G M Everyone, Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matt. 6:27, NIV). Isaiah had been a prophet during the reign of five kings. He had come to know a lot about the Truth of Gods Word, building a resume rich in prophesy and Power. God had prepared him well, he was an experienced prophet, prepared for the task of scribing Gods Word, for generations to come. It was in the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah truly understood his commission, although he was already a prophet, perhaps he felt his work might have been watered down. He was not the same after his vision: I said, Doom! Its Doomsday! Im as good as dead! Every word Ive ever spoken is tainted - blasphemous even! And the people I live with talk the same way, using words that corrupt and desecrate. And here Ive looked God in the face! The King! God-of-the-Angel-Armies! Then one of the angel-seraphs flew to me. He held a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with the coal and said, Look. This coal has touched your lips. Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out. And then I heard the voice of the Master: Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? I spoke up, Ill go. Send me! (Isa. 6:5-8, MSG). Understand, If God did it before he will do it again. Why worry? In todays study, Isaiah prophesized: Destruction is certain for the unjust judges, for those who issue unfair laws. They deprive the poor, the widows, and the orphans of justice. Yes, they rob widows and fatherless children! What will you do when I send desolation upon you from a distant land? To whom will you turn for help? Where will your treasures be safe? I will not help you. You will stumble along as prisoners or lie among the dead. But even then the LORDs anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike. Destruction is certain for Assyria, the whip of my anger. Its military power is a club in my hand. Assyria will enslave my people, who are a godless nation. It will plunder them, trampling them like dirt beneath its feet. But the king of Assyria will not know that it is I who sent him. He will merely think he is attacking my people as part of his plan to conquer the world. He will say, Each of my princes will soon be a king, ruling a conquered land. We will destroy Calno just as we did Carchemish. Hamath will fall before us as Arpad did. And we will destroy Samaria just as we did Damascus. Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom whose gods were far greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria. So when we have defeated Samaria and her gods, we will destroy Jerusalem with hers. After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him -- for he is proud and arrogant. He boasts, By my own power and wisdom I have won these wars. By my own strength I have captured many lands, destroyed their kings, and carried off their treasures. By my greatness I have robbed their nests of riches and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs. No one can even flap a wing against me or utter a peep of protest. Can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it? Is the saw greater than the person who saws? Can a whip strike unless a hand is moving it? Can a cane walk by itself? Listen now, king of Assyria! Because of all your evil boasting, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a plague among your proud troops, and a flaming fire will ignite your glory. The LORD, the Light of Israel and the Holy One, will be a flaming fire that will destroy them. In a single night he will burn those thorns and briers, the Assyrians. Assyrias vast army is like a glorious forest, yet it will be destroyed. The LORD will completely destroy Assyrias warriors, and they will waste away like sick people in a plague. Only a few from all that mighty army will survive -- so few that a child could count them! Then at last those left in Israel and Judah will trust the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. They will no longer depend on the Assyrians, who would destroy them. A remnant of them will return to the Mighty God. But though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a few of them will return at that time. The LORD has rightly decided to destroy his people. Yes, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has already decided to consume them. So this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: My people in Jerusalem, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they oppress you just as the Egyptians did long ago. It will not last very long. In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them. (Isaiah 10:1-25, NLT). Wow! So how did Isaiah know? It had happen before with the Egyptians, crossing the Red Sea. Isaiahs prophesies are a warning for us today, because it will happen again, but next time it will be FINAL. In todays study of the NT, we can understand clearer Isaiah commission to tell the Truth, and the whole truth, through the words of Paul to the Ephesians: None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by Gods Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives what Ive been calling outsiders (Gentiles) and insiders (Israel) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in Gods way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, were free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. (Ephesians 3:5-12, MSG). Isa. 9-10; Eph. 3. Heavenly Father, How Perfect is your way. Thank you for the Word that reveals that strength comes through trials (test). O How I look back, and see now where you have brought me from. Thank You Lord! Forgive us Lord for sinning. Let your will be done. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 15:32:49 +0000
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