Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

The hours spent in the waiting rooms of hospitals waiting on news of the condition of a loved one will never by replaced or restored to our lives.  Sometimes the wait is long and sometimes it is brief.  Either way, we do not like to wait.  But I have learned that something happens in the wait.  As we wait, we feel God draw nearer still to us who believe and call on His Name.  In the wait we learn more about God that we did before. What we thought we could never endure—we do endure by His power in us.  We feel His closeness in our hour of need as we pray for ourselves or our loved ones who are sick and at the mercy of caregivers of all kinds.  We pray for wisdom for those who help us.  We pray for God to draw near and rescue us.  Our prays are very specific and to the point—in the waiting room.

God told Isaiah to tell Hezekiah is days on earth are numbered—specifically numbered!  “You’re not going to get well.”  Wow, the news is specific.  The message is short and to the point!  So, Hezekiah does what worked before when faced with the Assyrian threat to overcome his city; he prays specifically and passionately to God to spare him.  God does.  God gave him 15 more years.  God’s glory and power is seen through this act of mercy for Hezekiah.

I get it.  Randy was close to death many years ago during his ministry and seminary work.  We thought this might be the end.  But while Randy was being tested and prodded; I prayed.  I prayed alone in the corner as passionately as Hezekiah.  I prayed, “Lord, may your glory be seen through Randy’s healing and recovery from this fungus that is trying to take his life away here on earth.”  God answered that specific prayer and gave life back to him with months of healing and restoration so he could get back to what God called him to be and do in the Name of Jesus and for the Glory of God.  Yes, Lord, you did it for Hezekiah and you did it for us. 

We have been given many years more than we expected.  I do not know how many more days we have left on this earth, but I know God and that’s what matters most.  I know who I belong to and where I am going.  In the waiting rooms, he taught me to live each day as if it might be my last.  In the waiting rooms, I learned to praise Him in the details of our lives because He was involved in all of them!  I learned that God does not step away from our troubles but is already at work to draw near to us and help us through them.  God is always in the waiting room with us while problem-solving issues for the good of His children.  God is everywhere and God is here.  God is in control.  There is nothing that escapes God’s notice or attention.  Our crying out to God releases His power to work in and through us.  Yes, friends, the waiting room is a place of glory when God steps in and takes over the situation. 

Isaiah 38, The Message

Time Spent in Death’s Waiting Room

At that time, Hezekiah got sick. He was about to die. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and said, “God says, ‘Prepare your affairs and your family. This is it: You’re going to die. You’re not going to get well.’”

^2-3 Hezekiah turned away from Isaiah and, facing the wall, prayed to God: “God, please, I beg you: Remember how I’ve lived my life. I’ve lived faithfully in your presence, lived out of a heart that was totally yours. You’ve seen how I’ve lived, the good that I have done.” And Hezekiah wept as he prayed—painful tears.

^4-6 Then God told Isaiah, “Go and speak with Hezekiah. Give him this Message from me, God, the God of your ancestor David: ‘I’ve heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll add fifteen years to your life. And I’ll save both you and this city from the king of Assyria. I have my hand on this city.

^7-8 “‘And this is your confirming sign, confirming that I, God, will do exactly what I have promised. Watch for this: As the sun goes down and the shadow lengthens on the sundial of Ahaz, I’m going to reverse the shadow ten notches on the dial.’” And that’s what happened: The declining sun’s shadow reversed ten notches on the dial.

* * *

^9-15 This is what Hezekiah king of Judah wrote after he’d been sick and then recovered from his sickness:

In the very prime of life
    I have to leave.
Whatever time I have left
    is spent in death’s waiting room.
No more glimpses of God
    in the land of the living,
No more meetings with my neighbors,
    no more rubbing shoulders with friends.
This body I inhabit is taken down
    and packed away like a camper’s tent.
Like a weaver, I’ve rolled up the carpet of my life
    as God cuts me free of the loom
And at day’s end sweeps up the scraps and pieces.
    I cry for help until morning.
Like a lion, God pummels and pounds me,
    relentlessly finishing me off.
I squawk like a doomed hen,
    moan like a dove.
My eyes ache from looking up for help:
    “Master, I’m in trouble! Get me out of this!”
But what’s the use? God himself gave me the word.
    He’s done it to me.
I can’t sleep—
    I’m that upset, that troubled.

^16-19 O Master, these are the conditions in which people live,
    and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive—
    fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life!
It seems it was good for me
    to go through all those troubles.
Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline.
    You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing.
But my sins you let go of,
    threw them over your shoulder—good riddance!
The dead don’t thank you,
    and choirs don’t sing praises from the morgue.
Those buried six feet under
    don’t witness to your faithful ways.
It’s the living—live men, live women—who thank you,
    just as I’m doing right now.
Parents give their children
    full reports on your faithful ways.

* * *

²⁰ God saves and will save me.
    As fiddles and mandolins strike up the tunes,
We’ll sing, oh we’ll sing, sing,
    for the rest of our lives in the Sanctuary of God.

^21-22 Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and put it on the boil so he may recover.”

Hezekiah had said, “What is my cue that it’s all right to enter again the Sanctuary of God?”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God is in control.  Our work is to recognize God at work and give Him praise!

God controls what he has created, like putting the sun on hold, but gives humans free will to choose to love Him back.  Love that is forced, prodded, or demanded is not the love of God.  God is love.  To know God is to know love.  Love God.  Love each other like He loves us—unconditionally and forever.

God forgives and saves us from all our sins through Jesus Christ, His Son and his work in taking our place of punishment.  Forever gone—To be remembered no more!

There is no one like our God!  Absolutely no one!

Lord,

Thank you for the memories of recalling your glory made known in extending Randy’s life.  I praise you right now with tears of joy in my heart.  I praise you for all the lessons learned in the waiting rooms of this life, not only Randy, but for other loved ones as well.  Thank you for your strength and power as we wait for your return to take us home.  No more waiting there—only your glory!

In Jesus Name, Amen

I must confess.  In spending the last month reading and studying this book of the prophet Isaiah, my eyes have been opened wider to the “clear and present danger” that is threating the world we live in from countries, states, cities, and towns to individual families’ ways of life.  What we think now and learned previously from the Word of God and His Holy Spirit living in us as “right and good” in the eyes of God is being threatened by worldview thinking that is the direct opposite of God’s thinking.  In our own nation, leaders who betray their wives openly are reelected, just one of many examples!

Our real and present enemy of God, Satan the fallen angel, has and is spreading his destructive thinking among all he can fool, all who have stopped attending church for strength, stopped reading the Word of God to learn of God, and have turned away from God with apathy from laziness.  We are easy prey.  The enemy’s thinking begins and ends with self—that life is all about me, all about what I need, want, expect and demand from others because I am the most important one to think about so I deserve all I can get from this world. 

This opposite of God thinking is a ramped-up cancer that is spreading like an uncontrolled wildfire of thought and behavior that will eventually end in death.  The enemy will cheer and think he has won—for now.  This cancer is getting closer and closer to all of us.  Not only is the cancer of sin affecting the world, it is now seeping into and spreading among our immediate family members who once knew and believed in God but now think they can run their lives better without Him.  What do we do?

