I'm half-way through the study of Isaiah I've been working on since mid-January. Here is a summary of chapters 43-47. How blessed are we to read these Scriptures...the very words of God through Isaiah's mouth.
CHAPTER 43: This chapter portrays one of the greatest ironies ever. Israel rebelled against God when God loved and cared for them as a good Father would his own children. So God punished them for awhile for their rebelliousness. However, He would redeem them and rebuild them eventually. God did the same thing for their ancestors in Egypt during the days of Pharaoh.
For us today: children who are rebellious often want forgiveness without punishment or responsibility for their actions. But as a child of God, we need to confess our sins/wrongs, seek Him, and accept His forgiveness. Then we need to learn from it. We also can then show the Lord gratitude for His forgiveness and this is an example to the secular world.
CHAPTERS 44 and 45: This part of the Bible is one of the most amazing prophecies found. God said that Cyrus, a foreign king, would be the one through whom He would reveal Himself to the Persians and the Northeast African nations. This prophecy was uttered about 140 years before it was fulfilled! It was to show the world that God is the only true God and it was God who gave Cyrus that power!
For us today: Sometimes God blesses people who don't follow Him. Jesus, in Matthew 5:45 said that the sun shines and the rain falls on both good and bad people. Not all trials are a curse from God for doing wrong, and not every blessing from God is a reward for doing something right. But...we should praise God when He blesses anyone---even people who don't deserve it. We should help and pray for people in trials, even if they seem to deserve those trials and tribulations. It's hard but God can use both situations to bring those people to Him.
CHAPTERS 46 and 47: Those people who worship idols and trust in other gods will be destroyed. These chapters are all about that. In the 8th and 9th centuries, B.C. (before Christ was born), Assyria and Babylon were the superpowers of the Middle Eastern world. God used Assyria to punish the northern kingdom of the Middle East (Israel) and used Babylon to punish the southern kingdom (Judah). God explains here that Babylon could succeed because God was punishing His own children. But Babylonians started to boast and get arrogant about their success. They claimed it was their gods/idols who were responsible for the success in capturing Israel. God rebuked them and prophesied their own punishment in failing to protect God's people with kindness and show Himself (the One True God) respect.
For us today: sometimes we allow blessings to go to our heads but James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift comes from God. Sometimes He rewards us for something we did but other times it's because He wants us to do something for others ----He works through us.
2 comments:
Isaiah is very interesting. Lots to it. Jesus quotes and referred to Isaiah many times. Thanks for sharing your insight. Have a good week.
So much to these OT prophets!
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