Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Blessing of a New Creation PT-1 (Isaiah 65:1-7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/29/2013 7:53 AM
My Worship Time                                                     Focus: The Blessing of a New Creation PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Isaiah 65:1-7
            Message of the verses:  “  1 ¶  "I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me;I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ’Here am I, here am I,’ To a nation which did not call on My name. 2  "I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, 3  A people who continually provoke Me to My face, Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks; 4  Who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places; Who eat swine’s flesh, And the broth of unclean meat is in their pots. 5  "Who say, ’Keep to yourself, do not come near me, For I am holier than you!’ These are smoke in My nostrils, A fire that burns all the day. 6  "Behold, it is written before Me, I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will even repay into their bosom, 7  Both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together," says the LORD. "Because they have burned incense on the mountains And scorned Me on the hills, Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.’”
            “I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will even repay into their bosom (Isa. 65:6).  God now replies”  (Warren Wiersbe)  This is how Dr. Wiersbe begins this next to last main point in this final chapter of his book “Be Comforted” his commentary on the book of Isaiah.  We began the study of Isaiah on the second of July of this year and have been working on it most every day with the exceptions of looking at different chapters of Daniel and a couple of days I actually missed doing a Spiritual Diary.  It is my desire to finish Isaiah in the next three days so that we can begin the new year looking at the 11th chapter of the book of Daniel, and then proceed to the beginning of Jeremiah, as that will be the next book we study, along with finishing Daniel sometime in February.  I am not sure which book we will begin looking at on a chapter a month schedule beginning in March.  My thoughts are Zechariah which would take fourteen months to complete.
            In Isaiah 65:1 we read part of the reply that God gives and that is that He will go to the Gentiles.  Paul applies this verse to the Gentiles in Romans 10:19-20, “19  But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, "I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU." 20  And Isaiah is very bold and says, "I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.’”  This is also seen, that is God going to the Gentiles in several other passages like Luke 14:16-24 and 21:10, also Acts 28:23-31 as this divine principle is given.  We know that God did go to the Gentiles and that is what the Church Age is all about, as few Jewish people have been saved during this age.  God is making the Jewish people jealous by going to the Gentiles, and God did this because of the rebellion of the Jews.  Paul writes in Romans that the Gentiles were a wild olive branch that God grafted into the Olive tree of Israel, but then he goes on to say that if He only grafted them into this tree that if they did not follow Him faithfully He could remove them just as easily.  The Church Age will end at the Rapture of the Church and then God will again deal with the nation of Israel in the last seven years of life on planet earth as we know it.  After that the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth with His bride, the Church and begin to rule from Jerusalem for 1000 years.  Before He returns, and in the tribulation period Paul writes that a time will come when all Israel will be saved.
            In verses 2-7 the Lord will describe the sins of His people that kept Him from answering their prayers, something we looked at in an earlier SD.  The sins of Israel are well documented in different sections of the OT, and I am referring to the sins that caused them to be taken out of their land and taken into the land of Babylon.  Both Daniel and Nehemiah listed these sins, confessing them to the Lord in Nehemiah nine and Daniel nine.  We also see them listed in this section of Isaiah.  I for one would not like to have my sins listed in the Word of God, but God did this to show us things that we should not do.
            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Learn from the sins that Israel committed so I don’t do the same, and learn from the sins I commit so that I don’t do them again. 
My Steps of Faith for Today:  Sin is very serious so take it that way.
Answer in our last SD.  “Shepherds and wise men.”  Both of these people are seen during the early life of our Lord, but the wise men did not come until He was about two years old, and then after that they left for Egypt to get away from Herod.
Today’s Bible Question:  “Who said, ‘For the child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition?’”
Answer in our next SD.
12/29/2013 8:24 AM


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