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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Revived by His Word MARCH 12 - ISAIAH CH.16

Isaiah 16 - New King James Version (NKJV)

Moab Destroyed

16 Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,
From Sela to the wilderness,
To the mount of the daughter of Zion.
² For it shall be as a wandering bird thrown out of the nest;
So shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.
³ “Take counsel, execute judgment;
Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day;
Hide the outcasts,
Do not betray him who escapes.
⁴ Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Moab;
Be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler.
For the extortioner is at an end,
Devastation ceases,
The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
⁵ In mercy the throne will be established;
And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David,
Judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness.”

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab—
He is very proud—
Of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath;
But his lies shall not be so.
⁷ Therefore Moab shall wail for Moab;
Everyone shall wail.
For the foundations of Kir Hareseth you shall mourn;
Surely they are stricken.
⁸ For the fields of Heshbon languish,
And the vine of Sibmah;
The lords of the nations have broken down its choice plants,
Which have reached to Jazer
And wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out,
They are gone over the sea.
⁹ Therefore I will bewail the vine of Sibmah,
With the weeping of Jazer;
I will drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh;
For battle cries have fallen
Over your summer fruits and your harvest.

¹⁰ Gladness is taken away,
And joy from the plentiful field;
In the vineyards there will be no singing,
Nor will there be shouting;
No treaders will tread out wine in the presses;
I have made their shouting cease.
¹¹ Therefore my heart shall resound like a harp for Moab,
And my inner being for Kir Heres.

¹² And it shall come to pass,
When it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place,
That he will come to his sanctuary to pray;
But he will not prevail.

¹³ This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning Moab since that time. ¹⁴ But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

 

Isaiah is not finished with what he said in the precious chapter about God punishing the Moabites. Extra information on these two chapters is found in 2 Kings 17 and 18 when Hoshea reigned over the Northern Kingdom of Israel from Samaria.  Later, Hezekiah reigned as King of Judah from Jerusalem. The people of Samaria did not fear the Lord as they should have and while they did respect the Lord they also worshiped idols. They made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places and carried out their rituals. Finally, God allowed the Assyrians to come, conquer Samaria, and taking many of the people captive.

God was in tears over Samaria and what His people had done going to the high places worshipping their gods.

 

Dear God,
Moab brought upon themselves the harsh punishment permitted by God and carried out by Satan. We know that behind all this suffering are the designs of Lucifer. Lord, help us to cast our sight higher, to Your heart cry and tears shed on our behalf.  Amen.

Revived by His Word - MARCH 11 - ISAIAH CH.15

Isaiah 15 New King James Version (NKJV)

Proclamation Against Moab

15 The burden against Moab.

Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste
And destroyed,
Because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste
And destroyed,
² He has gone up to the temple^[a] and Dibon,
To the high places to weep.
Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba;
On all their heads will be baldness,
And every beard cut off.
³ In their streets they will clothe themselves with sackcloth;
On the tops of their houses
And in their streets
Everyone will wail, weeping bitterly.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out,
Their voice shall be heard as far as Jahaz;
Therefore the armed soldiers^[b] of Moab will cry out;
His life will be burdensome to him.

⁵ “My heart will cry out for Moab;
His fugitives shall flee to Zoar,
Like a three-year-old heifer.^[c]
For by the Ascent of Luhith
They will go up with weeping;
For in the way of Horonaim
They will raise up a cry of destruction,
⁶ For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate,
For the green grass has withered away;
The grass fails, there is nothing green.
⁷ Therefore the abundance they have gained,
And what they have laid up,
They will carry away to the Brook of the Willows.
⁸ For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab,
Its wailing to Eglaim
And its wailing to Beer Elim.
⁹ For the waters of Dimon^[d] will be full of blood;
Because I will bring more upon Dimon,^[e]
Lions upon him who escapes from Moab,
And on the remnant of the land.”

 

In this chapter, Isaiah explains another insight that he had been given by God.  From this revelation he describes the local “Executive Judgment” of God against the cities of Moab. From verse 9b, we know that these disasters against the Moabites were planned by the Lord to punish them for what they had done against Israel. The Moabites were descendants of Lot’s daughter by her father, and had seduced the Israelites into idolatry.

