Month: July 2018

Restoration is God’s ultimate intent, but a warning about destruction is the final word of this book that is modeled after the entire Bible. Restoration or destruction – those are the only two options for the ending of each person’s story. Destruction is doubtless more horrific than we can imagine; restoration is most certainly more wonderful than we can imagine. Which do you expect to face? I pray that the Holy Spirit will not let any of us be deceived as we contemplate the answer to that question today. I trust that if any one of you cannot rest in true confidence of knowing that you face intimacy with God at the end of time, you will urgently take that concern to God.

Yet in a sense none of us can be certain until we come face to face with Jesus and hear, “Well done, good and faithful Servant; welcome.” In the meantime we need to be on our guards as the Bible teaches us, so that we don’t change course. I envision myself clinging to Jesus with a four-point grip, relaxing one point only enough to creep forward, or give another needy soul a hand. That is why we need to be in God’s Word regularly and systematically, to avail ourselves of every advantage over the influence of the ruler of darkness and of the darkness itself, and to build up ourselves in the truth.

The destruction spoken of in these chapters reminds us that we are in a battle. Remember, that is what the Bible is about. Isaiah is a reminder that GOD WINS! Recall the historical context of Isaiah: it was written at a time when Israel was removed from their land and destroyed as a people by the harsh Assyrians. Judah wasn’t in great shape. Times were not good, and would get worse. What a blessed perspective Isaiah offered his initial readers.

And what a blessed perspective for us, too. He intends for what awaits us to be a delight to us, and for us to “be glad and rejoice forever.” There is doubtless something in the description that follows to whet your appetite for that time now. I pray that it offers whatever you need in the way of encouragement, occasion for praise, or driving you to God in need.

Isaiah 59 describes mankind – all of us – ruined by sin. This is us without salvation. We should consider this description rather than passing over it quickly thinking it doesn’t apply to us, and appreciate what our Savior has saved us from. Or maybe a thoughtful consideration will reveal that we might not truly be saved from all of these sins, in which case we must confess and ask for His healing work to be done in our lives.

Understand how huge and hopeless our sin problem is. The sinful state of man has separated us from God, and we are helpless to do anything to restore that relationship. That is a dangerous dilemma for us, because if you recall, eternal life is knowing the one true God. In verse 60:2 Isaiah sums up the problem as, “See darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples” – darkness ruled by Satan. We might not see it as darkness because we are living in the midst of it, but if we could perceive it, we would understand how frighteningly awful that darkness is. We can get a glimpse of it when we hear of humans victimizing weaker humans or helpless animals, or in the hopelessness of drug addiction and the awful things it leads to…. You may experience that darkness in something horrifying that you have suffered or still live with.

Our only remedy for our sin problem is God’s appalled recognition of the problem, and His providing the solution for it. If we perceive how truly desperate our situation is, we rejoice over Messiah’s coming. His light overcomes the darkness, not just brightening the darkness, but obliterating it. How wonderful that light is! Isaiah 61:1-4 gives a stirring picture of some of the facets of the salvation Messiah brings. Luke 4:16-21 records Jesus introducing Himself as the promised Messiah by reading from this passage in His local synagogue on a Sabbath.

Does the darkness under which we all suffer break your heart? He binds it up. Does sin hold you captive? He offers you freedom. Do you suffer despair? He wants to transform that to praise. Have you suffered ruin and devastation? He restores. If your experience of salvation doesn’t live up to the descriptions given here, then you haven’t experienced the salvation God intends you to have, the salvation Jesus came, sacrificed, and suffered to give you. Please seek His full salvation today! Thank God and praise Him for the wonderful Savior and abundant salvation He has given us!

Again I want to caution you that the promises given in Isaiah may not be given to us (their contexts must be understood!), and therefore cannot be claimed by us; but we can understand God’s ways through them and ask Him for the same that He has pledged to His Old Testament people.

Knowing Israel’s great suffering throughout its history, it’s unbelievable that God would call His abandonment of them a “brief moment.” But He makes the same reference to our “light and momentary troubles” in the New Testament. We are bound by time and lack the perspective God has. When He refers to their (and our!) sufferings as momentary, He is speaking relatively. That should cause us to understand our own lack of perspective, and anticipate the “eternal glory that far outweighs” the troubles. Can you trust Him in this, and choose to endure the troubles, allowing Him to accomplish through them what He desires? The suffering will have been fleeting in comparison to His everlasting compassion and kindness, and His unfailing love.

