind watchmen, silent dogs, shepherds without understanding — various negative references to the leaders of Israel.

they are all without knowledge;
they are all silent dogs;
they cannot bark,
dreaming, lying down,
loving to slumber.
¹¹ The dogs have a mighty appetite;
they never have enough.
But they are shepherds who have no understanding;
they have all turned to their own way,
each to his own gain, one and all.
¹² “Come,” they say, “let me get wine;
let us fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow will be like this day,
great beyond measure.”

_________________________

Music:

HERE  is Delirious and “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever.” The Lord has welcomed us into His forever family. God has written our names on the palm of His hand. He has given us every breath and guided us step by step. His love was irrevocably proved when He sent Jesus to be our Savior. Indeed, we can sing of His love forever!

_________________________

English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

Isaiah 56:1.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/isaiah-56-1.jpg

many people praising God.    http://impacteternity.com/images/appendix1.GIF

Yad Vashem, the Hall of Names.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/hall2bof2bnames2b22byossi.jpg

Jesus clears the temple, by Eric de Saussure, 1968.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/jesus-clears-the-temple-modern1.jpg

2165.) Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55   (ESV)

The Compassion of the Lord

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.

William MacDonald says that the “blessings are the waters of the Holy Spirit, the wine of joy, and the milk of the good Word of God.”

² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
³ Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
⁴ Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
⁵ Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.

⁶ “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;

2 Corinthians 6:1-2   (NIV)

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,
    and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

⁷ let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

from Experiencing God Day-by-Day,
by Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby

GOD’S WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS

Rarely does God do things exactly as we think He will. Our problem is that we try to second-guess God, saying, “Oh, now I know what God is planning to do!” Moses experienced this as he learned how God was going to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt. God told him He would harden Pharaoh’s heart. Yet, the result was not what Moses anticipated. Rather than allowing the Hebrews to leave, Pharaoh increased their hardship. Rather than becoming a hero among the Hebrews, Moses was despised by them for bringing greater suffering. Moses returned to the Lord and ask, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?” (Exodus 5:22). Much of the frustration we experience as Christians has nothing to do with what God does or doesn’t do. It has everything to do, rather, with the false assumptions we make about how we think God will and should act.

Have you ever done the will of God and then things seemed to become worse? Moses completely misunderstood what the results of his obedience to God would be. When things did not turn out as anticipated, Moses became discouraged. God had told Moses what to do, but He had not told Moses what the consequences would be.

It is foolish to attempt to do God’s work  using your own “common sense.” God does not eliminate your common sense. He consecrates it. He gives you His wisdom so you can understand His ways.

¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

¹² “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

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Music:

I love the visual of the trees clapping their hands!  HERE  is “Go Out with Joy” by the Maranatha Singers with a definite Hebrew flavor!

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English Standard Version (ESV)   The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Images courtesy of:

You are invited.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/i55-invited.jpg

My thoughts are not your thoughts.    http://www.malankaraworld.com/Newsletter/images/isaiah55_8-9.jpg

You shall go out in joy.    http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3024/2971403541_1e224408e3.jpg