Devotionary

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Ep 753 – Isaiah 5:1-7 Jan 08, 2019

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Fruit and fruitfulness are common themes in the Bible. And, in His Word, God repeatedly uses imagery of the vine to describe His chosen people, Israel. Today's passage, Isaiah 5:1-7, is a case in point. God often refers to Himself as the vinedresser and Israel as the vine. He planted them with the intention that they bear fruit. But God is rather particular about the kind of fruit they produce. They were to be fruitful, spreading through the land like a well-manicured vine planted in well-tended soil. But in this passage, God is going to reveal that His vine was producing unacceptable fruit – wild grapes that were not what He had expected and were absolutely good for nothing. He had created a vineyard with all the right ingredients to produce high-quality grapes that would result in sweet-tasting wine. But instead, Israel was guilty of producing unacceptable fruit. And that's an important key to understanding what is going on here. They were producing fruit, but it was the wrong kind. It wasn't what God intended and, therefore, it disqualified them as His vineyard.

Ep 752 – Isaiah 4:1-6 Jan 07, 2019

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Judgment was coming. God had made that perfectly clear. And yet, in Isaiah 4:1-6, God also lets the people of Judah know that His favor was also coming. Yes, it would be preceded by their fall at the hands of the Babylonians. But there was a day coming when God would restore His people. He would show them His favor, even though it was totally undeserved and unmerited. But one of the truly amazing things about the book of Isaiah is that much of what God has promised the people of Judah has yet to happen. There is an aspect in which His promise has been partially fulfilled, but there is a far greater, far more substantial aspect to His promise that lies in the future, still awaiting fulfillment. But, because of what we know God did 70 years after the people of Judah were exiled to Babylon as captives, we can trust that His yet-unfulfilled promises will come to fruition. He will do what He has said He will do. He returned them to the land once, and He will do it again, showering them with His divine favor.

Ep 751 – Isaiah 3:10-26 Jan 06, 2019

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Just desserts. Getting what you deserve. Reaping what you sow. However you want to describe it, we all seem to believe in the concept that payback is inevitable in life. And even when we see an individual getting away Scott free, there is a part of us that longs to see them get what they deserve. In Isaiah 3:10-26, God warns the people of Judah that they were guilty, and there was no way they were going to get away with it. Judgment was coming. Payback was on its way. God was going to mete out justice in the form of His righteous judgment. From the lowest peasant to the highest ruler in the land, all would feel the wrath of His holy indignation. Why? Because they had failed to follow His rules and keep His commands. The leaders had misled the people, even failing to care for the poor and needy. They had failed to show justice. They had taken advantage of the weak and the fatherless. They had abused the widows, forcing them to cry out to God for justice. And the people had become fat and happy, materialistic and addicted to their own sinful passions and desires. And God had had enough.

Ep 750 – Isaiah 3:1-9 Jan 05, 2019

Show notes

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all struggle with misplaced trust. Especially when it comes to God. We say we believe in Him and we claim to trust Him, but there are so many times when we place our trust in something or someone other than him. We end up relying on ourselves or some other human being. We place our hope in our financial status or our capacity for hard work. We depend upon our own intelligence or that of someone we respect and of whom we seek counsel. But in Isaiah 3:1-9, God is going to warn the people of Judah that their misplaced trust was going to have drastic consequences. Their propensity to turn their back on God and turn to other forms of salvation was going to eventually blow up in their face. Their many false gods were going to be exposed for what they were: The fabrication of man's imaginations and hands. And even the leaders the people of Judah had come to trust would be revealed as lousy replacements for God. When we forsake God and replace Him with gods of our own making, we will always end up disappointed and disillusioned.

Ep 749 – Isaiah 2:6-21 Jan 04, 2019

Show notes

There is a day coming. That warning is repeated throughout the book of Isaiah, and in Isaiah 2:6-22, God warns of a future day when He will deal with the sins of mankind in a universal manner that causes every single pride-filled, sin-prone human being to hide in fear of His wrath. The book of Isaiah is prophetic in nature, and reveals to the people of Judah what God is going to do, both in the near-term and far-distant future. When we read this book, we have to carefully assess what has taken place and what remains yet unfulfilled. While a book of history, Isaiah also provides a prophetic glimpse into the future of not only Judah, but the entire world. God has a much larger plan in place than the people of Judah can even imagine. They are His people and He is concerned with their fate, but He is also concerned with the coming of His Servant, the Messiah, and the future redemption of the world. For the people of Judah, it was going to be easy to focus on their present circumstances, but God wanted them to have a future-orientation that was focused on His sovereignty.

