SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/5/2013
8:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Restoration
for Israel- PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
54:1-3
Message of the
verses: A reminder that my Spiritual
Diaries are a collection of my studies in the different books of the
Bible. I have been looking at the book
of Isaiah since July 7, 2013, and although that may seem like a long time it
seems to me like this has been a whirlwind trip through this rather long
book. Many know that I follow the
outline and commentaries of Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe to help me in my study of God’s
Word. His commentary on the book of
Isaiah is entitled “Be Comforted,” and there are thirteen chapters in the
book. We begin today looking at the twelfth
chapter of his book in which he entitles “Promises And Punishments” and this
chapter covers chapters 54-59 of Isaiah.
My plans are to finish this chapter and then move to the tenth chapter
of the book of Daniel to look at that chapter for this month. After that I want to move back into the book
of Isaiah to finish up that study. I don’t
have a time line as far as how long all of this will take with the exception of
the book of Daniel which we have been looking at one chapter a month for the
last nine months, ten after this month.
Daniel should be finished in the month of February, and then I am not
totally sure as to what book that I will be looking at on a month to month
study. I have thought of the book of
Zechariah, but am not totally sure if that is the one that I will choose. The letter of Paul to the Colossians is another
book that I have been thinking about. I
will leave it up to the Lord to guide me as to which book to choose. After we finish Isaiah we will move right
into the book of Jeremiah.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following at the beginning of his
commentary for this twelfth chapter in his book “Be Comforted.” “The Servant obediently finished His work on
earth, and today He is at work in heaven, interceding for God’s people (Heb.
7:25; Rom. 8:34). But what are the
consequences of His sacrifice? What
difference does it make that He endured all that suffering? To Israel, it means restoration (Isa.
54:1-17); to the Gentile nations, it means an invitation (55:1-56:8); and to
rebellious sinners, it means an accusation (56:9-59:21), a warning from the
Lord that they need to repent.” Here we
have an outline that we will follow with the first section being discussed
today.
“1 "Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne
no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not
travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons
of the married woman," says the LORD. 2 “Enlarge the place of your tent;
Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords And
strengthen your pegs. 3 “For you will spread abroad to the right and to the
left. And your descendants will possess nations And will resettle the desolate
cities (Isaiah 54:1-3).”
What we will see throughout this chapter is an image of
God as a faithful husband to Israel, His wife.
The marriage was performed at Mt. Sinai as seen in the book of Exodus,
but the problem is that Israel committed idolatry with God by worshiping
idols. This image is also seen in other
books of the prophets and other places in the book of Isaiah too. Jeremiah and Ezekiel also speak of this in
their writings. We also see in these
books of the prophets that in the end Israel will be restored to being a
faithful wife to the Lord in the Kingdom age which will take place after the
seven year tribulation period where many of the children of Israel will suffer
many things before the glory of the Millennial Kingdom. We must remember as we look at the book of
Isaiah that it is actually like a mini Bible with the first 39 chapters closely
following the things that are OT related and then the last 27 chapters
following things that are taught in the NT, and the birth death and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ are the theme of what is taught in the NT along with
things that will happen after the Church age and all the way to the eternal
Kingdom of our Lord.
The question may be asked as to what kind of restoration
will it be for Israel. We will look at
Isaiah 54:1a “"Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child;
Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed.” There are more than thirty times in the book
of Isaiah that the words “songs” or “singing” are found and this is one of the
songs found in Isaiah’s writings. The immediate
occasion for this song is the captivity from Babylon is over, but the ultimate fulfillment
will be found when the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Redeemer comes to Zion and the nation will be born anew: “"A Redeemer will come to Zion, And to
those who turn from transgression in Jacob," declares the LORD (Isaiah
59:20).”
Now as we look at the rest of our verses we will see that
there will also be a restoration of fruitfulness for the nation of Israel, for
when they came out of their captivity they were again small in number, but God
will cause their numbers to grow. An
example of how God has done this in the past is seen in the book of Numbers which
tells of the nation’s wondering in the wilderness for forty years because of
their sin of unbelief. All people twenty
years and older died off during their forty year march in the wilderness, but
after the forty years of wondering their numbers were nearly the same. This
shows the faithfulness of God, and it will happen again. There will come a time in the tribulation
period that many of the Jews will be killed off, but in the end Paul writes
that all Israel will be saved, and those who are saved will go into the 1000
year kingdom age and again the Lord will cause fruitfulness in their growth as
a nation.
I want to quote an important paragraph from the pen of
Dr. Wiersbe as a conclusion to this section:
“Paul quoted Isaiah 54:1 in Galatians 4:27 and applied the spiritual
principle to the church: Even as God
blessed Sarah and the Jewish remnant with children, so He would bless the
church, though she is only a small company in the world. Paul was not equating Israel with the church or
suggesting that the Old Testament Jewish prophecies for the church, then we
must claim all of them, the judgments as well as the blessings; and most people
do not want to do that!”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: My prayer is that
the Lord will allow me to also help in the growth of the Church as He leads me
to divine appointments where I will be able to tell others of the goodness of
the Lord and they will accept the forgiveness that is only found in Christ
Jesus.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will give me more divine appointments.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Peter” (Acts 2:38).
Today’s Bible
Question: “In what city did Onesiphorus
seek out and find Paul?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/5/2013 10:07 AM
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