Category Archives: Wednesday Bible Study

All Glory to God our Father. 

I ran across a term this morning that changed my perspective. 

Don’t confuse prisoners of war with the enemy. 

What am I talking about? Those who reject Christ and God have become unwitting prisoners of war—captured and mobilized by the enemy, the vile serpent, to accomplish his purposes. Think about them that way and see if your perspective changes. It did for me.

Last week we found Hezekiah being threatened by the Assyrian army. And Hezekiah, being a good King, he put his sackcloth on and went to the temple.

So I wondered, what do we do when threatened by something dire? Everyone in this room has lived a fair portion of their lives and as such, has lived through some trying times. Before you accepted Jesus, what did you do? You had your family to fall back on, and that is some comfort, but your family can only do so much. We are a lost people and that is what you are seeing in the world today. People searching for comfort and meaning in their lives and not finding it, because that type of love and comfort can truly not be found in this world. 

The Jews were brought out of Egypt by the Lord’s Grace and Mercy. They witnessed miracles and the mighty power of our Creator. It is possible I suppose that they could not comprehend what they were seeing when Moses raised his staff and a great East wind arose and divided the waters of the Red Sea? How would you perceive that? Would it be too much to take in, so much so that your brain would refuse to understand what you saw and simply make you a new reality where it somewhat made sense?

I have seen a few things in my life that my brain refused to make sense of. Something so out of what I perceived to be normal that it just refused. And then you tilt your head a certain way and reality comes rushing back to you. I imagine the Jews seeing the doom of Pharaoh’s chariots and army on the horizon and looking back to what used to be water, but was now dry land, with walls of water on both sides. Even though they did not seem to like Moses all that much, they knew that Moses was talking to God and, well my point is, these people had God at their fingertips. He’s right there, in a huge burning cloud, and yet they tried time and time again to turn back to the world. Why did you drag us out here? We had a good thing in Egypt. Lots of good food and we didn’t have to march around in the desert, picking manna off the ground and almost dying of thirst every other day. They had God that close and still they longed for the comfort of this world. It is a testament to God’s Grace and Mercy that He puts up with that.

We also have God that close. Not in a burning cloud hovering over the building, but he is that close. 

Matthew 18:20  For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

A lot of times Jesus is talking specifically to his Disciples, educating these boys for what they need to know when He is gone from their midst. But I think this verse is talking to all of us. The Church. We are the Church, us, the people of God. Not a building, never a building. So we have access to
God through our Lord Jesus.

Psalms 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

That’s pretty close, don’t you think. Call on Me He says. He knows we are a pitiful people, prone to heeding the deceiver’s message. Those little whispers that tell you that comfort is here, in the world. The evil serpent must have put in a lot of overtime working on the Jews. They were so rebellious and not willing to get with the program that they caused Moses to lose his cool and because of that Moses did not get to enter into the Promised Land. 

We find in Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

But a little while down the road, after dealing with the constant bickering and bellyaching of these people, the ones he brought out of Egypt, we find in Numbers 20:8-12 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. 10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

So, the rebellious Jews did not seem to have trust in God. Moses did, but being vexed by the people as he was, struck the rock, twice, instead of speaking to it. Our Creator, our God requires our trust in Him. Faith that he will do what He says He will do. Have there been any rocks in your life that you should have spoken to, but struck? Yes, that’s a metaphor, but the idea remains in that you’ve not trusted God in a time when you should have? Faith is not hard, but yet it is. God is close, so close that all you have to do is pray to Him. How hard is that? A simple prayer. Oh, and to trust in Him. The World pulls at us. The evil one whispers to us. All we must do is trust in God, to deliver us from evil, to provide our daily bread, to comfort us in times of grief and so on. Trust that He will take care of these details that vex us. We must give those vexing details to our Lord. Remember, he knows what we need before we do. 

A good example of trust is one that I experienced over the weekend. Many of you know I took in an orphaned baby squirrel that I found under our back porch. Now in my life, I have not been the best friend to squirrels. I hunted them, ate them, shot them when they became a nuisance, but things are different now. I am not the same person I was. When you ask the Lord to increase your Love, because Love is the most important of all Laws. Well, that Love is not selective, I guess. This baby squirrel was looking like it needed help. God has taken from me what he could not use, the pride, self sufficiency and rebellion and has blessed me with many gifts that He can use through me. The old me would have dealt with letting nature take its course and that would be that. Not so this time, to my wife’s consternation. I picked it up, brought it in the house and all it wanted to do was curl up in my warm hand. We did what you do with house squirrels, fed her, housed her, held her. The next day she was bright eyed and demanding to come out of the cage and after eating, just curl up in my hand and sleep, much to my wife’s consternation. I began to make plans on how to reintroduce Miss Squirrel to the great outdoors. I figured she was between 6 or 7 weeks of age and they need to be about 12 weeks to be released. We are getting a puppy in a couple of weeks and that complicated things a bit but I had a plan. I also asked God for guidance and that His will be done. 

Into this life, a little rain must fall. The next day, was not a good day for squirrel. She wasn’t much interested in food or water and mostly just wanted to be in my hand. By the end of the day she had taken a little food and water and she slept in my hand for an hour or so before I put her back in her cage. It seems a bit silly talking about how that wild squirrel trusted a predator to just hold her and keep her warm. But, the Lord works in mysterious ways. We learn by doing. If that baby squirrel could trust me, something it should fear, is it really that hard to trust a God that Loves us?

That was a fairly long into to Isaiah Chapter 38, but sometimes you have to take a detour to get to where you need to go.

Let’s read Chapter 38 together.

1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. 6 And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

7 “‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: 8 I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.

9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

10 I said, “In the prime of my life

    must I go through the gates of death

    and be robbed of the rest of my years?”

11 I said, “I will not again see the Lord himself

    in the land of the living;

no longer will I look on my fellow man,

    or be with those who now dwell in this world.

12 Like a shepherd’s tent my house

    has been pulled down and taken from me.

Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,

    and he has cut me off from the loom;

    day and night you made an end of me.

13 I waited patiently till dawn,

    but like a lion he broke all my bones;

    day and night you made an end of me.

14 I cried like a swift or thrush,

    I moaned like a mourning dove.

My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.

    I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!”

15 But what can I say?

    He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.

I will walk humbly all my years

    because of this anguish of my soul.

16 Lord, by such things people live;

    and my spirit finds life in them too.

You restored me to health

    and let me live.

17 Surely it was for my benefit

    that I suffered such anguish.

In your love you kept me

    from the pit of destruction;

you have put all my sins

    behind your back.

18 For the grave cannot praise you,

    death cannot sing your praise;

those who go down to the pit

    cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19 The living, the living—they praise you,

    as I am doing today;

parents tell their children

    about your faithfulness.

20 The Lord will save me,

    and we will sing with stringed instruments

all the days of our lives

    in the temple of the Lord.

21 Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

22 Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the temple of the Lord?”

Isaiah comes to Hezekiah and tells him to tidy up your life, you are going to die. This troubled Hezekiah because he had been a righteous King, one better than those before him and apparently those after him. He turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord and wept. It is interesting that God told him to put his house in order. When you know the span of your days, things you thought were important, become much less so and getting closer to God is the most important thing ever. I don’t really know how long I have to live, but what I once thought was important is not now. ALS can be a very frightening diagnosis, as all terminal diseases are, but it no longer matters to me.

When I accepted Christ, death lost its sting. I began to give away what I had treasured, my books, tools and things and began to read the Bible. I am still in the process of getting rid of things and the Lord is still winnowing from me what he does not need. And that’s a good thing.

Hezekiah prayed and shed tears before the Lord and the Lord, through Isaiah tells the King that I have heard your prayer and added 15 years to your life.

