Isaiah 27
COMMENTARY:
: 5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. (7965 “peace” [shalom] means completeness, soundness, welfare, safety, soundness, health, prosperity, contentment, or tranquility.)
DEVOTION: One of the heart cries of our day is for a time of tranquility in our world. There are wars in almost every country whether with guns or with money. Every nation seems to be affected by the lack of money that seems to be available to the common man. Many companies are downsizing or closing their doors. When there is a job opening there are so many applications that the ones hiring have their pick of the best. Everyone would like to live a prosperous life with few worries. That is not happening now and will not happen in the near future.
God has a plan for the ages. HE is working HIS plan in Israel and in the rest of the world. Sin has caused a problem. The problem is that God wants a holy people to HIMSELF and that only comes through tribulation. People who believe in the LORD turn to HIM when all else fails. The children of Israel need tribulation to see that they have nowhere else to turn.
These last few chapters have explained the LORD’S plan to send tribulation to Israel to purge it from sin. Judgment came because of their being unwilling to follow the LORD. They would rather worship false gods instead of answering to the one true God who created them.
However, in all these chapters there are verses of hope given to the children of Israel. Here we find that if HIS people would take hold of HIS strength, they would have safety. The time period of their prosperity is still future. There is coming a day when the battle will be over and the LORD will gather those who are HIS followers to Jerusalem to worship their King. This will happen at the end of the seven year Tribulation period.
Today we can look at our world and get discouraged. The news media has so much negative things to report, it can cause us not to want to listen to the news anymore.
However, throughout the Bible we find that even though the world is discouraging, the LORD gives hope to HIS followers. We need to realize that we have hope. We need to share this hope with others. The plan is processing as the LORD before the foundation of the world planned it.
I believe that those who are followers of the LORD will hear a trumpet sound and the LORD will gather us to go with HIM to heaven. Then the time period described above will happen on this earth.
CHALLENGE: Are we ready to listen for it? Are we living in a state of contentment? We can!!!
: 9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. (3722 “purged” [kaphar] means to be cleansed of sin or from the defilement of sin, to appease, make amends, make atonement, make good, be removed, or to be covered over.)
DEVOTION: The only sacrifice that atones for sin is the blood of Jesus Christ. HE came to die on the cross to take away the sins of those who are trusting in HIM for their personal salvation.
Even in the Old Testament the sacrifices were not enough. It was going to take the coming of Jesus in the future to take the sins away from those who willingly trusted in Jesus as their personal Savor.
Too often some teach that “good works” will save some people but that is a lie from hell. None of our good works can save us or anyone else. It is only the blood sacrifice of Jesus that gives us an opportunity to become a genuine follower of HIM.
Today we still have false worship going on even in our churches. Genuine worship is done when we trust in Christ alone to save us and we serve because we are grateful for HIS provision for us.
Our witness needs to be based on the fact that we can’t earn our salvation but we can express it in our daily life by confessing our sins and serving the LORD with the gifts HE has given us at the point of salvation.
CHALLENGE: The children of Israel had to learn to depend on God alone and we need to do the same. Our works will not save us.
: 11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. (998 “understanding” [biynah] means wisdom, knowledge, discernment, insight, or perceptive words.)
DEVOTION: There are people in our world that you can explain things to in simple language and they still don’t get it. It is not that they don’t try but they just can’t get some simple concepts.
There are instructions that come with most of the products that we buy today. These instructions are supposed to be written so that anyone with a sixth grade education can follow them. Well, most people don’t know how to follow them.
There are people that can learn if someone shows them how to do something the first time and will remember how to do it a second time. But if they don’t write down the first instructions and it is a long time before the next time they have to use those instructions, they forget.
The children of Israel were given instructions from the LORD many times but they didn’t have the discernment to apply those instructions to their life. They had to be judged. There had to be a time period of chastening. Once the chastening was done, the LORD could restore them to a place of honor.
We find that they, as well as, us don’t have the discernment to know that we are created beings and that we are to worship our Creator only. We try to put things or others in HIS place. HE doesn’t like that and tells us so in HIS Word, the Bible.
Just like the children of Israel not being people with discernment, we don’t use our knowledge to worship the one true God. There is coming a time when everyone who was ever born will fall down before the LORD and acknowledge HIM as their Creator. However, during this time those who have not become HIS follower will be judged for eternity away from HIS presence. HE will have no mercy toward them. HE will have no favor toward them.
CHALLENGE: Pray for discernment on how to share the truth of the Word of God with others. If you don’t understand – ask a good Bible teacher for answers.
:13 “So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; they will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.” The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
DOVOTION: In a day that the children of Israel were anticipating as the Lord makes a promise to bring them back to their promised land. That same promise should make us anticipatory as well as we await the return of the Lord for His own. Our promise is not to a land or earthly possessions but to the presence of Christ himself. We are promised that reality of seeing and being with Him forever in His presence. John 14: 1-4 Jesus declares that he has gone to prepare a place and he will come again for His own. “I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you will be also.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 states; “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
As the Israelites were looking to worship in the holy city of Jerusalem so we anticipate being able to worship in heaven with Christ. Are you listening for the trumpet?
CHALLENGE: Christ return is closer today than ever before! Are you prepared to meet Him? (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
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