Dear friends, you will see that the closer to home the virus gets the more concerned we become.  Worldview thinking has now escalated to the point that we who still believe that there is only one God, that Jesus lived, died and rose again to pay the punishment  we deserve for our sins, repent and now live for God as closely as possible are known and mocked as the “foolish” who are berated as unintelligent people. 

Fewer and fewer churches are sounding the warning of this cancer and are merely telling attenders how to be “nice” without telling us how to hear God, repent of our sins and follow in His ways—which include being kind but with power to avoid the cancerous living that is not of God!  There is a difference.  We seem to be becoming the “remnant” that is tested and tried by those who tell us we must not only love the sinner, which we do, but love and accept their turning against God into all forms of perverted sins of destructive behaviors.

God help us.  I have experienced how sin tears families apart.  My heart is broken.

Isaiah has the answer from God to Hezekiah…

Isaiah 37, The Message

The Only God There Is

^1-2 When King Hezekiah heard the report, he also tore his clothes and dressed in rough, penitential burlap gunnysacks, and went into the sanctuary of God. He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all of them also dressed in penitential burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

^3-4 They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘This is a black day. We’re in crisis. We’re like pregnant women without even the strength to have a baby! Do you think your God heard what the Rabshekah said, sent by his master the king of Assyria to mock the living God? And do you think your God will do anything about it? Pray for us, Isaiah. Pray for those of us left here holding the fort!’”

^5-7 Then King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah. Isaiah said, “Tell your master this, ‘God’s Message: Don’t be upset by what you’ve heard, all those words the servants of the Assyrian king have used to mock me. I personally will take care of him. I’ll arrange it so that he’ll get a rumor of bad news back home and rush home to take care of it. And he’ll die there. Killed—a violent death.’”

* * *

⁸ The Rabshekah left and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. (He had gotten word that the king had left Lachish.)

^9-13 Just then the Assyrian king received an intelligence report on King Tirhakah of Ethiopia: “He is on his way to make war on you.”

On hearing that, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with instructions to deliver this message: “Don’t let your God, on whom you so naively lean, deceive you, promising that Jerusalem won’t fall to the king of Assyria. Use your head! Look around at what the kings of Assyria have done all over the world—one country after another devastated! And do you think you’re going to get off? Have any of the gods of any of these countries ever stepped in and saved them, even one of these nations my predecessors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who lived in Telassar? Look around. Do you see anything left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, the king of Ivvah?”

¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of the messengers and read it. Then he went into the sanctuary of God and spread the letter out before God.

^15-20 Then Hezekiah prayed to God: “God-of-the-Angel-Armies, enthroned over the cherubim-angels, you are God, the only God there is, God of all kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth. Listen, O God, and hear. Look, O God, and see. Mark all these words of Sennacherib that he sent to mock the living God. It’s quite true, O God, that the kings of Assyria have devastated all the nations and their lands. They’ve thrown their gods into the trash and burned them—no great achievement since they were no-gods anyway, gods made in workshops, carved from wood and chiseled from rock. An end to the no-gods! But now step in, O God, our God. Save us from him. Let all the kingdoms of earth know that you and you alone are God.”

* * *

^21-25 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this word to Hezekiah: “God’s Message, the God of Israel: Because you brought King Sennacherib of Assyria to me in prayer, here is my answer, God’s answer:

“‘She has no use for you, Sennacherib, nothing but contempt,
    this virgin daughter Zion.
She spits at you and turns on her heel,
    this daughter Jerusalem.

“‘Who do you think you’ve been mocking and reviling
    all these years?
Who do you think you’ve been jeering
    and treating with such utter contempt
All these years?
    The Holy of Israel!
You’ve used your servants to mock the Master.
    You’ve bragged, “With my fleet of chariots
I’ve gone to the highest mountain ranges,
    penetrated the far reaches of Lebanon,
Chopped down its giant cedars,
    its finest cypresses.
I conquered its highest peak,
    explored its deepest forest.
I dug wells
    and drank my fill.
I emptied the famous rivers of Egypt
    with one kick of my foot.”

^26-27 “‘Haven’t you gotten the news
    that I’ve been behind this all along?
This is a longstanding plan of mine
    and I’m just now making it happen,
using you to devastate strong cities,
    turning them into piles of rubble
and leaving their citizens helpless,
    bewildered, and confused,
drooping like unwatered plants,
    stunted like withered seedlings.

^28-29 “‘I know all about your pretentious poses,
    your self-important comings and goings,
    and, yes, the tantrums you throw against me.
Because of all your wild raging against me,
    your unbridled arrogance that I keep hearing of,
I’ll put my hook in your nose
    and my bit in your mouth.
I’ll show you who’s boss. I’ll turn you around
    and take you back to where you came from.

^30-32 “‘And this, Hezekiah, will be your confirming sign: This year’s crops will be slim pickings, and next year it won’t be much better. But in three years, farming will be back to normal, with regular sowing and reaping, planting and harvesting. What’s left of the people of Judah will put down roots and make a new start. The people left in Jerusalem will get moving again. Mount Zion survivors will take hold again. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.’

* * *

^33-35 “Finally, this is God’s verdict on the king of Assyria:

“‘Don’t worry, he won’t enter this city,
    won’t let loose a single arrow,
Won’t brandish so much as one shield,
    let alone build a siege ramp against it.
He’ll go back the same way he came.
    He won’t set a foot in this city.
        God’s Decree.

I’ve got my hand on this city
    to save it,
Save it for my very own sake,
    but also for the sake of my David dynasty.’”

^36-38 Then the Angel of God arrived and struck the Assyrian camp—185,000 Assyrians died. By the time the sun came up, they were all dead—an army of corpses! Sennacherib, king of Assyria, got out of there fast, back home to Nineveh. As he was worshiping in the sanctuary of his god Nisroch, he was murdered by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer. They escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esar-haddon became the next king.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God is and always will be in control.  Trust God.  Trust in His Plan.

PRAY.  Come to God in humbled prayer asking God what HE wants and what we should be then do to glorify Him.  God loves to help those who call on Him and ask for wisdom and help.  He will give us all we need.  Hezekiah’s prayer is saturated with biblical theology and is similar to the prayer of the church in Acts 4:24–31. He affirmed his faith in the one true and living God, and he worshiped Him. Jehovah is the “LORD of hosts” (Ps. 46:7, 11). He is the Lord who “made the heavens” (Ps. 96:5) and knows what is going on in His creation. His eyes can see our plight, and His ears can hear our plea (see Ps. 115). King Hezekiah did not want deliverance merely for his people’s sake but that God alone might be glorified.

GOD RESPONDS TO PRAYER.  God’s response to this prayer was to send King Hezekiah another threefold message of assurance: (1) Jerusalem would not be taken, (2) the Assyrians would depart, and (3) the Jews would not starve.

Read the Book—God wins.  We win who stay with God.  Is it that simple?  Mm, yes.

After Sennacherib left Judah a defeated man, he returned to his capital city of Nineveh. Twenty years later, as a result of a power struggle among his sons, Sennacherib was assassinated by two of his sons in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, and it happened in the temple of his god! The Assyrian chief of staff had ridiculed the gods of the nations, but Sennacherib’s own god could not protect him. 

