Author Archives: RB3

All Glory to God the Father

Let us turn to Isaiah 53

The Suffering Servant
1 Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

The implied answer is not all or none. We find in Romans 10:16 Paul says “However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?””

2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

One of the reasons why the Jews, his own people, rejected him, because he came as a humble carpenter and rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. He grew up among them, they knew his father Joseph. How is it this man can suddenly talk in such a way and refer to himself as the Son of God.

3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Nowhere in all the Old Testament is it so plainly and fully prophesied that Christ ought to suffer, and then to enter into his glory, as in this chapter. To this day few will acknowledge that Divine power which goes with the word. The authentic and most important report of salvation for sinners, through the Son of God, is disregarded.

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.

How is it the Son of God, who is God, who had been given all authority to judge the quick and the dead, this Holy God would submit to this usage? It must be known that his griefs and miseries were not laid upon him for his own sake, but wholly for the sake of sinful men, in whose stead he stood, and for whose sins he suffered.

5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.

This is an account of the sufferings of Christ; also of the design of his sufferings. It was for our sins, and in our stead, that our Lord Jesus suffered. We have all sinned, and have come short of the glory of God. Sinners have their beloved sin, their own evil way, of which they are fond. Our sins deserve all griefs and sorrows, even the most severe. We are saved from the ruin, to which by sin we become liable, by laying our sins on Christ. This atonement was to be made for our sins. And this is the only way of salvation. Our sins were the thorns in Christ’s head, the nails in his hands and feet, the spear in his side. He was delivered to death for our offences. By his sufferings he purchased for us the Spirit and grace of God, to mortify our corruptions, which are the afflictions of our souls. We may well endure our lighter sufferings, if He has taught us to esteem all things but loss for him, and to love him who has first loved us.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.

The confession of repentant Israel (Psalm 119:176), of repentant humanity (1Peter 2:25), was also the thought present to the mind of the Servant, as in

Matthew 9:36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.

He neither murmured against God for giving him up to suffer for other men’s sins, nor reviled men for punishing him without cause, nor used apologies or endeavours to save his own life; but willingly and quietly accepted the punishment of our iniquity, manifesting, through the whole scene of his unparalleled sufferings, the most exemplary patience and meekness, and the most ready and cheerful compliance with his heavenly Father’s will.
Benson Commentary

8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?

Jesus appeared in so humble a form, that, though Pilate was convinced of his innocence, he seemed a person of so little importance that it would not be worthwhile to hazard anything to preserve him.

9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

Although he did not die for his own sins, but only for those of mankind, yet he was willing to die like a criminal, or like a sinner, as all other men are, and to be put into a grave, a pauper’s tomb, which was a further degree of his humiliation. It was said, he made his grave, because this was Christ’s own act, and he willingly yielded himself up to death and burial.

10 But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

His God and Father spared him not, though he was his only and beloved Son, but delivered him up for us all, to shame and torture, delivered him by his determinate counsel and foreknowledge.
Acts 2:23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.

Come, and see how Christ loved us! We could not put him in our stead, but he put himself there. Thus he took away the sin of the world, by taking it on himself. He made himself subject to death, which to us is the wages of sin.

12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

This last verse pretty much explains itself. He chose this death willingly and was nailed to a cross with the criminals. But this selfless act was not for himself, but for us. And as such, if we accept Christ as our Savior and King, we will reside with Him in Heaven, forever.

We find in our day the pressure of the government, the education system and social whims or our current culture, and I stress the word whims, for it is just a few satan inspired voices that lead the rest of the virtue signalling goats to join in the condemnation of our Christian way of life.

And if we look at our Christian way of life closely, it is not all that healthy to begin with. This week, it turns out that The lead Pastor of a couple of Methodist churches in MN was said to have told the older members of Cottage Grove campus to stay home.

Now, I am not automatically believing what the media tells me on these kinds of things or anything else for that matter, so I did some looking into it. Turns out this Cottage Grove campus has not been doing well. They were down to 30 members and no pastor, so the members were doing the church service on their own. It is the typical story of what once was a strong church, with believers and their families, and as time moved on, so did their kids. With the usual losses due to lack of faith, old age and disease, a couple of decades later they are down to 30 members and no pastor. The leadership of Grove United Methodist Church took a vote and decided to change some things.The plan is to shut down the church in June and reopen later this year with a new pastor, new programming and building updates “aimed at engaging more members of a growing community.” Then comes the unhappy part.
A memo recommends that current members stay away for two years, then consult with the pastor about reapplying, the Pioneer Press reported.

While older members will not be physically barred from attending, the expectation is that they will not.

“We are asking them to let this happen,” Wetterstrom said. “For this to be truly new, we can’t have the core group of 30 people.”

https://www.fox19.com/2020/01/23/minn-church-says-it-never-asked-older-church-members-leave/

What the Leadership of this organization is looking for is newer, younger members. Bodies, not souls. This has been a common theme and problem, these seeker friendly churches who are so accepting of anyone and everyone that happens to fall into their preferred demographic. That in itself is not a problem, people should be welcomed to a church. Jesus accepted all who were contrite of heart when he was on this earth. Contrition is the key however, to those new members being welcomed into the church. Come as you are, but don’t expect to leave in that same condition. You may be drug addicted, think you are gay, lesbian, transgendered, or what have you, and the job of the church is to talk to you about your sin. To come alongside you and help you through these troubled times. Jesus saves, but you must acknowledge your sins and repent. Contrition.
And once you have a contrite heart, you must put away those sins. Otherwise it is just your mouth saying it but your heart not buying it.

God calls us to the pursuit of holiness. It is on us to remove the sin in our lives. There are people out there that profess to believe that it is God’s job to remove all our iniquities, not them. He sent his Son to die on a cross, so that we might have life eternal. These people need to step up the plate and clean their own house, so to speak.

Accepting Jesus does not mean your addiction or mental delusions will magically disappear. Not saying it can’t happen, but most of the time you have to work at getting satan out of your life. He had a comfy home there, he’s not going to let you kick him out easily.

Matthew 12:43-45 43 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

Getting back to this church in Cottage Grove, it is hard not to look at this and shake your head. It sounds as if they’ve already given in to the demands of this world. Churches become meeting places for like minded people, not houses of God. Our little church in Grove City just added something to their constitution that states you will not be married in our church if you are anything other than a man marrying a woman, both of them born that way and not claiming to be anything different. Is this going to stop misguided people from trying to enforce their will on our little church? Hard to say, but I do believe the good times are over.

If you are wondering the why of any of this, the answer is in Romans 1:24-32
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,

27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,

29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,

30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;

32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Further reading can be found in:
Leviticus 18:22, 20:13
Romans 1:26-27

“O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together” (Ps. 34:3)

All Glory to God our Father

Let us turn to Isaiah 52

1 Awake, awake,
Clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion;
Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city;
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
Will no longer come into you.

We find in Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord;
This is the Church asking YHWH (How the Hebrews referred to their Creator) to awaken and see to their plight. Which is a lot like the clay making demands to the Potter in Jeremiah 18 and God turns this around and tells them WAKE UP from your drunkenness and clothe yourself in your in garments of Honor and Glory provided by the Lord. The foreign invaders will no longer control the city at the time of the final restoration.
So a double meaning here. God is talking about Babylon and also the Second Coming of our Messiah. Keep in mind that these prophets are probably wondering at the meanings coming out of their own mouths. They are being given parts of the puzzle and may have had insight as to what the message was, but not everything. And that is a very good example of Faith. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Hebrews 11: 1
The kind of faith that we should have that God will provide our daily bread. And bread is symbolic of those things we need in our everyday life. Food, medicine, companionship, our needs are many and God knows them all. Faith tells us that we trust in God and He will sustain us.
Another aspect of this gift for God is we are told that we have been forgiven our sins if we have accepted our Savior and King, but that takes Faith to believe it, too. Our flesh is weak and prone to remembering all those sins, the great deceiver is very diligent at pushing those sins in our faces, as if to say “no, you weren’t really forgiven.”

I mentioned last week that the citizens of Jerusalem were prone to taking council of their fears. To be down in the mouth and morose at the consequence of their sins.

2 Shake yourself from the dust, rise up,
O captive Jerusalem;
Loose yourself from the chains around your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion.

To sit on the ground, to sit in the dust, is an expression descriptive of mourning Job 2:13 Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.
Jerusalem is here called on to arise and shake off the dust, as indicating that the days of her grief were ended, and that she was about to be restored to her former beauty and splendor.

One thing to keep in mind is Isaiah is speaking of the future here. He is talking about the conquest of Jerusalem that happen around 587 BC. The approximate date at which he speaks this passage is about 650 BC.

Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck – Jerusalem had been a captive, and confined as a prisoner. She is now called on to cast off these chains from her neck, and to be again at liberty. In captivity, chains or bands were attached to various parts of the body. They were usually affixed to the wrists or ankles, but it would seem also that sometimes collars were affixed to the neck. The idea is, that the Jews, who had been so long held captive, were about to be released, and restored to their own land. Once again, released from Babylon from which they had been captured due to their iniquities and then also when Jesus comes to rule as King, released from the bondaged of their sin of denying The Son of God as their Savior.

3 For thus says the Lord, “You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money.”

The people had complained that God had “sold them” into the hands of their enemies Psalm 44:12 You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them. “Not so,” is the answer from God. “There was no real sale, only a temporary transfer, and therefore Jehovah can redeem you at His own pleasure.

4 For thus says the Lord God, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

When in Egypt they had protection and sustenance, and therefore owed subjection to the king of Egypt. And yet when he oppressed them God punished him severely, and delivered them out of his hands. And the Assyrian oppressed them, the king of Babylon, who is called the king of Assyria, (2 Kings 23:29,) as also the Persian emperor is called, (Ezra 6:22,) because it was one and the same empire which was possessed, first by the Assyrians, then by the Babylonians, and afterward by the Persians.