God doesn’t just want to satisfy the thirsty (remember what the imagery means?) with water, but with something better, with things that denote more than survival and satisfaction of needs. He wants to delight our souls with good things and with living in abundance. We need to understand what God has in mind for our salvation, because His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts. We don’t think big enough when we consider what salvation means. Does your soul delight in His good things? He’s not speaking about the physical, but the spiritual. If you don’t delight in the “richest of fare” He intends for you be enjoying, you are not experiencing the good things He intends for you.

One of the ways God describes the salvation He intends us to have is, “And I will heal them.” What kind of healing do you need today? Think big. Maybe it’s some wound you’ve lived with so long that you’ve come to accept that this is the way it is. Or has the wound become such a part of you that you don’t see it as a wound, but a normal part of who you are? I recommend that we all take the opportunity this reading provides to talk with God about what needs healed in us. He is the one who does the healing, and so we need to seek for Him to do that in us.

The disjointed nature of prophecy can be frustrating to the reader, but I suppose it was written that way because that is the way it was revealed to the prophet. Isaiah likely didn’t write the book as a single project, but experienced his visions in snatches, just as they are presented in the book. Each one presents a different facet of the topic. These chapters do not repeatedly bounce back and forth between the ideas of salvation/restoration and Messiah, as I used to think they do. Rather, the alternate coverage develops these two ideas simultaneously, enlarging and fleshing each out to bring them together in the glorious climax. See what you can add to your understanding of salvation and Savior as you read these chapters.

Some of Isaiah’s prophecies about restoration are not given to us, but to Israel, and we cannot rightly claim them as promises. However, they should interest us because they give us a picture of what restoration to the natural state of man (sinless, pre-curse, as God intended us to be when He created us) looks like in God’s mind. For if this is what He intends restoration to look like, He will provide for that kind of restoration. And while He makes promises directly to Israel, He obviously intends for all people to enjoy full restoration. One indication of that intent is in Isaiah 49:1. In all the segments of today’s reading that talk about restoration, take note of what God’s idea of restoration includes.

While we don’t want to over-spiritualize the prophecies, we also don’t want to miss the revelations about restoration that are supposed to be realized today. As Isaiah reveals more about Messiah’s kingdom in coming chapters, let us not miss the truth that that kingdom has come in part with Jesus’ defeat of death (sin’s most horrific and very visible effect), and we are to be experiencing a measure of that kingdom’s coming now, in spiritual restoration, if we are truly saved from sin. So when Isaiah shares in verse 49:10 that the former captives will not only be freed, but “will neither hunger nor thirst,” we should seek to understand what that means. Jesus directly stated, “I am the bread of life….” So this is telling us that restoration looks like full satisfaction of our needs. Is that what your intimate knowledge of God looks like? That’s what God has provided for you. If you are living that, praise God for that great salvation from sin’s insatiety! If you aren’t living that, why not confess that to God and ask for Him to work that great salvation in you?

Isaiah says so much more about what salvation means; I encourage you to consider each facet revealed as you read (or perhaps just one or two more in a little depth, for the sake of time). The same is true about Isaiah’s descriptions of Messiah and His work. Appreciating the characteristics as they are revealed gives us cause to adore and praise our wonderful Savior, and will serve to gain us greater intimacy with Him.

The same account preserved in two places for us to read twice – we know that that wasn’t God’s oversight, but rather His way of reinforcing to us this important lesson of history. What could that lesson  be? I haven’t identified anything particularly profound; what do you think?