 

Prayer

Dear God,
Moab and its people were idol worshipers and denied You as the Creator of the World. That is why You brought Your punitive measures against them. Help us not to worship today’s idols, whatever they may be, and not lose our biblical insight and perspective. We are living in times when people emphasize inclusiveness and acceptance of sinful practices as the only right way.  Lord, help us to remain faithful. Amen.

Revived by His Word - MARCH 10 - ISAIAH CH.14

14 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. ² Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

Fall of the King of Babylon

³ It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, ⁴ that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:

“How the oppressor has ceased,
The golden^[a] city ceased!
⁵ The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of the rulers;
⁶ He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
He who ruled the nations in anger,
Is persecuted and no one hinders.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
They break forth into singing.
⁸ Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon,
Saying, ‘Since you were cut down,
No woodsman has come up against us.’

⁹ “Hell from beneath is excited about you,
To meet you at your coming;
It stirs up the dead for you,
All the chief ones of the earth;
It has raised up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.
¹⁰ They all shall speak and say to you:
‘Have you also become as weak as we?
Have you become like us?
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
And the sound of your stringed instruments;
The maggot is spread under you,
And worms cover you.’

The Fall of Lucifer

¹² “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer,^[b] son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
¹³ For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.

¹⁶ “Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’

¹⁸ “All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
¹⁹ But you are cast out of your grave
Like an abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
Thrust through with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a corpse trodden underfoot.
²⁰ You will not be joined with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land
And slain your people.
The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
²¹ Prepare slaughter for his children
Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
Lest they rise up and possess the land,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”

Babylon Destroyed

²² “For I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts,
“And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant,
And offspring and posterity,” says the Lord.
²³ “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine,
And marshes of muddy water;
I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the Lord of hosts.

Assyria Destroyed

²⁴ The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying,
“Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,
And as I have purposed, so it shall stand:
²⁵ That I will break the Assyrian in My land,
And on My mountains tread him underfoot.
Then his yoke shall be removed from them,
And his burden removed from their shoulders.
²⁶ This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth,
And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
²⁷ For the Lord of hosts has purposed,
And who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
And who will turn it back?”

Philistia Destroyed

²⁸ This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died.

²⁹ “Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
Because the rod that struck you is broken;
For out of the serpent’s roots will come forth a viper,
And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.
³⁰ The firstborn of the poor will feed,
And the needy will lie down in safety;
I will kill your roots with famine,
And it will slay your remnant.
³¹ Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!
All you of Philistia are dissolved;
For smoke will come from the north,
And no one will be alone in his appointed times.”

³² What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
That the Lord has founded Zion,
And the poor of His people shall take refuge in it.

 

Isaiah knows his biblical history well, especially Moses and Job. Isaiah also received visions or oracles directly from the Lord regarding future events. He describes the bad imperialistic and self-centered nations in the context of Lucifer and the sad Rebellion in Heaven. Lucifer was cast down and there were a number of “casting downs” of nations in history all of which were products of the Lucifer-type-rebellion.

Isaiah also keeps reminding his readers of the various functions of the Messiah, salvation, atonement, judge, warrior, and re-creator.

 

Prayer

Dear God,
This world holds no security for us and no Babylon can exist eternally. Grant that we will find security in the recreated earth, in the heavenly city of God, and in the recreated mountains of God in the new earth.  Amen.

The Adventist Church is 100 years in Nigeria

 

The Adventist Church Celebrates Centenary in Nigeria

The Seventh-day Adventist church marks its 100 years in Nigeria. Missionary David C. Babcock first established its presence in 1914 after coming from missions in Sierra Leone, it was recorded that he learnt the Yoruba language in less than 5 months!
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a major Christian denomination with a significant presence in Nigeria.
Babcock University in Ilishan Remo, Ogun state, the Church's premier educational institution in Nigeria was named after him. He pioneered the work of the Adventist Church in Nigeria beginning in 1914. He was based in Erunmu in Oyo State, Nigeria.

The 100 years celebration of the Adventist church in Nigeria coincides with centenary celebration of amalgamation of Nigeria's Northern and Southern protectorates by |Sir Lord Lugard in 1914.