Remembering in history, how often the Assyrian has oppressed them also, without cause. Remember the history of Sennacherib, Tiglath-pileser, and Salmaneser, and how they have laid the land waste, and remember also how He has delivered it from these oppressions. With the same certainty, and the same ease, He can deliver the people from the captivity at Babylon. Isaiah refers to different periods and events; and the idea is, that God had delivered them when they had been oppressed alike by the Egyptian, and by the Assyrians, and that he who had so often interposed would also rescue them from their oppression in Babylon.

5 Now therefore, what do I have here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?” Again the Lord declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.

And my name continually every day is blasphemed – That is talking about Babylon. The proud and oppressive Babylonians loved to add to the sorrows of the exiles by reproaching the name of their God, and by saying that he was unable to defend them and their city from ruin. This is the third reason why God would interpose to rescue them. The three reasons in this verse are, that they had been taken away for nought; that they were suffering grievous and painful oppression; and that the name of God was reproached. On all these accounts he felt that he had something to do in Babylon, and that his interposition was demanded.

6 Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that day I am the one who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’”

In that day; when He shall redeem His people: which work was begun by the return of the Jews from Babylon, and afterwards carried on, and at last perfected, by the coming of the Messiah.

7 How lovely on the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who announces peace
And brings good news of happiness,
Who announces salvation,
And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices,
They shout joyfully together;
For they will see with their own eyes
When the Lord restores Zion.

9 Break forth, shout joyfully together,
You waste places of Jerusalem;
For the Lord has comforted His people,
He has redeemed Jerusalem.

10 The Lord has bared His holy arm
In the sight of all the nations,
That all the ends of the earth may see
The salvation of our God.

The gospel proclaims liberty to those bound with fears. Let those weary and heavy laden under the burden of sin, find relief in Christ, shake themselves from the dust of their doubts and fears, and loose themselves from those bands. The price paid by the Redeemer for our salvation, was not silver or gold, or corruptible things, but his own precious blood.

11 Depart, depart, go out from there,
Touch nothing unclean;
Go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves,
You who carry the vessels of the Lord.

The context points to a great deliverance. It is a good example of the prophetical habit of casting prophecies of the future into the mold of the past.

12 But you will not go out in haste,
Nor will you go as fugitives;
For the Lord will go before you,
And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Depart ye, depart ye – This is a direct address to the exiles in their captivity. The same command occurs in Isaiah 48:20 Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth;
Say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.”

It is repeated here for the sake of emphasis; and the urgency of the command implies that there was some delay likely on the part of the exiles themselves. Many of them had become strongly attached to living in Babylon and not all that enthused to going back home. Most of those who were made captive would have died before the close of the exile. Their children, who constituted the generation to whom the command to return would be addressed, would have known the land of their fathers only by report. And since it had been sacked by the Babylonians, why go back to a ruined land.

The Exalted Servant
13 Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.

This is the beginning of a new prophecy. From Isaiah chapter 40 to here has been a message of deliverance of the people of God. This includes in it three distinct parts: the deliverance of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon, the deliverance of the Gentiles from their miserable state of ignorance and idolatry, and the deliverance of mankind from the captivity of sin and death.

Cyrus is expressly named as the immediate agent of God in effecting the first deliverance. A greater person is spoken of as the agent who is to effect the two latter deliverances, called the Servant, the Elect, of God, in whom his soul delighteth. Now these three subjects have a very close relation to one another; for, as the agent who was to effect the two latter deliverances, that being the Messiah, was to be born a Jew, with interesting limitations of time, family, and other circumstances, the first deliverance was necessary in the order of providence, and, according to the determinate counsel of God, to the accomplishment of the two latter deliverances; and the second deliverance was necessary to the third, or, rather, was involved in it, and made an essential part of it. (Benson Commentary)

14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form more than the sons of men.

Here begins that wonderful and faithful description of the office, character, and glory of the Messiah, which has struck conviction to many of the most hardened unbelievers. Christ is Wisdom itself; in the work of our redemption there appeared the wisdom of God in a mystery. Those that saw him, said, Surely never man looked so miserable: never was sorrow like unto his sorrow. But God highly exalted him. That shall be discovered by the gospel of Christ, which could never be told in any other way. And Christ having once shed his blood for sinners, its power still continues. May all opposers see the wisdom of ceasing from their opposition, and be made partakers of the blood of sprinkling, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost; obeying him, and praising his salvation. (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what had not been told them they will see,
And what they had not heard they will understand.

The “sprinkling” is that of the priest who cleanses the leper (Leviticus 4:6; Leviticus 4:17), and this was to be done by Him who was Himself counted as a leper “smitten of God”

The kings shall shut their mouths . The reverence, as in Isaiah 49:7, Job 29:9; Job 40:4, is that of silent wonder at the change which has passed over the suffering Servant. Wisdom Of Solomon 5:1-5 presents an interesting parallel, the reference there being to the person of the ideal righteous sufferer. In that case, as in this, there was, so to speak, a transfiguration “beyond all that men looked for.”

And the last 2 verses are marked change from Isaiah 6:9 He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.’

All of which points to “Keep yourself ready for that day, for we do not know the hour. Love one another and accept the joy that is waiting for you to embrace, that we might be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Our home is not here nor should we long for the things of this world. We are children of God, and our inheritance is waiting in heaven. Be patient and waiting with great hope and expectation.

I listened to an interesting Sermon by John MacArthur on Monday. It was on Paul talking to the Galatians.
We find in Galatians 3:1-5 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

And in the course of things Paul schools them in righteousness. Tells them when the flesh is in control, and it is obvious. Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, hatred, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing.” And that’s not an exhaustive list, and so he adds, “and things like these,” which is kind of an et cetera.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” The fruit of the Spirit is put in the singular because it is a virtue, it is not a list from which you pick. You don’t say, “Well today I’m going to show joy. Next Tuesday I may show gentleness. Couple days after that I may try to love somebody.” Doesn’t work like that. This is not a list.
You can do that in your sin. You can say, “Tomorrow I’m going to be impure, and then I’m going to go to a party and tell some lies, and then I’m going to get drunk.” I mean, you can plan your sin; it comes in bits and pieces. But when you walk in the Spirit, it comes as a package.
So sin is a list to choose from, but virtue is produced collectively.

The point I am coming to is of this package of virtues, Love and Joy is what I want to talk about. Love is first in the list because love is the greatest, according to 1 Corinthians 13. It’s the word agapē, familiar word from the verb agapaō. It is love, “to love,” and “love at the highest level.” This is the supreme word for the noblest of loves. There are other words for love that speak of friendship, and marital love, and even an erōs kind of love. But this is the word that speaks of the noblest kind of love, and this is the kind of love that is characteristic of God

What is love like? “Love is patient,” – verse 4 – “love is kind, is not jealous; love doesn’t brag, is not arrogant, doesn’t act unbecomingly; it doesn’t seek its own, is not provoked, doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered, doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;” – and then – “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” That’s the nature of love.

And Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” This is the love that is the noblest love of all loves. It means you seek only the best for everyone around you. You endure anything and everything. You believe the best about everyone. You speak the best about everyone. You sacrifice yourself even to the point of giving up your life for others. This is the essence of agapé love.

John 15:12, “This is My commandment, that you love one another,” – said Jesus – “just as I have loved you. I want you to love the way I have just loved you.” How had He just loved them? By washing their dirty feet.

And then we have Joy. What is its nature? It’s not superficial. It’s not related to circumstances. It’s not the kind of joy that you feel when something good comes along in your life. It’s joy unrelated to shifting circumstances. It’s joy that has nothing to do with whether you’re healthy or sick, nothing to do with whether you’re alone or in a crowd, nothing to do with whether you are paid enough or not enough, nothing to do with whether you have enough food or not enough food; not related whatsoever to whether your circumstances are positive or negative; not related at all to whether you have trouble in your life. No, this word is not related to that.
The word related to that is “happy.” Happy is related to the word “happen,” which is related to “happenstance.” Happy means you like the circumstances you’re in. We understand that. This is not that, this is chara. This is deep down, settled joy. This is miles below the surface of the troubled sea. This is in the dead calm of the depth of your soul. It doesn’t move, it’s unassailable, it’s immovable. It’s the deep-seated joy that provides for you constant – listen to these words – constant satisfaction and contentment.
Jesus actually said in John 15:11, “My joy I give you; you have My joy.” The very joy that the Son possesses in the promise of the Father, we possess in the promise of the Son.

I have to say that since I have accepted Christ, I have experienced this Joy. And it is not a heady emotional kind of thing that is always talked about. What it is to me is contentment with my circumstances, happiness that transcends my growing inability to care for myself or to be self sufficient to any extent. I have no worries, none. I know God is in charge of all, and there is no downside to what the future holds. And that Joy is available to everyone of you. If what I just described doesn’t sound like much, I have to tell you, that not having any worries or concerns and waking up content each morning is a very great blessing to me. As for Love, I can do that kind of Love that was described. I can think the best of people, I can listen to their troubles, help them when they need help, hope the best for them, not be judgmental. I was concerned that Love was what I knew, between family or husband and wife. No, this is a greater Love. Think about these things. They are important and they will have an impact on those around you. And that’s really the point.

All Glory to God the Father.

Let us turn to Isaiah 51

1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
Who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn
And to the quarry from which you were dug.

Isaiah is addressing the godly Jews, those that believed and looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. Of which there were not all that many of them. They had been influenced by their godless leaders. The tribes of Israel, their neighbors, which had fallen into idolatry and had been carried off into slavery and submission by Assyria (722-721 BC), never to return. We remember from last week’s Chapter 50 that God had issued a writ of divorce to Israel. That was referenced in Jeremiah 3:8. And her sister Judah had gotten haughty, seeing their defiled sister being kicked out while they remained; now they started to play the harlot. However there are always some that listen to God and adhere to his ways. It is the same now as in Isaiah’s day. I think we have many more distractions now than the Jews ever did. Instant communication is a blessing and a curse.
Looking at the second half of verse one, the rock you were hewn from and quarry from which you were dug. The Jews being a practical people and one that loved using similes. The rock refers to Abraham and the quarry refers to Sarah. They were very proud of being of Abraham’s. Infact, I think most of them were pretty sure that by claiming Abraham, they thought they had an easy in to heaven. Such was not the case. Matthew 3:7-10 John the Baptist, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, addresses a group of Pharisees and Sadducees.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;
9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.
10 The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Oh how we could use a man like that today. Read verse 8 to yourselves again and ponder it. For the ax is already laid at the root of the tree.