Ep 748 – Isaiah 2:1-5 Jan 03, 2019

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The Bible talks a lot about light and darkness. They represent the two extremes of spiritual reality in the world. God is light. He is the illuminating and enlightening agent of righteousness. While Satan represents the realm of spiritual darkness and moral depravity. In the Bible we are given a vision of this world as cloaked in a foreboding mist of darkness, caused by the presence of sin. The fall of Adam and Eve left their descendants with the curse of inherited sin and the death sentence that comes with it. But God, by choosing Abraham and promising to make of him a great nation, shed His light in the darkness of the world. He called the people of Israel to be His chosen possession and to illustrate what it meant for men to enjoy a right relationship with a holy God. That is why He set them apart and give them His law. It is why He provided them with their own land and demanded that they cleanse it of all spiritual impurity. But, the people of Israel failed to remain faithful to God. And their disobedience brought His displeasure and discipline. But He still longs to shine His light on them. And in Isaiah 2:1-5, He reminds them that one day, He will.

Ep 747 – Isaiah 1:21-31 Jan 02, 2019

Show notes

Isaiah was a prophet, and like all the other prophets of God, he had a fairly simple message to deliver: Repent. If you boil down all that he had to say to the people of Judah, this was the core message he was trying to get across. He simply wanted them to return to God, in repentance, humility and dependence. And as Isaiah 1:21-31 will make painfully clear, God had some strong accusations against His people. They were guilty of some serious stuff, and God was not afraid to spell out their crimes in graphic terms. But one of the things we will see as we work our way through this book is just how stubborn fallen men and women can be. Granted, these were the chosen people of God, and they enjoyed a special relationship with Him that no other people group on the earth could claim. But like a father with rebellious teenagers for children, God was fed up with the actions and attitudes. He was calling them out and demanding that they repent or face the consequences.

Ep 746 – Isaiah 1:1-20 Jan 01, 2019

Show notes

Today's episode is the first in a new series on the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It is considered a book of prophecy and the author's name, as the book's title suggests, was Isaiah. Isaiah lived in the city of Jerusalem and was called by God to carry a message to the people of Judah concerning their future fate. He would outlive four of the kings of Judah and spend a large portion of his life attempting to persuade the rebellious people of Judah to repent and return to God. But his message would, for the most part, fall on deaf ears. God had even warned Isaiah that his ministry would prove fruitless, because the people were far too stubborn to heed what he had to say. While this book provides us with a historical narrative concerning the people of Judah, it is far from ancient history. In fact, because of its prophetic nature, there are aspects of the book of Isaiah that reveal future events that were to take place long after Isaiah was gone. And much of the message contained in the book remains yet to be fulfilled. At the core, this is a book of theology that covers such vital topics as God, man, sin, and redemption. Despite its age, this book carries a timeless and practical message for the people of God in all ages. And it should provide ample proof of God's love, power, faithfulness and sovereignty. Today, we open with Isaiah 1:1-20. Hope you enjoy it.

Ep 745 – Number 36 Dec 31, 2018

Show notes

The final chapter of the of Numbers is not quite what one might expect. Chapter 36 introduces us to five daughters of a man named Zelophehad. He had a problem. No, it wasn't that his name was difficult to pronounce. It was that he was dead. And he had died without a male heir. So, according the Mosaic Law, his unmarried daughters would inherit his land. But some of the other Israelites expressed their concern over this plan. They raised the question: What if one of these daughters were to marry a man from another tribe? Then the land would become his and the inheritance of Zelphehad would be lostThey brought their issue to Moses, who then sought the counsel of God. And what we see is God implementing a solution that had an immediate impact and long-term implications. He instituted a plan that kept the inheritance of Zelophehad within his immediate family and that required his daughters to adopt a long-term, corporate mentality that was designed to meet the concerns of the entire community of Israel.

Ep 744 – Numbers 35 Dec 30, 2018

Show notes

We all make mistakes. And sometimes our mistakes have costly consequences. But I think it's safe to say that there is probably no mistake more costly than involuntary manslaughter – the accidental taking of another human being's life. That's something for which a simple, "I'm sorry" doesn't seem quite adequate. And in the Numbers 35, we have God establishing a plan for dealing for just such an occasion. He ordered the Israelites to establish six cities of refuge, located throughout the land of Canaan, and occupied by members of the tribe of Levi. These cities were intended to act as sanctuary cities, where anyone who accidently and inadvertently committed murder could run for refuge. God had also established another important policy associated with murder, that allowed the blood relatives of a murder victim to seek revenge on the one who took the individual's life. But to prevent the blood avenger from taking the life of an innocent person, the cities of refuge were established. And believe it or not, all of this has a lot of application for us today.

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