Revived by His Word - MARCH 27 - ISAIAH 31

ISAIAH 31 NKJV

 

The Folly of Not Trusting God

31 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
And rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
Nor seek the Lord!
² Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster,
And will not call back His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers,
And against the help of those who work iniquity.
³ Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
And their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out His hand,
Both he who helps will fall,
And he who is helped will fall down;
They all will perish together.

God Will Deliver Jerusalem

⁴ For thus the Lord has spoken to me:

“As a lion roars,
And a young lion over his prey
(When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him,
He will not be afraid of their voice
Nor be disturbed by their noise),
So the Lord of hosts will come down
To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
⁵ Like birds flying about,
So will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem.
Defending, He will also deliver it;
Passing over, He will preserve it.”

⁶ Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. ⁷ For in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.

⁸ “Then Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of mankind shall devour him.
But he shall flee from the sword,
And his young men shall become forced labor.
⁹ He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear,
And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,”
Says the Lord,
Whose fire is in Zion
And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

 

 

In those days, says Isaiah, every man will throw away all their useless idols of silver and gold that “your hands have made and caused you to sin” (v. 7). Sinful constructions, sinful technology, digital sins, all made by human ingenuity will all be destroyed, but not by human hands. They will fall, not by a human sword, but by the Word of God (v. 8). They will not escape.

The subject of Isaiah is not Egypt or Judea but God. “His Rock will pass over” (v. 9a). Christ is the Rock of Daniel 2 that will come before the millennium with all His holy angels. It is in heavenly Zion and in the New Jerusalem that the Lord also will use fire for the event at the end of the millennium (v. 9c). We know that there never was a fire of such great proportions ever in the history of earthly Jerusalem as there will be at the end of the millennium.

 

Prayer:

Dear God,
Grant Lord that we will focus like Isaiah on You in the Time of Trouble and not on human machinations and securities. Keep us and protect us we ask in Your Name.  Amen.

Revived by His Word - MARCH 21 - ISAIAH CH.25

Isaiah 25 New King James Version (NKJV)

Praise to God

25 O Lord, You are my God.
I will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
For You have done wonderful things;
Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
² For You have made a city a ruin,
A fortified city a ruin,
A palace of foreigners to be a city no more;
It will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore the strong people will glorify You;
The city of the terrible nations will fear You.
⁴ For You have been a strength to the poor,
A strength to the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm,
A shade from the heat;
For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
⁵ You will reduce the noise of aliens,
As heat in a dry place;
As heat in the shadow of a cloud,
The song of the terrible ones will be diminished.

⁶ And in this mountain
The Lord of hosts will make for all people
A feast of choice pieces,
A feast of wines on the lees,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of well-refined wines on the lees.
⁷ And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.

⁹ And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

¹⁰ For on this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest,
And Moab shall be trampled down under Him,
As straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.
¹¹ And He will spread out His hands in their midst
As a swimmer reaches out to swim,
And He will bring down their pride
Together with the trickery of their hands.
¹² The fortress of the high fort of your walls
He will bring down, lay low,
And bring to the ground, down to the dust.

But a strong people will glorify the Lord during the time of the Latter Rain and ruthless nations will acknowledge and worship the Lord (v. 3a-b). During the Time of Trouble of Daniel 12:1, God will be a “defense for His people in distress” (v. 4a). He will be a “refuge from the storm” and a “shade from the heat” (v. 4c). The Lord will subdue the ruthless ones and the song of the ruthless will be silenced (v. 5a-b). The banquet of the Lord will be in Zion for the saved (v. 6a). For “all the peoples” (the saved) God will prepare this banquet. Isaiah saw there will be good things at this banquet, including wine (pure grape juice) from the Creator (v. 25:6).
 
 It is the Resurrection spoken of by Daniel (12:1-2). The arrival of the Resurrected ones on the heavenly Mountain of Zion at the New Jerusalem means that death is destroyed “He will swallow up death for all time” (v. 8a). With the saved now in heaven, they will look around for their loved ones, and if some are not there, during the millennium they will find out why. Then the Lord God will wipe all tears away from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4). The book of Revelation also says (3:21) that those who are saved “I will grant to sit down with Me on My throne.”

Prayer
Dear God,
Isaiah makes us long for Your rescue and Your transfer for us to share in the beautiful banquet of Mount Zion. Grant that we will be part of that great event. Amen.