2 “Look to Abraham your father
And to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain;
When he was but one I called him,
Then I blessed him and multiplied him.”

God is calling to mind that HE took one man and made him the father of all Jews. And He did it when Abraham and Sarah were well, and I mean well beyond childbearing years. We also have the birth of Ishmael by Hagar, before Isaac. Ishmael is counted as the father of the Arab tribes.
We also have a reference to Genesis 3, God putting curse on Woman. Multiplied pain in childbirth. And Adam got cursed because he listened to his wife. Which plays out in our lives with just a bit of tenison, now and then, in married life. Your mileage may vary.

3 Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion;
He will comfort all her waste places.
And her wilderness He will make like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
Thanksgiving and sound of a melody.

4 “Pay attention to Me, O My people,
And give ear to Me, O My nation;
For a law will go forth from Me,
And I will set My justice for a light of the peoples.

The gospel of Christ shall be preached and published. How shall we escape if we neglect it? There is no salvation without righteousness. The soul shall, as to this world, vanish like smoke, and the body be thrown by like a worn-out garment. But those whose happiness is in Christ’s righteousness and salvation, will have the comfort of it when time and days shall be no more. Clouds darken the sun, but do not stop its course. The believer will enjoy his portion, while revilers of Christ are in darkness. From Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary.

5 “My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth,
And My arms will judge the peoples;
The coastlands will wait for Me,
And for My arm they will wait expectantly.

God is always near. That is something that we tend to forget when our lives go south. It is not possible to live a charmed life with nothing to stir you up. Where would God be if you could do it all yourself? Job is a good example. He had a good life. Wealth, wisdom, children to pass everything on to. He is held as our example of when life throws you a curveball. When he got news of the death of all his children, he fell on his knees and said “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:20
This has been something that I have latched on to, and I am so thankful that the Bible gave me the very phrase to repeat, when it is truly needed. When that metaphoric piano falls out of the sky and land somewhere in your life, God is there. This is not our home, heaven, with Jesus is. And He went there to prepare it for us. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3
My wife made a comment to me the other day. She said she had heard many people angry at death or cancer or something like that. If you believe, truly believe, how could it be such? Oh death, where is thy sting?
O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:55
Jesus conquered death and sin. And yet we forget. Oh fatih, where art thou? God created you, knows the hairs on your head, Luke 12:7. Death and cancer have no power over the Lord. God is the rock onto which we cling. Now the real tragedy that we can be in sorrow over is losing a friend or loved one that is not a believer. This is why He commands us to go out and spread the good news. You don’t want to lose anyone you love to eternal damnation, so tell them about our Messiah and Savior. It is not up to us to save anyone. That’s God’s job. But you might think to yourselves, “Oh, I am too old.” Let me remind you that Abraham and Sarah had a child at an advanced age. Abraham was a just a year or two younger than Leroy Johnson who went to Jesus at 103 and Sarah was about Carol Nelson’s age. You are never to old to do God’s work.

6 “Lift up your eyes to the sky,
Then look to the earth beneath;
For the sky will vanish like smoke,
And the earth will wear out like a garment
And its inhabitants will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be forever,
And My righteousness will not wane.

7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
A people in whose heart is My law;
Do not fear the reproach of man,
Nor be dismayed at their revilings.
8 “For the moth will eat them like a garment,
And the grub will eat them like wool.
But My righteousness will be forever,
And My salvation to all generations.”

Those who have God’s law written in their hearts vs those carnal Jews whose laws are written on mere stone tablets. Let not the mewlings of the idol-loving countrymen concern you. Those whose happiness is in Christ’s righteousness and salvation, will have the comfort of it when time and days shall be no more. Clouds darken the sun, but do not stop its course. The believer will enjoy his portion, while revilers of Christ are in darkness

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord;
Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.
Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces,
Who pierced the dragon?

Isaiah appeals to God on behalf of his people, to exert his power as He did in former times. That hath cut Rahab – That is, cut it in pieces, or destroyed it. It was that arm which wielded the sword of justice and of vengeance by which Rahab was cut in pieces. The word ‘Rahab’ here means Egypt.

10 Was it not You who dried up the sea,
The waters of the great deep;
Who made the depths of the sea a pathway
For the redeemed to cross over?

Art thou not it – Art thou not still the same? The crux of the appeal is that the same arm that dried up the sea, and made a path for the Jewish people, was still able to intervene and rescue them.
Which hath dried the sea – The Red Sea when the children of Israel passed over Exodus 14:21. This is the common illustration to which the Hebrew prophets and poets speak of, when they wish to refer to the interposition of God in favor of their nation

11 So the ransomed of the Lord will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
And everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

12 “I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies
And of the son of man who is made like grass,

We whose lives are but a puff of breeze on a warm summer day, whose home is not here, but with our Father in Heaven. What do we have to worry about when we are children of God and inherit our place in heaven? A God that loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son to die on the cross, thereby removing the sting of death to us, We just have to have Faith. Ask and it will be given to you. Matthew 7:7

13 That you have forgotten the Lord your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth,
That you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor,
As he makes ready to destroy?
But where is the fury of the oppressor?

These verses are designed to rebuke that state of the mind, all too common, even among the people of God – where they are intimidated by the number and strength of their foes, and forget their dependence on God, and his promises of aid. In such circumstances God reproves them for their lack of confidence in him, and calls on them to remember that he has made the heavens, and has all power to save them.

14 The exile will soon be set free, and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his bread be lacking.

15 For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the Lord of hosts is His name).

Isaiah has been telling them they are about to be carried off into captivity, whether any of them understood that is not known. But he is also telling them that God will not let them wither on the vine.

16 I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

He had committed his truth to the Jewish people; to Zion. He had entrusted them with his statutes and his laws; he had given them the promise of the Messiah, and through him the assurance that the true religion would be spread to other nations. He would, therefore, preserve them, and restore them again to their own land.

17 Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem,
You who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of His anger;
The chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs.

Those hard headed, stiff necked Jews are being called to awaken from sin and cast off the despondency and despair that comes from drinking deeply from God’s chalice of anger. When the Jews were in captivity they were so overwhelmed with the sense of their troubles that they had no heart left to mind any thing that tended to their comfort or relief; and therefore when the deliverance came, they were said to be like them that dream. Psalm 126:1 A Song of Ascents. When the LORD brought back the captive ones of Zion, We were like those who dream.

18 There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne,
Nor is there one to take her by the hand among all the sons she has reared.

Neither princes, nor prophets, nor priests were able or willing to lead out of their misery.

19 These two things have befallen you;
Who will mourn for you?
The devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
How shall I comfort you?
The city of Jerusalem had suffered not only property (devastation and destruction) but life and limb (famine and sword).

20 Your sons have fainted,
They lie helpless at the head of every street,
Like an antelope in a net,
Full of the wrath of the Lord,
The rebuke of your God.

The inhabitants lay helpless in the streets, having expended all their strength in fighting against God’s wrath. And I am pretty convinced we have not learned that lesson yet.

21 Therefore, please hear this, you afflicted,
Who are drunk, but not with wine:

22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord, even your God
Who contends for His people,
“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling,
The chalice of My anger;
You will never drink it again.

This verse contains a promise that they would be delivered from the effect of the wrath of God, under which they had been suffering so long.
Thou shalt no more drink it again – Thou shalt no more be subject to similar trials and calamities. Probably the idea here is, not that Jerusalem would never be again destroyed, which would not be true, for it was afterward subjected to severer trials under the Romans; but that the people who should then return – the pious exiles – should be preserved forever after from similar sufferings. Isaiah is trying to console them, and this he does by the assurance that they should be subjected to such trials no more.

23 “I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
Who have said to you, ‘Lie down that we may walk over you.’
You have even made your back like the ground
And like the street for those who walk over it.”

But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you – The nations that have made war upon you, and that have reduced you to bondage, particularly the Babylonians. The calamities which the Jews had suffered, God would transfer to their foes.
Which have said to you, Bow down, that we may go over – This is a striking description of the pride of eastern conquerors. It was not uncommon for conquerors actually to put their feet on the necks of conquered kings, and tread them in the dust.

Isaiah concludes this chapter with news that should hearten some, those that listen. And it should hearten us too. Surely God’s chalice of anger will come upon us. We, who have turned from God, kicked Him out of our Government, out of our Schools and are pressuring our churches to bow to the whims of a pagan and carnal society, we will drink from that chalice of wrath and feel remorse and abandonment from our Creator. However, if we repent and accept His Son as our Savior and King, this cup will pass too, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

All Glory to God our Father

Let us turn to Isaiah 50

1 “Where is the certificate of divorce
By which I have sent your mother away?

To the Jews in Babylon, who were suffering under his hand, and who might be apt to complain that God had dealt with them with as much caprice and cruelty as a man did with his wife, when he gave her a writing of divorce, and put her away without any just cause.
Let us now go to Deuteronomy 24 and look into the Law concerning divorce.
Deuteronomy 24: 1-5
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,
2 and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife,
3 and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,
4 then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
5 “When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

This custom of divorce Moses found was probably in existence among the Jews, and also in surrounding nations, and as it was difficult if not impossible at once to remove it, he permitted it on account of the hardness of the hearts of the Jews.

Now let’s go to Matthew 19 and see what Jesus tells us about the subject.
Matthew 19:3-9
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”
4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
7 They *said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.

So why is God is talking about divorce? The Jews were in a sense the woman or bride that God had wedded to.
Revelation 21:9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
They were his people and he was their God. But once the Jews moved into the Promised Land, they began to play the harlot. We find that the people who had been living in the Promised Land, before the Jews got there, were living in sin. God had told Joshua to remove or kill these people. This makes many believers and unbelievers uncomfortable. And I have to wonder, have they really read the Bible?

It brings to mind 2 other Isaiah passages,
Isaiah 29:16 You have everything backward! Should the potter be thought of as clay? Should what is made say of its maker, “He didn’t make me”? Should what is shaped say of the one who shaped it, “He doesn’t understand”?

Isaiah 64:8 But now, LORD, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand.

People who think that God was wrong to kill these poor Canaanites are ignorant clay talking back to the Potter.

In Joshua 11:14 All the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the sons of Israel took as their plunder; but they struck every man with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They left no one who breathed.

There are at least two reasons why God did this. The first is evidenced in what came to pass when Israel did not obey God in this command. God wanted the land cleared of all temptations to His people to turn from Him, His worship and His law. The Canaanites were a threat to the purity of God’s people. He had set them apart, consecrated them, adopted them. In giving this order, He was protecting them.

Joshua 11:20 For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

If you are still troubled by this, I recommend you go and read the book of Joshua. The Canaanites knew of God, but rejected Him. Rahab the prostitute confirmed this. The wages of sin is death and we are very good at forgetting this.

Joshua, for all his faithfulness, left the job unfinished. Once Israel had taken the land, once they began to feel safe, they started to think it might be helpful to leave some of the Canaanites around, to fetch their water and chop their wood. The book of Judges reveals the results. Those few who were spared became a snare, just as God predicted they would. Soon, everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

God had not formally thrown out the wife (Judah) whom he had chosen as he had done her sister Israel.
Jeremiah 3:8 “And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.

Israel was given up to her iniquities. I think here in American, we are inches away from that very thing we are talking about with Israel.

If you are keeping track, we are not even through with verse one yet. When I first looked at Isaiah 50, I thought, hmm, short lesson. We might have to all go out and shoot some hoops in the gym to fill in the rest of the time. To those reading this online, our room is connected to the gym. This building used to be the Grove City School back in the day.

Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you?
Behold, you were sold for your iniquities,
And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

Among the Hebrews, a father had the right, by the law of Moses, if he was oppressed with debt, to sell his children. In like manner, if a man had stolen anything, and had nothing to make restitution, he might be sold for the theft. God is being quite clear here. Ye have sold yourselves; You have gone into captivity only on account of your sins. It has been your own act, and you have thus become bondmen to a foreign power only by your own choice.

2 “Why was there no man when I came?
When I called, why was there none to answer?

God was calling them to repentance, but no man of the nation yielded to obedience. He sent them prophets, but they did not listen. Isaiah was told this, from the lips of our Lord.

Isaiah 6:9 He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.

Isaiah 6:11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,
“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,

They had not been punished without warning. But no one was listening. Are we listening now? We have the whole story. We cannot say we have not been warned, yet we will. Do not sit passively in your church pew. It’s an amazing attribute of ourselves. We get comfortable, we start taking things for granted. And the older we get, the more lethargic we become. Willing to let things be, even if we aren’t really happy with what’s going on. With the pressure of the world, demanding that Christianity change to meet the social whims of our society, you do know that your church can change from something that it once was to something that it now is not. All the while you’re sitting there in your pew. So you have to wonder, how much satan is too much satan in your life? It’s between you and Jesus.

Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom?
Or have I no power to deliver?

God is asking, what is the reason of this contempt and rebellion? Is it because you expect no good from me, but think I am either unwilling or unable to save you? God never deprived any of their advantages, except for their sins. The Jews were sent into Babylon for their idolatry, a sin which broke the covenant; and they were at last rejected for crucifying the Lord of glory. God called on them to leave their sins, and prevent their own ruin. Last of all, the Son came to his own, but his own received him not. When God calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left to be miserable. Are you now in this position? Are you unhappy with your life and circumstances? This is not the fault of God. He has his hand out, still. Why is it you don’t take hold of it?

Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink for lack of water
And die of thirst.

It is tragically ironic that we have a large number of people today that are claiming God does not exist. Some by exclaiming it and some by apathy. Yahweh, our Creator, could at a breath, dissolve this universe and start over if that be his will. But, in spite of our sinful ways, He does love us and expects us to love Him back. We go back to the clay yelling at the Potter.

Jeremiah 18:1-8 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying,
2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.
4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,
6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;
8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.

God in his Mercy and Grace will relent from punishment if you repent. That has always been the lesson. If the Canaanites had repented, they would have been forgiven and allowed to live. Nineveh did. Much to Jonah’s disgust. And as a people, if we got our sackcloth and ashes on and repented, the Lord would turn from punishing us for our many iniquities. If we would only act like we are children of God, with an inheritance of Heaven.

3 “I clothe the heavens with blackness
And make sackcloth their covering.”

This next part, to my mind, is Jesus speaking.

4 The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples,
That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

5 The Lord God has opened My ear;
And I was not disobedient
Nor did I turn back.

Mark 14:32-42 32 They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He *said to His disciples, “Sit here until I have prayed.”
33 And He *took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled.
34 And He *said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.”
35 And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.
36 And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”
37 And He *came and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?
38 Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
39 Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him.
41 And He *came the third time, and *said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough; the hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
42 Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

6 I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.

This would be at this time in Mark 14:65 Some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists, and to say to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers received Him with slaps in the face.
Our Lord and Savior, our Messiah, was degraded and put up with persecution and savagery from the people he came to save.

And yet…

Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

7 For the Lord God helps Me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced;
Therefore, I have set My face like flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.

Luke 23:9 And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing.

Since Jesus did speak before the High Priest and before Pilate, His not speaking before Herod is the means by which Isaiah 53:7 was fulfilled.
Each of the trials was before a different authority:
Religious authority – the High Priest and Sanhedrin
Political/legal authority – Pilate on behalf of the Roman Empire
King of over Galilee and Peraea – Herod the tetrarch (Antipas)

Herod was “king” over a limited territory of Israel and over a limited number of Jewish people. Jesus was ultimately executed for this reason:

Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. (John 19:19 NKJV)

This declaration by Pilate recognized Jesus as King of the Jews, a legal title which would include those Jewish people scattered throughout the Roman Empire. This contrasts with Herod whose kingship was over a limited part of Israel (Galilee and Paraea). So as a sheep is silent before its shearers, Jesus was silent before Herod who “shearing” Him of a limited kingdom (Herod’s). But Jesus is not silent before the High Priest who cannot take away His position as the True and Great High Priest and He is not silent before Pilate who will recognize Him as King of all Jewish people.

8 He who vindicates Me is near;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand up to each other;
Who has a case against Me?
Let him draw near to Me.

The words are the strongest assertion of His absolute freedom from anything that an adversary could lay hold of on which to found a charge, and not merely so, but they also dare to assert that the unerring and all-penetrating eye of the Judge of all will look into His heart, and find nothing there but the mirrored image of His own perfection.

9 Behold, the Lord God helps Me;
Who is he who condemns Me?
Behold, they will all wear out like a garment;
The moth will eat them.

Not exactly following the line of this story, but instructive all the same,
Acts 12: 18-23 “At break of day, there was consternation among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.

19 Herod made a search for him, but didn’t find him, so then he examined the guards, and commanded that they be executed. Herod then went down from Judea to Caesarea, and spent time there.”

“20 Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. Their country depended on the king’s country for food, so they came to him with a united front to make peace —they’d been able to win over Blastus, the king’s personal aide.

21 On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and made a speech to them.
22 The people shouted, ‘The voice of God, and not of a man!’
23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. He was eaten by worms and died.”

You go against God and moths will eat you, worms will eat you, sometimes dogs will eat you. That was a reference to Jezebel in 2 Kings 9:10.

10 Who is among you that fears the Lord,
That obeys the voice of His servant,
That walks in darkness and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

God is light. John 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with firebrands,
Walk in the light of your fire
And among the brands you have set ablaze.
This you will have from My hand:
You will lie down in torment.

God is light, yet we try to make our own light. Go forth, realizing that we are children of God, and act as such.  And by your fruits, they will know you. Matthew 7:16

All Glory given to God the Father

Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 2:1-20
2 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. ² This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. ⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, ⁵ in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. ⁶ While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸ In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁵ When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

All Glory to God our Father

Let us turn to Isaiah 49 and go through this wonderful message of hope and affirmation to the people of Israel, from their Creator and God.

Salvation Reaches to the End of the Earth
1 Listen to Me, O islands,
And pay attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called Me from the womb;
From the body of My mother He named Me.

It was a Hebrew custom back in that day to call people from beyond the sea islands, for obvious reasons. Elohim (Hebrew for God) is bringing up 2 points here. He is not just talking to Israel here but to us Gentiles, in fact the whole world. And the Jews would wonder at this. We talked about this last week. Gentiles were not included in the Jews’ spiritual world view. They thought their Messiah would come and smash the Gentiles and they, the Jews, would then have the entire world as a “Promised Land”. They were so convinced of their Christ, which is a title not a name, as Christ is a Greek translation of Messiah. He would come as a King and military commander that would throw off the heavy hand of Rome and continue on from there. We are talking still about 600 years into the future so most of this message and what Isaiah had spoken of in the past, I am pretty sure went right over their heads. They had eyes to see, but did not, ears to hear, but would not. It is ever the same, then as now.
The second point is that our Messiah will be born of a woman, indicating that he would be born human. John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

2 He has made My mouth like a sharp sword,
In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me;
And He has also made Me a select arrow,
He has hidden Me in His quiver.

We find another reference to this sharp sword in Revelation 19:15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.