Lord,

You encourage us by how you have worked in the past so we may see you at work today!  To you be the glory!  May we never forget that we pray. You work. You are always at work on our behalf because of your great love for us.  Help us to hear your voice above all other voices and follow you, on your path, in your ways.  You are the One and Only God.  I believe.  I will trust in what you say. Thank you for helping me navigate this world of lies so I can see and trust in You alone.

In Jesus Name, Amen

When it comes to war, the words, “imminent threat with clear and present danger” are words not to be taken lightly.  Our country created a law that halts other laws when danger to the citizens of the United States is made evident.  Clear and present danger was a doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court of the United States to determine under what circumstances limits can be placed on First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, or assembly. The test was replaced in 1969 with Brandenburg v. Ohio‘s “imminent lawless action” test.  Imminent danger means something is about to happen that will take all freedoms from everyone by an act of an outsider or insider who provokes war.

Isaiah warns God’s People that they are in imminent danger of losing all freedoms in all ways.  This is the first time Isaiah clearly predicts Judah’s captivity in Babylon. With God’s leading, Isaiah teaches us some valuable lessons about faith, prayer, and the dangers of pride. Though the setting today may be different, the problems and temptations are still the same; for Hezekiah’s history is our history, and Hezekiah’s God is our God.

Isaiah 36, The Message

It’s Their Fate That’s at Stake

^1-3 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria made war on all the fortress cities of Judah and took them. Then the king of Assyria sent his general, the “Rabshekah,” accompanied by a huge army, from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. The general stopped at the aqueduct where it empties into the upper pool on the road to the public laundry. Three men went out to meet him: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, in charge of the palace; Shebna the secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the official historian.

^4-7 The Rabshekah said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that the Great King, the king of Assyria, says this: ‘What kind of backing do you think you have against me? You’re bluffing and I’m calling your bluff. Your words are no match for my weapons. What kind of backup do you have now that you’ve rebelled against me? Egypt? Don’t make me laugh. Egypt is a rubber crutch. Lean on Egypt and you’ll end up flat on your face. That’s all Pharaoh king of Egypt is to anyone who leans on him. And if you try to tell me, “We’re leaning on our God,” isn’t it a bit late? Hasn’t Hezekiah just gotten rid of all the places of worship, telling you, “You’ve got to worship at this altar”?

^8-9 “‘Be reasonable. Face the facts: My master the king of Assyria will give you two thousand horses if you can put riders on them. You can’t do it, can you? So how do you think, depending on flimsy Egypt’s chariots and riders, you can stand up against even the lowest-ranking captain in my master’s army?

¹⁰ “‘And besides, do you think I came all this way to destroy this land without first getting God’s blessing? It was your God who told me, Make war on this land. Destroy it.’”

¹¹ Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah answered the Rabshekah, “Please talk to us in Aramaic. We understand Aramaic. Don’t talk to us in Hebrew within earshot of all the people gathered around.”

¹² But the Rabshekah replied, “Do you think my master has sent me to give this message to your master and you but not also to the people clustered here? It’s their fate that’s at stake. They’re the ones who are going to end up eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine.”

^13-15 Then the Rabshekah stood up and called out loudly in Hebrew, the common language, “Listen to the message of the Great King, the king of Assyria! Don’t listen to Hezekiah’s lies. He can’t save you. And don’t pay any attention to Hezekiah’s pious sermons telling you to lean on God, telling you ‘God will save us, depend on it. God won’t let this city fall to the king of Assyria.’

^16-20 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah. Listen to the king of Assyria’s offer: ‘Make peace with me. Come and join me. Everyone will end up with a good life, with plenty of land and water, and eventually something far better. I’ll turn you loose in wide open spaces, with more than enough fertile and productive land for everyone.’ Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you with his lies, ‘God will save us.’ Has that ever happened? Has any god in history ever gotten the best of the king of Assyria? Look around you. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? The gods of Sepharvaim? Did the gods do anything for Samaria? Name one god that has ever saved its countries from me. So what makes you think that God could save Jerusalem from me?’”

²¹ The three men were silent. They said nothing, for the king had already commanded, “Don’t answer him.”

²² Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, tearing their clothes in defeat and despair, went back and reported what the Rabshekah had said to Hezekiah.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Hezekiah was arrogant.  He felt he didn’t need God or his leading.  God’s great purpose in the life of faith is to build godly character. Hezekiah and his people needed to learn that faith is living without scheming.  Life is God.  Living for God leads to doing life right in the eyes of God.

Who we listen to is so important to discern right from wrong, life from death.  The speech by the Assyrian chief of staff is one of the most insolent and blasphemous found anywhere in Scripture, for he reproached the God of Israel. He emphasized the greatness of the king of Assyria because he knew the common people were listening and he wanted to frighten them. His speech is a masterful piece of psychological warfare in which he discredited everything that the Jews held dear.  What do we hold most dear?

The Assyrian chief of staff’s coup de grace was that everything Assyria had done was according to the will of the Lord. How could Judah fight against its own God? In one sense, this statement was true, for God is in charge of the nations of the world. But no nation can do what it pleases and use God for the excuse, as Sennacherib and his army would soon find out.

Insolence is best answered with silence. Jerusalem’s deliverance did not depend on negotiating with the enemy but on trusting the Lord.  How deep and wide is our trust in God even when most nations around us do not?

Before the invasion, when Hezekiah had been deathly ill, Isaiah had assured him of deliverance. God’s promises are sure, but God’s people must claim them by faith before God can work. So, the king sent word to Isaiah, asking him to pray, and the king himself called out to the Lord for help. In the building up of our faith, the Word of God and faith go together (See Romans 10:17).

Hezekiah and his officers humbled themselves before the Lord and sought his face. As the king went into the temple, perhaps he recalled the promise God had given to Solomon after he had dedicated the temple: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Personally speaking, our response is to pray…

Lord, we, as believers in Jesus Christ, Son of God, call on You in the Name of Jesus.  We humbly come before you, seeking your face, your wisdom, your will and your strategic plan to accomplish what you want.  We repent and turn from sin that holds us in bondage.  Set us free to worship you, love you and love each other the way you rlove us.  We have faith and trust in you as we rely on your promise to hear us from heaven, forgive us our sins and heal us and our land.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!

No one loves like God loves.  We love because God first loved us.  To know real love is to know God. All other love is manmade, manipulated, conditional and reversable.  God’s love is unchanging, unconditional, relentless, and irreversible.  God rescues those loved by mankind alone and heals all hearts broken by selfish love and makes us whole again. 

Where hate becomes a dessert of dry sarcasm, hurt, gossip, mocking and manipulating, God rescues with the refreshing streams of grace, flowing into pools of mercy that pour into oceans of never-ending love. 

Where there is nothing growing but foolish, barren worldview thinking that leads to death, God rescues with life.  God gives life that grows and flowers beautifully.  God gives life that reproduces more life. God’s rescue is never-ending and forever for those who seek His rescue and believe in His Son who provides the Rescue.

When we could not sing because sin at a choke-hold on us, God rescued us with His Hand that removed it all.  “The voiceless now break into song” because our Deliverer, Savior and now Lord rescued us.

Isaiah 35, The Message

The Voiceless Break into Song

^1-2 Wilderness and desert will sing joyously,
    the badlands will celebrate and flower—
Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom,
    a symphony of song and color.
Mountain glories of Lebanon—a gift.
    Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts.
God’s resplendent glory, fully on display.
    God awesome, God majestic.

