SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/18/2013
11:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s
Servant Cyrus
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
42:1-7
Message of the
verses: Before we begin looking at
our text this morning I want to do just a little bit of review. We are looking at the greatness of God in
Isaiah 40-48 and we have already covered “God is Greater than our Circumstance”
in chapter forty, and now we will begin today to look at “God is Greater than
Our Fears” which will cover chapters 41-44.
God’s Servant Cyrus (Isaiah 41:1-7): “1 "Coastlands, listen to Me in silence,
And let the peoples gain new strength; Let them come forward, then let them
speak; Let us come together for judgment. 2 “Who has aroused one from the east
Whom He calls in righteousness to His feet? He delivers up nations before him
And subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, As the wind-driven
chaff with his bow. 3 “He pursues them, passing on in safety, By a way he had
not been traversing with his feet. 4 “Who has performed and accomplished it,
Calling forth the generations from the beginning? ’I, the LORD, am the first,
and with the last. I am He.’" 5 The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
The ends of the earth tremble; They have drawn near and have come. 6 Each one
helps his neighbor And says to his brother, "Be strong!" 7 So the
craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer
encourages him who beats the anvil, Saying of the soldering, "It is
good"; And he fastens it with nails, So that it will not totter.”
As we look at verse one we see that it begins with the
words “coastlands listen to Me.” This
refers to the nations that are far away from the holy land and it is seen,
according to Dr. Wiersbe, at least seventeen times in Isaiah’s writings. God is summing the nations to come to court
and He is the Judge who will oversee the case as seen in the last part of verse
one.
We will begin to talk about Cyrus, who was the leader of
the Medes and Persians, and it was them who defeated the Babylonians as seen in
Daniel chapter five. This was the plan
of God and His plan was to have Cyrus in power so that he would let the children
of Israel return to their nation and this he did on different occasions as seen
in different OT books of history and from the prophets. When we look at Isaiah 44:28 we see that he
is called a shepherd and in 45:1 we see he was anointed by God and in 46:11 we
read “Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far
country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it,
surely I will do it.” This is also speaking
of Cyrus. One more verse to look at and
that is 41:25, “"I have aroused one from the north, and he has come; From
the rising of the sun he will call on My name; And he will come upon rulers as
upon mortar, Even as the potter treads clay.’”
Isaiah called Cyrus by name over one hundred years before
he was born. It is believed by some that
the prophet Daniel actually read from the book or scroll of Isaiah to Cyrus
thus showing him the greatness of God.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Isaiah nowhere calls Cyrus ‘God’s servant,’ Cyrus
did serve the Lord by fulfilling God’s purposes on earth. God handed the nations over to Cyrus and
helped him conquer great kings (45:1).
The enemy was blown away like chaff and dust because the eternal God was
leading the army.”
Isaiah writes about how men were making idols to worship
because they were in fear of Cyrus, but it was and always will be God who is in
charge and idols cannot stand a chance against God.
One of the problems when people seem to do great things
is that they become proud, for we remember Nebuchadnezzar and his pride and
what the Lord had to do to him to make him repent of his pride as seen in
Daniel chapter four. Cyrus was doing the
will of the Lord, but though that he was doing it on his own.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Sometimes we forget that God can use
even unconverted world leaders for the good of His people and the progress of
His work. He raised up Pharaoh in Egypt
that He might demonstrate His power (Romans 9:17), and He even used wicked
Herod and cowardly Pontius Pilate to accomplish His plan in the crucifixion of
Christ (Acts 4:24:28). ‘The king’s heart
is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He
wishes’ (Proverbs 21:1, NKJV).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: When I think of
pride I think of me doing something in the power of the Holy Spirit and then
taking credit for it myself, and this is not wrong.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Remember the truth of Proverbs 15:1 and pray
that the Spirit of God will empower me to fulfill this verse in my life today
and always.
Memory verses for the week:
2 Peter 1:1-8
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 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, 6 and in your knowledge self-control, and in your
self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance godliness, 7 and in your
godliness brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are
increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Joseph’s” (Exodus 13:19).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Which book of the Bible
records the sons of God marrying the daughters of men?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/18/2013 11:59 AM
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