Receiving the Gift of God’s Rest in Troubled Times
That last line of verse 15 unsettles me. I wonder how many times God has offered me his help, but I “would have none of it.” I wonder how often God has offered me the gifts of rest and quietness, but I have been unwilling to trust him.
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How Close Is Your Heart to God?
In Isaiah 29, the Lord indicts his people for saying the right things while their hearts are far away from him. They profess faithfulness to God, but their desires are selfish and idolatrous. Rather than seeking God’s glory, they live for themselves. Their worship is “by the book,” but not “by heart.” They do the right things but don’t do them as a genuine act of self-offering to God.
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Build Your Life on the Solid Cornerstone
In the midst of foretelling his judgment of his people for their unfaithfulness, the Lord offers a surprising word of hope. He is laying “a stone in Zion” (28:16). This “tested stone” is “a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation” on which one can build without fear that one’s structure will come tumbling down.
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God Will Gather You
Isaiah 27 foresees the exile of Israel and, beyond that, the time in which God will gather his people once again. Though they have been scattered throughout the world, the Lord will bring them back to their land and to himself.
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What Will Help Us Wait for God?
Do you know what it’s like to wait for God? I expect you do if you’ve walked with the Lord for even a little while. We all experience the desire for God to act. We pray with expectation and hope, even fervor. Yet sometimes nothing happens. We pray again, trying to have faith that moves mountains. But, still, nothing happens. We begin to wonder if God is listening. We wonder why God doesn’t act, why he seems to be so frustratingly slow.
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Do You Need God’s Perfect Peace?
I can still hear echoes of my Sunday School teacher quoting Isaiah 26:3 in the classic language of the King James Version: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” What an amazing, alluring promise! “Perfect peace” accurately renders the Hebrew original, which reads literally, shalom shalom. Don’t you want to be kept in perfect peace?
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You’re Invited to the Most Lavish Banquet of All
In Isaiah 25 we catch a glimpse of the ultimate international banquet, the most lavish feast of all. It’s a meal prepared by the Lord himself for peoples from all nations. The food will be exquisite, plentiful, and delicious. The celebration will be unsullied by gloom and tears, not to mention national or ethnic conflicts. All peoples will gather to share together in the Lord’s banquet.
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Covenant Broken… Earth Defiled
When we look at the state of our world today, we see evidence of human sin everywhere. It might be in a park filled with litter, or a bay filled with sewage, or a sky filled with deadly haze. We see the reality of Isaiah 24:5, which, in the NIV, reads, “The earth is defiled by its people.” The Hebrew verb translated here as “defiled” is often rendered as “polluted” (chanef).
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Is It Ever Okay to Feel Proud?
Last week we saw how God judged Shebna, the temple administrator, for his pride and for trying to use his authority for his own glory. Today, the Lord, through Isaiah, condemns human pride once again. But, whereas in Isaiah 22 the pride of a single leader was indicted, this time it’s the pride of a nation.
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Be a Leader Who Seeks God’s Glory (Not Your Own!)
Shebna serves as a powerful reminder of the folly of seeking our own honor above that of the Lord. It’s natural for us to want others to think well of us, and to an extent this is consistent with our Christian discipleship (for example, 1 Tim 3:2). But if we become preoccupied with our own glory, we dishonor the Lord and risk our own demotion.
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King of Kings and Lord of Lords
We tend to think of Isaiah as the prophet of Israel who brought God’s word to the Israelites. Indeed, this is true. But, through Isaiah, the Lord often addressed other nations as well. In Isaiah 21 he spoke to Babylon, Edom, and various peoples in the region of Arabia.
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When God Asks Us To Do Something Difficult
Isaiah 20 narrates a startling incident in the life of Isaiah.
Sometimes the Lord asks us to do hard things, things we find awkward, even embarrassing.
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A Surprising Take On the People of God
Churches are indeed gatherings of God’s people, but he claims others in the communities where churches find themselves. In fact, God places churches where they are, not only that they might be blessed, but also so that they may reach out to draw others into the fellowship of God’s people. Every church has a missional calling: to proclaim in word and demonstrate in action the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that people might come to faith and join the people of God.
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Surprising and Ironic Gifts for the Lord
Reading between the lines of Isaiah 18, we can see that certain ambassadors from far away came with an offer of military help for Israel. They came from Cush, a region south of Egypt along the tributaries of the Nile River, roughly equal to modern day Ethiopia. Ambassadors from Cush came down the Nile in their boats in order to enter into an alliance with Israel. But the Lord rejected their offer, noting that he had more than enough power to deal with countries that would attack Israel.
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The Surprising Cost of Forgetting God
When we think about the cost of forgetting God, we are apt to think of “spiritual” things. When we forget God, we fail to worship him. When we forget God, we cut ourselves off from his guidance. When we forget God, we lose a strong sense of our life’s purpose.
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