SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/22/2013
7:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
God’s Servant Messiah
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
42:1-25
Message of the
verses: 1 ¶ "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My
chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will
bring forth justice to the nations. 2
"He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard
in the street. 3 "A bruised reed He
will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will
faithfully bring forth justice. 4
"He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established
justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His
law."
“ 5 ¶
Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on
it And spirit to those who walk in it, 6
"I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also
hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant
to the people, As a light to the nations, 7
To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those
who dwell in darkness from the prison. 8
"I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to
another, Nor My praise to graven images. 9
"Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new
things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you." 10 Sing to the LORD a new song, Sing His praise
from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it.
You islands, and those who dwell on them.”
We will first look at these ten verses from Isaiah
chapter 42 as they speak of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. When we get to chapter 49:1-6; 50:1-11; and
53:13-52:12 we will see more about the Servant, the Messiah written around 500
or so years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
These can also be called the Servant songs of the Messiah and as we see
there are four of these songs.
Let us first of all take a look at Matthew 12:14-21 to
see where these verses are applied in the life of Jesus Christ: “14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired
against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. 15 But Jesus, aware of this,
withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all, 16 and warned
them not to tell who He was. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through
Isaiah the prophet: 18 “BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN; MY BELOVED IN
WHOM MY SOUL is WELL-PLEASED; I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM, AND HE SHALL
PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES. 19 “HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT; NOR
WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS. 20
"A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF, AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE
WILL NOT PUT OUT, UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY. 21 “AND IN HIS NAME THE
GENTILES WILL HOPE.’”
Jesus did not come to destroy His enemies the first time that
He came, but He surely had to power to do so, but when we look at the 19th
chapter of the book of Revelations we will see that He surely will destroy His
enemies when He comes to earth again in power and great glory. The first time He came He destroyed the enemy
of sin and provided salvation for those who will accept His death and resurrection
as payment for their sins, but those who will not do this will have to pay for
their own sins in hell for eternity.
Which of these two choices will you take? This was the plan of God for His Servant the
first time that He came to planet earth, and when He comes again as I said He
will judge the nations, but will also head up the glorious Kingdom which will
last for one thousand years. In this
section we see a plan for the Gentiles, and that is for those of the Church age
for when one looks at the two comings of Jesus Christ to planet earth it is
like looking off into the distance seeing two mountain peaks, but not aware of
the great valley that is between them, which is the valley of the Church age
that we are living in now.
“11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their
voices, The settlements where Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing
aloud, Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains. 12 Let them give
glory to the LORD And declare His praise in the coastlands.
“13 The LORD will go forth like a warrior,
He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will
raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies. 14 “I have kept silent
for a long time, I have kept still and restrained Myself. Now like a woman in
labor I will groan, I will both gasp and pant. 15 “I will lay waste the
mountains and hills And wither all their vegetation; I will make the rivers
into coastlands And dry up the ponds. 16 “I will lead the blind by a way they
do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness
into light before them And rugged places into plains. These are the things I
will do, And I will not leave them undone." 17 They will be turned back
and be utterly put to shame, Who trust in idols, Who say to molten images,
"You are our gods."
“18 Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind,
that you may see. 19 Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger
whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the
servant of the LORD? 20 You have seen many things, but you do not observe them;
Your ears are open, but none hears. 21 The LORD was pleased for His
righteousness’ sake To make the law great and glorious. 22 But this is a people
plundered and despoiled; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away
in prisons; They have become a prey with none to deliver them, And a spoil,
with none to say, "Give them back!" 23 Who among you will give ear to
this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter? 24 Who gave Jacob up for spoil,
and Israel to plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, And
in whose ways they were not willing to walk, And whose law they did not obey? 25
So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And
it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not recognize it; And it burned him,
but he paid no attention.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following on this last section of
Isaiah 42: “The closing section
describes a singing nation (vv. 10-12), giving praise to the Lord, and a silent
God who breaks that silent to become a shouting conqueror (vv.13-17). God is long-suffering toward sinners, but
when He begins to work, He wastes no time!
The ‘servant’ in verses 18-25 is the people of Israel, blind to their
won sins and deaf to God’s voice (6:9-10); yet the Lord graciously forgave them
and led them out of bondage. Now God
says to the Babylonians, ‘Send them back!’ (42:22 NIV).
“How sad it is when God disciplines us and we do not
understand what He is doing or take it to heart (v.25). Israel’s captivity in Babylon cured the
nation of their idolatry, but it did not create within them a desire to please
God and glorify Him.” That is so true,
for we see that when the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth in the form of a
little Jewish baby, and grew up before them, never sinning and then began to
minister to them for three years that they held to their traditions rather than
to glorify the Lord for sending Him to them.
They could not stand that He was perfect in all ways and thus they had
to destroy Him and so in the predetermined plan of God they put Him to death,
death on a cross, but death could not hold the perfect Son of God and so after
three days He was resurrected from the dead spending another 40 days on earth
speaking to some who were His own, and then returned to heaven from where He
came sitting down at the right hand of God His Father where He waits to return
to planet earth in great glory ridding on a white horse with a sword in His
mouth to judge those who are fighting against Him. We surely do have a wonderful Saviour.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have often said
that I truly want to know when it is that the Lord is disciplining me and how
He is doing it, for there are times when I don’t realize this is happening to
me. The same was true with the nation of
Israel when the Lord used Babylon to discipline them for sin by taking them to
Babylon. I know that the Lord Jesus
Christ paid for all of my sins on the cross, but as the writer to the Hebrews
points out in chapter twelve there are times when He still disciplines me
because of His great love for me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6; Proverbs 15:1; and Psalm
119:33.
Memory verses for the
week: 2Peter 1:1-9
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 Saviour, 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,
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 your
neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 9 For he who lacks these
qualities is blind and short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from
his former sins.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Nehemiah” (Nehemiah 1:1-11).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who wrote two books of the
Bible that have only one chapter each?
Answer in our next SD.
10/22/2013 8:50 AM
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