SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/13/2013
7:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Servant
& Israel PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
51:9-52:6
Message of the
verses: In order to understand where
we are at in the book of Isaiah please refer to the SD dated 11/12/2013 and
read the “Message of the verses.”
“Awake, awake” (Isaiah 51:9-52:6): “9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of
the LORD; Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not
You who cut Rahab in pieces, Who pierced the dragon? 10 Was it not You who
dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; Who made the depths of the sea
a pathway For the redeemed to cross over? 11 So the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with
joyful shouting to Zion, And everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will
obtain gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away. 12 “I,
even I, am He who comforts
you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies And of the son of
man who is made like grass, 13 That you have forgotten the LORD your Maker, Who
stretched out the heavens And laid the foundations of the earth, That you fear
continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, As he makes
ready to destroy? But where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 “The exile will soon be set free,
and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his bread be lacking. 15 “For I am
the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the LORD of hosts
is His name). 16 “I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with
the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say
to Zion, ’You are My
people.’"
“17 Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise,
O Jerusalem, You who have drunk from the LORD’S hand the cup of His anger; The
chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs. 18 There is none to guide her
among all the sons she has borne, Nor is there one to take her by the hand
among all the sons she has reared. 19 These two things have befallen you; Who
will mourn for you? The devastation and destruction, famine and sword; How shall I comfort you? 20
Your sons have fainted, They lie helpless at the head of every street, Like an
antelope in a net, Full of the wrath of the LORD, The rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore, please hear this, you
afflicted, Who are drunk, but not with wine: 22
Thus says your Lord, the LORD, even your God Who contends for His people,
"Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, The chalice of
My anger; You will never
drink it again. 23 “I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, Who
have said to you, ’Lie down that we may walk over you.’ You have even made your
back like the ground And like the street for those who walk over it."
“1 Awake, awake, Clothe yourself in your strength, O
Zion; Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the
unclean Will no longer come into you. 2 Shake yourself from the dust,
rise up, O captive Jerusalem; Loose yourself from the chains around your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion. 3 For thus says the LORD, "You were sold for
nothing and you will be
redeemed without money." 4 For thus says the Lord GOD, "My
people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there; then the Assyrian
oppressed them without cause. 5 “Now therefore, what do I have here,"
declares the LORD, "seeing that My people have been taken away without
cause?" Again the LORD declares, "Those who rule over them howl, and
My name is continually blasphemed all day long. 6 “Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that day I
am the one who is speaking, ’Here I am.’"
Dr. Wiersbe explains “Hearken to me’ was spoken to
admonish the people, but ‘awake, awake’ is for the arousing of the Lord,
(51:9-16) and of Jerusalem (vv. 17-23; 52:1-6).”
We must remember that Isaiah is writing this to the
people of Judah before they went into captivity, but his words are for those
who are now in captivity. God has given
Isaiah the words to write about something that has not yet happened, but when
we read about this we would think that it was happening at that time. Isaiah is writing about the remnant in
Babylon who prayed as if the Lord was asleep and they needed to awaken the
Lord, for they desired that God would bare His arm in the same way when He
defeated Pharaoh and redeemed His people from the cruel Egyptian bondage. When the remnant returned to the Promised
Land from Babylon it was a second exodus as this is seen in Isaiah 43:16-17 and
also 49:9-12. God was fully in charge
and the enemy was completely defeated.
In verses 51:12-16 we see that the Lord replied to their
prayer with words of comfort as He reminded them again how frail man was, but
He also reminded them of His Great power, for God is all powerful as no one or
nothing has as much power as the Lord.
Knowing this truth and also knowing that the children of Israel were His
people they need not be afraid. God had
given His very Word to His people and so they will be assured that He will
release them from captivity and He will protect them for Israel still had an
important task to perform and the Lord would strengthen them to accomplish
it.
We have another wakeup call as the prophet speaks of the
ruined city of Jerusalem in verses 17-23.
He pictures Jerusalem as a mother in a drunken stupor with no children
to help her. Jerusalem’s children had
gone into captivity but as the prophet writes they would be returning to her
(Jerusalem). God says that He will take
away the torment that His people had suffered and give it to those who brought
them into captivity, that is the Babylonians.
When He says that they will never receive this again it seems to me that
this may be looking ahead to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ which will
last for 1000 years.
We have one more wakeup call and again this also speaks
of Jerusalem and is found in the first six verses of chapter fifty-two. We see that they are not only to wake up but
to dress up as seen in verse one. We
must remember that the city of Jerusalem is the Holy city which is mentioned
this way eight times in the Word of God.
(Neh. 11:1, 18; Isa. 48:2; 52:1; Dan. 9:24; Matt. 4:5; 27:53; Rev.
11:2.) Even though Jerusalem was
destroyed by the Babylonians she would rise again from the dust, and when we
look at the prophecies about the end times and Jerusalem we see that this will
again be a beautiful where the Lord Jesus Christ will reign from for 1000
years. Not only that but the place where
God’s people will be will be the New Jerusalem as described at the end of the
book of Revelations. In the book of
Ezekiel, the last eight chapters we see that when the Lord returns to planet
earth that He will change the size of Jerusalem, as He will make it larger than
it is today, and He will reign from there.
Dr. Wiersbe finishes this section with the following
words, “During the Captivity, God’s name was blasphemed because the enemy
taunted the Jews and asked them why their great God did not deliver them (Pss.
115,; 137). Paul quoted Isaiah 52:5 in
Romans 2:24. But when the remnant is
restored they will know God’s name and seek to honor it.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Thinking about
God who is all powerful I sometimes forget this, much like the Jews who were in
captivity forgot about it. Being all
powerful is one of many attributes that the Lord has, and one I need to
remember when things are not going well for me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the all powerful Lord to be with my
sister who will have surgery today.
Trust that the Lord will oversee this procedure and that she will come
out of this surgery feeling better, praising the Lord for His goodness.
Memory verse for this
week: 1 John 5:13
These things I have written
to you who believe in the
name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Nazareth” (Luke 4:16).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who appealed to Caesar when
asked if he would go to Jerusalem to be tried?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/13/2013 8:15 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment