Thursday, September 26, 2013

The Glorious Kingdom Will Be Established (Isaiah 35:1-10)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/26/2013 9:29 AM

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  The Glorious Kingdom Will Be Established

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  Isaiah 35:1-10

            Message of the verses:  “1 The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus 2  It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God. 3 Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. 4 Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you."

            “5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. 7 The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes. 8 A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it. 9 No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, 10 And the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

            In yesterday’s SD we looked at the wilderness being destroyed, but when the Lord Jesus comes back to establish His Kingdom on earth for 1000 years then He will transform the earth into something like the Garden of Eden.  We can read in chapters 40-48 about how Jerusalem will be expanded at this time and where all of the tribes of Israel will live, and in the center of it will be where the Lord Jesus will rule the earth.  This chapter is quite a contrast to the last one.

            Romans 8:19 says “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”  Psalms 96:11-13 says “11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; Let the sea roar, and all it contains; 12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy 13 Before the LORD, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness And the peoples in His faithfulness.”  One more and that is Isaiah 55:12-13:  “12  "For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13  "Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, And it will be a memorial to the LORD, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.’
           

            In verse two Isaiah speaks of Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon, which are the three most beautiful places in that region, and yet the desert will become more fruitful than these in “that day.”

            One of the reasons for Isaiah giving this prophecy is that he wanted to encourage those who were frightened and downhearted during the time of his writing as seen in verses 3-4.  There will be no more blind people or those with handicaps in the kingdom of the Lord.  When the Lord Jesus was on earth at His first advent He healed people and took care of those who had the types of infirmities during that day and when the disciples of John the Baptist came to find out if He was the chosen Messiah He quoted these verses in Luke 7:18-23.

            I have highlighted the word “highway” in verse eight and this is one of the themes that is found in Isaiah’s writings for it is seen in 11:16; 19:23; 40:3; and 62:10.  We have seen in the past that when the Assyrian’s were coming against Judah that the highways will not be safe, but in the millennial Kingdom the highways will only be for the righteous, and it will be perfectly safe to travel.  There will be one special road in the kingdom and that will be “The Highway of Holiness,” and this is kind of like what happened in ancient kingdoms as there was a road in which only the kings and priests could use, “but when Messiah reigns, all of His people will be invited to use this highway.  Isaiah pictures God’s redeemed, ransomed, and rejoicing Jewish families going up to the yearly feasts in Jerusalem, to praise the Lord.”  (Warren W. Wiersbe)

            During the invasion of the Assyrians the people of Jerusalem were cooped up because of their fear of them in the city of Jerusalem, and God promised to deliver them.  He kept His promise to the people then as we will see in the next few chapters of Isaiah, and just as He kept His promises then, He will keep all of his promises He has made to us too.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is wonderful to read verses like this in the Word of God, knowing that the Lord will keep every promise that He has made in His Word.  I was saved in January of 1974 listening to a man speak of coming prophecies that have not yet taken place but they will take place in the future.  God used this man and His Word to bring me to a saving knowledge in the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of that I have always been interested in the prophetic portions of Scripture and have used these prophetic sections to lead others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ too.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to fulfill His promised and trust the Lord to bring the person that I now have a new renewed relationship with to a saving knowledge of Christ.  This would mean the world to me.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Peter 1:1-5

            1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle 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 reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge

Answer to yesterday’s Bible Question:  “Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:2).

Today’s Bible Question:  “Who prepared a sacrifice and then ordered twelve barrels of water poured on it?”

Answer in tomorrow’s SD.

9/26/2013 10:26 AM

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