SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/22/2013
9:51 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Jerusalem will be delivered PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah 33:7-16
Message of the
verses: We will continue looking at
Isaiah chapter 33 in today’s SD.
“7 Behold, their brave men cry in the streets, The
ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. 8 The highways are desolate, the traveler
has ceased, He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, He has no
regard for man. 9 The land mourns and pines away, Lebanon is shamed and
withers; Sharon is like a desert plain, And Bashan and Carmel lose their
foliage.” (Isaiah 33:7-9)
These verses help to describe what would happen when the
Assyrians began to attack Judah. It was
a dismal situation as even the leaders found out that there negations helped
nothing, and even hurt, for they paid out all the gold that was found in the temple
of God. What was the answer? We find out in verse ten and it is not a surprising
answer.
“10 “Now I will arise," says the LORD, "Now I will be exalted,
now I will be lifted up. 11 “You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to
stubble; My breath will consume you like a fire. 12 “The peoples will be burned
to lime, Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.”
Of course it is God who is the answer, and like then He
is still the answer. In verses 11-12 we
see some of the descriptions that Isaiah uses to show what God is going to do
to the Assyrians. The Assyrians had all
sorts of plans to destroy Judah and in particular Jerusalem, but God says that
there plans were like chaff, and this would give birth to stubble. Dr. Wiersbe writes “God is long-suffering
with His enemies, but when He decides to judge, He does a thorough job.”
Just as when the Lord destroyed Egypt to allow Israel to
leave and all the nations around them heard of it, so it will be when the Lord
destroys the Assyrians in one night that the nations around them will
understand the power and might of the God of Israel. Some scholars believe that Hezekiah wrote the
126th Psalm in praise to the Lord for destroying the Assyrians. “Then our mouth was filled with laughter And
our tongue with joyful shouting; Then they said among the nations, "The
LORD has done great things for them.’” (Psalm 126:2)
13 "You who are far away, hear what I have done; And
you who are near, acknowledge My might." 14 Sinners in Zion are terrified;
Trembling has seized the godless. "Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who
among us can live with continual burning?" 15 He who walks righteously and
speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain And shakes his hands so that
they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed And
shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; 16 He will dwell on the heights, His
refuge will be the impregnable rock; His bread will be given him, His water
will be sure.”
It was because the people of Judah were living in such a
sinful condition that when the woke up and found 185,000 dead Assyrians that they
became afraid of God, knowing that He was a consuming fire. Verse fourteen says that the sinners in Zion
were terrified from what the Lord had done.
If they had been in better fellowship with them, then they would not be
so frightened. I see another time coming
and perhaps it is not too far away, and that is when, according to Ezekiel
38-39, that God is going to destroy many countries and peoples because of their
hatred for Israel. In his novel on this
very subject Joel Rosenberg writes that the nations that God will destroy are
mostly Muslim countries, or at least have done horrible things to the Jewish
people. Russia and also Germany are two
of the nations that will be destroyed.
Perhaps the people of Israel today will act in the very same way that
they did when God destroyed the Assyrians, that is be afraid of the Lord
because of His power.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: God is an awesome
God who is all powerful and all knowing, He is love, but He is also just. I believe that there is a difference in
fearing the Lord and being afraid of the Lord as is sighted in this last
section we looked at today. I want to
fear the Lord because He is awesome, but I do not want to live in fear of the
Lord, for I would have trouble worshiping Him that way.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Since the meeting I had yesterday was so
wonderful and because of it I am on cloud nine (so to speak), I want to trust
the Lord that I will not fall to far and too fast from the wonderful mountain
top experience.
Memory verses for the
week: Review of 2 Peter 1:1-5
1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, To those
who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our
God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace
and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3
seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life
and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory
and excellence. 4 For by these He has
granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may
become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world by lust.
5 Now
for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral
excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “forty years” (1 Kings 2:11).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Where was the foundation of
the house that could not be shaken when the flood and storm came?
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
9/22/2013 10:26 PM
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