^3-4 Energize the limp hands,
    strengthen the rubbery knees.
Tell fearful souls,
    “Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here,
    on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
    He’s on his way! He’ll save you!”

^5-7 Blind eyes will be opened,
    deaf ears unstopped,
Lame men and women will leap like deer,
    the voiceless break into song.
Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,
    streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
    thirsty ground a splashing fountain.
Even lowly jackals will have water to drink,
    and barren grasslands flourish richly.

^8-10 There will be a highway
    called the Holy Road.
No one rude or rebellious
    is permitted on this road.

It’s for God’s people exclusively—
    impossible to get lost on this road.
    Not even fools can get lost on it.
No lions on this road,
    no dangerous wild animals—
Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening.
    Only the redeemed will walk on it.
The people God has ransomed
    will come back on this road.
They’ll sing as they make their way home to Zion,
    unfading halos of joy encircling their heads,
Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness
    as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“God is on His way!,” Isaiah seems to shout.  God’s Rescue is His Son, Jesus who died to save us and lives today to help us remain rescued. 

Isaiah’s prophesy is beautifully encouraging!  The wilderness will not remain a wilderness because the Lord will transform the earth into a garden of Eden. All of nature eagerly looks for the coming of the Lord because nature knows that it will be set free from the curse of sin and share the glory of the kingdom.  God is on His way!

Isaiah used the promise of the coming kingdom to strengthen those in his day who were weak and afraid. The kingdom will have no blind or deaf, lame or dumb because all will be made whole to enjoy a glorious new world.  God is on His Way!

One of Isaiah’s favorite themes is The Highway. During the Assyrian invasion, highways were not safe, but during the kingdom age travel will be safe. The kingdom will have one special highway: “The Highway of Holiness.” Ancient cities often had special roads that only kings and priests could use, but when Messiah reigns, all of His people will be invited to use this highway. Isaiah pictures God’s redeemed, ransomed, and rejoicing Jewish families going up to the yearly festivals in Jerusalem, to praise their Lord. 

God is on His Way, are we on the right highway with Him?

The members of the faithful remnant were trusting God’s promises and praying for God’s help, and God answered their prayers. Centuries ago, God had kept His promises to His people and delivered them, so He will surely keep His promises in the future and establish His glorious kingdom for His chosen people.  God rescues us now!

Believe and be rescued and saved for life!

Lord,

May we the rescued praise you for all you have done, are doing and will do on our behalf. Thank you for loving us unconditionally the way you do.  Help us, the rescued, point the Way to Truth that leads to Life everlasting.  Lead us on the Highway to Holiness.  I am forever grateful for your rescue of me.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

God is and forever will be in control.  Evil is and will forever be repaid with evil by God who loves and leads His People back to Him, to His best life for them, to His love, care, protection, and provisions all because God is forever faithful to us.  His love knows no bounds or limitations.  God created all so God can pump the breaks on his creation until evil is vanquished once and for all.  Read His Word, His Book, and you will see that God wins now and later.  His Son, Jesus, made it all possible for us to be victorious with Him.  That means those who cling to Him, believe, and follow in His ways will also win.

Evil isn’t winning now, although it seems like it at times.  It seems that evil has the upper hand, more control that he should have with power to make things happen in the lives of those he as lied to and has control of in this world.  But it is only temporary.  We are tested in our faith by the Tempter called Satan—the fallen angel.  The Tempter is working overtime these days to draw all of us away from God with one goal—to destroy us.  Since his powers are very limited, however, he keeps chipping away at what he thinks he can destroy—all that belongs to God.

“READ the book!” shouts Isaiah.  Isaiah prophesies of a time when there will be nothing to be seen at the final demise of evil and all that has been done by evil in the world. The Destroyer will be destroyed once and for all to see.  The Liar will no longer be allowed to do his deeds among God’s people.  Death will not be the victor.  Life and more life will come and take control—forever.  Read the Book!  Believers win in the end.  Our daily battles with evil are mere skirmishes because the war has already been won!  The Tempter is not convinced and never will be until the final battle is fought and won.  That is something to long for and look forward to—a time where evil is banned for eternity!

Isaiah 34, The Message

The Fires Burning Day and Night

Draw in close now, nations. Listen carefully,
    you people. Pay attention!
Earth, you, too, and everything in you.
    World, and all that comes from you.

^2-4 And here’s why: God is angry,
    good and angry with all the nations,
So blazingly angry at their arms and armies
    that he’s going to rid earth of them, wipe them out.
The corpses, thrown in a heap,
    will stink like the town dump in midsummer,
Their blood flowing off the mountains
    like creeks in spring runoff.
Stars will fall out of the sky
    like overripe, rotting fruit in the orchard,
And the sky itself will be folded up like a blanket
    and put away in a closet.
All that army of stars, shriveled to nothing,
    like leaves and fruit in autumn, dropping and rotting!

^5-7 “Once I’ve finished with earth and sky,
    I’ll start in on Edom.
I’ll come down hard on Edom,
    a people I’ve slated for total termination.”
God has a sword, thirsty for blood and more blood,
    a sword hungry for well-fed flesh,
Lamb and goat blood,
    the suet-rich kidneys of rams.
Yes, God has scheduled a sacrifice in Bozrah, the capital,
    the whole country of Edom a slaughterhouse.
A wholesale slaughter, wild animals
    and farm animals alike slaughtered.
The whole country soaked with blood,
    all the ground greasy with fat.

^8-15 It’s God’s scheduled time for vengeance,
    the year all Zion’s accounts are settled.
Edom’s streams will flow sluggish, thick with pollution,
    the soil sterile, poisoned with waste,
The whole country
    a smoking, stinking garbage dump—
The fires burning day and night,
    the skies black with endless smoke.
Generation after generation of wasteland—
    no more travelers through this country!
Vultures and skunks will police the streets;
    owls and crows will feel at home there.
God will reverse creation. Chaos!
    He will cancel fertility. Emptiness!
Leaders will have no one to lead.
    They’ll name it No Kingdom There,
A country where all kings
    and princes are unemployed.
Thistles will take over, covering the castles,
    fortresses conquered by weeds and thornbushes.
Wild dogs will prowl the ruins,
    ostriches have the run of the place.
Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together,
    demons and devils dance through the night.
The night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious,
    will establish permanent quarters.
Scavenging carrion birds will breed and brood,
    infestations of ominous evil.

^16-17 Get and read God’s book:
    None of this is going away,
    this breeding, brooding evil.
God has personally commanded it all.
    His Spirit set it in motion.
God has assigned them their place,
    decreed their fate in detail.
This is permanent—
    generation after generation, the same old thing.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

When tempted and tried, shout out, “Not today, Satan!”  “In Jesus Name, not today!”

Do this all day long and into the night and see what happens.  We are calling on the full, limitless power that raised Jesus from death to life, to defeat our enemy.  It works every time.  Believe me, I’ve done it!  Be the victor with Jesus.  There are no regrets when we do.

Lord,

Thank you for reminding us of the power we have from you to fight our real and ever-present danger who lies, cheats, tests and tempts us and tries to steal our attention from You with goals to defeat and destroy our faith.  I trust in you, dear Jesus, for you have already defeated him.  Help me in the daily battle to avoid all evil’s schemes.  

