SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
11/4/2013 10:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Jewish Remnant Delivered
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
48:1-22
Message of the
verses: I realize that we are taking
pretty large bites from the book of Isaiah, but I hope that what we are
studying will be a benefit to all who read it, and that the Lord will use it to
give strength to those who see the posts.
“1 "Hear
this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins
of Judah, Who swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, But
not in truth nor in righteousness. 2
"For they call themselves after the holy city And lean on the God
of Israel; The LORD of hosts is His name. 3
"I declared the former things long ago And they went forth from My
mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. 4 "Because I know that you are obstinate,
And your neck is an iron sinew And your forehead bronze, 5 Therefore I declared them to you long ago,
Before they took place I proclaimed them to you, So that you would not say, ’My
idol has done them, And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’
6 "You have heard; look at all this.
And you, will you not declare it? I proclaim to you new things from this time,
Even hidden things which you have not known. 7
"They are created now and not long ago; And before today you have
not heard them, So that you will not say, ’Behold, I knew them.’ 8 "You have not heard, you have not known.
Even from long ago your ear has not been open, Because I knew that you would
deal very treacherously; And you have been called a rebel from birth.
9 ¶
"For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I
restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off. 10 "Behold, I have refined you, but not as
silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. 11 "For My own sake, for My own sake, I
will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to
another. 12 "Listen to Me, O Jacob,
even Israel whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last. 13 "Surely My hand founded the earth, And
My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together.
14 "Assemble, all of you, and
listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he will
carry out His good pleasure on Babylon, And His arm will be against the
Chaldeans. 15 "I, even I, have
spoken; indeed I have called him, I have brought him, and He will make his ways
successful.
16 ¶
"Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken
in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has
sent Me, and His Spirit." 17 Thus
says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, "I am the LORD your
God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. 18 “If
only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have
been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19 “Your
descendants would have been like the sand, And your offspring like its grains;
Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence." 20 Go
forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful
shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, "The
LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob." 21 They did not thirst when He led
them through the deserts. He made the water flow out of the rock for them; He
split the rock and the water gushed forth. 22 “There is no peace for the
wicked," says the LORD.
As I mentioned in a previous SD as we look at these
chapters (40-48) we see that Isaiah is telling the people of Judah what will
happen to them before it happens to them.
The first part of Isaiah’s book tells us mainly of what was happening to
them at the time of the writing of the book, mostly about the Assyrians. In chapter forty-eight we see that it is now
time for the children of Israel to return to their land, but as we see in the
book of Nehemiah, and also Ezra many of the people did not want to return. Jeremiah told them to go into captivity and
build a home and stay there, but they got to comfortable in their homes and
just as Isaiah prophecies they do not want to come home. This is a problem right now for the Jews for
many of them do not want to return to Israel even though that is where they
should be.
Dr. Wiersbe writes God told them that they were
hypocritical in using His name and identifying with His city but not obeying
His will (Isa. 48:1-2). They were
stubborn (v. 4) and were not excited about the new things God was doing for
them.”
In verses 18-19 we learn that if the Jews would have
obeyed the Lord that they would not have gone to Babylon, but since they
disobeyed Him that is where He sent them.
The Babylonian captivity was like a furnace to refine Israel. In verse 20 the Lord now tells them to go
forth from Babylon and we also see this in Jeremiah 50:8; 51:6; 45 and
Revelations 18:4. “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of
her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her
plagues.” This is still the cry of the
Lord today for His Church.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The church that I
attend is going through a course or a conference to help teach us an effective
way of leading people to the Lord. It is
a 20 hour course and the person who is leading it preached yesterday morning
and evening and one of the things that he said in the evening message fits into
what we are learning form this chapter in Isaiah 48, the part that says that
Israel was to comfortable in Babylon and did not want to leave when they could
have. This person goes to the Philippines
each summer to spread the good news of the gospel and the Philippines used to
be a place where demon activity happened a lot, but not so much anymore. He
asked one of the men he associated with why he thought that this was true and
the answer that he got was materialism.
I think that materialism is another way of describing people who are
living comfortably, and this is what many of the Jews in Babylon were doing and
why the refused to go back to their land.
It is a problem in the Church today and that is why we don’t evangelize
like we use to. There is a little saying
that I have on our refrigerator that says “We are not humans going through a temporary
experience. We are spiritual beings
going through a temporary human experience.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Remember that I am a spiritual person going
through a temporary human experience.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:1-11
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 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. 9 For he who lacks
these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification
from his former sins. 10 Therefore,
brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;
for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
Answer to the last Bible
Question: “Seven” (Exodus 13:6).
Today’s Bible
Question: “for how long is Christ
consecrated as high priest?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/4/2013 12:15 PM
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