In 2011, the church made an appeal to the federal government to shift the election days from Saturday so that members could vote. Pastor (Dr) Bassey E Udoh, the President, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Eastern Nigerian Union Mission, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.
“Saturday is the day of our worship and more than five million members of the church will worship in 3,500 branches in the country every Saturday, including the days of the elections.’’ “We worship on Saturdays, not for personal reasons but Biblical, which are founded in the scriptures and dates back to creation. “We believe that Sabbath is a Holy Day and should not be used for any personal, civil or public business.
The church has contributed to the growth of the nation especially in the educational and medical fields. It also shares the truth of the gospel to countless number of people through rural and urban evangelism.
Adventists are very loving people who care for the environment, promote healthy practices and help those in need. They hold on to scripture as the only basis of truth. Although they are often misunderstood, their beliefs including the seventh-day Sabbath is founded on the bible alone.
The Adventist church has a worldwide membership of over 18 million in virtually every country on earth.
A famous seventh-day Adventist in Nigeria is Dr. Deji Adeleke, owner of Adeleke university and Pacific Energy.



Cutting the centenary cake

Pst Ted Wilson at Babcock University for the centenary celebrations

SDA World Church President Pst T.N Wilson

Series of activities to mark the 100 years commemoration are ongoing. Some of these activities include visit of World Church President Pastor Ted Wilson and other world leaders alongside the Leaders in Nigeria to some State Governments which include Lagos state, Ogun state, Abia state, Rivers state, Plateau state etc and finally Aso Rock villa.

Exquisite celebrations and worship services are also scheduled in some city stadiums and institutions which includes Lagos, Babcock Campus, Enyimba stadium in Aba, PH, Jos and Abuja.
Members were seen in special uniforms designed to make the celebrations colourful

Revived By His Word MARCH 9 - ISAIAH CH. 13

Proclamation Against Babylon

13 The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

² “Lift up a banner on the high mountain,
Raise your voice to them;
Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
³ I have commanded My sanctified ones;
I have also called My mighty ones for My anger—
Those who rejoice in My exaltation.”

⁴ The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!
The Lord of hosts musters
The army for battle.
⁵ They come from a far country,
From the end of heaven—
The Lord and His weapons of indignation,
To destroy the whole land.

⁶ Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
⁷ Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every man’s heart will melt,
⁸ And they will be afraid.
Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them;
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;
They will be amazed at one another;
Their faces will be like flames.

⁹ Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

¹¹ “I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
¹² I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place,
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts
And in the day of His fierce anger.
¹⁴ It shall be as the hunted gazelle,
And as a sheep that no man takes up;
Every man will turn to his own people,
And everyone will flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Everyone who is found will be thrust through,
And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.

¹⁷ “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
¹⁸ Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.
¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
²⁰ It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.
²¹ But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches will dwell there,
And wild goats will caper there.
²² The hyenas will howl in their citadels,
And jackals in their pleasant palaces.
Her time is near to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.”

 

Isaiah received from the Lord a vision of the fall of Babylon overthrown by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus in 538 BC. The vision was from the Lord as we can see in verse 19 which says, “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms . . . will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” Vivid pictures flashed before Isaiah’s eyes and when he sat down to write it down he realized that his audience may confuse these events with the Coming of the Lord at the end of time. He wanted the identity of the two events to be kept apart, but he touches on both.

 

Our prayer:

Dear God,
Grant us the perspective of Isaiah to focus on Your ultimate plan while finding our ways in the corridors of our history here. Amen.

Revived By His Word - MARCH 7 - ISAIAH CH.11

RBHW - MARCH 7 - ISAIAH CH.11

The Reign of Jesse’s Offspring

ISAIAH CH.11 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
² The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

³ His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
⁴ But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

⁶ “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
⁹ They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰ “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”

¹¹ It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the islands of the sea.

¹² He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
¹³ Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
¹⁴ But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west;
Together they shall plunder the people of the East;
They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab;
And the people of Ammon shall obey them.
¹⁵ The Lord will utterly destroy^[a] the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,^[b]
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over dry-shod.
¹⁶ There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.

 

Verse 1 begins with a reference to the “stem of Jesse” and a branch growing “out of his roots.”  Jesus identifies Himself as “the root and the offspring of David” (Rev.22:16).  It’s a description of Christ one day reigning as a righteous King, fulfilling the promise to David to establish his throne forever (II Sam.7:13).

Isaiah says the “root of Jesse” “shall stand for an ensign” (v.10). We picture the cross of Jesus as God’s standard, or banner, against the enemy of our souls. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isa.59:19).

 

Prayer: “Lord, help us to be Your ensigns, Your banners, Your ambassadors.  Thank You for this glimpse of heaven.  Keep us faithful as we wait for that glorious day. Amen.”