God’s people of today experience the same situation as these Old Testament people suffered, situations in which man’s wisdom says that we would be stupid to believe in God, situations from which worldy wisdom says that we cannot possibly emerge unscathed. If we did somehow escape unscathed, by that miracle all watchers would know that God exists and is the “Big G God” He claims to be. Why don’t we see those kinds of miracles today? God is still able to do great works for the sake of His honor and glory, and He still wants all people to know that He is God. How often do we seek for Him to do miracles for His honor and glory, so that onlookers will know that He is God? Do we even believe ourselves that He is the “Big G God” He says He is, or are we too overwhelmed by the situation and the claims of the world to ask Him to do the miraculous, and to take a stand on His behalf? Perhaps if we, like Hezekiah, laid out the situation before God, instead of telling Him what we want Him to do, we would see miracles done.

It is important for us to realize that God is bigger than any situation we face. Praise gives us proper perspective to believe that is so. Psalm 46 voices the stand the psalmist takes in placing his trust in God, and Psalm 135 reviews some history; both offer effective ways to lift our eyes to view our situation in its proper perspective as much smaller than God.

God said He knew where Sennacherib King of Assyria stayed, and when he came and went. Think about what that means: God knew him in his most vulnerable, most secret times and places. He knows every world leader in the same way today. He can influence their thoughts. Doesn’t that remind you how much sense it makes to pray to God about world events, lay them out before Him and ask Him to do miracles?

Ancient people worshiped idols in part because they sought for the god that the idol represented to give them whatever they wanted. That seems crazy to us today, but what is even more crazy is the way they were able to rationalize their worthless institutions of worship, as described in Isaiah 44: the craftsman has to work hard to fashion the idol, and in doing so he uses energy and needs to refuel. How inferior such a god is to the one Who created the craftsman and sustains him. Isn’t man blessed, that the Reality is so much superior to his fantasies? Or consider that a tree chopped down for its wood can be useful in any number of ways: it can provide heat for warmth or fuel for cooking. Or it could be used to fashion an idol. One chunk of wood used to make an idol could as easily have been used for something else – there’s nothing especially powerful about it. And the man would have gotten more value out of the warmth or fuel than the idol. This is all nonsense; what foolish person would revere that idol for a god and expect it to do anything for him?! Was ancient man stupid? Aren’t you glad that modern man is more intelligent and sophisticated than that? Our generation would never be so foolish as to worship a lie in pursuit of what we want, would we?

In chapters 44 and 45 God identifies by name His instrument in fulfilling His purpose. Before Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in judgment, God identified who would say of Jerusalem, “She shall be rebuilt.” This Cyrus was a Persian leader who rose to take over the Babylonian Empire. He goes down in history as Cyrus the Great for his accomplishments. When He established the Persian Empire in place of the Babylonian Empire upon overthrowing the Babylonian king and his government in a single amazingly effective night raid, he adopted the policy of sending home the displaced people whom the Babylonians had sent into exile. He did in fact send Judah back to their homeland with the expectation that they would rebuild, as we will read in the latter history books of the Old Testament and as you can read in any ancient history.

Look at all God said He would do to help Cyrus because He would use Cyrus to fulfill His purpose. Do you suppose the leaders of our modern world are beyond the control of the God who can raise up a world leader such as Cyrus and help him as history shows that He did? Can God still make well-being and calamity both? These prophecies and the facts of history that tell of their fulfillment should reassure us that God is in control of world events today, calamitous as they may seem.

As hard as God’s Old Testament people tried to put God behind them, He was determined that they would not be forgotten by Him. I treasure the masterful way He phrases His remembrance. And He takes it farther than remembrance: He brings His righteousness close to bring them redemption. He refines them as silver is refined. They have only to return to Him. Later in our reading He invites all the ends of the earth to turn to Him and be saved. The redemption he offers is so wonderful that the heavens are called upon to sing because of what God has done. Do we see redemption as that wonderful? God can help our blinded eyes see the truth more clearly, if we ask Him for His help.

Scholars point out that Isaiah is like a mini-Bible because it has 66 chapters like the Bible has 66 books, and has a distinct change of message beginning in chapter 40 like the Bible’s division between Old Testament and New at the fortieth book. Note what’s different in Isaiah’s message in today’s reading, and understand what a precious Savior and what great salvation we have.