God has given power to His Servant (Christ) to speak effectively and thereby to conquer His enemies.
I do love how this is stated “In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me”. Meaning that Christ was held hidden until the time He was needed. This is still the case, as with the first coming and now the second. We have prophecy pointing to about when, but not precisely so. The books of Daniel and Revelation give us clues but no one knows but the Father. That is found in quite a few places in the New Testament. We will use this one. Mark 13:32 But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
And yet, we argue about this endlessly. The hubris of Man.

3 He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel,
In Whom I will show My glory.”
4 But I said, “I have toiled in vain,
I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;
Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,
And My reward with My God.”

This Servant, Israel, is still Christ. Verse 4 is referring to the first coming in which the Servant was met with rejection by his nation. It must have seemed to some as a failure because of his crucifixion and death on the cross. Only criminals died like that. But Christ defeated death, “and rose again on the third day, He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”
We know this as the Apostles Creed.
The Lutheran Church always says it and the Baptist Church never does. You can add the Lord’s Prayer to that list also. And I believe it comes down to the idea that if you repeat something, so often, that it becomes something less than it was. It is no longer relevant, just part of the service. I would agree to that in regards to those “Christians” that go to Church because that’s what “good people” do. If the only reason you go to Church is to be seen and then go home and continue life without any evidence of Jesus in your actions, and there are many of these, well, REPENT SINNER! THE END IS NIGH!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist that. It seems everyday is just one day closer to me standing on the corner with a cardboard sign, shouting at cars.

5 And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him
(For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
And My God is My strength),

It is the Servant’s mission to bring Israel back into the fold, where they will finally look up and see their Messiah, their King and think to themselves, OH! What have we done?

6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make You a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Let’s go to Luke 2 and read this wonderful prophecy when Jesus was but a wee lad.

Luke 2:25-32
25 And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, 28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

29 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

There will be people, those who have not been snatched up in the Rapture, they will still come to Christ and it will be through the Remnant of those Jews that are left, after they have been winnowed down. 144,000 Jews will fulfill the role they were destined to have and be effective evangelists to the rest of the world.

7 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,
To the despised One,
To the One abhorred by the nation,
To the Servant of rulers,
“Kings will see and arise,
Princes will also bow down,
Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

Christ was the Suffering Servant, as found in Isaiah 53, despised by all in power. That day will come when every knee will bow. Philippians 2:10 So that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

8 Thus says the Lord,
“In a favorable time I have answered You,
And in a day of salvation I have helped You;
And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people,
To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;

The Grace of God had been bestowed upon sinners and in that day to come, His Servant will accomplish the final deliverance of Israel.
Paul used the context of verse 8 to the Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— 2 for He says,
“At the acceptable time I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”

Truly, now is the acceptable time for your salvation. If you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, repented your sins, GET ON IT! God is waiting, with his hand held out toward you. And He knows absolutely everything of your life. Come to your Father, your life awaits you, not here, but in Heaven.

9 Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
Along the roads they will feed,
And their pasture will be on all bare heights.
10 “They will not hunger or thirst,
Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;
For He who has compassion on them will lead them
And will guide them to springs of water.
11 “I will make all My mountains a road,
And My highways will be raised up.
12 “Behold, these will come from afar;
And lo, these will come from the north and from the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth!
Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people
And will have compassion on His afflicted.

Those who are bound, those who are dwelling in darkness, and there are many of us afflicted.
Depression, pain from the body breaking down, yoked to whatever you have yoked yourself to.
Revelation 7:16-17 16 They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Just a few more weary days and then, I’ll fly away.

Promise to Zion
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And the Lord has forgotten me.”

We are ever ungrateful, God doesn’t listen to my prayers. Hmm. Have you repented your sins to Him, really? Is there something that you’ve done that you know is wrong, for we all know the right and wrong of things, that you’ve hidden from Him? Hidden? Did you miss the part where it is said that He knows the count of the hairs of your head. Luke 12:7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

To which God responds in the next verse.

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child
And have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

Because I’ve become sensitive to this, it caused me to do a search of which denominations or churches support Planned Parenthood, which is is a polite way of saying, which churches support abortion.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/22/american-religious-groups-vary-widely-in-their-views-of-abortion/

I was horrified at the result. It would have been better to have asked which churches don’t support abortion. Google has an interesting algorithm that even if you asked the negative of that question, you get the positive first and foremost. I ask all of you to investigate on your own to find out what your church does and does not support. If you don’t know where to start, I would ask the Pastor what they believe in. But you might say to yourself, “Well my church might support that stuff, but I don’t and never would”. Well done stalwart defender of the Faith (I say in my ironic voice). Did you know, that if a church or denomination supports Planned Parenthood, some of the money you give to the collection plate goes to Planned Parenthood.
Even if you don’t support what the church supports, and I would wonder why you would go to a church like that, your money is sent in support of whatever the church supports. Many of these churches have people that just can’t be bothered to cause a fuss, Swedes are like that, you know. They just want to go, have coffee with men or ladies, chat and laugh, sit through the sermon, sing a few songs and go home.

Jesus doesn’t want to cause a fuss at Judgement time either. He’ll just say, “I never knew you” and that’s that.

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Remember last week when I asked how much satan in your life is too much? It’s up to you and God.

16 “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.

There is Jewish custom, referred to in Exodus 13:9 And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.

So they would puncture their hands with a symbol of their city as a sign of devotion.

17 “Your builders hurry;
Your destroyers and devastators
Will depart from you.
18 “Lift up your eyes and look around;
All of them gather together, they come to you.
As I live,” declares the Lord,
“You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride.
19 “For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land—
Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants,
And those who swallowed you will be far away.
20 “The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears,
‘The place is too cramped for me;
Make room for me that I may live here.’

After the faithful remnant is gathered in salvation and the Gentiles are brought to faith in the Kingdom through Jewish witnesses, millennial Jerusalem will not be large enough to contain all its inhabitants.

21 “Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have been bereaved of my children
And am barren, an exile and a wanderer?
And who has reared these?
Behold, I was left alone;
From where did these come?’”

The Jewish perspective is too narrow and always has been. She has seen herself as a widow, abandoned by her true Husband, the Lord. God has not forgotten or abandoned her. While the symbolic Jewish widow was weeping and feeling sorry for herself, the Lord was preparing lasting legacy for her, preserving her remnant and bringing her back safely from Babylon.

22 Thus says the Lord God,
“Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations
And set up My standard to the peoples;
And they will bring your sons in their bosom,
And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
23 “Kings will be your guardians,
And their princesses your nurses.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth
And lick the dust of your feet;
And you will know that I am the Lord;
Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.

Those mighty men, Rulers and Princes that oppressed them will now serve and care for them.
Lick the dust from your feet and know that I am the Lord. And keep in mind that our Lord is judge over all. We have no part in that judgment. Sometimes we suffer to the Glory of the Lord.
1 Peter 5:10 10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

24 “Can the prey be taken from the mighty man,
Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

25 Surely, thus says the Lord,
“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,
And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued;
For I will contend with the one who contends with you,
And I will save your sons.
26 “I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh,
And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;
And all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

God’s deliverance of Israel will be so dramatic that the world will recognize that the Lord, the Savior, the Redeemer and Mighty One of Israel is the true God.
Ezekiel 39:7 My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.

Let us end with Psalm 115
Glory to God Alone
1 Not to us, Yahweh, not to us,
but to Your name give glory
because of Your faithful love, because of Your truth.
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in heaven
and does whatever He pleases.

4 Their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
5 They have mouths but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
6 They have ears but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell.
7 They have hands but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk.
They cannot make a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them are just like them,
as are all who trust in them.

9 Israel, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and shield.
10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and shield.
12 The Lord remembers us and will bless us.
He will bless the house of Israel;
He will bless the house of Aaron;
13 He will bless those who fear the Lord—
small and great alike.

14 May the Lord add to your numbers,
both yours and your children’s.
15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are the Lord’s,
but the earth He has given to the human race.
17 It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
nor any of those descending into the silence of death.
18 But we will praise the Lord,
both now and forever.
Hallelujah!

All Glory to God our Father

Today we will go through Isaiah 48 and marvel that this chapter, written about 2,600 years ago, could be written for us today. We gentiles, through the ministry of Paul, after the Jews had rejected their Messiah and their role of ambassadors of Christ’s church unto us, we gentiles have now become sons of Abraham. And this would have scandalized the Jews of that day as we were reviled as pagans, idolizers and generally unpleasant people. Not that the Jews hadn’t worshipped a golden calf or 2 during most of their history. We are a different people, but God knew that and knew that the Jews would be obstinate, but gave them the free will to do what they would. And because the Jews played their strong suit, which for them was obstinently stupid over the patently obvious, God sent his Apostles to the Gentiles, which caused the Apostles to stumble around a bit until they got with the program

Here we find Peter had a dream from God:
Acts 10:9-16
9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance;
11 and he *saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,
12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.
13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”
14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.”
15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

So what separates us from the Jews is circumcision and what we eat. But what is unclean and where did that idea come from? You have to go back another 500 years, when Moses was leading them out of Egypt to the promised land, God came to them, and he did that a lot back then, and told them what to eat and what not to eat.

Leviticus 11:1-8
1 The Lord spoke again to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them,
2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘These are the creatures which you may eat from all the animals that are on the earth.
3 Whatever divides a hoof, thus making split hoofs, and chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat.
4 Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these, among those which chew the cud, or among those which divide the hoof: the camel, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you.
5 Likewise, the shaphan, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you;
6 the rabbit also, for though it chews cud, it does not divide the hoof, it is unclean to you;
7 and the pig, for though it divides the hoof, thus making a split hoof, it does not chew cud, it is unclean to you.
8 You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.