And to you be all glory!

In Jesus Name, Amen

Why is God waiting? Because God “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). How much longer God will wait, nobody knows; so it would be a great idea for lost sinners to repent today and trust the Savior. 

As humans we are plagued with guilt in every part of our lives.  If you are not, then you have probably grown emotional callouses that don’t feel much of anything anymore.  Either way, it is a mournful place to live.  Hope is non-existent in our guilt filled lives.  Guilty lives are lived on our own where everything depends on us.  The extent of our guilt is troubling.  Our guilt causes us to respond to others in ways that are ugly and unkind.  Our guilt drives us to fear, sarcasm and ultimately angry living.  “Do unto others BEFORE they do it to you” is the guilty ones’ mantra for life, it seems. 

Then self-loathing sets in when trying to do life on your own.  Years ago, someone very close to me, who was trying to do all the right things in life by herself, said, “I feel so guilty, I feel guilty for feeling guilty.”  Read that again.  She is right.  Guilty follows us around and consumes us—if there is no Hope in our lives. 

Isaiah tells us we have two and only two choices to make in life about who will lead us.  Isaiah describes the outcomes of living for each choice.  One choice will take over our battles, rescue, save us, give hope, extend love, mercy and grace, restore all that is broken and damaged in war, and right all wrongs made by the other choice.  The other choice is called “Destroyer”.  Destroyer is the name aptly given to the other choice, the evil one thrown out of heaven for trying to be God and take over. 

Destroyer does exactly what his name implies.  He destroys our lives with empty promises and profound lies that feed our egos of self.  Destroyer feeds our feelings of guilt with “you deserve better”.  “So, don’t feel ashamed for wanting life your way.”  Spiritual and emotional callouses form.  Guilt piles up.  Hope disappears.  Life goes sour and leaves a bitter taste in our mouths until death comes and stays. The very ground under the feet of those entranced in the Destroyer’s spell mourns and grieves for even God’s creation knows their fate.

Isaiah then tells of the benefits and outcomes of the other choice called Hope.  God’s Hope is Jesus.  Hope rescues.  Hope received and believed relieves all guilt from our being and sets us free to raise our standard of living.  Hope is ultimately and always in control.  What is this new standard of living?  Wait for it, Isaiah has the answer…    

Isaiah 33, The Message

The Ground Under Our Feet Mourns

33 Doom to you, Destroyer,
    not yet destroyed;
And doom to you, Betrayer,
    not yet betrayed.
When you finish destroying,
    your turn will come—destroyed!
When you quit betraying,
    your turn will come—betrayed!

^2-4 God, treat us kindly. You’re our only hope.
    First thing in the morning, be there for us!
    When things go bad, help us out!
You spoke in thunder and everyone ran.
    You showed up and nations scattered.
Your people, for a change, got in on the loot,
    picking the field clean of the enemy spoils.

^5-6 God is supremely esteemed. His center holds.
    Zion brims over with all that is just and right.
God keeps your days stable and secure—
    salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus,
    and best of all, Zion’s treasure, Fear-of-God.

^7-9 But look! Listen!
    Tough men weep openly.
    Peacemaking diplomats are in bitter tears.
The roads are empty—
    not a soul out on the streets.
The peace treaty is broken,
    its conditions violated,
    its signers reviled.
The very ground under our feet mourns,
    the Lebanon mountains hang their heads,
Flowering Sharon is a weed-choked gully,
    and the forests of Bashan and Carmel? Bare branches.

^10-12 “Now I’m stepping in,” God says.
    “From now on, I’m taking over.
    The gloves come off. Now see how mighty I am.
There’s nothing to you.
    Pregnant with chaff, you produce straw babies;
    full of hot air, you self-destruct.
You’re good for nothing but fertilizer and fuel.
    Earth to earth—and the sooner the better.

^13-14 “If you’re far away,
    get the reports on what I’ve done,
And if you’re in the neighborhood,
    pay attention to my record.
The sinners in Zion are rightly terrified;
    the godless are at their wit’s end:
‘Who among us can survive this firestorm?
    Who of us can get out of this purge with our lives?’”

^15-16 The answer’s simple:
    Live right,
    speak the truth,
    despise exploitation,
    refuse bribes,
    reject violence,
    avoid evil amusements.
This is how you raise your standard of living!
    A safe and stable way to live.
    A nourishing, satisfying way to live.

God Makes All the Decisions Here

^17-19 Oh, you’ll see the king—a beautiful sight!
    And you’ll take in the wide vistas of land.
In your mind you’ll go over the old terrors:
    “What happened to that Assyrian inspector who condemned and confiscated?
And the one who gouged us of taxes?
    And that cheating moneychanger?”
Gone! Out of sight forever! Their insolence
    nothing now but a fading stain on the carpet!
No more putting up with a language you can’t understand,
    no more sounds of gibberish in your ears.

^20-22 Just take a look at Zion, will you?
    Centering our worship in festival feasts!
Feast your eyes on Jerusalem,
    a quiet and permanent place to live.
No more pulling up stakes and moving on,
    no more patched-together lean-tos.
Instead, God! God majestic, God himself the place
    in a country of broad rivers and streams,
But rivers blocked to invading ships,
    off-limits to predatory pirates.
For God makes all the decisions here. God is our king.
    God runs this place and he’ll keep us safe.

²³ Ha! Your sails are in shreds,
    your mast wobbling,
    your hold leaking.
The plunder is free for the taking, free for all—
    for weak and strong, insiders and outsiders.

²⁴ No one in Zion will say, “I’m sick.”
    Best of all, they’ll all live guilt-free.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The God of Hope steps in and takes over.  The godless are terrified. 

How do we survive?  Come to God through Jesus, His Son.  Then…

“The answer’s simple:
    Live right,
    speak the truth,
    despise exploitation,
    refuse bribes,
    reject violence,
    avoid evil amusements.
This is how you raise your standard of living!
    A safe and stable way to live.
    A nourishing, satisfying way to live.”

“Best of all, we live guilt-free!”

Lord,

You’ve surely clarified right living through Isaiah then and now.  Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole, free to love like you love us, guilt free from past sins, all because of Jesus, our Hope and Deliverer.  Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you, God our Father.  Thank you, Holy Spirit, who lives in me to remind me I am your child, guilt free of repented sins, with help to continue to live in ways that please you.  Help me to pass on your Hope to others living in a stormy sea of guilt.

In Jesus Name, Amen

We rely on what we are told.  Right?!  Our parents’ words are the first we trust.  If our parents took us to church, we also learned to trust God.  Teachers of reading and writing were the next trustworthy adults in our lives.  In higher education, we were introduced to all kinds of opinions about the world in which we live and how to live well in it.  Now we have choices.  Later, we then have bosses in the vocation we chose to tell us how to behave, what to do and how to do it.  Coupled with all that we have the media that demands our attention left and right.  Yes, we can turn the tv off, but we cannot escape the worldview thinking expressed and passed on by everyone we meet and relate to with each new day.  Who is right? What is right? Where is peace?

Humans today think they are coming up with new ways of perverted sin—but sin in all kinds of forms have been ugly with resulting death since Adam and Eve and will continue until Jesus comes back for the final sweep of justice.  “A king will rule in the right way, and his leaders will carry out justice,” Isaiah shouts from God.  God will make all things right and good, safe and quiet, full of peace.  God has a Plan.

