SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/11/2013
11:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Lord Warns Jerusalem PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah 28:1-11
Message of the
verses: We begin looking at the 28th
chapter of the book of Isaiah in today’s SD.
Dr. Wiersbe entitles the sixth chapter of “Be Comforted” “Storm Clouds
Over Jerusalem,” and this chapter covers chapters 28-31 of the book of
Isaiah. He writes the following at the beginning
of his commentary to show his readers where he is going with the chapter. “Chapters 28-31 record a series of five ‘woes’
(28:1; 29:1; 15; 30:1; 31:1) that focus primarily on Jerusalem. A sixth ‘woe’ is found in 33:1, and
interspersed with these ‘woes’ of judgment are promises of restoration and
glory. Isaiah is attempting to get the
rulers of Judah to stop trusting ‘power politics’ and international treaties
and start trusting the Lord.”
The Lord Warns Jerusalem (Isaiah 28:1-29). The city of Jerusalem was the beloved city of
the children of Israel, for it was the city that God allowed His temple to be
built, and the city that the beloved King of Israel, David, conquered and made
the capital city of the nation. We read
in the psalms that we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and one may
wonder why we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and the answer is that
when we have peace in Jerusalem then there will be peace throughout the entire
world. This will only happen when the
prince of peace returns to planet earth at the end of the tribulation period and
set up His 1000 year reign, so when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we are
actually praying for the return of our Lord from heaven.
In this 28th chapter of Isaiah Dr. Wiersbe
points out that there are four announcements that Isaiah gives to both Samaria
and Jerusalem, and we will begin to look at these different announcements in
this SD.
Announcement number
one is “God’s Judgment on Ephraim” (Isaiah 28:1-6): “1 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, And
to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the
fertile valley Of those who are overcome with wine! 2 Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent;
As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction, Like a storm of mighty
overflowing waters, He has cast it down to the earth with His hand. 3 The proud
crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trodden under foot. 4 And the fading
flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the fertile valley, Will
be like the first-ripe fig prior to summer, Which one sees, And as soon as it
is in his hand, He swallows it. 5 In that day the LORD of hosts will become a beautiful crown And
a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people; 6 A spirit of justice for him
who sits in judgment, A strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.”
One would think that the judgment that the Lord was about
to bring upon the Northern Kingdom of Israel will wake up the people in the
Southern Kingdom, but sadly it will not, for although the people in the South
will see their brothers in the North being destroyed by Assyria, they will not
believe that the Lord would do that to the great city of Jerusalem because that
was where His temple was located. One of
the reasons that God judged the Northern Kingdom was because of pride, for they
were proud of their capital city of Samaria and thought that no one could
capture it and so they sat back and had a good time drinking and partying until
Assyria came down upon them and conquered them.
We see in verse four that the beauty of Samaria was fading like a cut
flower and would soon disappear.
Announcement number
two is that the Lord was appalled by their drunkenness: (Isaiah 28:7-11) “7 And these also reel with
wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, They are
confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; They reel while having
visions, They totter when rendering judgment. 8 For all the tables are full of
filthy vomit, without a single clean place.
9 "To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret
the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? 10
“For He says, ’Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A
little here, a little there.’" 11 Indeed, He will speak to this people
Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue.”
Wine was a part of the religious practices for the
children of Israel, and thus abstaining from alcohol was not an issue for them,
however there were references of not getting drunk as seen in the Law and also
in Proverbs. There was a difference
between drinking a little wine, which as not a powerful drink in those days,
and getting drunk on strong drink. They
crossed the line and this was not pleasing to the Lord at all. Isaiah wonders who he could give his message
to for all were drunk, including the priests and the prophets. Could he go to those who had just been
weaned? The people were making fun of
Isaiah in this section as seen in verse ten where we read “Order on order,
order on order, Line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there.” John MacArthur states that in the Hebrew
language this was an imitation of a young child’s babbling ridicule of Isaiah
preaching. These people were drunk and
making fun of Isaiah. On verse eleven
MacArthur writes the following note: “Since drunkards would not listen to God’s
prophet, he responded to them by predicting their subservience to Assyrian
taskmasters, who would give them instructions in a foreign language. The NT divulges an additional meaning of this
verse that anticipates God’s use of the miraculous gift of tongues as a credential
of His NT messengers.”
We will look at the last two announcements in our next
SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Pride is something
that the Lord hates for when a person is proud they forget about the Lord and
think that they can do what they want to do without the help of the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Not be proud.
Memory verses for the
week: Review 2 Peter 2:1-3
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.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Jesus” (Mark 2:11).
Today’s Bible Question: “Where did Paul go after leaving Athens?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
9/11/2013 12:19 PM
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