Revived by His Word - MARCH 19 - ISAIAH 23

Isaiah 23 New King James Version (NKJV)

Proclamation Against Tyre

23 The burden against Tyre.

Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For it is laid waste,
So that there is no house, no harbor;
From the land of Cyprus^[a] it is revealed to them.

² Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland,
You merchants of Sidon,
Whom those who cross the sea have filled.^[b]
3 And on great waters the grain of Shihor,
The harvest of the River,^[c] is her revenue;
And she is a marketplace for the nations.

⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon;
For the sea has spoken,
The strength of the sea, saying,
“I do not labor, nor bring forth children;
Neither do I rear young men,
Nor bring up virgins.”
⁵ When the report reaches Egypt,
They also will be in agony at the report of Tyre.

⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
Wail, you inhabitants of the coastland!
⁷ Is this your joyous city,
Whose antiquity is from ancient days,
Whose feet carried her far off to dwell?
⁸ Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city,
Whose merchants are princes,
Whose traders are the honorable of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
To bring to dishonor the pride of all glory,
To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

¹⁰ Overflow through your land like the River,^[d]
O daughter of Tarshish;
There is no more strength.
¹¹ He stretched out His hand over the sea,
He shook the kingdoms;
The Lord has given a commandment against Canaan
To destroy its strongholds.
¹² And He said, “You will rejoice no more,
O you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon.
Arise, cross over to Cyprus;
There also you will have no rest.”

¹³ Behold, the land of the Chaldeans,
This people which was not;
Assyria founded it for wild beasts of the desert.
They set up its towers,
They raised up its palaces,
And brought it to ruin.

¹⁴ Wail, you ships of Tarshish!
For your strength is laid waste.

¹⁵ Now it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. At the end of seventy years it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

¹⁶ “Take a harp, go about the city,
You forgotten harlot;
Make sweet melody, sing many songs,
That you may be remembered.”

¹⁷ And it shall be, at the end of seventy years, that the Lord will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire, and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. ¹⁸ Her gain and her pay will be set apart for the Lord; it will not be treasured nor laid up, for her gain will be for those who dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for fine clothing.

 

Isaiah is a prophetic artist. In his time the Assyrian kings portrayed the capture of cities on their palace walls in shocking depictions. Moses’ prohibition against such images limited the Hebrews of using visual arts to portray such cruel scenes, but it did not stop them from using word-pictures. That’s what Isaiah did, he used words for his picture panels, and they are multi-dimensional.

Earthly events happen in the hollow of God’s hand with ultimate control.

 

Prayer:

Dear God,
There is a Tyre in all of us that appeals very hard to our passions and emotions. Lord, help us and free us from the spirit of Tyre so it will not wear us down and destroy our spirituality and relationship with You.  Amen.

Revived by His Word - MARCH 16 - ISAIAH CH.20

Isaiah 20 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia

20 In the year that Tartan^[a] came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, ² at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

³ Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, ⁴ so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. ⁵ Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. ⁶ And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’”

In his days, Isaiah had the Ethiopians and the Egyptians as power nations nearby, in spite of their ups and downs. In those days, Hezekiah became King of Judah. Then the Lord gave a message to Isaiah: “Go loosen your sackcloth from your hips and take off the shoes from your feet” (v. 2). We know that Isaiah undressed to almost nothing, called “naked” and walked like this for three years.
The Lord spoke again (v. 3), and said that Isaiah did this “undressing” as a “sign against Egypt and Cush” (at that time the ruler of Egypt was the Ethiopian or Cushite king Shabako). Whether Isaiah had to walk like this all the way to Egypt and back as an illustration to them, is not certain. The main thing is that Isaiah was a symbol of what was to happen to them when Assyria would come and lead many Egyptians away as captives. Assyria would take away “the young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt” (v. 4).
Many faithful people had migrated to areas out of harms-way. They had relied on the safety and security of the Ethiopians in Egypt (v. 5). “Then they shall be dismayed because of Cush (Ethiopia) their hope and Egypt their boast.” The faithful people fled there but according to Isaiah’s vivid illustration from the Lord, Egypt will not provide them the security they needed and they will say: “this is where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria.” With the bad news of Assyria taking over, they asked, “how shall we escape?” (v. 6).
Isaiah and the Lord’s message is clear: Do not build your hope on worldly powers. Built your hope on the Lord. In the previous chapter we learned that the Egyptians will be divided and fight among themselves as a power in the end-time shortly before the Coming of the Lord. And in this chapter they learned about Assyrian power when its commander came and reduced the power of Egypt.
Thus, between the disaster of Isaiah’s day and the end-time troubles of political powers, one thing is clear: the worldly powers cannot offer any human security and lasting peace. This must come totally from the Lord.

