SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/11/2013
8:05 AM
My worship Time Focus: Accusation Against the Sinners PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
57:3-13
Message of the
verses: We will be looking at the
second sub-point of this main point in today’s SD. This is the second of five incitements that Isaiah
is bringing against different people from the nation of Judah. (We must remember that this nation
represented all twelve tribes from the nation of Israel.)
Idolaters (Isaiah 57:3-13): “3 "But come here, you sons of a
sorceress, Offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute. 4 “Against whom do you
jest? Against whom do you open wide your mouth And stick out your tongue? Are
you not children of rebellion, Offspring of deceit, 5 Who inflame yourselves
among the oaks, Under every luxuriant tree, Who slaughter the children in the
ravines, Under the clefts of the crags? 6 “Among the smooth stones of the
ravine Is your portion, they are your lot; Even to them you have poured out a
drink offering, You have made a grain offering. Shall I relent concerning these
things? 7 “Upon a high and lofty mountain You have made your bed. You also went
up there to offer sacrifice. 8 “Behind the door and the doorpost You have set
up your sign; Indeed, far removed from Me, you have uncovered yourself, And
have gone up and made your bed wide. And you have made an agreement for
yourself with them, You have loved their bed, You have looked on their manhood.
9 “You have journeyed to the king with oil And increased your perfumes; You
have sent your envoys a great distance And made them go down to Sheol. 10 “You
were tired out by the length of your road, Yet you did not say, ’It is
hopeless.’ You found renewed strength, Therefore you did not faint. 11 “Of whom
were you worried and fearful When you lied, and did not remember Me Nor give Me
a thought? Was I not silent even for a long time So you do not fear Me? 12 “I
will declare your righteousness and your deeds, But they will not profit you. 13 "When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver
you. But the wind will carry all of them up, And a breath will take them
away. But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land And will possess My
holy mountain.’”
In the last days of the kingdom of Judah, before the
Babylonians completely destroyed everything there was much idolatry going on in
the kingdom. When you read the prophet
Ezekiel you see that the Spirit of the Lord took him to the temple area and
showed him that even in the temple that the leaders were practicing idolatry. “13 And He said to me, "Yet you will see
still greater abominations which they are committing." 14 Then He brought
me to the entrance of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north;
and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 15 He said to me,
"Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations
than these." 16 Then
He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house. And behold, at
the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were
about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their
faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the
sun. 17 He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a
thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have
committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me
repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose. 18 “Therefore,
I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and
though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them’
(Ezekiel 8:13-18).” We must remember
that Ezekiel was probably taken in the second dispersion from Judah (597 BC),
and so what we read here was actually going on while he was in Babylon.
This section we are studying today from the book of
Isaiah is a section that can break a person’s heart to see what these people
were doing. They were given many things
from the Lord and now they are committing spiritual adultery against Him. One of the attributes of God is that He is a
jealous God, “2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3
"You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an
idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in
the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on
the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing
lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments
(Exodus 20:2-6 the first commandment).”
God views idol worship as spiritual adultery. (Isaiah 57:3) Israel was actually using shrine prostitutes
as a form of idolatrous worship, and we also see that they were actually
sacrificing their children as burnt offerings to their pagan gods. (Verse 5)
In verse nine we see that the leaders were consorting
with pagan leaders and they were putting their trust in them instead of the
Lord. Verse 10 shows that they found
strength with these political alliances.
In verse 13 the Lord tells them to trust their idols to get them out of
trouble, and also He will judge them for these sins.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Anything that we trust other than the
Lord becomes our god and therefore is an idol.
It may be our training, experience, job, money, friends, or
position. One of the best ways to find
out whether we have idols in our lives is to ask ourselves, ‘Where do I
instinctively turn when I face a decision or need to solve a problem?’ Do we reach for the phone to call a
friend? Do we assure ourselves that we
can handle the situation ourselves? Or do we turn to God to see His will and
receive His help?
When the storms starts blowing, the idols will blow away
like chaff (v 13). They are ‘vanity,’
which means ‘nothingness.’ The storm
does not make a person; it shows what the person is made of and where his or
her faith lies. If we make the Lord our
refuge, we have nothing to fear.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am reading a
book entitled “War of Words” and in the book the author brings up idolatry. The question comes up as to which idol do
believers have the most trouble with, and the answer is selfishness or
pride. It is interesting that the first
sin ever committed was by Lucifer who then became Satan was pride or
selfishness, and he used this same tactic in tempting Eve in the garden which
was the first human sin committed. Pride
is a deadly sin according to the Word of God.
Pride is saying that we do not need God and because God is jealous He
does not like that at all.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord and not myself.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Judas Iscariot” (John 13:26).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who said ‘Am I not a
Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/11/2013 9:32 AM
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