So you see, there were things they could eat and very specific things they could not eat. And I believe the whole “what you eat” thing came from wanting to separate them from what they had done in Egypt, the eating, customs and such. They had lived in Egypt for 430 years and the Egyptians were a Godless people. They had many gods of the small “g” variety. I believe God wanted to have a very clear separation between these 2 peoples, so they didn’t become Jews that acted like Egyptians in the promised land.
Also, sanitary conditions in the hot desert, with close proximity to around 2 million neighbors, made it necessary for God to spell out exactly what to eat and how to prepare it.
Exodus 12:37 37 Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.
I have no idea why women didn’t get mentioned in this passage. It might be a Hebrew thing of you don’t state the obvious.

So food made us different from the Jews, and that got Peter in trouble with Paul. Peter came to Antioch while Paul was there. In fact that is why Peter and Paul were in the same place. Paul had just been officially accepted by the Apostles as one of them after 14 years of going out among the gentiles and preaching that Jesus is our Savior. This was a big relief to Paul, not that he needed to be justified by men when Jesus was his boss, but it’s nice to be accepted by whom you work with. Peter at this time had been hanging around with gentiles, living with them, eating with them and going native, as the saying goes. Then, some Jews who were labeled “so-called believers” because they were false ones, show up and give Peter the stink eye for living like a gentile. Peter, who had exhibited poor choices in his day, starts to shun the gentiles and act like the false believing Jews. Paul, with his brand new and shiny Apostle badge, decides that Peter needs to be publicly spanked back into doing the right thing.

Galatians 2:11-21
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong.
12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision.
13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.
16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!
18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.
19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God.
20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

There is nothing in the Bible that stated how red Peter’s face became when this happened, but that’s probably a good thing, as we would still be arguing about it.

What I have done is separate out the Jews from ourselves. The Jews did not and still have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior and quite often had trouble accepting the Father, too. And we will see that in Isaiah 48. What we will also see is how this book not only speaks of the past but talks to us today. Keep in mind that people, unbelievers, will scoff at that idea.

A prime example of why you should not send you children to college these days.
William Dever, a professor of archaeology from Lycoming College. “I doubt that the miracles attributed to him ever took place. I don’t think he led three million Israelites out of Egypt in an exodus across the Sinai. This was on ABC online news from Dec 28, 2012.

Jude:17-20
“Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said before. They said to you, “In the last times there will be people who laugh about God, following their own evil desires which are against God.” These are the people who divide you, people whose thoughts are only of this world, who do not have the Spirit. But dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit.”

2 Peter 3:3-8
“First, you must understand this: In the last days people who follow their own desires will appear. These disrespectful people will ridicule God’s promise by saying, “What’s happened to his promise to return? Ever since our ancestors died, everything continues as it did from the beginning of the world.” They are deliberately ignoring one fact: Because of God’s word, heaven and earth existed a long time ago. The earth appeared out of water and was kept alive by water. Water also flooded and destroyed that world. By God’s word, the present heaven and earth are designated to be burned. They are being kept until the day ungodly people will be judged and destroyed. Dear friends, don’t ignore this fact: One day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.”

Don’t get sidetracked with these boys talking about the “Last Days.” We are focusing on the here and now. Let us turn to Isaiah 48.

Israel’s Obstinacy
1 “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel
And who came forth from the loins of Judah,
Who swear by the name of the Lord
And invoke the God of Israel,
But not in truth nor in righteousness.
2 “For they call themselves after the holy city
And lean on the God of Israel;
The Lord of hosts is His name.
3 “I declared the former things long ago
And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.
Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
4 “Because I know that you are obstinate,
And your neck is an iron sinew
And your forehead bronze,
5 Therefore I declared them to you long ago,
Before they took place I proclaimed them to you,
So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’
6 “You have heard; look at all this.
And you, will you not declare it?
I proclaim to you new things from this time,
Even hidden things which you have not known.
7 “They are created now and not long ago;
And before today you have not heard them,
So that you will not say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
8 “You have not heard, you have not known.
Even from long ago your ear has not been open,
Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously;
And you have been called a rebel from birth.
9 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath,
And for My praise I restrain it for you,
In order not to cut you off.
10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;
For how can My name be profaned?
And My glory I will not give to another.

Deliverance Promised
12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called;
I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.
13 “Surely My hand founded the earth,
And My right hand spread out the heavens;
When I call to them, they stand together.
14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15 “I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him,
I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.
16 “Come near to Me, listen to this:
From the first I have not spoken in secret,
From the time it took place, I was there.
And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit.”
17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you in the way you should go.
18 “If only you had paid attention to My commandments!
Then your well-being would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 “Your descendants would have been like the sand,
And your offspring like its grains;
Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”
20 Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!
Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this,
Send it out to the end of the earth;
Say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.”
21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts.
He made the water flow out of the rock for them;
He split the rock and the water gushed forth.
22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord.

Some things that caught my attention:

Verse 1: We swear by the name of the Lord – But not in truth nor in righteousness.
Yes, quite literally. I am talking about how we use the Lord’s name in vain. You say “that’s not the true sense of the term here.” Yes and no. If we are dealing with a strictly English translation of this term, I am going to interpret it as having 2 meanings. One, taking the Lord’s name in vain and two, swearing our dedication to God, falsely. I heard it a couple of nights ago, on the phone. A relative of mine, one that I had not seen in 45 years, had contacted me, wanting to chat and get back together. When asking about me, I gave her my now standard answer of my life really started in 2018, because I accepted the Lord and everything before was of no consequence, in fact bordering on garbage. I then dropped into a mini sermon, asking of course, has she accepted Christ? “Oh, I’m good” she tells me. She states that she’s not really religious, but she’s good with God. Oh really? How good is God with you? John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

You may have lived a charmed life, and by her account, she has, but all that is for naught if you haven’t accepted and repented with Christ. And that small matter of faith without works is not faith at all.

James 2:14-26
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Verse 4: “Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew And your forehead bronze” – How stubborn of a people are WE? You all know the word of God or at least you know some of it. However, we are a fallen people, all of us. And as of the Saved, the Holy Spirit is within you. The Bible tells us not to associate with sin.The short version is 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
I will also throw in Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

What am I getting at, you ask? Well, you rub up against evil and evil will cling to you. And if you continue to rub up against evil, willfully, a lot of times, not really even considering it to be evil, it’s just what I do, what I have always done. How can that be bad? I just want to be entertained, you say. At what cost, I ask? Our culture has corrupted us, dulled us with what it does, we don’t even feel the wrong of it. I am not going to point a gnarled finger at any one thing. I say gnarled as that is all my pointer finger is these days.
The Holy Spirit, that part of God that is in you will convict you if you have taken what I have said here to heart. Let me now warn you that I am no prophet, no apostle, nobody special at all. Just some shlub that got the nod to do Bible Study and you are free to completely blow off what I say. It is between you and God. But be warned again, that if you continually rub up against evil, “oh it’s just a little evil” you say. Can you be just a little pregnant, I ask? The Holy Spirit will back off, your prayers to God could wind up in the spam filter. And eventually the Holy Spirit will “give you up unto whatever you willingly persist in doing.

Romans 1:24
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
This is God talking about lusts of the hearts, but God will throw his hands up and let you do your thing. Free will to honor Him or to walk away.

Verse 5: Therefore I declared them to you long ago,
Before they took place I proclaimed them to you,
So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’

We are not much on molten images these days, but we’ve pretty much replaced them with LCD screens or the big screen. I would call the entertainment industry our Babylon of today. We have a large segment of the population that have at least 3 generations trained through habituation and hooked on whatever comes across the boob tube. And then the internet comes along and boy howdy did that change things. Now we can instantly communicate with just about anybody without ever seeing their face. Back when a couple of boys from Israel made a program called ICQ, it allowed a user to chat with anybody around the world that was using the same program. My wife and I had friends from all around the world. Friends close enough that we thought we could travel and see them, all around the world and it revolutionized our concept of friends and what the internet was. This was around the late 1990’s. It was during this time that I was running my little slice of the internet. I managed a dial up service for around 1100 customers in Ruidoso NM. It was there that I started to see the dark side of what instant and anonymous communication meant on the Information Superhighway. Gambling, Porn, Cyber Theft, viruses that would infect your computer, you’d never know it, and steal all your information and then your computer would infect all your friends’ computers because that’s the way they programmed it. Even then, though I was not a Christian as I know it today, I was taken aback at what I saw.
I am pretty sure that the internet is how the final Antichrist will gather his followers so quickly. So let me change what I said. Hollywood used to be our Babylon and still has an attraction. The internet has now taken over as our Babylon.

Verse 13: “Surely My hand founded the earth,
And My right hand spread out the heavens;
I refer back to the university professor making claims of disbelieving the Bible. I have heard it from my own family. Disbelievers will claim that this world is the only thing that is real and the book you are quoting from is a fairy tale.
OK, buckle up, I am going to take another swing at this.
I hope you are aware that the entertainment industry that is so valued in our society is almost wholly composed of Godless people, and they are not shy about telling you that.
Whose master do you suppose they are serving? You might kid yourself and think, I can sit through all the cursing, innuendo, sex and killing and not be affected by it. Really? What is satan’s goal in all this? To dull your senses to sin, so that you are increasingly numb to what is paraded in front of your eyes. All in the name of entertaining you and keeping you happy. The command from Jesus was to love your neighbor as you would love yourself. This is in Mark 12:31. And how will you do this when you are so numb to sin that your neighbor is seen as more of an adversary to be wary of, than someone in need. There is evil in this world and it is in the form of keeping you happy and occupied. That is the supreme irony. What we comfortably consume would be the thing that keeps most of us out of Heaven.
Many people will dispute that. But then most “Christians” think of themselves as good people. I know I did. I mentioned in Sunday School at our Church that people want to turn off the television, because satan is its master.

Crickets…

You know that smile you get from people that says you are a weirdo, one to be tolerated but not listened to? Yeah, I get that and yes, I am a weirdo. This Sunday School is populated by most of the Elders and stalwart Believers of our church, the core group. And I love these people. But satan has done his work all throughout our Land. If you cannot get this core group of Believers to acknowledge that satan is in charge of what entertains them, well, what else will they find acceptable satan is in charge of? How much satan is too much satan?