Prayer:
Dear God,
We know that at times it is so easy to rely on our own safety systems to protect us. Lord, we need to be reminded of the necessary link with You.  You are our safety, the shadow from the heat of the last days.  We need You, Lord. Help us.  Amen.

Revived by His Word - MARCH 14 - ISAIAH CH.18

Isaiah 18 New King James Version (NKJV)

Proclamation Against Ethiopia

18 Woe to the land shadowed with buzzing wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
² Which sends ambassadors by sea,
Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying,
“Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin,
To a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide.”

³ All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:
When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
⁴ For so the Lord said to me,
“I will take My rest,
And I will look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
And take away and cut down the branches.

⁶ They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey
And for the beasts of the earth;
The birds of prey will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

⁷ In that time a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts
From^[a] a people tall and smooth of skin,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the Lord of hosts,
To Mount Zion.

In this chapter, Isaiah not only talks about Ethiopia but also about people living “beyond the rivers of Ethiopia” (verse 1). During the time of Isaiah’s writing, the Ethiopians were six years into their dynasty and their country included Somalia, the Sudan, areas of Western Africa, and probably also people south of Ethiopia near the Eastern coast of Africa. This nation can be called the “land of decorating wings,” if we follow the Egyptian root meaning of the word in the original.
Isaiah is discussing “the faithful” as opposed to the existing evil in this chapter but that division is not on racial color lines or nationalities.  These people on the coast of Africa sent envoys by sea in papyrus vessels to other places (verse 2). They were tall, smooth, powerful, oppressive, and were feared (verse 2c-f). Isaiah now turns in his writing to that which is beyond his time to the last phases of earth’s history, the Second Coming of Christ. “As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains you will see it, and as soon as a trumpet is blown, you will hear it” (verse 3b-c). Yes, the trumpet shall sound and the whole world will hear it and Christ will come.

Prayer:
Dear God,
Please help us to drop any misconceptions we have of people from other parts of the world.  Help us to exchange any fears we might have of others and exchange such fears with the realization they will be bringing a gift to the Lamb of salvation on heavenly Mount Zion. Lord, grant that we may be there to witness this event with the saved of all times.  Amen.

Revived by His Word MARCH 13 ISAIAH 17

Proclamation Against Syria and Israel

17 The burden against Damascus.

“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
² The cities of Aroer are forsaken;^[a]
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and no one will make them afraid.
³ The fortress also will cease from Ephraim,
The kingdom from Damascus,
And the remnant of Syria;
They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

⁴ “In that day it shall come to pass
That the glory of Jacob will wane,
And the fatness of his flesh grow lean.
⁵ It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain,
And reaps the heads with his arm;
It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain
In the Valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it,
Like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough,
Four or five in its most fruitful branches,”
Says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ In that day a man will look to his Maker,
And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ He will not look to the altars,
The work of his hands;
He will not respect what his fingers have made,
Nor the wooden images^[b] nor the incense altars.

⁹ In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken bough^[c]
And an uppermost branch,^[d]
Which they left because of the children of Israel;
And there will be desolation.
¹⁰ Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold,
Therefore you will plant pleasant plants
And set out foreign seedlings;
¹¹ In the day you will make your plant to grow,
And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish;
But the harvest will be a heap of ruins
In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

¹² Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
¹⁴ Then behold, at eventide, trouble!
And before the morning, he is no more.
This is the portion of those who plunder us,
And the lot of those who rob us.

 

Isaiah is including a number of important items in this chapter. Besides Moab, other nations and cities also have problems and messages were given to Isaiah against them. But God does place some of their people on the same level as being the “sons of Israel” (verse 3d). However, the heart of Damascus’ problem in this chapter is “you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge” (verse 10).

The people of Damascus should have known better. They lived near Israel for ages and knew of the “revelations” of God, the laws, the events of God in history, the sanctuary message, and yet, they followed their own way.

Prayer:

Dear God,
There is a land that is fairer than day and brighter than snow where we will live forever in total harmony with You.  All aspects of life will be fulfilled.  Lord, grant that we will share in that glorious occasion when all pain and sorrow will be history forever.  Amen.

 

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