Devotionary

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Ep 864 – Isaiah 65:1-7 Apr 29, 2019

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God pursues His people, but He also loves when His people pursue Him. After all He had done for the people of Judah, God every right to expect them to seek Him with all their hearts. But they had done just the opposite. Rather than seek and serve God faithfully, they had proven to be unfaithful and spiritually adulterous. And, after Isaiah pleads with God to show them mercy, God responds by declaring their guilt and labeling them as without excuse. They had been His chosen possession, but rather than respond in love and adoration to the one who set them apart as His own, they had treated Him with contempt and drug His holy name through the mud. He had called them to repentance, but they had refused to listen. He had lovingly declared to them, "Here I am," but rather than return, they had chosen to reject Him for other gods. In Isaiah 65:1-7, God is going to warn the people of Judah that He is about to repay them for their deeds. He is going to punish them for their wickedness. But, even then, God will not stop calling, "Here I am!" He will never stop offering Himself as the solution to their problem.

Ep 863 – Isaiah 64:8-12 Apr 28, 2019

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The potter and the clay. This imagery is used throughout the Bible and is always intended to juxtapose the sovereignty of God over His creation, especially humanity. And this relationship between the potter and the clay is used repeatedly to remind the people of God that they are to live in willful submission to God. In Isaiah 64:8-12, the prophet addresses God as the divine potter and confesses that he and the rest of the people of Judah are little more than clay in the Almighty's hands. He recognizes that their circumstances were out of their control and that any hope they had of redemption and restoration was up to the one who had made them. Their fate was in God's hands. So, Isaiah pleads for God to be lenient and to remember that they are His chosen people. The prophet appeals to God as a Father, calling on Him to show mercy to His children. And Isaiah paints the scene surrounding Judah in a very tragic light, describing the city as a desolation, Mount Zion as a wilderness, and all the pleasant places as ruins. Isaiah saw Judah as clay in need of the potter. They were flawed and required reshaping at the hands of the Master.

Ep 862 – Isaiah 64:1-7 Apr 27, 2019

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Let's face it. It's hard to say, "I'm sorry." And poor Isaiah has been trying to get the people of Judah to confess their sins and express their sorrow to God for 63 chapters. Now, as if in a last-ditch attempt to assuage the anger of God, Isaiah takes it upon himself to act as the corporate confessor for the nation of Judah. He stands in as their representative, presenting himself before God and begging the Almighty to accept his humble confession on behalf of his fellow citizens of Judah. But Isaiah not only hopes for forgiveness and restoration from God, he longs to see God in all His glory. Isaiah 64:1-7 reveals Isaiah expressing his desire For God to come out of hiding and to reveal Himself with all the pomp and circumstance He displayed on Mount Sinai. We're talking thunder, lightning, earthquakes, smoke, and fire. Isaiah was looking for a show from God. But he had a reason for his request. He wanted the people of Judah to see God for who He was: The all-powerful, holy God of the universe. Maybe if they could see God, they would learn to fear, honor, and obey Him.

Ep 861 – Isaiah 63:7-19 Apr 26, 2019

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Sometimes, when going through a time of difficulty, we seem to forget that God has been good to us in the past. The present pain seems to induce long-term memory loss, causing us to doubt God and His goodness. We call out, demanding that God rescue us, but we fail to remember all the times He has done so in the past. But present pain should be a good reminder of God's past mercies. He has always been there and, if we look closely, He has always come through for us. Maybe not according to our liking or our preferred timing, but He did come through. In Isaiah 63:7-19, the prophet is going to call out to God, pleading for Him to rescue His people. But Isaiah will show no signs of memory loss. Instead, he will recount to God the many examples of His grace and mercy and beg Him to rescue His wayward people yet again. Isaiah wasn't attempting to jog God's memory, but he was trying to remind his own people of the faithfulness of their heavenly Father. They were His children and He would care for them. Yes, they had been rebellious, but their God was gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness.

Ep 860 – Isaiah 63:1-6 Apr 25, 2019

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Christians are encouraged to long for the coming of Christ. We are to eagerly anticipate His return, first for His bride, the church, and then in His second advent, when He returns to earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords. And in Isaiah 63:1-6, Isaiah is given a glimpse of that future day, when Jesus returns in all His might and glory, bringing the final judgment against Satan, Antichrist, the false prophet and all the nations of the world that stand opposed to God. Isaiah records the words of Jesus Himself as He declares that His day of redemption has come. He will finish what He began, completing the divine plan for the redemption of His chosen people, the recreation of the world, and the removal of Satan and all those who follow him from the scene. The final phase of God's judgment, unleashed during the seven years of the Tribulation, will come to a close as Jesus defeats the forces of evil and establishes righteousness on earth once and for all. And nobody longs for that day more than Jesus Himself.