They thought they were all armoured up and a little bit of evil slipped through a chink in their armor and has clung to them, rendering them unwilling to remove it from their lives. That’s absurd you think. I do too. Something or someone has persuaded them. Was it God, saying “It’s OK, I understand, I don’t mind a little idol worship”?

Definition of an idol: a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered. Or, an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.
Definition of worship: the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.

I say to “get rid TV”, they say “nope, they don’t see the harm and it keeps them entertained.”  And/or, “No way! What would I do with my time?”

I am as guilty as the rest. I use the internet for my entertainment and research. I have changed how I use it, my entertainment is mostly people building things. My rules are they cannot curse and that limits the vast majority of what’s out there. I have another rule that I will not look at anything that has the female form in it. Women dressed chastely are not a problem, but you don’t see much of that online. So, those are my rules and this is not about me. I have asked the Lord for some heavy duty discernment and armour and now I use approximately .003% of the internet.

The biggest threat to me online is people that profess to be Believers, but are not. Much like the Jews that were so-called believers, but were false. And that is where my brothers in Christ are very valuable. I have a couple of them that I bounce things off of and they correct me when I am wrong. Your friends in Christ are as important as going to Church.

This was a lot to talk about today. As I said before, you are under no compunction to listen to my message. Listen to the Holy Spirit within you. Read your Bible, talk to your friends in Christ.

And remember:

2 Timothy 3:16
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

All Glory to God our Father

Let us start out with a bit of Thanksgiving.
Philippians 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Now turn to Isaiah 47, where we find God focusing on Babylon. Babylon today is just a ruin, as prophesied in Jeremiah 51. Jeremiah was a fellow prophet with Isaiah at about the same time and lived in the small village of Anathoth which today is called Anata. It is located 3 miles NE of Jerusalem. This prophet lived through the invasion and exile of his people to Babylon and had this prophecy about the fall of Babylon.
Jeremiah 51:1-4
Thus says the Lord:

1 “Behold, I am going to arouse against Babylon
And against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai
The spirit of a destroyer.
Leb-kamai is a cryptic name for Chaldea; or the heart of those who rise up against Me.
2 “I will dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may winnow her
And may devastate her land;
For on every side they will be opposed to her
In the day of her calamity.
3 “Let not him who bends his bow bend it,
Nor let him rise up in his scale-armor;
So do not spare her young men;
Devote all her army to destruction.
4 “They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans,
And pierced through in their streets.”

Babylon was a very ancient city. Mentioned first in Genesis 10. Founded by Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, who we know was a son of Noah. So Babylon was founded not too long after Noah’s boys got off the boat.
It seems probable that the name given to the city actually supplanted the original name at this time, and this incident contributes to the long history of Babylon as a center of religious significance, and as a source of false religion and rebellion against the true God.
Genesis 10:10
10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
And from here we can turn to Genesis 11 and find out why it was called Babel.
Genesis 11
Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.
2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.
7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.
9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

This city was known far and wide for its splendor and wonders. I have read, in doing research for this chapter, current day writers wistfully stating that Babylon was a great city, as great as San Francisco or New York. And I thought to myself, truly, nothing is new under the sun and that can be found in:
Ecclesiastes 1:9
That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.

Whoever wrote that really nailed it. And in looking into that, because I couldn’t resist chasing down another interesting factoid in the Bible, it turns out that they, the people who translate, interpret and ponder such things in the Bible, think that Solomon wrote it. Figures. Smartest guy ever, blessed good and hard by God and he writes something that turns out to be an eternal truth.

Now, I will carefully step back out of the rhubarb and continue my original point. You have a modern unbeliever, pining for an ancient city, destroyed by the Judgement of God, comparing it favorably to a couple of modern and equally godless cities. And none of them sees the irony.

Babylon back then was a wondrous jewel of the desert, now currently in a permanent state of ruin and inhabited only by jackals and owls, about 700 miles from Jerusalem with a prime slice of desert separating the 2 cities.

We round out our Biblical smack down of Babylon by turning to
Revelation 18:1-10
1 After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory.
2 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”
4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;
5 for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.
7 To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’
8 For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.

Lament for Babylon
9 “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning,
10 standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’

I am spending a bit of time with Babylon because it is a major theme and subject in the Bible and the life of the Jews. There are 113 verses in the Bible that refer to Babylon. That in itself is quite amazing. And in those 113 verses, it is mentioned in the beginning, in Genesis, in the middle, the exile, which is a major topic of Jewish writing and where we are at right now, and the end of the Bible in Revelation. I think perhaps that in Revelation, the city’s name is being used symbolically, because the place is just a ruin now. Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild the city in 1983, building on top of the ruins with bricks with this inscription: “This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq.” It didn’t work out though, I think he was hung in or near Babylon and there is quite a bit of Jewish online talk of having old texts that predicted this event, but there is a code that only certain Jews understand. That’s nice and all but if God wants the place to stay rubble, it will stay rubble.

Let us turn back to Isaiah 47 and read that.

Lament for Babylon
1 “Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no longer be called tender and delicate.
2 “Take the millstones and grind meal.
Remove your veil, strip off the skirt,
Uncover the leg, cross the rivers.
3 “Your nakedness will be uncovered,
Your shame also will be exposed;
I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.”
4 Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name,
The Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit silently, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans,
For you will no longer be called
The queen of kingdoms.
6 “I was angry with My people,
I profaned My heritage
And gave them into your hand.
You did not show mercy to them,
On the aged you made your yoke very heavy.
7 “Yet you said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’
These things you did not consider
Nor remember the outcome of them.
8 “Now, then, hear this, you sensual one,
Who dwells securely,
Who says in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one besides me.
I will not sit as a widow,
Nor know loss of children.’
9 “But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day:
Loss of children and widowhood.
They will come on you in full measure
In spite of your many sorceries,
In spite of the great power of your spells.
10 “You felt secure in your wickedness and said,
‘No one sees me,’
Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you;
For you have said in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’
11 “But evil will come on you
Which you will not know how to charm away;
And disaster will fall on you
For which you cannot atone;
And destruction about which you do not know
Will come on you suddenly.
12 “Stand fast now in your spells
And in your many sorceries
With which you have labored from your youth;
Perhaps you will be able to profit,
Perhaps you may cause trembling.
13 “You are wearied with your many counsels;
Let now the astrologers,
Those who prophesy by the stars,
Those who predict by the new moons,
Stand up and save you from what will come upon you.
14 “Behold, they have become like stubble,
Fire burns them;
They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame;
There will be no coal to warm by
Nor a fire to sit before!
15 “So have those become to you with whom you have labored,
Who have trafficked with you from your youth;
Each has wandered in his own way;
There is none to save you.

Some verses that stood out to me.
Verse 4 – I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.
Verse 6 – “I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage
And gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them.
Verse 10 – “You felt secure in your wickedness and said, ‘No one sees me,’ Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you.

Let’s talk about this. Our society is rife with this very thing. Have you ever done something and thought “Nobody knows or has seen this, so it’s OK.”
Think about it and how we can change our lives to what our Lord Jesus wants them to be. To be righteous, or as righteous as we can be.

Verse 11 – “But evil will come on you which you will not know how to charm away.

Let us now turn to 1 Kings 11 and see what’s up with our boy Solomon.

It was bound to happen. So much wealth, wisdom and women. The first verse in chapter 11 tells the story.
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,

The Old Testament allowed polygamy, but did not encourage it. Then the Romans took over and said it was disgusting and immoral. They allowed the Jews to continue practicing polygamy in Palestine, but everywhere else, the practice was prohibited. Rome is quite a few hundred years off into the future, so in Solomon’s day many people did have more than one wife. And it is not always a bad thing. Women that could not be married for whatever reason would be added as wife and now another widow is not begging on the streets.
I am not sure anyone could have told Solomon to restrain himself when it came to wives. Let’s read on and find out how this plays out.

2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love.
3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites.
6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done.
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.
8 Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9 Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded.
11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.
12 Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

God then raises adversaries against Solomon. You have to remember that during Solomon’s reign, things were unusually calm, within his government and without. An Edomite named Hadad, who was in the royal line of Edom, had a long time grudge with David, Solomon’s Father. Actually, it was Joab the Commander of David’s army, well let’s just read it in Verse 14:
14 Then the Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the royal line in Edom.
15 For it came about, when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army had gone up to bury the slain, and had struck down every male in Edom
16 (for Joab and all Israel stayed there six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom),
17 that Hadad fled to Egypt, he and certain Edomites of his father’s servants with him, while Hadad was a young boy.
18 They arose from Midian and came to Paran; and they took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house and assigned him food and gave him land.
19 Now Hadad found great favor before Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.
20 The sister of Tahpenes bore his son Genubath, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh’s house; and Genubath was in Pharaoh’s house among the sons of Pharaoh.
21 But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Send me away, that I may go to my own country.”
22 Then Pharaoh said to him, “But what have you lacked with me, that behold, you are seeking to go to your own country?” And he answered, “Nothing; nevertheless you must surely let me go.”

And so it went. More adversaries, more problems to deal with and most importantly, God was angry with him.
God then uses a prophet named Ahijah that happened to have a new cloak when he met Jeroboam, the soon to be new king of Israel. They were walking down the road together and suddenly Ahijah tears his new cloak into 12 pieces. He hands Jeroboam 10 pieces of cloak and tells him this represents the 10 tribes he would rule over. As God had said, He would tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hands but let Solomon have 2 tribes, (Judah and Benjamin) for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel. God would allow Solomon to rule his pieces of the cloak all the days of his life. Which was pretty generous considering how Solomon had been acting.
Look at Verses 39 and 40;
39 Thus I will afflict the descendants of David for this, but not always.’” 40 Solomon sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death; but Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt to Shishak king of Egypt, and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

I guess Solomon was not feeling real grateful for God letting him keep his much diminished kingdom and his life.
Let’s finish this out and read verses 41 to 43;
The Death of Solomon
41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon and whatever he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? 42 Thus the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43 And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David, and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

All Glory to God our Father

Let us turn to Isaiah 46

1 Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over;
Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle.
The things that you carry are burdensome,
A load for the weary beast.