With justice comes peace, says God to His People.  “No more will fools become celebrities, nor crooks be rewarded with fame.”  Imagine no more political ads that slander each other without telling what each candidate stands for with what they will do to bring justice in all areas of their elected jurisdictions!  Imagine no more commercials, billboards, texts, or emails using fear with “bait and switch” to motivate us to part with our hard-earned wages that provide for our daily needs.  Imagine no more lies that dissolve all trust.  Imagine no more exploitation of the poor to lift the rich up in the eyes of the world. 

Now, imagine getting along with each other all because of the love of Jesus in us.  Imagine asking for God’s wisdom then trusting what He says and doing it!

Isaiah 32, The Message

Safe Houses, Quiet Gardens

^1-8 But look! A king will rule in the right way,
    and his leaders will carry out justice.
Each one will stand as a shelter from high winds,
    provide safe cover in stormy weather.
Each will be cool running water in parched land,
    a huge granite outcrop giving shade in the desert.
Anyone who looks will see,
    anyone who listens will hear.
The impulsive will make sound decisions,
    the tongue-tied will speak with eloquence.
No more will fools become celebrities,
    nor crooks be rewarded with fame.
For fools are fools and that’s that,
    thinking up new ways to do mischief.
They leave a wake of wrecked lives
    and lies about God,
Turning their backs on the homeless hungry,
    ignoring those dying of thirst in the streets.
And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are,
    inventive in sin and scandal,
Exploiting the poor with scams and lies,
    unmoved by the victimized poor.
But those who are noble make noble plans,
    and stand for what is noble.

* * *

^9-14 Take your stand, idle women!
    Listen to me!
Indulgent, idle women,
    listen closely to what I have to say.
In just a little over a year from now,
    you’ll be shaken out of your lazy lives.
The grape harvest will fail,
    and there’ll be no fruit on the trees.
Oh tremble, you idle women.
    Get serious, you pampered dolls!
Strip down and discard your silk fineries.
    Put on funeral clothes.
Shed honest tears for the lost harvest,
    the failed vintage.
Weep for my people’s gardens and farms
    that grow nothing but thistles and thornbushes.
Cry tears, real tears, for the happy homes no longer happy,
    the merry city no longer merry.
The royal palace is deserted,
    the bustling city quiet as a morgue,
The emptied parks and playgrounds
    taken over by wild animals,
    delighted with their new home.

^15-20 Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured
    down on us from above
And the badlands desert grows crops
    and the fertile fields become forests.
Justice will move into the badlands desert.
    Right will build a home in the fertile field.
And where there’s Right, there’ll be Peace
    and the progeny of Right: quiet lives and endless trust.
My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood—
    in safe houses, in quiet gardens.
The forest of your pride will be clear-cut,
    the city showing off your power leveled.
But you will enjoy a fortunate life,
    planting well-watered fields and gardens,
    with your farm animals grazing freely.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“The King” Isaiah is talking about is of course, Jesus!  Our response will be to bow down to Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords!  We must confess our faith in Him and say with assurance that He is “our King.” In contrast to the evil rulers of Isaiah’s day the Messiah will reign in righteousness and justice. In addition, the King will be like a rock of refuge for the people and like a refreshing river in the desert.  Yes, Jesus is OUR King!

In the kingdom of God, there will be no deception. Not only will liars and cheaters’ character and motives be exposed and judged, but so will their ungodly methods. No longer will the poor and helpless be cheated by these liars. Our response?  Praise and thanksgiving the One and Only who makes all things right and good!

And where there’s Right, there’ll be Peace—

“Righteousness” is the key word in verse 17, for true peace only comes through a right relationship with God. When sinners trust Christ and receive the gift of righteousness, then they can have peace in their hearts and peace with one another.

What do you choose, how will you respond?  Pray, listen, then choose wisely.

Lord,

You are the One and Only who is holy and makes us right with You.  Come into our hearts, minds and souls and cleanse us, washing away all that offends you.  Then transform us daily to be all you created us to be before we do what you say.  Thank you, Lord, for making us right with You.  Thank you for the peace that dwells in us in all circumstances when we put all our trust in you.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

How easily impressed we are by the newest version of IPhone that is introduced for the “first time” each year!  How easily we are distracted by the newer and better appliance that “will change our lives.”  How tempted we are by the newest vehicle on the market that will make our lives better.  In the world of politics, we are told that this new, impressive candidate is “different” than all the rest so we must turn to him or her so life will go better for us.  We are barraged with information about an even “better diet” with  new forms of exercise so our bodies will be stronger, more beautiful, and of course, healthier.  We are harassed by fear through ads that tell us how important it is to choose the best health care plan that will save us money.  And last, but not least, we must at all costs plan for our death with the best burial plan on the market to date! 

I’m in Isaiah camp of thinking!  He reminds the people impressed by military mathematics that their minds are dwelling with dependence on merely the world and its thinking.  “And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance, not so much as a prayer to God.” 

God knows what He is doing.  God does what He says He will do.  God protects us and intervenes in the work of the wrongdoers.  God provides for all our needs.  He is God and no one else is God.  God is God and we are not.  We then should be more than impressed and dependent on the One who created us in His own image and who truly has our best interests at heart for each one of us than anyone else on the planet!

Want to be even more impressed?  Here are 18 reasons to be impressed by the One and Only who created us! 

“You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.  Psalm 139:1-18

We are on his mind continually…how impressive is that? 

Is God on our minds continually?

Isaiah 31, The Message

Impressed by Military Mathematics

^1-3 Doom to those who go off to Egypt
    thinking that horses can help them,
Impressed by military mathematics,
    awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders—
And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance,
    not so much as a prayer to God.
Still, he must be reckoned with,
    a most wise God who knows what he’s doing.
He can call down catastrophe.
    He’s a God who does what he says.
He intervenes in the work of those who do wrong,
    stands up against interfering evildoers.
Egyptians are mortal, not God,
    and their horses are flesh, not Spirit.
When God gives the signal, helpers and helped alike
    will fall in a heap and share the same dirt grave.

* * *

^4-5 This is what God told me:

“Like a lion, king of the beasts,
    that gnaws and chews and worries its prey,
Not fazed in the least by a bunch of shepherds
    who arrive to chase it off,
So God-of-the-Angel-Armies comes down
    to fight on Mount Zion, to make war from its heights.
And like a huge eagle hovering in the sky,
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies protects Jerusalem.
I’ll protect and rescue it.
    Yes, I’ll hover and deliver.”

^6-7 Repent, return, dear Israel, to the One you so cruelly abandoned. On the day you return, you’ll throw away—every last one of you—the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood.