The opening verses speak of comfort, tenderness, the end of warfare, and iniquity being pardoned. Why would that be, when the people’s sin is ongoing? Because there is a point where God says, “Enough; it’s time for a new plan.” Are you ready for the revealing of this new plan? It’s exciting enough for the hearers to prepare for it. And here it is: “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it.” It might have been hard for the first readers to get excited about that very obscure plan, but it should be easier for us to get excited about it, knowing that He is referring to Jesus’ coming to earth. But what kind of plan for man’s salvation is that, that God’s glory is revealed? How does that allow for pardon of sin?

God’s plan for man’s salvation is a wonderful plan; the more we understand about it, the more we realize how wonderful it is. In these chapters in Isaiah God gives us insight into the salvation that He has provided for us, insight that is unique, and so provides a fuller picture of our salvation than the New Testament alone provides. I encourage you to spend time contemplating what Isaiah says about the salvation God has provided to us, and what our wonderful Savior has accomplished for us. I’ll give a few hints by explaining some of the imagery that is more difficult to understand.

In verses 41:17-18 He talks about the poor and needy seeking water and His answering them. This is imagery that Isaiah will continue to use to indicate seekers who will find God: we must come poor and needy, that is, recognizing our impoverished state and total inability to remedy that situation. We need to come as needy for God’s provision for our souls as a parched person is for water. For as ignorant as we may be to the truth, we truly are like a wilderness that needs tamed by God. Do you understand how needy you are for God’s help? If you don’t, ask God for that gift of neediness so that you can come to Him as needy as you must be to receive the rivers and springs and pool of water, the abundant answer to your need, that He wants to give.

Verses 42:2-4 describe Jesus when He was on earth. He didn’t clamor for attention or seek to create a hype; He came quietly. He was so gentle that He didn’t break so much as a damaged reed. Are you damaged? Can you cherish the gentleness with which He came, with which He still wants to meet you today? He didn’t quench a faintly burning wick – that would be someone whose flame is burning so dimly that it’s in danger of going out. He didn’t quench that faint feeling then, and He doesn’t want to quench it now; He wants to fan those faint flames into passion. Doesn’t that understanding fan your flames of love for Him, and doesn’t that flicker make you want to be the light-giving flame He wants you to be? Please talk to Him about what shape your flame is in and what He can do in you!

There are many other images in these chapters. Please consider what God intends for them to convey, and what that means to you and your relationship with Him. The more we understand about the great salvation our Savior makes possible for us, the more we are able to realize that salvation in our own lives. This is some important reading for us; I’m praying for you, that God will use it in your life as powerfully as He has used it in mine.

Scholars believe the events of chapters 38 and 39 happened before those of chapters 36 and 37.

Hezekiah’s warm welcome of the Babylonians was a problem because his showing off demonstrated pride in what he owned and what he had accomplished. Doubtless the main reason the envoys were there was to form an alliance with the king of Judah, and Hezekiah apparently did so without consulting God about it.

I have used Hezekiah’s approach to God in a moment of crisis as a model for my own prayers. When he received the message from the king of Assyria, he laid it out before God. I envision my own prayers as that: laying the situation out before God and letting Him decide what He wants to do about it rather than telling Him what He should do about it. That approach leaves Him free to change His mind or not without it causing a crisis of my faith when He doesn’t do what I want Him to do.

The beginning of chapter 35 is another one of those jumps from desolation to hope. This chapter is about transformation.

The question that remains about this passage is, to what time is the prophecy referring? It definitely speaks of a day yet to come, after Jesus returns for us. But I believe it is even broader than that, and refers to the difference Messiah’s coming makes. Thus, it would refer to the time from Jesus’ resurrection onward, which also encompasses Messiah’s kingdom in our current age. It teaches about the transformation Messiah makes in our lives now.

Consider the transformation of which it speaks.

• From parched to glad. Have you ever suffered a dry time in your life, when it feels like God is far off and there is no spiritual power? As the song says, we were made to thrive. Are you thriving spiritually, growing, bearing fruit, and giving shade to others?
• From wilderness to rejoicing and blossoming. The word “wilderness” did not bring to the original readers’ minds scenes like our nation’s purple mountain majesties or lush green forested hills. The wilderness of their land was very dry and rocky, unattractive in its monochrome drabness, threatening in its inability to support life. In a day when people depended on the land to produce what they needed to live on for the coming year, wilderness was not an appealing place. A human life can also be a wilderness. From drab and devoid of life, to blossoming beauty is a miraculous transformation. Are you blossoming as a result of Jesus’ transforming power in your life over sin and its effects?
• Shouting for joy speaks of uncontainable joy. Are you joyful?
• Lebanon was known for those wonderful highly-valued cedar trees; Sharon and Carmel were areas of great agricultural abundance in ancient Israel. These references speak of thriving, fruit-bearing abundance, and would further imply living the good life to the original readers. Spiritually speaking, this doesn’t refer to a life of ease and comfort, but it has its own appeal in stability, security, wisdom, faithfulness, and meaning. Is the life you’re living in Jesus’ transforming power the kind of life that appeals to others in these ways?
• Spiritual blindness and deafness spoken of throughout Isaiah, that keeps people from perceiving the truth and repenting, will no longer be a problem. Are you spiritually responsive to the Holy Spirit’s teaching, or are you satisfied with where you are spiritually?
• Streams of running water in the desert, pools of water instead of burning sand speak of relief, refreshment, and abundance in place of barrenness. The transformation is from lifeless to life-giving. Life includes growth and reproduction; do these characterize you?
• The Way of Holiness will be a highway, not a narrow way. This speaks of easy, swift and secure progress. This way will only be for those who already walk in the way of holiness, which encompasses purity and dedication to God. With no way for the unclean or wicked to journey on, they will not be welcome. Are you worthy of walking on that way in your current purity and dedication to God?
• No lion seeking someone to devour.
• Sorrow and sighing fleeing away, and instead the redeemed will be overtaken by everlasting joy and gladness.

This transformation is supposed to be true of our lives. Today’s reading is an opportunity for us to evaluate prayerfully how we have allowed Messiah’s power to transform us, and to seek God’s help in making any changes necessary to see that transformation realized in us. It’s also a reminder of how great is the salvation that God has provided for us in Jesus.

Isaiah 31 challenges us to consider in whom we trust. Here God is again finding fault with His people because they look to Egypt for help in times of distress instead of seeking His help. His going on and on about it could seem tiresome to us, or it could communicate to us that God truly and deeply takes offense at the refusal of His people to seek refuge in Him. The result of their seeking help from elsewhere will be that the men in whom they trust will stumble, and God’s people themselves will fall. For God can make the strong man panic, and terrify the many warriors. Although Isaiah doesn’t mention it, we must also consider that God can also make investments fail and jobs end and abilities fade. What we’re trusting in can stumble in its own fashion, causing us to fall.

Chapter 34 talks about God’s judgment on the nations, and yet He keeps referring to Edom. Recall that prophets we have read previously foretold complete destruction of Edom. In a previous post commenting on one of those prophecies, I provided links to photos of the land that was once Edom. Burning pitch may be an exaggeration of the desolation of that land, but it is certainly dry, and one can imagine from the pictures the heat of that dry land. No one except wildlife is living in those impressive structures or enjoying the luxuries their extraordinary innovation and industry gained them. As God has fulfilled His word to Edom, He can fulfill His word to bring utter destruction on any nation, and on all nations.

These chapters switch between pronouncements of judgement and images of what restoration will be like. It makes for difficult reading for us, but that organization effectively reveals to us that God is not all about judgment. For in the midst of His pronouncements of judgment He can’t help but break in with the encouraging promise of restoration to follow. It’s almost as if He can’t stand to speak too long about judgment without looking past it to what He intends for it to accomplish. The only way He can bear to talk about the destruction is to relieve it with periodic descriptions of the building up made possible by the tearing down. Rather than be annoyed or confused by the organization of these chapters, let’s rejoice in the hope with which the bad news of judgment is interspersed.

So in between the woes God pronounces in these chapters are descriptions of the day when a King will reign righteously…. I encourage you to make a list of all the characteristics of that rule. Which of them means the most to you? Verse 33:6 is precious to me. In the midst of big changes in my life, changes I have dreaded, changes that have me living like I never dreamed I’d live, God is the stability of my times. In the midst of lean times, He is a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. Surely there are descriptions in here to feed your soul in your present situation; if they are not clearly evident to you, please seek what God has for you today in these words meant to give hope.