SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/6/2013
9:16 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Restoration
for Israel PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah 54:4-17
Message of the
verses: We will pick up where we
left of yesterday and see how far we get into chapter 54 of Isaiah.
Israel’s
restoration to her land will also mean confidence (Isaiah 54:4-10): “4
"Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; And do not feel
humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; But you will forget the shame of
your youth, And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. 5 “For
your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer
is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth. 6 "For the LORD has called you,
Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, Even like a wife of one’s youth
when she is rejected," Says your God. 7 “For a brief moment I forsook you,
But with great compassion I will gather you. 8 “In an outburst of anger I hid
My face from you for a moment, But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,"
Says the LORD your Redeemer. 9 “For this is like the days of Noah to Me, When I
swore that the waters of Noah Would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn
that I will not be angry with you Nor will I rebuke you. 10 “For the mountains
may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you,
And My covenant of peace will not be shaken," Says the LORD who has
compassion on you.”
We have seen the words “fear not” in earlier chapters of
Isaiah and in this one he explains why the nation does not need to fear. I suppose my personal “fear not” in Isaiah’s
book is 41:10 which says “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed;
for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness (KJV).” The apostle John also has a good verse about
not fearing, “1Jo 4:18 There is no fear
in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not
perfected in love.”
Why should the nation of Israel not be in fear? First of all we see in verse four that their
sins have been forgiven. They should not
fear the future when their sins have been taken care of. This is a true statement, for if our sins
have been forgiven we should not fear what is going on around us for even if we
die we will be ushered into the presence of the Lord. We know that in the case of Israel they had
sinned greatly and God caused the Babylonians to overtake them and then take
them to Babylon, but now they were returning to their land and God’s wrath had
been satisfied so there was no need to fear anymore.
In verses five and six we see a second reason that Israel
should not fear. What we see in those
verses is the steadfast love that God has for His people. God is not only their maker but He also is
their Redeemer. God is also their
husband and He will never break the covenant that He made with them. We spoke a little about this in our SD from
yesterday. Israel as the wife of God had
forsaken Him, and had worshiped idols instead of worshiping God. The story that is told in the book of Hosea
is a picture of what Israel did to God.
In the case of Hosea God told him to marry a prostitute who then began
to cheat on him and in the end Hosea had to buy his cheating wife back from the
slave market. We know what Israel did to
the Lord, as Daniel in his prayer in chapter nine confesses the sins of himself
and also of Israel to the Lord, and there we see some of her sins.
The third reason for confidence is sound in Isaiah
54:7-10 where we see that God had showed His anger on the nation of Israel, but
it was now over, and God even gives an example by telling them that after the
flood in Noah’s day that God promised not to flood the entire earth again and
it has not happened.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Whenever we rebel against God and
refuse to listen to His warning, He must chasten us, and He does it in love
(Hebrews 12:1-11). Our Father cannot
permit His children to sin and get away with it. But the purpose of His chastening is to bring
us to repentance and enable us to produce ‘the peaceable fruit of righteousness’
(vs. 11). When God ‘spanks’ His erring
children, He may hurt them, but He never harms them. It is always for our good and His glory.”
The city of
Jerusalem will be built, (Isaiah 54:11-17):
“11 "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I
will set your stones in antimony, And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.
12 “Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, And your gates of
crystal, And your entire wall of precious stones. 13 “All your sons will be
taught of the LORD; And the well-being of your sons will be great. 14 “In
righteousness you will be established; You will be far from oppression, for you
will not fear; And from terror, for it will not come near you. 15 “If anyone
fiercely assails you it will not be from Me. Whoever assails you will fall
because of you. 16 “Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire
of coals And brings out a weapon for its work; And I have created the destroyer
to ruin. 17 “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every
tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of
the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me," declares the
LORD.”
There is an immediate and an ultimate fulfillment in this
passage. The ultimate fulfillment is
found in Revelations 21:18-21 where the Bible says “18 The material of the wall
was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundation
stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The
first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony;
the fourth, emerald; 20 the fifth,
sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the
ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth,
amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were
twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the
city was pure gold, like transparent glass.”
We know that the remnant rebuilt the city of Jerusalem and the temple of
the Lord when they returned from captivity as seen in the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah, also from the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. This restored version of Jerusalem was
nothing like the one that Isaiah describes, but like the one John described in
Revelations.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes “Our Lord quoted the first part of
verse 13 in John 6:45. When you read the
context, beginning at verse 34, you see that Jesus was speaking about people
coming to the Father. ‘All that the
Father gives Me will come to Me’ (v. 37, NKJV) does not mean that the Father
forces sinners to be saved. People come
to Him because they are ‘taught of God,’ and the Spirit draws them through the
Word. Personal evangelism won’t be needed
in the New Jerusalem, for all the citizens will know the Lord.”
I get blogs from Joel Rosenberg and one of the recent
ones he writes about an article in a newspaper from the US, I believe it was
the New York Times, that Israel is considering the rebuilding of the temple in
Jerusalem. We know from Scripture that
this will happen, for it must be in place for the events of the end times to
take place as Antichrist will go into the Holy of Holies and defile it.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I suppose that
even though the Lord is not happy with people who fear things, it was probably
fear that led me to the ER a few weeks back and I had to stay for one night,
but God used that fear for His honor as I did have a “Divine Appointment” while
there in the hospital and had the privilege of sharing the gospel with a lady
while there. She wanted to hear it and
that tells me it was a divine appointment.
Fear is something I need to give to the Lord, for the only
thing a believe is to fear is the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Isaiah 41:10 and 1 John 4:18.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Rome” (2 Timothy 1:16-17).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who was the mother of Joseph
in the book of Genesis?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/6/2013 10:30 AM
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