^8-9 “Assyrians will fall dead,
    killed by a sword-thrust but not by a soldier,
    laid low by a sword not swung by a mortal.
Assyrians will run from that sword, run for their lives,
    and their prize young men made slaves.
Terrorized, that rock-solid people will fall to pieces,
    their leaders scatter hysterically.”
God’s Decree on Assyria.
    His fire blazes in Zion,
    his furnace burns hot in Jerusalem.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Many in this world, especially at Christmas and Easter, will be impressed by the story of Jesus in the seasons that come and go.  What remains is being merely impressed without forming a relationship with the One and Only who loves us most and loves us best, who forgives all that we have done that was offensive to Him, and then transforms us to all that we were created to be and do.  Jesus wants us to talk and walk with Him in the “light of His glory and grace.”  Jesus is the Way to God.  Jesus speaks the Truth about God because Jesus is God in the flesh come to earth to die for our sins.  Jesus is Life from God the Father who is the Giver of Life now and forever.

Be more than impressed.  Believe and be saved and forever be under the wing of His loving protection.  Be a child of the King who thinks of you and me daily and longs to be with us always.  Got problems?  Ask Him for wisdom to solve them.  He loves doing that!  In fact, the answer was there before we asked.  Now, that’s impressive!

Lord,

Help us in this world of everyone telling us what is best for us.  Give us wisdom to choose you and your best life.  Life is for living without fear.  Love drives out fear and You are Love.  So, I choose you.  I choose what you want for me over what I want.  You are God.  I am not.  Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole.  Thank you for intervening in my life when I needed you most.  Thank you for your protection and all  that you have provided. Thank you for helping realize the depth of your love for me and teaching me to love others like you love.

In Jesus Name, Amen

“Let’s sneak out without the counselors knowing tonight.”  We had a plan at church camp to be rebellious and not do what we were asked to do—sleep.  We wanted to party with each other without the grownups hanging around to tell us what was sensible and right.  So, we did it, carefully and quietly.  One by one we went out the back door of the dorm in the darkness of night.  We only had the light of the moon to show us where to walk at night.  We successfully left the building!  We giggled and celebrated in the dark at the same time we shushed each other so others would not hear us.

Once we had our bearings in the darkness, as a group we crept over to the kitchen building to hide in the shadows.  Once we were there, all together, we congratulated each other again in the success of our plan.  But then it occurred to us—now what?  We are losing sleep over sneaking out.  We are crouching down in the dirt in the shadows of darkness for what reason?  What seemed exciting at first in our rebellious plan to sneak out into the night now seemed stupid and foolish.  We did think of something even more foolhardy to do but that is for another time.  By the way, the head counselor knew all along and watched over us until we came back to our senses and came back to bed.

Rebellion against wisdom rarely gets us to where we really want or need to be.  It only leads to trouble and more inconveniences in our lives.  We are only successful in life if we turn back to God, change our hearts, learn from our rebellious mistakes, lean on His wisdom, insight and understanding while choosing to walk humbly in His ways.  This is success that leads to glory and more glory.   

Who or what are you rebelling against today?   

Isn’t it time to come back to the Light from wandering around in the dark? 

Isaiah 30, The Message

All Show, No Substance

^1-5 “Doom, rebel children!”
    God’s Decree.
“You make plans, but not mine.
    You make deals, but not in my Spirit.
You pile sin on sin,
    one sin on top of another,
Going off to Egypt
    without so much as asking me,
Running off to Pharaoh for protection,
    expecting to hide out in Egypt.
Well, some protection Pharaoh will be!
    Some hideout, Egypt!
They look big and important, true,
    with officials strategically established in
Zoan in the north and Hanes in the south,
    but there’s nothing to them.
Anyone stupid enough to trust them
    will end up looking stupid—
All show, no substance,
    an embarrassing farce.”

^6-7 And this note on the animals of the Negev
    encountered on the road to Egypt:
A most dangerous, treacherous route,
    menaced by lions and deadly snakes.
And you’re going to lug all your stuff down there,
    your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes,
Thinking you can buy protection
    from that hollow farce of a nation?
Egypt is all show, no substance.
    My name for her is Toothless Dragon.

This Is a Rebel Generation

^8-11 So, go now and write all this down.
    Put it in a book
So that the record will be there
    to instruct the coming generations,
Because this is a rebel generation,
    a people who lie,
A people unwilling to listen
    to anything God tells them.
They tell their spiritual leaders,
    “Don’t bother us with irrelevancies.”
They tell their preachers,
    “Don’t waste our time on impracticalities.
Tell us what makes us feel better.
    Don’t bore us with obsolete religion.
That stuff means nothing to us.
    Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel.”

^12-14 Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this:
    “Because you scorn this Message,
Preferring to live by injustice
    and shape your lives on lies,
This perverse way of life
    will be like a towering, badly built wall
That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts,
    and then one day, without warning, collapses—
Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,
    smashed beyond recognition or repair,
Useless, a pile of debris
    to be swept up and thrown in the trash.”

God Takes the Time to Do Everything Right

^15-17 God, the Master, The Holy of Israel,
    has this solemn counsel:
“Your salvation requires you to turn back to me
    and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves.
Your strength will come from settling down
    in complete dependence on me—
The very thing
    you’ve been unwilling to do.
You’ve said, ‘No way! We’ll rush off on horseback!’
    You’ll rush off, all right! Just not far enough!
You’ve said, ‘We’ll ride off on fast horses!’
    Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?
Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker.
    Before a mere five you’ll all run off.
There’ll be nothing left of you—
    a flagpole on a hill with no flag,
    a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off.”

¹⁸But God’s not finished. He’s waiting around to be gracious to you.
    He’s gathering strength to show mercy to you.
God takes the time to do everything right—everything.
    Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.

^19-22 Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you’ll find it’s grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he’ll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he’ll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: “This is the right road. Walk down this road.” You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You’ll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, “Good riddance!”

^23-26 God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. Oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills. Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.

* * *

^27-28 Look, God’s on his way,
    and from a long way off!
Smoking with anger,
    immense as he comes into view,
Words steaming from his mouth,
    searing, indicting words!
A torrent of words, a flash flood of words
    sweeping everyone into the vortex of his words.
He’ll shake down the nations in a sieve of destruction,
    herd them into a dead end.

^29-33 But you will sing,
    sing through an all-night holy feast!
Your hearts will burst with song,
    make music like the sound of flutes on parade,
En route to the mountain of God,
    on the way to the Rock of Israel.
God will sound out in grandiose thunder,
    display his hammering arm,
Furiously angry, showering sparks—
    cloudburst, storm, hail!
Oh yes, at God’s thunder
    Assyria will cower under the clubbing.
Every blow God lands on them with his club
    is in time to the music of drums and pipes,
God in all-out, two-fisted battle,
    fighting against them.
Topheth’s fierce fires are well prepared,
    ready for the Assyrian king.
The Topheth furnace is deep and wide,
    well stoked with hot-burning wood.
God’s breath, like a river of burning pitch,
    starts the fire.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The rulers of Jerusalem did not seek the will of God.  The leaders did not want to hear God’s truth; they wanted pleasant words from the false prophets, sermons that would not disturb their comfortable way of life. The situation does not seem much different today. God’s message is ignored and His messengers are mocked.

Rebellion against God leads nowhere.   So God’s waits for us…

From rebellion to restoration: “The LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you”, Isaiah told the people. God’s grace is His favor toward those who do not deserve it, and it is only because of His grace that we have any blessings at all. Isaiah described that future day when Israel would be restored to her land to enjoy the blessings of the kingdom. The people would be like liberated prisoners of war.

Repent and be restored to all that is God.  Abiding with God leads to adventures with Him far above our wildest imaginations.  HIS plan is always much greater than any of the plans we will dream of in this life.