2 They stooped over, they have bowed down together;
They could not rescue the burden,But have themselves gone into captivity.

3 “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
You who have been borne by Me from birth
And have been carried from the womb;

4 Even to your old age I will be the same,
And even to your graying years I will bear you!
I have done it, and I will carry you;
And I will bear you and I will deliver you.

5 “To whom would you liken Me
And make Me equal and compare Me,
That we would be alike?

6 “Those who lavish gold from the purse
And weigh silver on the scale
Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
They bow down, indeed they worship it.

7 “They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it;
They set it in its place and it stands there.
It does not move from its place.
Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer;
It cannot deliver him from his distress.

8 “Remember this, and be assured;
Recall it to mind, you transgressors.

9 “Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,

10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;

11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man of My purpose from a far country.
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, surely I will do it.

12 “Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded,
Who are far from righteousness.

13 “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;
And My salvation will not delay.
And I will grant salvation in Zion,
And My glory for Israel.

So what are we talking about here? Idols? Again? This has been a near constant theme when God is talking through Isaiah to his people. To bring this home just a bit, go back to a time when you were young and raising kids. I believe all of us here have had children and now grandchildren and some of us great grandchildren. Any time you are dealing with a kid, there’s going to be a bit of frustration imparting our wisdom into those small resistant packages that insist on just having fun and doing it their way. You tell little Johnny no, don’t put the cat in the toilet, but since Johnny has already done this once and it was grand fun, he considers your request as optional. 

You laugh at that reference, but my son tried that very thing out at Reflection Farm. Tried to put a kitten in the porta potty. Seemed like a perfect fit to him, where it seemed like a stupid thing to me and therein lies the problem. I told him no, don’t do that. He considered it and disregarded it, ‘cause what fun is it to not put a kitten in the toilet.  

I am using this as an analogy to God and the Jews. He creates his people. Well just one of them at first in Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

God put man into the garden of Eden and told him to keep it and cultivate it. You see the problem don’t you? No mechanized equipment to “cultivate” that virgin ground. Not an oversight on our Lord’s part, how do you build character if you don’t struggle some? But our God is a merciful God.

Genesis 2:18
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone;
I will make him a helper suitable for him. 

And I am sure some of us are thinking then,the next thing we expect to see pop into existence is a big shiny John Deere dealership.
I did say some of us, not all. 

Drop down to verse 21 of Genesis 2

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

Imagine Adam’s surprise when he woke up and saw that sitting there. Keep in mind John Deere was well off into the future and he didn’t have any preconceived notion of it, thereby could not be disappointed by a woman sitting there rather than a big green monster parked in the shade with the keys in it. 

Yes, I am being a bit mirthful, but in a Greek tragic comedy sense. Adam and Eve had it all. They walked and talked with God and had dominion over all the earth. Verse 26 says to “let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

And because of their innocence, they did not know evil, and in that, they were much like children, who don’t know right from wrong. We don’t know why Adam did not follow Eve when she encountered a smooth talking serpent. And here we come to the difference between Men and Women. A man sees a snake, and I am talking a manly man, not a girly man that sheiks at snakey things. So Man knows that he has been given dominion over all, sees a snake, says cool until it starts talking and then smashes it with a rock, because none of the other animals had started talking to him, but mostly ‘cause talking snakes just ain’t right.

Women’s brains are wired differently. They are built to make personal connections. They are ruled by emotions. These are things that help them rearing children. But when it comes to talking serpents, they can be swayed by emotions or feelings more than logic. You may argue with that, but if you are honest you felt it yourself, it you are a woman. You can be swayed by feelings. You know something is wrong, but it feels right, therefore it makes sense to you.

Eve got talked into something. She was told by God that they should not eat from that certain tree. They would die if they ate from that tree. That’s a hard and fast rule, a law. She got persuaded to break that law, because what the serpent told her sounded good. Good enough to circumvent the logic of following the Law because it’s the Law. The snake used their innocence against them. And because Adam was not with her to stomp the snake, here we are left with pining for that John Deere Dealership.

The end result is that they were both cursed by God. Man was consigned to toil in the earth and eat of the plants of the field. Dust you are and to dust you will return.

Genesis 3:15-16
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Genesis 3:15 is important as it is where theologians have pointed to this verse as the Protoevangelion or “the first gospel.” This verse is the first promise of redemption in Scripture. The He is Christ in “He shall bruise you on the head” and satan could only bruise Christ’s heal, symbolic for causing Him to suffer. The seed of woman will defeat the seed of satan.

To the woman He said,

“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”

Sin had changed the dynamic between Man and Woman. The harmonious system of God-ordained roles into struggles of self will. Lifelong companions, husbands and wives will need God’s help to get along. The woman’s desire will be to lord over her husband, but the husband will rule by divine design.

Ephesians 5:22-23
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.

This interpretation of Genesis 3:16 is based on identical Hebrew words and grammar used in Genesis 4:7 where we find God counseling Cain over his unacceptable offering. 

7 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Not being a Hebrew scholar, but trusting in Godly men who are, I am thinking that “sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” is what they are talking about. Specifically the word desire. That is the word they focused on in both passages, 3:16 and 4:7 that leads Hebrew scholars and Theologians to believe that women will struggle to be over their husbands.

You’ll note that Adam gave in pretty quickly to Eve’s request to eat of the apple, and that also has a consequence in the scheme of things.

Conflict will be between Man and Woman on who will be the head of House and God makes the call.

These passages in Genesis and in Ephesians are what women will struggle with, specifically their self-will and what the feminist movement has written off as Nope, God didn’t mean that. Did you know that many of the women that were leaders of the original feminist movement in the United States were Jewish. That serpent is still playing that same old game.

You’ve probably wondered if I have wandered too far off into the rhubarb. How does this relate to idols? Well, you can’t have idols if you don’t have sin and it is mentioned in the Bible how women have led men off into the sin of idolatry. 

Numbers 25:1-4
While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.
2 For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
3 So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel.

Another good example is our boy Solomon and we’ll get to that. But let’s pursue the idols that God is talking about in this chapter of Isaiah.

In verse 1, Bel and Nebo are Babylonian gods. Bel means lord, probably referring to Marduk, the most powerful god in Babylonian folklore. Nebo was the god of wisdom, which I am sure they did not use in an ironic sense, but if they had any sense at all, they should have. 

In verse 2, when Cyrus came, even these 2 gods were taken into captivity.

Listen to me Oh Jacob. God is imploring them to pay attention to what he is saying. Versus smiting them where they stand. A Merciful God, who is angry at his chosen people, because He is Holy and that is a concept that they don’t seem to get, nor do we.

God’s Holiness is unlike any other, Hosea 11:9 I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.

his Holiness is essence of otherness, James 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

Hebrews 6:18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which lit is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

He is high above any other, and no one can compare to Him Psalm 40:5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

His very being is completely absent of even a trace of sin. God’s holiness pervades His entire being and shapes all His attributes. His love is a holy love, His mercy is holy mercy, and even His anger and wrath are holy anger and holy wrath. These concepts are difficult for humans to grasp, just as God is difficult for us to understand in His entirety.

We were raised in His image. We, meaning by extension Adam, used to walk in the cool shade and talk with God. After satan had done his work, we got kicked out of paradise, our innocence was gone. God in His Mercy had a plan B all along. This book, from the very first, talks of the coming of Christ and redemption. What troubles me when reading this is God has to remind them, and us, where we came from, who we are. 

12 “Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded,
Who are far from righteousness.

13 “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;
And My salvation will not delay.
And I will grant salvation in Zion,
And My glory for Israel.

His righteousness and salvation is the coming of His Son. And His Son came and was rejected by his people, was crucified and suffered what was the hell of His Father pouring out His Holy Wrath on Him, Jesus. He then gave up his Spirit and was buried. He then rose again and now it’s a brand new ball game. The old Laws have been eclipsed by Love and Faith. What is missing in this world is that Love and Faith. We are sinful creatures, have been since Adam. What I want you to think about is how much Love you have in you heart. Not hand wavy stuff they bandy about now, but Love that Jesus spoke of.

John 15:9-17

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends

John 13:34

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Romans 13:8: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-5: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

1 Corinthians 13:2: “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

1 Corinthians 16:14: “Do everything in love.”

That type of Love.

Let us now turn to 1 Kings 10

The Queen of Sheba

10 Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with difficult questions. 

2 So she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. 

3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from the king which he did not explain to her. 

4 When the queen of Sheba perceived all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 

5 the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his waiters and their attire, his cupbearers, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. 

6 Then she said to the king, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. 

7 Nevertheless I did not believe the reports, until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. You exceed in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard. 

8 How blessed are your men, how blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom. 

9 Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.” 

10 She gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great amount of spices and precious stones. Never again did such abundance of spices come in as that which the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.

I wonder what might have happened if the Queen of Sheba had not found Solomon so smart. I do think she was coming with the thought of possibly dominating Solomon and who knows how that would have gone.

11 Also the ships of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir a very great number of almug trees and precious stones. 

12 The king made of the almug trees supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers; such almug trees have not come in again nor have they been seen to this day.

13 King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested, besides what he gave her according to his royal bounty. Then she turned and went to her own land together with her servants.

What happens next is basically Wealth, Splendor and Wisdom. The scripture goes on to list all the things that Solomon had. Gold, horses, horsemen, ‘cause horses without horsemen are just expensive lawn mowers. He had 1,400 chariots and so on. 

I hope you can, in your imagination, see how all this stuff, even for a Godly man, could be a very great temptation. And we will leave that right here until next week, when the God speaks to Solomon.

Let us finish with Psalm 8

1 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!

2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

4 What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?

5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!

6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,

7 All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,

8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

9 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

All glory to God the Father