Good Morning “Full of Life.” Today we are in Isaiah 17.
Anyone involved in ministry has experienced laboring with little or no apparent fruit. We can even convince ourselves that our mission field is hopeless - but that’s simply exhaustion, weariness speaking. God can produce trophies of grace from the most unpromising of conditions. Chapters 17-19 give us encouragement to that fact.
If you’re like me you might find these chapters challenging to read and remain focused. They can seem depressing. That may be because it is difficult for us to be confronted with the reality of how disgusting sin is to Holy God. He detests it and will not act as though it were not there. The fact that this sustained judgment annoys us says more about us than it does about Isaiah’s recording of it.
Isaiah continues to describe Gods judgments on surrounding nations…Damascus (Syria), Cush (Ethiopia), and Egypt. You may ask, “If God is the God of Israel, why is He judging other nations?” It is because God is not ONLY the God of Israel…He is Lord of all! He is Lord, whether all people accept Him or not. It is not as if He is Lord because we accept and worship Him as such. He IS Lord, regardless of mankind’s recognition of His Lordship.
I think that’s at least a part of what makes Him so offensive to the World. Man has no choice as to Who is Lord. Deny Him and invent your own god if you want. Yahweh is still Lord of all! And it is only a matter of time before He exposes all other worship as false, and makes His Lordship abundantly clear.
Damascus’s was Syria’s capital city. Syria’s future was to be one of ruin and lonely forsakenness. The picture is of flocks grazing with nobody to look after them. It is a vivid picture of what life is like for those who don’t know God. False religion and false idols are lifeless - is it any surprise they lead to death (lifeless)?
Whatever is left of Aram, after the Assyrians have raided it, will be like Israel’s so-called “glory” once God has departed. It will be no more than the few gleanings left in the field after the harvest or the few olives on an olive tree once it has been shaken. Because Israel (aka Ephraim) and Syria were allies (right down to the idolatry), that meant Israel was going to share the same fate as the Syrians.
We cannot expect a different future from what happened to Syria or Ephraim. But there is Hope. Assyria’s power will come to an end, and even in the most unlikely places, God has a faithful remnant: a few “gleanings,” but His, nonetheless. (Amos 4:11)
Love you all! Dig in!
Anyone involved in ministry has experienced laboring with little or no apparent fruit. We can even convince ourselves that our mission field is hopeless - but that’s simply exhaustion, weariness speaking. God can produce trophies of grace from the most unpromising of conditions. Chapters 17-19 give us encouragement to that fact.
If you’re like me you might find these chapters challenging to read and remain focused. They can seem depressing. That may be because it is difficult for us to be confronted with the reality of how disgusting sin is to Holy God. He detests it and will not act as though it were not there. The fact that this sustained judgment annoys us says more about us than it does about Isaiah’s recording of it.
Isaiah continues to describe Gods judgments on surrounding nations…Damascus (Syria), Cush (Ethiopia), and Egypt. You may ask, “If God is the God of Israel, why is He judging other nations?” It is because God is not ONLY the God of Israel…He is Lord of all! He is Lord, whether all people accept Him or not. It is not as if He is Lord because we accept and worship Him as such. He IS Lord, regardless of mankind’s recognition of His Lordship.
I think that’s at least a part of what makes Him so offensive to the World. Man has no choice as to Who is Lord. Deny Him and invent your own god if you want. Yahweh is still Lord of all! And it is only a matter of time before He exposes all other worship as false, and makes His Lordship abundantly clear.
Damascus’s was Syria’s capital city. Syria’s future was to be one of ruin and lonely forsakenness. The picture is of flocks grazing with nobody to look after them. It is a vivid picture of what life is like for those who don’t know God. False religion and false idols are lifeless - is it any surprise they lead to death (lifeless)?
Whatever is left of Aram, after the Assyrians have raided it, will be like Israel’s so-called “glory” once God has departed. It will be no more than the few gleanings left in the field after the harvest or the few olives on an olive tree once it has been shaken. Because Israel (aka Ephraim) and Syria were allies (right down to the idolatry), that meant Israel was going to share the same fate as the Syrians.
We cannot expect a different future from what happened to Syria or Ephraim. But there is Hope. Assyria’s power will come to an end, and even in the most unlikely places, God has a faithful remnant: a few “gleanings,” but His, nonetheless. (Amos 4:11)
Love you all! Dig in!
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