Isaiah 10
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your glory? (6486 “visitation” [paquddah] means oversight, mustering, punishment, vengeance, reckoning, or judgment.)
DEVOTION: Both Israel and Judah were moving further and further away from the LORD. They were following the lead of their neighboring nations. They believed that there was more than one god. They believed that they could act any way they wanted and their false god would do nothing to them. They even believed that the one true God who created the universe was the same as their false gods.
Isaiah warned them that a day of reckoning was coming. He wondered who they would turn to on such a day. It was going to be a day of punishment for their sins. They had stopped confessing their sins and were not serious about their worship of Jehovah.
God had sent many prophets to warn them of this day. Again they counted on their alliances with other nations to help them if someone came to fight with them. They were wrong. It was a world much like ours, every man for themselves.
The Bible continues to warn us that there is a day of reckoning and judgment that is coming to our world. It is called the Tribulation time period of seven years. It is the completion of the seventy weeks of Daniel. Sixty-nine weeks have been fulfilled. The time of Jacob’s trouble has not been fulfilled.
Is our world in such a state that that day of reckoning could be coming soon? Many think that because the warning is two thousand years old that it will never happen. Our God is not a liar. HE stated that it was going to happen.
Christ warned HIS disciples to be ready and warned others to be ready. HE taught that there was a coming day. In that day people would run to the hills. In that time period there would be people wishing that the rocks would fall on them.
Our message should be the same of the LORD. We should be busy serving HIM every day. When the trumpet sounds for those who are HIS servants we will leave this world for a time of blessing with HIM. Those left behind will not like living during the day of reckoning. Sin is going to be judged by a righteous God.
CHALLENGE: We need to live each day as if it was our last or it was the day when the trumpet will call Christ’s servants to the Judgment Seat of Christ to receive rewards for what they have done in service to the King of Kings and LORD of LORDS.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 5 O Assyrian, the rod of MINE anger, and the staff in their hand is MINE indignation. (2195 “indignation” [za’am means anger, rage, a feeling of righteous anger, or wrath.)
DEVOTION: It is not always wrong to be angry with something or someone. The LORD expresses HIMSELF as using another nation to discipline the children of Israel when they are not listening to HIM.
The children of Israel were not being obedient and they thought the LORD would not do anything about their sin and rejection of faithful service to HIM. They were wrong.
We need to realize as we read the Old Testament and the New Testament that God wants HIS people to be obedient to HIM and if they are not HE will do something about it.
Today, we know that HE normally deals with us individually because of disobedience. HE wants those who claim a relationship with HIM to be obedient. HE knows that we are not sinless but HE wants us to keep short accounts with HIM.
HE wants us to confess our sin and ask for strength to sin less. We will never be sinless as Jesus was but we can keep the short accounts with HIM and serve HIM after HE disciplines us.
Here we find that the LORD uses a sinful nation to discipline a righteous nation, in order to, cause HIS followers or in the case of Israel HIS nation to return to faithful service to HIM.
CHALLENGE: Our daily accounting the LORD helps us to sin less and be more obedient to HIM, so that, we can witness to others.
: 6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. (2611 “hypocritical” [chaneph] means polluted, defiled, corrupt, not revering God, irreligious, or estranged from God.)
DEVOTION: The president of our nation proclaimed that America is not a Christian nation. America was founded on Christian principles right out of the Bible The Ten Commandments were hung in the Supreme Court and in many court houses around the nation if not all. The laws of the land were based on Biblical verses. Most people went to church when the nation began and many still do but not most.
Our society is trying to remove any Biblical principle from the laws of the land. Also the schools are forbidding people to pray or study the Bible but seem to allow other religions to be taught.
Many of our churches are moving further and further away from the Word of God and trying to fit into society rather than into the commands set forth by God in the Bible. Our judges are individuals who don’t want to honor God any more. Washington continue to persecute those who want to believe the Bible and have it as a guiding principle in their lives and businesses.
One of the greatest tragedies is that we as a nation are shedding innocent blood regularly and selling their parts to make a profit. The children of Israel were also guilty of not taking care of their widows and orphans. There were many babies that were given over to false worship as sacrifices.
So Israel is a corrupt nation and Assyria is going to be used of the LORD to judge Israel for their sins but they are going to be judged in the future as well. God is in control of every nation whether they know it or not. HE uses heathen nations to judge Israel because they were acting like a heathen nation.
God is going to have to judge any nation that continues to act like a heathen nation. HE can even now use a heathen nation to just a so called Christian nation by the people who live in it even if the current president doesn’t consider our nation to be Christian.
CHALLENGE: Is it possible for our nation or any nation to have a revival today? The answer is YES!! If a nation turns from its sins and obeys the LORD. Can you and I be part of the revival? YES!! Pray for the LORD to give us a revival even today!!!
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again STAY upon him that smote them; but shall STAY upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. (8172 “stay” [shaan] means to lean oneself upon, trust in, support oneself on, rely, and rest against.)
DEVOTION: The tribe of Judah was relying on the king of Assyria to save them from Samaria and Syria. Assyria was the rod that the LORD used to judge Samaria. HE was going to use them to deal with Judah as well.
However, HE stated that when they had completed their task, HE was going to judge them as well. Through all this there would be a remnant left that followed the LORD. The remnant of Israel needed to rely on the LORD alone. They needed to trust the LORD. They needed to rest in the LORD.
HE was still the Sovereign LORD of the universe. HE was still working HIS plan for HIS people. There was only one way to gain salvation from judgment on this earth as well as throughout eternity. The way is through Jesus Christ alone. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ.
The nation as a whole had trusted in themselves and their alliances with other nations. They were worshiping the false gods of these nations. They thought that as long as they brought their sacrifices to the LORD they could do as they pleased. This was wrong thinking. It was a wrong attitude toward the Creator of the Universe. HE was not happy with them.
The king of Assyria was chosen by God to judge the people of Israel because they were being hypocritical. They were worshiping the LORD with their hand but their hearts were far from the LORD. Once the LORD used the Assyrians they thought that they had done it in their own power. They were wrong.
If we are being hypocritical in our worship of the LORD, HE will have to judge us or chasten us. When we look around at the practices of those who claim to be Christians – are they living like they are different from the rest of the world? Look at the habits of those who claim Christ – are they practicing godliness? The Old Testament is an example for us to learn from today. Are we learning? Do we trust the LORD or ourselves or our alliances?
Throughout the Bible God’s people are warned not to trust in their own power. It is our prayer that we have learned this truth. Share it with others.
I was talking with an individual earlier this week regarding control of our lives. I told him that “we think we are in control” and he laughed because he knew it was true and that we had to change our thinking regarding our future.
CHALLENGE: Correcting our thinking to use the mind of Christ is a fulltime job with the help of the Holy Spirit. Ask direction from the LORD so that we can “overflow with righteousness.”
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