Ep 859 – Isaiah 62:1-12 Apr 24, 2019

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Forgotten and forsaken. That's exactly how the people of Judah felt. While Isaiah has spent the last 61 chapters pointing out their sins and warning them about the coming judgment of God, they couldn't help but feel like they were the ones who had been ignored. They saw themselves as the forsaken ones. It wasn't that Isaiah had failed to expose their guilt and corporate culpability. It was that they just couldn't bring themselves to believe that their circumstances were of their own making. Yet, in spite of their refusal to take responsibility for their sins, God is going to offer them the promise of His future restoration. Isaiah 61:1-12 reveals that they were going to experience the unbelievable and totally undeserved joy of being redeemed by God. God had not forsaken or forgotten them. He had not turned His back on them. He had great things in store for them, and He wanted them to keep their eyes focused on the future, when they would become once again, the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, sought out, and a city not forsaken.

Ep 858 – Isaiah 61:4-11 Apr 23, 2019

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As Christians, we talk a lot about the glory of God. Sometimes, I'm not even sure we quite know what we mean. We talk about giving God glory. We sing of His glory. We refer to Him as being glorious. But are we sure what we mean when we say these things? The people of Israel thought they were giving glory to God by going through the motions of keeping His law and offering the sacrifices He had prescribed. But their hearts were far from Him. They called Him glorious but didn't treat Him as such. But in Isaiah 61:4-11, we hear of a day when God will get all the glory He deserves and not just from His chosen people. The entire earth will glorify Him for who He is and all that He has done. And He will bring glory to Himself by restoring His rebellious people to Himself – all by Himself. The nations will sit up and take notice. The world will recognize Him as God and marvel at the glorious nature of His power, mercy, and grace. All to His glory.

Ep 857 – Isaiah 61:1-3 Apr 22, 2019

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The Bible is a story. A single story with a clear beginning and an end to it. But in spite of the opinions of some, it is not a work of fiction. It is history. Or, as some like to say it HIS story. The story of God's redemption and restoration of sinful mankind. And in Isaiah 61:1-3 we are given a glimpse into the future when that final chapter of the story will be written. It involves the servant of God. This individual will play a starring role in the culmination of God's story and will bring about the final phase of His redemptive plan. And, as we will see, Jesus Christ was and is that servant. He came the first time to pay the price for the sins of man. He gave His life as a ransom for many. He sacrificed His own life that those who were enemies of God might be made friends of God. Not only that, so that they might become children of God. And while the majority of the Jews, His own people, rejected Jesus as their Messiah, there is a day coming when He will return again. When He does, He will restore His rebellious fellow Jews to a right relationship with God. And that's the rest of the story.

Ep 856 – Isaiah 60:17-22 Apr 21, 2019

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Today's passage contains three little words that carry a punch: But the Lord… In Isaiah 60:17-22, God reveals His future plans for the people of Judah. While the near-term prognosis looked bleak, with judgment hovering over their heads, the people of Judah could rest in the promise that God had something remarkable in store for them. Their immediate prospects were less-than-ideal, but His long-term plans were better than they could have ever hoped or imagined. The future would feature a complete reversal of fortunes, turning the circumstances surrounding Judah and Israel on their heads. God was going to do great things for them. But the events described in this passage are still yet to be fulfilled. They remain on the distant horizon – a part of His end times strategy that will bring His redemptive plan for mankind and the world to a final dramatic conclusion. While it can be easy to look at the current state of affairs in the world and lose hope, we must always remember those three powerful words that hover over all time and history: But the Lord… He has a plan and He will bring it about.

Ep 855 – Isaiah 60:1-16 Apr 20, 2019

Show notes

As the book of Isaiah begins to draw to a close, the prophetic tone of the book seems to increase in intensity. While the people of Judah were facing some serious judgment from God, He was letting them know that the future was bright. In spite of their rebellion, God was going to do great things among them. As He had spoken through the prophet, Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." From their limited perspective, things looked bleak, but God could see all the way to the end, the literal end, and He knew how the story would eventually unfold. Isaiah 60:1-16 is a marvelous reminder of God's promise to be Israel's Savior and Redeemer. And while the people of Israel had initially rejected His Son when He came to earth the first time, God is going to make sure that His Son's second advent results in the salvation of His people. Despite generations of rebellion and a lengthy track record of rejecting God, the people of Israel would one day find their darkness illuminated by God's light and their status as His chosen people restored.

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