Once we realize that nothing, absolutely nothing, escapes the notice of God, peace comes—right in the middle of our current chaos, our challenges of each day and our wonderings about how it will all turn out.  God is in control, even when it doesn’t feel like it or look like it.  God knows.  God has always known.  God is sovereign—He has supreme power and has the final say in all that He has created.  Be still (let go) and know God.  We are not alone.

So, our question for today is this: 

Do we really believe God? 

Do we really believe that what God says and does is really real?  Our thoughtful response will be reflected in our behaviors.  Our knowledge of God will be reflected in our demeanor.  Our spontaneous, without thinking, response will also show in our actions.

What if our first thought, our very first thought, as we rise from bed was God? 

What if we thanked God first then asked God what He wanted for each new day?

What if our first reaction to a challenging word or action from another was our love for them?

Let your first thought—your very first thought—be our love for God, then for each other, the kind of love that Jesus showed us while He was on earth. 

WARNING:  This is revolutionary thinking.  It might change the world!

Isaiah, spokesperson for God, Himself, tells listening people who God is and how God works in power and majesty to bring His People unto Himself.  Why?  Because of His great love for all nations, all people who will listen and love Him back.  In this remarkable prophecy, Isaiah declares that the three enemies—Egypt, Israel, and Assyria (modern Iraq)—will one day be united in worshiping the Lord and sharing His blessing!  Wow.  Just wow.

Isaiah 19, The Message

Anarchy and Chaos and Killing!

A Message concerning Egypt:

Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud,
    moving in on Egypt!
The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake,
    Egyptians paralyzed by panic.

^2-4 God says, “I’ll make Egyptian fight Egyptian,
    brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor,
City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom—
    anarchy and chaos and killing!
I’ll knock the wind out of the Egyptians.
    They won’t know coming from going.
They’ll go to their god-idols for answers;
    they’ll conjure ghosts and hold séances, desperate for answers.
But I’ll turn the Egyptians
    over to a tyrant most cruel.
I’ll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king.”
    Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^5-10 The River Nile will dry up,
    the riverbed baked dry in the sun.
The canals will become stagnant and stink,
    every stream touching the Nile dry up.
River vegetation will rot away
    the banks of the Nile-baked clay,
The riverbed hard and smooth,
    river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.
Fishermen will complain
    that the fishing’s been ruined.
Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers
    and workers in linen and cotton and wool
Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness—
    everyone who works for a living, jobless.

^11-15 The princes of Zoan are fools,
    the advisors of Pharaoh stupid.
How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh,
    “Trust me: I’m wise. I know what’s going on.
    Why, I’m descended from the old wisdom of Egypt”?
There’s not a wise man or woman left in the country.
    If there were, one of them would tell you
    what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt.
As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools
    and the princes of Memphis, idiots.
The honored pillars of your society
    have led Egypt into detours and dead ends.
God has scrambled their brains,
    Egypt’s become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk.
Egypt’s hopeless, past helping,
    a senile, doddering old fool.

* * *

^16-17 On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say “Judah” to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies’ plan against Egypt.

¹⁸ On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title “City of the Sun.”

^19-22 On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he’ll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day. They’ll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They’ll make vows and keep them. God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.

²³ On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they’ll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians!

^24-25 On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: “Blessed be Egypt, my people! . . . Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands! . . . Blessed be Israel, my heritage!”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Don’t mess with God of all who is in all and is our supreme sovereign!  Do what He says!  Life is lived in sweet assurance when we trust God!  We obey because of His love for us first!  We live for Him because He lives in us.  What kind of love is this?  It is a love that is beyond our wildest dreams.  God will do anything to preserve His love for us!

God knows what you are going through and He will be right beside you AS you walk, run or crawl through it.  God will teach us while we are in the middle of it all.  God leads us to grateful hearts because of all He has done in our lives, all He is doing right now and all we now know He will do! So, why worry when we have God, sovereign over all?  That is the question we must answer.

“In our day of instant communication and of rapid transportation, when in a matter of minutes nations can come to the brink of war, we forget that God is still sovereign and can do whatever He pleases in human affairs. God destroyed everything that the Egyptians trusted—their political unity, their economy, religion, wisdom—and made them an easy target for the Assyrians. When the international news is frightening and you wonder where God is, read Psalm 2 and Acts 4:23–32, and take hope.”  Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe Study Bible.

God wins in the end.  He always has and always will.  Really believe and be saved—saved from fear, worry, anxieties, wonderings.  May the peace of Christ rule in our hearts today!

Lord,

Thank you for Isaiah’s tenacity to tell of how you will act, how you love, along with Who you are!  Thank you, dear Jesus, for saving my soul and making me whole by your consistent teaching of Your Holy Spirit in me.  Thank you for the ability to tell others of your great, unending, unconditional, relentless love!  Show me your ways and I will walk in them by the power of your Spirit working in me and through me.

In Jesus Name, Amen

*What a wonderful day it will be when peace comes to the Middle East because the nations have bowed before the King of kings! We must continue praying, “Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).