Isaiah 34
COMMENTARY:
: 1 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. (7181 “hearken” [qashab] means attend, heed, incline, be attentive, pay attention, give attention, or listen carefully.)
DEVOTION: Have you ever given instructions to your children or grandchildren? Here is how it goes. “Please pick up your room and put everything away in their proper place. I will be back in a little while to check to see if you have done what I have said.” I come back in a little while and they are either still not picking up their room or they have picked it up and put it under the bed or in the closet or someplace where they don’t belong. Then you ask “What didn’t you understand about what I told you?” They say, “I don’t know. I forgot!” So goes the conversation.
Most of the time you have to stand right in the room to help them understand your instructions and also get busy doing what they are supposed to do. Once you leave the room anything can happen. I know that never happens to you.
Well, the LORD is giving instructions through HIS prophet Isaiah to the children of Israel.
First HE says the words “Come near,” so that they are not outside of hearing distance. They can hear the words correctly and then there is no misunderstanding.
Secondly, HE informs them as to who HIS audience is for this message. The audience is all the nations of the world. HE wants them to all listen to what HE has to say. The LORD created the world and all those who live in it. HE will give them all a message they can understand and act on. The message is one of a need to repent or be judged.
Thirdly, HE wants them to hear his message. It is a message of judgment because they have refused to repent of their sin. There will be a remnant that listens but the majority will not listen. They will continue to live the way they want to rather than change to please HIM.
Finally, HE would like them to act on what HE has stated. HE wants them to apply what HE has said to them. That can only do what HE wants them too if they listen carefully. HIS instructions seem plain, just like a parents to their children but most of the time there isn’t careful listening involved. Most of us hear what we want to hear and forget the rest.
Children are allowed to not follow instructions carefully but once someone becomes an adult that should not be what is happening. Too many adults in our churches are not listening carefully to what is being stated from the Word of God.
Remember if the Bible is not opened and preached – change churches. If the Bible is not believed in the church you are attending – change churches. If they are changing the meanings of the Bible saying it is old fashion – change churches. If the Bible is preached in truth and you are not listening you have to answer to the LORD for your actions.
CHALLENGE: Listen carefully to what the Bible is teaching. It is not old fashion, it is TRUTH.)
: 2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nation, and HIS fury upon all their armies: HE hath utterly destroyed them, HE hath delivered them to the slaughter. (7110 “indignation”[qetseph] means wrath, anger of God, frustration, judgment of anger, a feeling of intense anger that does not subside, often on an epic scale.)
DEVOTION: The Bible only allows the LORD to have this type of anger toward people. HE is the one who created the world and put the first humans on it. HE is the one who gave Adam and Eve instructions and yet they didn’t listen to HIM and so for many generations till today we have those who will not listen to the instructions of the LORD.
Those who choose to disobey the LORD is going to judge in HIS time and in HIS way. The Bible informs us that those who are without the LORD in their life are going to face HIS judgment.
So we see that throughout the Bible many nations and at times even Israel was disobedient and they had to be judged. There is a day coming where all those who reject the offer of salvation that the LORD has given regarding Jesus Christ will have to face their judgment for eternity.
Those of us that have asked the LORD into our life will be given rewards according to our works that are pleasing to the LORD and the rest of them will be burned but we will be saved “yet so as by fire.”
God wants HIS people in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament to be witnessing to those who need HIM in their life. It is part of our responsibility. We are not to fail to do this if we want the blessings of the LORD.
CHALLENGE: Are you witnessing for the LORD today in your family, neighborhood and world? With the help of the LORD we can reach those we love with the message of salvation.
: 4 All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down as the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree. The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982)
DEVOTION: Recently we took a trip to visit the seven churches of Revelation and then went to Athens and Corinth. While we were there we visited many sites that talked about the gods that the cities and cultures worshipped. They was an acropolis where the temples to these gods or goddesses were worshipped. Almost always they were located on the tops of large hills or mountains to highlight their worth and power as gods. Israel had similar mountaintop worship centers and Isaiah foretells of the destruction of these places.
Here in chapter 34 he returns to the destruction of nations and their gods. Evidently the whole universe will be involved in this judgment. The Lord will roll up the heavens like a scroll that He has finished reading. The sun, moon, and stars will wither and fall like grapes or figs (cf. Matt. 24:29; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 6:13–14). This implies also the destruction of the pantheon of gods that these heavenly bodies represented in the ancient world. This may refer to the judgment of the sixth seal in the Tribulation (Rev. 6:12–13), or to the eternal state, after the Millennium, when the sun will not be needed (Rev. 21:1). Or perhaps Isaiah was speaking figuratively of a change in the whole power structure in the Millennium when human kings will be done away with and God alone will be in control.
However, the Lord chooses to bring this judgment to pass the people of the world need to be prepared and forewarned! We have been given an opportunity to proclaim the Good News of the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ while the judgment is being withheld. Let us be diligent as we do not know when the end will come to the church age and the beginning of judgment will commence.
CHALLENGE: Let us pray and prepare as if this is the last day of the age of grace! The return of Christ will usher in the great judgment and people need to be warned. (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
: 16 Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit hath gathered them. (7121 “read” [qara] means to call, recite, cry out, utter a loud sound, proclaim, announce, preach or to summons.)
DEVOTION: Records are important. If you file a tax return but don’t keep the records of all of your expenses for seven years they can come and audit you and you will fail. They want to see the receipts. Keeping records is not easy sometimes.
Also if you are an individual who has to write a dissertation and have all your research on your computer and don’t back it up you could lose all your research if there is a power surge. Backing up your research on a external hard drive or on an online server is always good.
The LORD used HIS servants to record what has taken place from the creation of the world until the end of the world. Each servant or writer is under that inspiration of the Holy Spirit to write an inerrant record of what has taken place in the past and what will happen in the present and even what is going to happen in the future.
One of the proofs of the inerrancy of the Bible is fulfilled prophesy. Isaiah is giving a message of the LORD that will be happening in the future. It will happen after Isaiah is dead. Some false teachers think that the LORD doesn’t know the future. That HE is surprised by what is happening in our world. They are wrong and will answer to the LORD for their false teaching.
There is going to come a time when the LORD will destroy the nations. HIS time of anger will be reached. HE is long-suffering but there is a limit. HE is going to roll back the heavens as a scroll. HE is going to fill HIS sword with blood. It is going to be the day of the LORD’S vengeance. Isaiah uses Edom as an example of what the LORD is going to do in the future. Animals will only inhabit the land of Edom. The people will be gone. There will be confusion. There will be emptiness.
Isaiah instructs the children of Israel to seek out the record of the LORD’S communication with him. HE has recorded HIS future actions in a book. Isaiah is writing one of these books. The Old Testament is full of books that tell of the LORD’S dealing with people in our world. HE is dealing with them in relation to how they have treated HIS people. There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament that tell of HIS love and HIS judgment. They also tell us that HE has a plan for mankind. HE is working HIS plan. Consult the book.
This verse not only tells the people of God to consult the book but to preach it. They are to preach with a loud sound. They are to proclaim it. The message is one that can be told to others as a warning of future events. God’s people are to spread the word to all they come in contact with on a daily basis.
Are we spreading the word of coming judgment? Are we telling others about the only way to escape this judgment? Isaiah was spreading the Word of God. It is our turn NOW!!!
CHALLENGE: Study the Bible with the idea that it gives you a picture of what God is doing and why. Then instruct others.
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