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