SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2013
8:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: What Isaiah
Saw PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah 1:7-15
Message of the
verses: We will begin today’s SD by
looking at Isaiah 1:7-9 and comment on these verses: “7 Your land is a desolation, your cities
burnt with fire, Your ground, before you strangers are consuming it, And a
desolation as overthrown by strangers! 8 And left hath been the daughter of
Zion, As a booth in a vineyard, As a lodge in a place of cucumbers—as a city
besieged. 9 Unless Jehovah of Hosts had left to us a remnant, Shortly—as Sodom we had been, To
Gomorrah we had been like!”
We see from these verses that the Southern Kingdom looks
like a battlefield or like a desert, where once it had been a garden. It is possible that Isaiah was looking
forward to the devastation that Sennacherib would bring upon the Southern
Kingdom, but he would not destroy the city of Jerusalem. The account of this is seen in Isaiah 36-37. Shortly after that battle with the Assyrians
God would send the Babylonians to capture the Southern Kingdom and destroy the
city of Jerusalem along with its temple.
God would say in His Word that one of the reasons that this happened is
because Israel did not care for the land in the way that He told them to care
for it, for they were suppose to let the land rest every seven years, but they
did not do that and so they missed seventy of these years in the last 490 years
so God would allow the land to rest for seventy years while they were in captivity.
Isaiah would probably shock his hearers when he compared
the nation to Sodom and to Gomorrah, and then he goes on to speak about a
remnant, for only a remnant would survive through this captivity. Dr. Wiersbe writes about the remnant: “The doctrine of ‘the remnant’ is important
in the message of the prophets (Isa. 6:13; 10:20-22; 11:11-13, 16; Jer. 6:9;
23:3; 31:7; Micah 2:12; Zech. 8:12). Paul also referred to it (Rom. 9:27;
11:5). In spite of the apostasy of the
nation, a remnant of true believers would be spared so that God’s work could be
accomplished through the Jewish nation.”
Next we will look at verses 10-15: 10 ¶ Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of
Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah. 11 “What
are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had
enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no
pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. 12 “When you come to appear
before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? 13 “Bring your
worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath,
the calling of assemblies-I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. 14
“I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a
burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 “So when you spread out your hands
in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers,
I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.”
The reason that God began the sacrificial system was to
show the nation of Israel that there would one day come the Messiah would
fulfill all of the sacrifices that they were offering. Israel made it into a “religion” thinking
that if they kept the laws of the sacrifices that they would be okay no matter
what they did. Giving a sacrifice had to
have something to do with the heart, the heart must be right with the Lord, but
for the most part their hearts were not right with the Lord and so He called
them Sodom and Gomorrah, telling them that their sacrifices were worthless to
Him, and this was because their hearts were far from Him. Let us look at 1 Samuel 15:22 “Samuel said,
"Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in
obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to
heed than the fat of rams.” David writes
about a broken heart in Psalm 51:17, the psalm that he wrote after sinning with
Bathsheba: “The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” Micah talks about a godly walk that will
please the Lord in Micah 6:6-8 “ 6
¶ With what shall I come to the LORD And
bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings,
With yearling calves? 7 Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten
thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has told you, O man, what is
good; And what does the
LORD require of you But
to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” The Lord was disgusted with what Judah was
doing and would soon cause them to go into captivity in Babylon.
Dr. Wiersbe writes:
“But before passing judgment on worshipers in a bygone era, perhaps we
should confess the sins of the ‘worshiping church’ today. According to researcher George Barna, 93
percent of the households in the United States contain a Bible and more than 60
percent of the people surveyed claim to be religious, but we would never know
this from the way people act. One
Protestant church exists for every 550 adults in America, but does all this ‘religion’
make much of a difference in our sinful society? Prganized religion hasn’t affected the nation’s
crime rate, the divorce rate, or the kind of ‘entertainment’ seen in movies and
on TV.
“The average church allocates about 5 percent of its
budget for reaching others with the Gospel, but 30 percent for buildings and
maintenance. At a time when the poor and
the aged are pleading for help, churches in America are spending approximately 3
billion dollars a year on new construction.
Where churches have life and growth, such construction may be needed,
but too often the building becomes ‘a millstone instead of a milestone,’ to
quote Vance Havner. At least 62 percent of
the people Barna surveyed said that the church was not relevant to today’s
world and is losing its influence on society.
It may be that, like the worshipers in the ancient Jewish temple, we are
only going through the motions. (See The
Frog in the Kettle by George Barna, published by Regal Books.)”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The quote by Dr.
Wiersbe has moved my heart, and convicted my soul, and I pray that God will do
something in my heart that will be pleasing to Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Pray that God will give me the grace to do
things in my life that will give glory to Him, and the cause of Christ.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 46:1-5
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 its waters roar
and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. 4 There is a
river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the
Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help
her when morning dawns.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Twelve basketfuls” (Luke
9:17).
Today’s Bible Question: “Who said ‘whomsoever I shall kiss, that same
is he: behold him fast?”
Answer in Tomorrow’s SD.
7/7/2013 9:33 AM
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