We have a Merciful God. What would you do if the Lord told you He has heard your prayer and added time to your life. Would you praise Him and grow closer to the Lord? Something to think about.

We know that this illness was happening at the same time the Assyrians were besieging his city. Hezekiah ruled for 29 years. 29 -15 is 14. We find in Isaiah 36 in the 14th year of Hezekiah’s rule, he was beset by the Assyrians.

So he’s got trouble from without and from within.  And now the Lord says, OK, I will extend your life and here is a sign for you that things will be as I say. Verse 8 says “I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.”

Now these steps of Ahaz were a large sundial. They way they made this timepiece was the sun rose up the steps on one side and down the other. 10 steps would equal 45 minutes. Where else have we heard God handling the sun? 

Joshua 10:12-13 

12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,

    and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

13 So the sun stood still,

    and the moon stopped,

    till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.

Now Dr J. Vernon McGee says that time might have stood still in Joshua for 45 minutes or so, but the Bible says a whole day. It does not matter. The only thing that matters is God is in control of all things and he marched the Sun back 10 steps as sign to Hezekiah. 

Hezekiah was thankful to the Lord for adding years to his life. Thankful enough that he wrote a song or psalm. It is thought that he wrote Psalm 116.

Let’s read that.

1 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;

    he heard my cry for mercy.

2 Because he turned his ear to me,

    I will call on him as long as I live.

3 The cords of death entangled me,

    the anguish of the grave came over me;

    I was overcome by distress and sorrow.

4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:

    “Lord, save me!”

5 The Lord is gracious and righteous;

    our God is full of compassion.

6 The Lord protects the unwary;

    when I was brought low, he saved me.

7 Return to your rest, my soul,

    for the Lord has been good to you.

8 For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,

    my eyes from tears,

    my feet from stumbling,

9 that I may walk before the Lord

    in the land of the living.

10 I trusted in the Lord when I said,

    “I am greatly afflicted”;

11 in my alarm I said,

    “Everyone is a liar.”

12 What shall I return to the Lord

    for all his goodness to me?

13 I will lift up the cup of salvation

    and call on the name of the Lord.

14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

    in the presence of all his people.

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord

    is the death of his faithful servants.

16 Truly I am your servant, Lord;

    I serve you just as my mother did;

    you have freed me from my chains.

17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you

    and call on the name of the Lord.

18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

    in the presence of all his people,

19 in the courts of the house of the Lord—

    in your midst, Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord. 

He was rather proud of that Psalm. Proud enough that it began to affect his opinion of himself. And that affected how God thought of Hezekiah.

2 Chronicles 32:25

But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

The argument is made, in the places I go to for research on this subject, like this. Is it right for Hezekiah to ask God for his life, for the added years?. At first glance, you’d think to yourself that of course it is right to ask God to save your life. 

Hmm. Do you know what God knows? Do you know what you’d do with that extra time. Would you praise your Lord and get closer? Become more like Jesus? Or would you be inclined to think, yeah, I got it going with God. I’m sort of his favorite. You have to remember that we are fallen humans. Prone to sin. Remember those times when God told his people to eradicate this other people, man, woman, child and beast?

Deuteronomy 20:16-17 

But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded.

Why did He command that? And this is a source of contention in many people. People who love to judge the past with their own morality. Or people unhappy with our supposed loving God, killing all these people. First off, we have a Loving God, a Merciful God, but we must fear God’s judgement. God had judged those people. What is the number 1 thing that God hates? Have no other gods before Me. And he hates sin. 

Now let’s read Verse 18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.

They would have and did infect his people with their sinful ways. We are all his people, but if we have been judged a lost cause, your life is forfeit for all eternity. That’s harsh, but God is Just. Do His will and His ways and you shall drink from the water of Life. John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Now we are into Chapter 39.

Hezekiah got a letter from the Babylonians. One of those “heard you’ve been sick, sorry to hear that and get well soon” things. Hezekiah liked that the Babylonians sent him a get well card. So much so that when they showed up to say Hi howya doin, he showed them all he had. Treasure, armaments, the works. There was nothing that he did not parade in front of them. Isaiah rebuked Hezekiah for his foolishness and prophesied that everything the king had shown the Babylonians would one day be taken to Babylon—along with Hezekiah’s own descendants.

He also had a son and that sons name was Manasseh. He reigned for 55 years, longer than any other king. 2 Chronicles 33

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. 4 He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” 5 In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6 He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

I would make the argument that it was a mistake asking for the gift of 15 more years of life. All the good that had been done, became undone. Just like Solomon. Sometimes when you ask for a blessing, you get it good and hard. Trust in the Lord that His will shall be done.

Let us end with this Psalms about blessings: 

Psalms 32:1-2

1 Blessed is the one whose fault is removed,

whose sin is forgiven.

2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no guilt,

    in whose spirit is no deceit.

All Glory to God our Father. When we last left our story, King Hezekiah’s administrators, the ones he sent to talk to Rabshakeh the military commander, had come back to their King with bad news. So bad, in fact they had torn their clothes and probably wished that somebody else could deliver that bad news. And the King, after hearing what Rabshakeh said, tore his clothes, too.
We don’t have that custom in this day and age. It was typical back in that day to tear your clothing on being told something unpleasant and if it was really bad, you’d haul out your sackcloth and ashes and sit there in misery.
Sackcloth and ashes was used often in the Bible and is a symbol of debasement and or repentance. Someone wanting to show his repentant heart would wear sackcloth and either sit in ashes and or put ashes on top of their head. Sackcloth was a course material, usually made of black goat’s hair, making it quite uncomfortable. The ashes signified desolation and ruin.
I think a lot could be fixed in this day and age with the adoption of this old custom. Yup, I’m serious. The Lord looked on people wearing their repentance and quite often had mercy on those people. To do this, you have to be serious about whatever is troubling you when you choose an outward expression of grief and humility. God can see our hearts and he knows we are good at saying we are sorry, but saying it and showing it means we have truly accepted that we need to atone for whatever we did to affront God. The first mention of sackcloth in the Bible is:
Genesis 37:34
Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.

Jacob’s sons hated their brother Joseph and knew that he was their father’s favorite. They hatch a plan and sold Joseph into slavery then told their father that he had been killed by a wild animals. And the amazing thing in this is God controls everything, and I do mean everything. Every detail. It troubles my mind to think about how all this works, but tiny details and connections matter to God. So much so that he took what the brothers, these sons of Jacob, what they had done and made it work out that it saved the father and his sons, so that those sons became the Tribes of Israel. And these Tribes of Israel fell away from God, all except Judah, and that was questionable at times. And here we are now in Chapters 36 to 39 of Isaiah, with Judah having a good King, a righteous King, destroying idols everywhere, making his people walk closer to God than they had for quite some time. And all those tribes of the brothers that had conspired against Joseph, when God had told Abraham that he would father a great people, these people, these tribes had just been swept up by Assyria. Assyria had been used by God as an instrument of Judgement on his wayward people. Isaiah told his people that this would happen, but they did not listen. God had told Isaiah in Chapter 6:9-10
He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
Are we not the same as these people? Do we hear what is preached to us in Church, but our ears refuse to understand and accept what is said? Our eyes see but if you are watching TV and reading anything of the secular world, more than the Bible, is it a wonder that they don’t perceive the Word of God? The Lord said
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Why wouldn’t you choose this over whatever the world has to offer? And yet we have so much unhappiness in the world, so much searching for meaning. Our Lord said His burden is light, and yet we yoke ourselves to depression and anxiety, witchcraft and everything else this world has to offer. You may scoff at the term witchcraft. But it is what the Bible tells is Astrology, Horoscopes, the belief in Luck and ends as idol worship. How many times have your said to someone “Good Luck”? Do you really want to place your faith in Luck, rather than the Lord? How many horseshoes have you seen over doorways of barns and outbuildings. Satan has wormed his way into our culture long ago and now it’s just a way of life for many.

We read about the Armor of God last week in Ephesians 6:10-18. I recommend that you mark that in your Bible and read it every day. Give it some serious thought, and while you’re at it, give your worries to the Lord. Why would you trust in the world or yourself? Can you change anything by worry? Does it give you pleasure to worry? It must be, seeing how often I keep hearing it. I was a very self sufficient man. I could, by my own hand, manage my life and the things around me, I thought this until the Lord humbled me. All those things I could do, those things I worried over. Gone, like tears in the rain. The Lord took from me what he could not use, and he is still taking from me. Everyday I can do a bit less. That prideful, rebellious man, is now someone who relies on the Lord, trusts in the Lord, more each day. My favorite verse is from 2 Corinthians 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Place your faith in the Lord, not in flesh. Our God will provide your daily bread and much more. Keep in mind all the details and connections that our Lord handles. He knows what you need before you do. You really need to believe that.
He knew what Hezekiah needed before the King did. Hezekiah was worried, and rightly so. The entire Assyrian army was camped on his doorstep.
Let’s go to Isaiah 37 and I’ll go through what we find.
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
So, Hezekiah’s got trouble. He tears his clothes and dons his sackcloth and heads to the Temple. I would call that a good start. Shows you are serious about this, willing to be humble and uncomfortable. And if he’s going to get his sackcloth on, all his government officials are going to do it, too. What a breath of fresh air that would be for our government to follow this old custom. Instead of lowering the flag to half mast, mandate that everybody put on sackcloth and get serious about praying.
The city of Nineveh did it, much to Jonah’s disgust.
Jonah 3:6-10
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
And Jonah told God that he’d rather die than see these gentiles repent.
Keep your place in Isaiah 37 and let’s go read Jonah 4.

1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
We are quite often ungrateful and still have the Love of God.
God’s children in Judah had been ungrateful and more and yet the Lord still loved them. Hezekiah’s officials go to the Temple and confer with Isaiah, asking him to put a good word in with God. They were hoping that God would preserve the remnant that they were.
Verse 5
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’”
Isaiah has good news for Hezekiah. Do not be afraid, he told them. I tell you this also, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of this world. Do not be afraid of the arthritis in your bones. Do not be afraid of where your next meal comes from. Faith, Faith in the Lord that he will provide. God is the same now as He was back then. He does not change, which is hard to understand in our fallen condition. Satan is always whispering to us, but the armor of God and the Holy Spirit indwelling us, will keep him at bay. You just have to trust in the Lord, as Hezekiah did. God told him that the Assyrian King’s underlings have blasphemed the Lord and Sennacherib will hear something that will make him want to return to his own country, where he will meet his end with a sword. In this we must keep in mind that we ourselves should never seek justice. The Lord our God is the Great Judge.
Verse 8
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”
Rabshakeh finds out his King has left him to go back home. Then he delivers a stern warning to Hezekiah to not get comfy with him being gone for long. Oh, and that god you depend on is not going to help you when I get back. After all, how much help where these gods to all the other people I and my predecessors have destroyed? Where are those people now?
Let us read together the rest of Chapter 37
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 16 “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

18 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 20 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.”
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:

“Virgin Daughter Zion
despises and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head as you flee.
23 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your messengers
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
‘With my many chariots
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest heights,
the finest of its forests.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’

26 “Have you not heard?
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.
27 Their people, drained of power,
are dismayed and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched[d] before it grows up.

28 “But I know where you are
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
29 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will make you return
by the way you came.

30 “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:

“This year you will eat what grows by itself,
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah
will take root below and bear fruit above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.

33 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:

“He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city,”
declares the Lord.
35 “I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”

36 Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

Hezekiah goes to the Temple and prays to the Lord and lays it all out.
16 “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. What a great verse. It follows closely with the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
After acknowledging that the gods of other people were only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands, Hezekiah boldly goes forth and asks God for deliverance.
Isaiah then tells of the end of Sennacherib and how the Angel of Death will put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. And one day while Sennacherib was worshipping to his god made of wood or stone, he was killed with a sword by his 2 sons.
Also interesting is that Jonah was in Nineveh around 790 BC, about 100 years before Sennacherib meets his end, in the same city. I can’t stress enough that God is in control of all things. Even small things, like why am I here talking to you. A little more than a year ago it was Pastor Pete, and I was still in rebellion. My wife asked me every Wednesday to come to Bible study. Nope. Until God told me Yup, you’re going to Bible study. Pastor Pete then leaves to go minister to a town near the arctic circle or so it seems. Next up in the land of details and connections is Pastor Delroy takes over Bible Study. I am no longer in rebellion and listen in wonder as Delroy spends 6 weeks in studying Psalms 23. Then summer comes, this summer, and Delroy and Patty want to take the summer off.

I am not saying it was like me in Isaiah’s place, standing before our Lord, hearing this scripture:

Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

No, it was more like Charlotte asking me if I would teach Bible study this summer. The Lord works in mysterious ways. If Pastor Pete had not left, I would not be here. And another mysterious thing is Delroy and Patty did not take the summer off.
What God has planned for you, you can resist, you can fight it and boy howdy I did. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. And remember this.
John 15:9-11
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

All Glory to God our Father. Today we have a major change in our reading of Isaiah. There are 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah and ironically, there 66 books of the Bible. Isaiah is considered the most revered prophet of the Bible and there are no such things as coincidences in God’s world. Our Sovereign Creator:

Genesis 1

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

In reading those 3 verses, the very beginning of the Bible and the Living Word of God, we find the basis for Faith. When we accept that God created the Heavens and the Earth with just a Word, we also must accept that God is in control of every event, every moment, every breath of all of His creation. There are no such things as luck, good fortune, karma or as I’ve mentioned, coincidences. Our Father is in control. We must have Faith in God as Isaiah did. So much so that he was given a vision of Heaven with our Lord Jesus sitting on the throne. And Isaiah, knowing he was in the presence of the most Holy One, fell to his knees. 

Isaiah 6

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah became a mighty prophet for our Lord and spoke boldly to the people of Judea. The first 35 chapters of Isaiah is quite poetic. Lots of smiting of ungodly people in an artful prose.

We come now to the 36th chapter and there is a very noticeable change. We have a story here that is referenced in other parts of the Bible and in historical records. 

2 Kings 18 & 19

2 Chron 29 & 30

Assyria is dug up 

Archaeologists had been digging on these sites for years and never really knew who these things they had dug up had belonged to. Finally, after finding some crucial clay tablets, they realized they had unearthed the records of the Assyrian Empire. Much to the astoundment of all non believing researchers. For the longest time, this among other things, they kept claiming the Bible was wrong because they couldn’t find anything of the Assyrians. So, naturally the Bible was wrong, not them. All things come in accordance to God’s will. 

Isaiah is divided up into 3 parts. Books 1 through 35 are of Judgement. They deal with the Tribes of Israel and Judah, and the Judgement by God of these peoples, who were in rebellion and worshipping false gods. The Assyrians just swept up the Northern Tribes of Israel and they never returned. 

We find now the Assyrians trying to capture Jerusalem and this is the story in Books 36 through 39. The writing style is more direct and clear. Think of it as the 7th inning stretch before we head back into the Books of 40 to 66. The writing style goes back to poetry and talk of God’s Grace and Salvation.

Let’s start out with a brief overview of the story, Chapters 36 to 39.  I will begin with the idea that Sacred and secular history are not the same. There are great spiritual truths that are hidden here that are seen only with the eyes of Faith. The Holy Spirit must teach us the divine purpose in the recording of this and all scriptural history. This account records a tremendous change in the history of the world. Here we see the transfer of the world power from Assyria to Babylon. Babylon is known as the first great world empire and it denotes the time of the Gentiles. Babylon was also known as a real menace to God’s people. This is a record of a Son of David beset by enemies and who went down to the verge of death, but was delivered out of it and continued to reign. Does this not sound like the story of Jesus, 600 years before Jesus’s birth.

In this story we have 3 miracles:

1. The Death Angel slays 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.
2. The Sun retreats 10 steps on the stairway of Ahaz.
3. Hezekiah is healed with his contrition of his sin.

And we have 2 important letters:

1. The first was from the Assyrian King that Hezekiah  took directly to God in prayer and his people were delivered.
2. The second was from the King of Babylon which flattered Hezekiah, who did not take that letter to God in Prayer and led to the undoing of the Southern Kingdom.

Let’s begin. Turn to Isaiah 36. I will read and render my commentary at the same time. You can follow along in your Bibles and see how this unfolds. 

Isaiah 36

Verse 1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field, 3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.

King Hezekiah was a good king. His name means “God has strengthened,”  Hezekiah was 25 years old when he began his reign and zealously began to set things right. He reopened the Temple in Jerusalem and brought back the passover as a national holiday. King Hezekiah made sure that idols were smashed throughout the land and ended any pagan worship. Apparently the bronze serpent that Moses had made in the desert Number 21:8-9 was being worshipped by some people. Hezekiah smashed the serpent and led his people as a God fearing King.

And now he was feeling quite pressured by powerful King Sennacherib. Hezekiah had watched as the Tribes of Israel were being swallowed up, one by one, and was very concerned that he would be next.

The Assyrian King sent his military commander and army from a town South and East of Jerusalem. Lachish is about 37 miles from Jerusalem, so a days travels for a battle tested army. Which means Hezekiah is pretty much surrounded. The field commander stopped near the aqueduct of the Upper Pool and a couple of Hezekiah’s Court officials went out to see what he had to say.

Verse 4 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:

“‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 5 You say you have counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 6 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 7 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

Here we have a man, absolutely confident of his power. He had already subdued everyone else in the neighborhood and now he is trying to intimidate his next conquest by belittling them and mocking their supposed alliance with Egypt and more importantly the Jew’s Lord. Those high places mentioned refer to the asherah poles. Asherah poles were wood poles (sometimes carved, sometimes not) or trees planted by the “high places” where pagan worshipers sacrificed. They were used to worship the pagan goddess Asherah. After the construction of the temple under King Solomon, there were those who would instead worship Asherah on a high place and were considered blasphemous to the Lord, worshiping a different God in different ways and in different places than how He prescribed.

After the construction of the temple under King Solomon, there were those who would instead worship Asherah on a high place and were considered blasphemous to the Lord, worshiping a different God in different ways and in different places than how He prescribed.

This military leader was trying to say that the Jew’s God was in the very place of those asherah poles that Hezikiah had torn down. Where the Assyrian army had been fighting and conquering the other tribes, he found “high places” where Jehovah had been worshipped, which Hezekiah had desecrated. Now where are you going to find help?

Verse 8 “‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”

Rabshakeh, who is the name of this military commander, continues his mocking tone and pretends to bargain with them, doubting they would even have 2000 men to ride his generous gift of horses. Adding to the taunt that the least of his captains would command more horsemen than that. 

Verse 10 is interesting in that Sennacherib, the King of Assyria was noted for making claims of Divine sanction for the wars in which he is engaged. Isaiah also taught that it was Jehovah who brought the King of Assyria into Judah, and used him as an instrument of Judgement.

 

Isaiah 7:17

The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.

And the empty prideful boast that the Lord himself told him to march against this country and destroy it. 

Verse 11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

It is interesting that the Jewish officials did not have much confidence in their people. Possibly knowing themselves so well and how rebellious they had been, they thought it better to keep negotiations in a more foriegn language. Obviously these guys were new to being a diplomat, thinking they could have the opposing side cooperate with a statement like that.

And it backfired. 

Verse 12  But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

Military men have always had a frank way of speaking. He is saying that the inhabitants of not only the wall, but of the city, will bear the brunt of what will happen if King Hezekiah does not surrender. Famine and slavery or death is what he is speaking of. This has always been the way of war, even unto this day. If you look at Syria now, today, they are experiencing this very thing. You must remember that these people are the descendants of Ishmael and will always be in contention with each other. 

Genesis 16:11-12  

And the angel of the Lord said to her,

“Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son.

You shall call his name Ishmael,

because the Lord has listened to your affliction.

12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man,

his hand against everyone

and everyone’s hand against him,

and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.

And that has held true since this scripture was written.

Verse 13 

13 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! 15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

16 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern,17 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 20 Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

Appealing directly to the people on the wall and by extension the people of the city. Don’t listen to your King, listen to me. I will give you peace and fruit from your own trees, water from your own wells. Forget that mandate from God Himself telling me to destroy this country. You can’t possibly believe your Lord will save you. To Rabshakeh, one god is as good as another and none of them have stood up to him so far. How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?

Verse 21

But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.

Tearing your clothes was a sign of distress and angst. These boys went back to their King and gave him the bad news. And the King, hearing the bad news, also tore his clothes.

So, you ask, what does this really mean to me? You’ve heard me going on and on about this story and how cool it is that we can find actual references to it in our history books. That’s nice and all, but you personally don’t find history all that exciting and could I just get to the point? 

Why yes I can. What does this look like to you? A powerful man shows up at your doorstep, making demands, threats, taunting you and even bargaining with you. Saying that if you listen to me and do things my way, it will be better for you and that God you pray to isn’t really going to help you anyway. Let’s make a deal so you can really start enjoying your life instead of following a bunch of rules that this “God person” says you must do and aren’t a lot of fun. 

Am I ringing any bells here? Didn’t Eve hear the same message? Or perhaps when it’s time to drive your friend into town for some grocery shopping because she can’t drive anymore and you sort of felt bad about that, but she talks a lot and is SO thankful to you that it gets annoying. You’d rather stay home and watch some trashy TV show and maybe not go to Church this next Sunday because the Pastor doesn’t say anything interesting anyway.

This to me speaks very directly of satan. Does he not whisper to us, taunt us, bully us? Put little inconvenient questions in your head. Little doubts. 

That one sin that nobody knows and you really feel bad about it. Jesus said that when you believe in Him, accept Him, all your sins are forgiven. Are they really, are you sure about that? I know that I have had those thoughts pushed at me. It is one of the most persistent, nagging feelings that you still have to ask for forgiveness, over and over again for something that God has already forgiven and forgotten. The Scripture says in:

Isaiah 43:25

I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

And in:

Hebrews 10: 14-18

14 For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Has that answered the question of your sins being forgiven? When satan comes knocking, put on the full armor of God:

Ephesians 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

So, go out into the world fully informed of God’s Love and fully armored against the desires of evil. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. READ YOUR BIBLES! And if you truly believe in Christ, satan has no purchase in your life. The Lord has put His Laws in our hearts and in our minds. Go forth and do His works. 

It is clear today that we as God’s children are in sinful rebellion of the wishes of our Lord. As sin was entered into us, from our Father Adam, and to which God asks the woman “WHAT IS THIS YOU HAVE DONE?” Gen 3:13. The whole world that God saw on the sixth day and had said was very good, in Gen 1:31, must have groaned in despair. You see not just Man was damned by sin, the world, the universe was also damned.

We see a lot on the news that looks like lunacy, I can find no better word for it. This is not new to God. He saw the same thing in Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham argued with our Lord, actually bargained with our Lord and who among us would have the temerity to do such a thing. But Abraham asked our Lord to not destroy two of the most wicked cities on earth if he could find, ultimately, just 10 good people. And our Lord said he would save the cities for just 10 good people. The fact is that he found only one person, Lot, in those cities and the 2 angels hustled Lot and his family out of town before destroying them. So I wonder where is our Abraham today, and who is our Lot. 
It seems as if we are at a similar point to the Jews in the time of Judges, which was around 1400 to 1000 BC.

Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Is that not what today is like. Sure we have laws, as they did in that day, but the law worked for them like does for us. It doesn’t work. It was never meant to work. 

-Rabbit Trail Warning –

What I had been taught, and probably you also had been taught, is God gave the law to Moses and he came down the mountain and spoke the law unto the people. This would have been the second time, because the first time he came down the mountain with stone tablets, with writing from the hand of God, he saw, well let’s just go there and read it.

Exodus 32:7-10 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8“They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” 9The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. 10“Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

Then Moses spent a quite a bit of time on his knees, pleading with God to spare his people and God then changed his mind and did not destroy these people. Notice that God always has a backup plan. Verse 10 says let’s destroy this people, which I had great plans for and then I will make you a great nation. There WILL be a Great Nation. Whether these Jews are part of it or not is not going to stop God’s plan of Jesus coming and rescuing us sinners, all sinners. Moses, although by his own admission was not eloquent, was able to talk his people out of destruction.

A good story and instructive for our day, don’t you think. We as a people are so busy building our own golden calves, that I doubt most of us would look up from our stupid smart phones to notice that we’ve been smited by our Creator.

What I have recently discovered was something small but really interesting and instructive. I happened to be listening to Grace Stream from John MacArthur’s church a couple of mornings ago – I really recommend you try it out. I have found it very good for streaming the Living Word of God into my head, those days when I’ve gotten up too early, and it puts me right out, as in asleep. But, just before I drifted off I heard this new and interesting thing. 

The law was given from God to Angels who then gave it to Moses and he gave it to the people. Yes, I said Angels gave the Law to Moses. And this is where some controversy exits. We still have Judaists in this day, apparently.

 Paul writes in Galatians 3:19: “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”

And people, no doubt being prompted by satan, have said Paul is conflicting with Exodus 32:15-16,  Some have even said he is lying. 

And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. 16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.”

And in Exodus 34:1 “And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.” 

To my knowledge this is a current controversy, but it quite well could have been used back in Paul’s day by the Judaists to discredit him. They also point accusing fingers at Acts 7:51-53

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”  

This was by Stephen, being guided by the Holy Spirit as he schools the High Priest and Council. Stephen gives an eloquent 2000 year history, from Abraham to Jesus’s crucifiction and his words from the Holy Spirit were so enraging that they took him out and stoned him. And as he was being stoned, he looked up to heaven and forgave them.

If you recall, I pretty much did the same thing last week. Rattled off from Abraham – no, I started at Adam and went down the line to Jesus. Now, I am in no way saying I anything like Stephen, nothing like him. But, what I am saying is, in today’s current culture, you could have the same thing happen to you if you told this to people who are in rebellion, people that don’t want to hear of the Mercy, Grace and Salvation of our Lord. This is not a warning in any way, just a heads up. People all over the world are still being killed for being Christians.

That was a bit of stomping off into the rhubarb, but we will get back to our original rabbit trail by saying ironically, when Stephen gets stoned, this is where Paul comes into the picture. The very guy they are saying is lying about Angels and the Law. We find also…

Hebrews 2:1-3 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard…”

Exodus is silent about Angels being on Mount Sinai when the Law was handed out. The Bible is the Living Word of God. As such, we will receive what understanding as God sees fit to give us. Mysteries remain, until prophets or apostles or even the Holy Spirit fills us in. God gives us the understanding that He wants us to have, not what we think we need.  A good example of this was my reading Exodus 32, again. I suddenly noticed in verse 24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

I have read Exodus before and I don’t recall that particular verse standing out to me. “Out came this calf.” Sounds like something I would have tried, as a child, to explain what stupid thing I had just done. And this is what happens when the Holy Spirit reveals something to you. No big fan fare, just a quiet revelation of something that you did not know but needed to know.

Pray for Discernment and Understanding. You might be surprised at what you learn.

Under the small issue of how we got the Law, I am pretty convinced that it went from God’s hand to Angels to Moses and to the People, who promptly decided nope. I don’t know how you translate nope into Hebrew, but the end result is the Law was not obeyed. And it was never meant to be used as a tool for justifying us or saving us. It was meant to show them and us, who have all been born with a conscience, knowing right and wrong, what really rotten people we are. We can’t follow God’s Holy Law and as such we will be damned to eternal darkness and torment. That’s ultimately what the Law’s purpose was. You, walking down the street, thinking you are a pretty good guy or gal, pretty good doesn’t cut it in comparison to how Holy God is and what he wants us to be. The Law was meant to be a burden to us, so much so that we can’t do it and throw our hands up in the air, we need help, we need a mediator. We need Jesus. God was driving us toward Jesus. He is our advocate and the Holy Spirit that indwells us, knows our heart and speaks to Jesus even when we don’t know what to say. He is our Abraham bargaining with Jesus. And that is what the prophets foretold. When Jesus came he said Love is the greatest thing, what you must do is Love your Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then Love your neighbor. Then all the other laws are followed. All of them.

It is clear today that we do not have Love and thus are not in compliance with God’s desires. I looked at the research of Church attendance in our country. It’s not good. Now just going to Church is not going to save you, but you have to start somewhere. What struck me as I was going through this was all the odd ball religions in the US. There is only one true God but not everybody got the message. Buddhists, Hindus, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, Muslim. Of just us Christians, 36% said they go to Church at least once a week. And married people are more prone to Church going than others. Keep in mind that not everybody is truthful on these surveys and what I was looking at was from 2017. 
Europe was in worse shape than us and it’s pretty clear the trend is going to get worse, as in a great falling off of Faith. 

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

My point is, where is the Love? The Love that will satisfy the Law and get us God’s Grace, Mercy and Love coming back at us, the undeserving sinner. That kind of Love. We all have people we should Love, family members, even. Read the New Testament and after reading that, all of it, tell me where you found how holding a grudge and anger against anyone, is what we should do. Remember Stephen being stoned, looked up and said forgive them. Could we, as believers and followers of Christ, do anything less?

The command from our Lord Jesus Christ is to Love and thus satisfy the Law.  Many of our neighbors, friends, even family are walking the wrong path. The wide road. Find it in your hearts to speak to them. Remember, it is not your job to save them. God offers His hand and opens their hearts. He is using us in a way, that is as much for us as it is for them I think.

End of Rabbit Trail

Isaiah 35 – Let us read it together.

Joy of the Redeemed

1 The desert and the parched land will be glad;

    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus, 

2 it will burst into bloom;

    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

    the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;

they will see the glory of the Lord,

    the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen the feeble hands,

    steady the knees that give way;

4 say to those with fearful hearts,

    “Be strong, do not fear;

your God will come,

    he will come with vengeance;

with divine retribution

    he will come to save you.”

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,

    and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

    and streams in the desert.

7 The burning sand will become a pool,

    the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the haunts where jackals once lay,

    grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

8 And a highway will be there;

    it will be called the Way of Holiness;

    it will be for those who walk on that Way.

The unclean will not journey on it;

    wicked fools will not go about on it.

9 No lion will be there,

    nor any ravenous beast;

    they will not be found there.

But only the redeemed will walk there,

10     and those the Lord has rescued will return.

They will enter Zion with singing;

    everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

What a wonderful passage. God’s Judgment has cooled and this is the dawn of the Millennial Kingdom. Earth will be transformed. We will be transformed. Our Lord Jesus, our King will have returned and we will be in our glorified state. In perpetual joy and praising our King and Savior. Think about that day, when it comes. 

The End of Revelation, Chapter 21 does a pretty good job of describing that time. For those of you that have not gotten to read Revelation yet, let’s read this one together.

A New Heaven and a New Earth

21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

The New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb

9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

And we end with this, the 9th verse from the end of the Bible. Cue Charlton Heston’s Voice as Moses…

Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Come join us in our Bible study. Currently we are going through the book of Isaiah and we quite often wander off topic to discuss issues of Faith, Love and Salvation. You can find us at South Grove, a Senior Living facility, in Grove City MN. We are in the Blue Bird room, off the Gym and you can access that from the West side doors, which are open to the public. We start at 10AM with coffee and pastries. All are welcome!

Opening Prayer

The Lesson for today, Wednesday August 14, 2019

Today in Isaiah, we start out with a series of Woes as we often do in Isaiah. There was a lot of iniquity in the people of Judah and the surrounding tribes and nations. You could say the people were all but overwhelmed with sin. And the Lord brought prophets of the people to bring attention to that fact. And many times, the people choose to ignore the prophets and when they became too strident in their denunciation, killed the prophets. Jesus in Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!

These very people, whom God brought out of slavery in Egypt, whose heart of the Pharaoh he hardened, so that Pharaoh and all of Egypt might see the mighty glory of our God. The culmination of that was the parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh and his army. These Jews, these ingrate Jews, asked Aaron to make them a golden calf after they thought Moses had been gone too long. A golden calf, a false god to worship, because God had not done anything for them in the last hour or so. You might say, “but wait, God had not given them the 10 Commandments yet, they didn’t know.” God had been a flaming cloud, leading them out of Egypt since right after the first Passover. 

Exodus 13:21 By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.

The earliest scripture reference to idolatry is in Exodus 20:3-6 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

However, since Moses was God’s mouthpiece, I am pretty sure it was mentioned early on that worshipping anything other than God was not to be entertained.

And this brings us to our current woe being issued by Isaiah. Idolatry was rampant in the Northern tribes and had been big in Judah during Ahaz’s time. Now we are in the reign of King Hezekiah, who was reported to have done right in the eyes of the Lord. 

This brings us to Chapter 28 and it’s a Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah. The scripture speaks of this tribe of Ephraim, named after the second son of Joseph. Joseph as we remember, was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Issac, who was the son of Abraham who was righteous before the Lord and the Lord told Abraham that he would make a great nation from his loins. Abraham (then Abram) chuckled as he was very old. I’m trying to make you see what I see when I think of this. This story, that arcs through time, is incredible in that many of the things it talks about are relevant to this day. The Faith of a few key people comes down through the centuries and relentlessly points to the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And after He is crucified and rose again, now the Holy Spirit comes in to the Apostles and from them, into the believers. We have 19 generations from Adam to Abraham. And from there 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to Exile. The Exile we are referring to is the Babylonian Exile of Judah. From Exile to Jesus is another 14 generations. We know this because it’s told to us in

Matt 1:17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

The Bible is thought of by many people to be a confusing jumble of old people doing strange things, some parables and a really scary ending. If you look at this as the living word of God, this book becomes a story of his Grace, Mercy and Love. It is His story of how he teaches the people of the Bible, in their everyday sin filled lives, how he loves them, wants them to be His people and is willing to send his only begotten Son to die on a cross for them and us to have eternal salvation. Of course the people rebelled, because he loved us enough to give us free will. His hand is offered to each one of us. It is a Big Story and the more you read the Bible, the more you will understand the story. I love history and I can see some of these scenes played out in my mind’s eye. Like the story of Joseph being sold into captivity by his brothers because he was his father’s favorite. The people of Joseph’s son, Ephraim, mentioned specifically in Isaiah 28, have fallen prey to pride, conceit, drunkenness but most importantly, the sin of idolatry. And as we have seen, this has long been the history of God’s people of which we are a part.

Romans 11:17-24  But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. 18 But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root. 19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” 20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. 21 For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t spare you either. 22 Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off. 23 And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree. 24 You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.

Once again, part of the story of how God’s Grace, Mercy and Love will bring His chosen people back to him in the book of Revelation. Just a remnant will be there when Christ comes to rule the Earth. 

Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

In this case I believe the dragon to be satan and the woman to be the Church. Just another part of the story.

Isaiah 29 is a Woe to David’s City which is of course Jerusalem. Isaiah is aware that all his preaching to the authorities is to no avail.

Isaiah 30 is a Woe to the Obstinate Nation. Isaiah finds out that the palace is in favor of an alliance with Egypt. Trusting in Egypt rather than God for defense and Salvation.

Isaiah 31 is a Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt. The Princes of Judah were attracted to the prospect of reinforcing the cavalry of Judah with Egytian horses and chariots. 

Isaiah says in Isaiah 36:9 “with an Egyptian contingent. Isaiah once more condemns this as trusting in an “arm of flesh “instead of in the “Holy One of Israel.” 

All God wants is to Trust him and they can’t seem to find that in themselves. Are we the same way? Do we have Faith that God will provide “Our Daily Bread” like it says in the Lord’s Prayer.

Do we have Faith that God will not give you a challenge in life that is too big to handle? Do we consult with God on a daily basis? Why would our Father want to give the gifts we so eagerly ask for to someone he doesn’t know? Someone that never talks to Him.

Your life can be filled with Faith in our Lord, or it can be filled with all that flesh can offer you, with no assurances of Mercy and Grace that our Father is so willing to Bless you with. When is the last time Mercy and Grace were shown to you by people? I am not saying it doesn’t happen, cause there are good Christians out there doing the work of the Lord. But generally, it’s gonna cost you something. The ways of the flesh will not save you. Only Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 32 The Kingdom of Righteousness. It speaks of Our Savior being a shelter from the wind and a warning to The Women of Jerusalem and their complacency among other things. 

Isaiah 33 In my Bible the heading is Distress and Help. You can guess who those are in distress and who is offering His hand as help. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Isaiah 34 Judgment Against the Nations

Let’s read this one together

1 Come near, you nations, and listen;

    pay attention, you peoples!

Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,

    the world, and all that comes out of it!

2 The Lord is angry with all nations;

    his wrath is on all their armies.

He will totally destroy them,

    he will give them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out,

    their dead bodies will stink;

    the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

4 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved

    and the heavens rolled up like a scroll;

all the starry host will fall

    like withered leaves from the vine,

    like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

    see, it descends in judgment on Edom,

    the people I have totally destroyed.

6 The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood,

    it is covered with fat—

the blood of lambs and goats,

    fat from the kidneys of rams.

For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah

    and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 And the wild oxen will fall with them,

    the bull calves and the great bulls.

Their land will be drenched with blood,

    and the dust will be soaked with fat.

8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,

    a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.

9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,

    her dust into burning sulfur;

    her land will become blazing pitch!

10 It will not be quenched night or day;

    its smoke will rise forever.

From generation to generation it will lie desolate;

    no one will ever pass through it again.

11 The desert owl and screech owl will possess it;

    the great owl and the raven will nest there.

God will stretch out over Edom

    the measuring line of chaos

    and the plumb line of desolation.

12 Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,

    all her princes will vanish away.

13 Thorns will overrun her citadels,

    nettles and brambles her strongholds.

She will become a haunt for jackals,

    a home for owls.

14 Desert creatures will meet with hyenas,

    and wild goats will bleat to each other;

there the night creatures will also lie down

    and find for themselves places of rest.

15 The owl will nest there and lay eggs,

    she will hatch them, and care for her young

    under the shadow of her wings;

there also the falcons will gather,

    each with its mate.

16 Look in the scroll of the Lord and read:

None of these will be missing,

    not one will lack her mate.

For it is his mouth that has given the order,

    and his Spirit will gather them together.

17 He allots their portions;

    his hand distributes them by measure.

They will possess it forever

    and dwell there from generation to generation.

I will stop our trolling through the chapters of Isaiah at this point, not because I like doom and gloom. No, it’s because I understand this chapter better than the others. This could be of the time Isaiah is living in. There is a whole lot of Judgement to go around and will be for the foreseeable future.

In my mind this is reference to Revelation and the tribulations that will come about. In chapters 6 through 19 in Revelation. We won’t go there now, because we have just a bit of that very same thing in this chapter of Isaiah. I did check with J. Vernon McGee and he agrees with my assessment. Or rather I should say, I am happy that I found something that J. Vernon McGee had already proclaimed and my idea lines up with his. 

The Lord is angry at all nations. How could he not be. The USA has all but kicked God out of our schools. North America and Europe profess to claiming to be Christians, but very few go to Church. According to Pew Research, 91% of Europeans claim to be Christian, however only 22% say they go to Church regularly. That would make the majority of them non practicing Christians, whatever that means. In the USA, the percentage of people claiming to be Christians is 70.6%. We are either more honest or there are more oddball religions in the US than Europe. And the same low number was noted for actually attending Church. 

The upshot is, if you have read the Bible and particularly the New Testament where Jesus is speaking, you’ve got to know God is not going to be happy with this lackluster effort to live as he wants us to live. It truly is a narrow path and most of your friends and neighbors will be walking their way to eternal damnation. Do something about it now, before it is too late.

Let us close with this:

Psalms 27:4 One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

 

We had a good turnout today for Bible Study with our friend Mike showing up for the second time and offering much welcome commentary. Our topic was Isaiah 27 and typically we will read the scripture together and I take off on my commentary of the scripture at hand. Normally, it doesn’t take long for me to wander off topic with whatever the Holy Spirit leads me to. And today that was talking about the 100 or so prophecies concerning the advent of Christ that have been fulfilled. If you are interested I have my outline for today’s lesson in a previous post. I spent a good amount of time going over the concept of GOD not lying or changing his mind. Quite a difference from us sinful humans.

I think everybody was already on board with that and then we went on to what turned out to be my main topic today, the Holy Spirit. If you have accepted Christ, and the ABC’s are a description of how that happens:
A. Accept Christ. As simple as that. He is our Savior and the only way to Heaven and eternal life in His Presence.

B. Believe specifically that he was born of a virgin, suffered, died and rose again on the third day.

C. Confess your sins, contritely and completely. GOD, our creator knows your heart as does Jesus. There is no getting around it, everything you or I have done is known to GOD. Confess and ask for forgiveness.

Once you have done this, the Holy Spirit will indwell you. It was explained today, by Pastor DelRoy who is part of our group, that you must make room in your heart for the Holy Spirit to fill in and up. The more room you make the more the Spirit fills in.

I had told the people in our group to ask the Holy Spirit to take control of them. Paster DelRoy mentioned that “make room in your heart”, by removing what has cluttered it up with sin, rather than asking the Holy Spirit to take control of you, is the way to do that. That was my Elder Shepherd guiding me and I am very grateful for that correction. We all need an Elder Shepherd in our lives.

So, make room in your heart and life by removing the sin and whatever else you have hidden in there.

For me, it was a pressing need to delete all the reading material off my Kindle, and getting rid of all the books I had collected. My primary reading material for enjoyment was Science Fiction, but I had many other kinds of books. I am self educated. I read and kept books on whatever interests me and teach myself to do what I just read. History books, by the dozens. My wife tells people that she got a degree in History and I know it better than she does. Anyway, I felt I had to get rid of all of it. And I did. I stopped listening to music of any kind. This blog which I started 3 years ago had some really good writing. Totally pride filled, and well, all of the over 300 posts had to go. And so it went. This may seem a bit extreme to you. For me to have kept any of that stuff, I would have not had any room in my heart for I wanted more than life. I wanted the Holy Spirit in me and did whatever it took to make it work.

You may have a different drive to clean out sin. Follow wherever it takes you. After doing this and praying, a lot, my language cleaned up almost overnight. My heart softened. And my long reluctance to read the Bible fell away. Now I am teaching Bible Study on Wednesdays.

It turns out that the talk about the Holy Spirit and the discussion that followed, well, that pretty much rounded out the hour.

I am already looking forward to next Wednesday. Join us if you can. The details of how to do that are in the previous post.

Morning Prayer

Read Isaiah 27 together.

My Commentary and bringing the lesson home.
Verse 1
In that day This brings us to the day of our Messiah’s triumphant return.
There are 100 or more prophecies of the advent of Christ the first time.
And all of these have been precisely and literally fulfilled.

When you read the Living Word Of GOD, you will see as in Matt 25:26 “that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”
And the Scriptures were fulfilled in a most literal sense.
Example…
That Jesus would ride on a Donkey. John 12:14
The parting of his garments. Psalms 22:18
The piercing of his hands and feet. Psalms 22:16
“HE took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Matt 8:17

And many more. You need to read the Bible and when you get done, Read it again. Every time you read the “breathed out” words from our Creator, you will gain further understanding.
And if you communicate to GOD, through prayer, that you would like greater Understanding, greater Faith, if you have truly given yourself to Christ, who has forgiven your every sin, and you have forgiven those that have trespassed against you, GOD will grant your prayer.

The scripture says GOD “cannot lie” and that he will not change his mind.
Numbers 23:19
GOD is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Titus 1:2
in the hope of eternal life, which GOD, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior;

What HE has promised, HE will do. The truthfulness of the Bible is at stake in the Second Coming. And this what Isaiah is talking about, “In That Day.”

We move on to the rest of Verse 1

the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan that twisted serpent;
We’ve seen the Lord’s mighty sword in Rev 19 so let’s go there and read it.
Rev 19:17-21
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great GOD, 18 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.”

19 And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

You have to love a happy ending.

It is our Lord Jesus on the Horse, coming back as our conquering King.
This reference of the Leviathan is possibly in connection with ancient myths of nations near Israel. This could be the Northern Tribes of Israel who had seriously strayed from the Will of GOD. It is used as an illustrative element for the people he was talking to. The people of the day knew of symbolic terms used to make a point. However, satan manifested himself as a serpent to Eve in the Garden of Eden in Gen 3:1-5, could he not also make himself a sea monster too?
We’ve also seen in Rev 13:1-3 where this imagery is used in describing the emergence of the Antichrist which came from the sea.
Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.

The end result is And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea. Isaiah is prophesying the ultimate defeat of satan when the Kingdom of the Messiah conquers all.

Verse 2
In that day sing to her,
“A vineyard of [a]red wine!
3 I, the Lord, keep it,
I water it every moment;
Lest any hurt it,
I keep it night and day.

This becomes a song of GOD’s care for his vineyard. The Church is his vineyard and we are the Bride of Christ. GOD will tend to his Church, water it, tend to it with loving care. This vineyard is where you pray to GOD, leave your worries at the Cross, and I do mean leave them there. What good does it do for you to say with your mouth that trust our Lord, yet still worry and think that it is OK.
You are not going to be watered as well as you’d like to be.
Trust in the Lord is Faith in the Lord that you will receive your daily bread. It is Faith that GOD will keep his promises, to all of us. HE does not change his mind like we sinful creatures do. But a word of caution.

Acts 5. Let’s go read that.

Acts 5:1-11 Lying to the Holy Spirit.
But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. 2 And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to GOD.”
5 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. 6 And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.
7 Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?”
She said, “Yes, for so much.”
9 Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. 11 So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

What lesson do we draw from this? Discuss…

We are sinful creatures and only by the Grace of GOD do we have any hope of redemption. GOD will forgive, yet our GOD is a wrathful GOD. If you believe and have trust in GOD, you will be well watered.

Now look at Verse 4 and 5.
4 Fury is not in Me.
Who would set briers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of My strength,
That he may make peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me.”

HE will burn out those who are beset with evil or (and this is a very big OR), HE would let them take hold of HIS strength. And would make peace with them.
Is that not totally cool? You could be all sorts of trouble. Rebellion, Denial, the works. I was that way, until very recently. And I took hold of HIS strength. Everything that I counted for something in my life was shown to me to be nothing. He took my strength and let me use HIS.

Look at how many in this world are resisting this offer. The craziness of what happened in El Paso and Dayton Ohio. It has been said that we are seeing the end result of boys without Fathers. The destruction of the family has been a favorite target of satan. Mothers raising Sons without the benefit of Fathers, where is the guiding influence for both girls and boys? Paul talks about why and how this came to be in Romans 1 specifically starting at verse 18. I encourage you to read this on your own. It will answer many of the questions of what you see going on today.

We have people denying GOD. Acting as if this world, this sinful world is all there is. Satan is the prince of this world and you can see he is very good at what he does. He was fallen from GOD and wants all of us fallen too. That part in the Lord’s Prayer, deliver us from evil, you should ask the Lord that, every day. The Lords Prayer, you can go through each line, and talk to GOD of what it means to you. Praise HIM, Glorify HIM, ask him to bring to earth what is in Heaven. Make it a very personal prayer. I love doing that.

Something that was brought to my mind from Pastor Otto, this last Sunday was to come to the Lord as a servant. Not always asking for what you need, but by serving the Lord first.
Luke 7:7-10
7 And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’ ”

What is our duty? To follow GOD’s Law. And what is GOD’s law? The Old Testament, GOD’s Law would have been the 10 Commandments, the Sacrificial Laws, Dietary Laws and that sort of thing which were lined out in great detail. I think it would be good to hear this description of Why the law from John MacArthur.
This is from his sermon The Adoption of the Believer from 2017. He is preaching from Galatians 4:1–11.
Paul has been contrasting what the law does and what faith does, and they cannot be mixed. When the Judaizers came along and said it’s faith plus works, they mixed things that cannot be mixed. The law has a purpose. Back in verse 19 of chapter 3, “Why the Law?” Not to save, “It was added because of transgressions.
Why the Law? And I gave you four reasons for the law. Reason number one, to define sin at its broadest level. Obviously there is a law written in the heart of everybody, and we all have a conscience. So everybody knows what it right and what is wrong, and they know it because the law of GOD is written in the heart. But that is not a complete law; and so GOD revealed His law to Moses in all of its completeness to define sin at the broadest possible level.
Secondly, He revealed His law to demonstrate to us that sin is not just something wrong with us, something that’s out of whack with us that affects our relationships with other people and brings bad consequences on us sort of naturally, but the violation of the law of GOD is in fact open rebellion against GOD. It is high crime. The law then says that sin is more than a defect, it is an act of rebellion against GOD.
The third reason that Paul tells us we have received the law is so that we will understand that having violated the law and having rebelled against GOD, we are under the sentence of death. Death comes to all men. The wages of sin is death. We ask, “Why is there death?” Because everyone is a law-breaker. The wages of sin is death.
And the fourth reason GOD sent the law – the law was in place from Moses to Jesus for all those hundreds of years – was to demonstrate that the law could not save. There it was in the hands of the Jewish people who had the best opportunity to fulfill the law, to obey the law. They swore they would. They took a blood oath, back in Exodus 24, that they would obey the law. They did not obey the law. In fact, they violated the very first of the commandments, which was to have no other GODs. They went wholesale into idolatry, they violated the law of GOD at every point; ultimately judgment fell on their heads, they were taken into captivity, they were taken out of their land. There’s a little bit of a trickle-back, and even a few there now. But Israel still exists in disobedience and apostasy and rebellion against GOD in a collective sense.

So that’s why there was Law. Like he said, when Jesus was crucified and rose again, the 10 Commandments are still the Law, but all the sacrificial and dietary laws, are no longer valid. And the Judaizers would not let that go. They are the ones chasing after Paul, trying to malign and undo what Paul had said. Telling the Gentiles that you needed to get circumcised, and do the works according to their idea of how to follow the Law, to become righteous and that was the only way the Gentiles could go to Heaven. Satan was very busy with these people.

So now the Law with the advent of Christ became divided in 2 parts. Once again John MacArthur says of this:
The Law, meaning the Ten Commandments, the summary of GOD’s Law,
GOD’s moral Law. The first part deals with GOD and the second part deals with men. The first part, our relationship to GOD, the second part, our relationship to man. The first part can be summed up in these words, “Love the Lord your GOD with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” And the second part can be summed up in these words, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” so that if you love GOD perfectly and you love your neighbor perfectly, you will fulfill the whole Law. You’ll never violate GOD and you will never violate anyone else. Therefore Romans 13:10 says, “Love is the fulfilling of the whole Law.” We are to be the model of the fulfilled Law. We are to be the model of GODliness in the world and it is our love that makes that visible. It is our love for GOD that drives us to honor Him. It is our love for others that drives us to honor them.

Love is the one thing that separates us from all the pagans, idolators, carnal Christians and everybody else walking around out in the world. They will know you by your works. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, not works of you, which will not work at all. Try this, ask the Holy Spirit, tonight or later today, or even right now, we’ll wait, to take control of you. To control your thoughts and actions. I mean, what do you have going in your life that would be better than this. Lunch, I’ve seen the lunches they serve here. Ask HIM to take control of you and be honest about it, and then feel the peace of understanding and his presence start to change you.

If you have done this and you’re still moping around, unhappy with life, feeling you’re no good and all that. Well, you’ve got some work to do. Get down on your knees and that might be metaphorically if you have some medical issues, GOD will understand. Ask GOD to show you what’s keeping HIS blessing from you. I know I talked about this last week, but it’s important. Do this until you get something back from GOD, and in my case, it about stops me in my tracks with watching in my minds eye, and in full living color, the travails of my misbegotten life. You will get the message and then do that which he has instructed you.

Let’s see, where were we. Oh yes, Verse 6.

6 Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob;
Israel shall blossom and bud,
And fill the face of the world with fruit.

In looking at the commentary of various Biblical writers that expound in scripture, there was no strong consensus. They all complained about the poor translation into english and to me it sounds as if HE, GOD will cause those who come, to take root in Israel and to prosper.

7
Has He struck Israel as He struck those who struck him?
Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?

They had not been punished, as the oppressors had punished, ruthlessly and in hate, but had in His wrath remembered mercy.

8
In measure, by sending it away,
You contended with it.
He removes it by His rough wind
In the day of the east wind.

Once again, the people doing commentary, and I am using Bible Hub, all are complaining that this has been translated to just about unintelligibility. I have to profess that I am not sure what it means, either.

9
Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;
And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:
When he makes all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,

Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand. HE sought to “purge” Judah and Jerusalem from the “groves and the carved (sun) images, and molten images.” The Asherah Poles or the sun-images, the two leading features of the cults which Israel had borrowed from the Syrians and Phoenicians

10
Yet the fortified city will be desolate,
The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down
And consume its branches.
11
When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;
The women come and set them on fire.
For it is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them,
And He who formed them will show them no favor.

Before this glorious promise, concerning the removal of Israel’s sin and calamity, shall be fulfilled, a dreadful and desolating judgment shall come upon them.

12
And it shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will thresh,
From the channel of [d]the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be gathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.
13
So it shall be in that day:
The great trumpet will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt,
And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

JUDAH PROMISED RESTORATION. The general practice of Isaiah is to append to gloomy prophecies words of encouragement He does this even when heathen nations are denounced.

Closing Prayer