Lord,

In the Name of Jesus, we come to you to be cleansed and made holy.  Renew our Spirits, refresh our souls, restore the joy of your salvation in us.  Transform our lives to be and more and more like you—in the image we were created.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

Teenagers—gotta love ‘em!  As our parents loved us through the taunting teen years, we also love our kids and grandkids through these often exasperating years of growing and maturing.  Some grow up.  Some get older chronologically but stay the same with the same attitudes of “knowing it all” without caring for learning more.  We try to tell those in the teen years that we are on their side with how much we love and care for them—even as they mock every word we say and every action we take.  We tell them, “There is nothing you can do that will make us stop loving you” and sometimes they/we take that on as a challenge.  Those with teen faith tell us who believe in God that we are fools to trust in Someone we cannot see or touch.  Teen years.  Somehow most do grow up and make it to be contributing adults to society as believers.

Yesterday we talked of Toddler Faith that is a very immature faith, a faith that solely depends of others to help them through life.  It seems the next stage of faith can be like the behaviors of those in the teen years of maturing and growing.  How exasperated do we make God in our behaviors through our “teenage faith” years?  I cringe at the thought and repent once more! 

Isaiah is describing the people of the world in his day as those stuck in the teen years of turning from God with blinded eyes and deaf ears. (So much like teens, right?)  So, I think we can all relate to this passage, see ourselves and well, repent of not listening and learning as we should.  Life is not all about us.  Life comes for the Source of all Life.  Eternal Life is a gift for all who believe—even when mocked and made a fool by worldview thinking that comes from God’s enemy.  The real fools are those who do not believe and turn from the Father, God, who created them. 

The Good News is that God knew we would go through the “teenage phase of growing faith” after the Toddler years.  He provided help and a plan.  That Plan was Jesus who took our place for the punishment we should have had for our foolish behaviors of sin.  Test your faith but do not test God, the Father.  Grow up, mature, leave the fools and foolishness of the world behind.  Abide in Jesus and He will abide in you.  Listen to the Holy Spirit who was given as a gift to guide us into wisdom, insight and understanding of who God is and what He does in and for us. 

Isaiah 29, The Message

Blind Yourselves So That You See Nothing

^1-4 Doom, Ariel, Ariel,
    the city where David set camp!
Let the years add up,
    let the festivals run their cycles,
But I’m not letting up on Jerusalem.
    The moaning and groaning will continue.
    Jerusalem to me is an Ariel.
Like David, I’ll set up camp against you.
    I’ll set siege, build towers,
    bring in siege engines, build siege ramps.
Driven into the ground, you’ll speak,
    you’ll mumble words from the dirt—
Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost.
    Your speech will whisper from the dust.

^5-8 But it will be your enemies who are beaten to dust,
    the mob of tyrants who will be blown away like chaff.
Because, surprise, as if out of nowhere,
    a visit from God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
With thunderclaps, earthquakes, and earsplitting noise,
    backed up by hurricanes, tornadoes, and lightning strikes,
And the mob of enemies at war with Ariel,
    all who trouble and hassle and torment her,
    will turn out to be a bad dream, a nightmare.
Like a hungry man dreaming he’s eating steak
    and wakes up hungry as ever,
Like a thirsty woman dreaming she’s drinking iced tea
    and wakes up thirsty as ever,
So that mob of nations at war against Mount Zion
    will wake up and find they haven’t shot an arrow,
    haven’t killed a single soul.

^9-10 Drug yourselves so you feel nothing.
    Blind yourselves so you see nothing.
Get drunk, but not on wine.
    Black out, but not from whiskey.
For God has rocked you into a deep, deep sleep,
    put the discerning prophets to sleep,
    put the farsighted seers to sleep.

You Have Everything Backward

^11-12 What you’ve been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone who can read and tell her, “Read this,” she’ll say, “I can’t. The envelope is sealed.” And if you give it to someone who can’t read and tell him, “Read this,” he’ll say, “I can’t read.”

* * *

^13-14 The Master said:

“These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
    but their hearts aren’t in it.
Because they act like they’re worshiping me
    but don’t mean it,
I’m going to step in and shock them awake,
    astonish them, stand them on their ears.
The wise ones who had it all figured out
    will be exposed as fools.
The smart people who thought they knew everything
    will turn out to know nothing.”

^15-16 Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track.
    You shut God out and work behind the scenes,
Plotting the future as if you knew everything,
    acting mysterious, never showing your hand.
You have everything backward!
    You treat the potter as a lump of clay.
Does a book say to its author,
    “He didn’t write a word of me”?
Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it,
    “She had nothing to do with this”?

^17-21 And then before you know it,
    and without you having anything to do with it,
Wasted Lebanon will be transformed into lush gardens,
    and Mount Carmel reforested.
At that time the deaf will hear
    word-for-word what’s been written.
After a lifetime in the dark,
    the blind will see.
The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in God,
    the down-and-outs shouting praise to The Holy of Israel.
For there’ll be no more gangs on the street.
    Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species.
Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean
    will never be heard of again:
Gone the people who corrupted the courts,
    gone the people who cheated the poor,
    gone the people who victimized the innocent.

^22-24 And finally this, God’s Message for the family of Jacob,
    the same God who redeemed Abraham:
“No longer will Jacob hang his head in shame,
    no longer grow gaunt and pale with waiting.
For he’s going to see his children,
    my personal gift to him—lots of children.
And these children will honor me
    by living holy lives.
In holy worship they’ll honor the Holy One of Jacob
    and stand in holy awe of the God of Israel.
Those who got off-track will get back on-track,
    and complainers and whiners will learn gratitude.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Grow with what you know…

“So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds^[a] and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.”  Hebrews 6:1-3, NLT

The people of Jerusalem were ignorant of what was going on. Their hearts were far from God. They were going through the outward forms of worship and faithfully keeping the annual festivals, but this was not a true worship of God. Going to the temple was popular, but most of the people did not take their worship seriously. Therefore, God sent a spiritual blindness and stupor on His people so that they could not understand their own law. Such blindness persists today. If people will not accept the truth, then they must become more and more blind and accept lies. (See John 9:39–41; 2 Thess. 2:1–12.)  They are stuck in the teen years of stagnating faith.

“Backward Thinking”…

This “woe” exposed the devious political tactics of the rulers of Judah, who thought that God would not hold them accountable for what they were doing. They were trying to turn things upside down, like the clay telling the Potter what to do. If only people would seek the counsel of the Lord instead of depending on their own wisdom and fragile human promises!

Isaiah asked the people to look ahead and consider what God had planned for them. In their political strategy, they had turned things upside down, but God would one day turn everything around by establishing His glorious kingdom on earth. The devastated land would become a paradise, the disabled would be healed, and the outcasts would be enriched and rejoice in the Lord.

Grow up and believe in the One who loves us most!  Listen, learn and grow in His grace.

Lord,

Thank you for consistently challenging me to grow up!  I repent of thinking I can do life without your help.  That is foolish!  I repent of not listening to your Spirit speak words of wisdom to me when I need it most.  Thank you for your patience with me as I grow in your love. Thank you for loving me like you do. Help me to love others like you love me, always pointing the Way to you, the Truth, who gives Life eternal.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen.