SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/30/2013
11:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Lord
judged Israel for their sins.
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
9:8-10:4
Message of the
verses: As we study the book of
Isaiah we will come to longer sections that we will try to get through in one
SD, and this is one of those sections.
We have to remember that Isaiah’s primary ministry was to those of the
Southern Kingdom, which was both Judah and Benjamin but in this section he will
focus on what will happen to the Northern Kingdom when Assyria conquers them,
which will surely be an object lesson to those in the Southern Kingdom.
The Lord judged Israel for their sins: (Isaiah 9:8-10:4): “8 ¶ The Lord sends a message against Jacob,
And it falls on Israel. 9 And all the people know it, That is, Ephraim and the
inhabitants of Samaria, Asserting
in pride and in arrogance of heart: 10 “The bricks have fallen down, But
we will rebuild with smooth stones; The sycamores have been cut down, But we
will replace them with cedars." 11 Therefore the LORD raises against them adversaries
from Rezin And spurs their
enemies on, 12 The Arameans on
the east and the Philistines on the west; And they devour Israel with gaping jaws. In spite of
all this, His anger does
not turn away And His hand is still stretched out. 13 Yet the people do not turn back to
Him who struck them, Nor
do they seek the LORD of hosts. 14 So the LORD cuts off head and tail
from Israel, Both palm branch and bulrush in a single day. 15 The head is the
elder and honorable man, And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail. 16
For those who guide this
people are leading them astray; And those who are guided by them are
brought to confusion. 17 Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their
young men, Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows; For every one of them is godless and
an evildoer, And every mouth is speaking foolishness. In spite of all
this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out. 18 For wickedness burns like a fire;
It consumes briars and thorns; It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame
And they roll upward in a column of smoke. 19 By the fury of the LORD of hosts
the land is burned up, And the people are like fuel for the fire; No man spares
his brother. 20 They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,
And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied; Each of them
eats the flesh of his own arm. 21 Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim
Manasseh, And together they
are against Judah. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
1 ¶ Woe to those who enact
evil statutes And to those who constantly record unjust decisions, 2 So as to deprive the needy of justice And rob
the poor of My people of their rights, So that widows may be their spoil And
that they may plunder the orphans. 3 Now what will you do in the day of
punishment, And in the devastation which will come from afar? To whom will you
flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth? 4 Nothing remains but to
crouch among the captives Or fall among the slain. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.”
The object lesson that I mentioned that Isaiah is giving
to Judah is that God does not take sin lightly.
We must remember that the nation of Israel was given more light than any
other nation was given, as they were given the Law of the Lord, along with the
prophets and priests. They were given
many godly kings including David to whom God gave a covenant with David that
would bring the Messiah into the world through His line. To much is given much is expected of them,
and even though Israel were God’s people, when they sinned He had to discipline
them.
I have highlighted a number of sections in this long
section of Scripture, and the most important is repeated a number of times
which says “For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is
stretched out still.” The outstretched hand
of the Lord was His judgment and not His mercy, and this is important to note
and understand. One of the reasons that
God would judge them is because of pride, and we know that God hates pride, and
it was the sin of pride that was the first sin committed by Lucifer, who would
then be known as Satan or the Devil, and then it was the sin of pride that was
the first sin committed by humans on this earth. Another reason God judged them was because they
did not respond to His longsuffering, as they refused to repent and turn back
to God. This showed that Israel had a
very hard heart. I have mentioned that
Israel, and then eventually Judah would be led astray by false prophets, and
they believed the lies that the ungodly leaders would teach them, and therefore
would be judged.
As we look at verses 18-19 Isaiah describes Ephraim’s
wickedness that will destroy the nation like a fire destroys a forest or a
field. The problem is that the sinners would
be the fuel for this fire that God would kindle. I remember while going to one of the many
Moody’s Founders Week that in one of the messages the speaker said that the
Northern Kingdom was a very rich nation that was depending on their riches and
not depending upon the Lord. Soon this “rich”
nation would be destroyed by Assyria.
One of the things that we read from the Scriptures is
that God will take care of the orphans and the widows, but in the Northern
Kingdom even the widows and orphans were doing wicked things, but we learn from
Isaiah 10:1-4 that God is holding
responsible them for not caring for the widows and the orphans.
Let’s look at Isaiah 10:3 “Now what will you do in the
day of punishment, And in the devastation which will come from afar? To whom
will you flee for help? And where will you leave your wealth?” Isaiah asks three questions in this verse,
three questions that Dr. Wiersbe says that these questions “ought to be
pondered by every person who wants to be ready when the Lord comes.” He concludes his commentary on this section
with these words: “If God cannot bring
us to repentance through His Word, then He must lift His hand and chasten
us. If we do not submit to His
chastening, then He must stretch out His hand and judge us. God is long-suffering, but we dare not temp
Him by our careless or callused attitude.
‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’
(Hebrews 10:31).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There are things
in this section, as far as what the Northern Kingdom, and the Southern Kingdoms
of Israel were as far as their distance from the Lord that are seen in our
country today, and this makes me fear for our country. People think that because we have “the bomb”
that we are so powerful, and yet one of the attributes of God is that He is all
powerful, so that makes “the bomb” like a little toy to Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to trust the Lord to help me
make decisions that will bring glory to Him.
Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 46:1-8
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear
though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of
the sea; 3 though the waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its
swelling pride. Selah. 4 There is a river whose streams make glade
the city of God, the dwelling place of the most high. 5 God is in the midst of her, she will not be
moved, God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations make and uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He
raised His voice, the earth melted. 7
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.
8 Come and see the works of the Lord, who has wrought desolations in the
earth.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “The angel of the Lord” (Luke
1:28).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Where did a whirlwind take
Elijah?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
7/30/2013 1:07 PM
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