Good Morning “Comforted”.
Today we are in Isaiah 45.
We cannot overemphasize the way God used Cyrus The Great in Israel’s history. The successive victories of Cyrus against the Medes, Lydians, and Babylonians, recorded in secular history sources, bring into focus the astonishing accuracy of Isaiah’s prophecies given 150 years earlier. It was the Lord who called Cyrus and gave him these victories.
Some have argued that Cyrus was a believer, some sort of convert, but Scripture indicates that was not the case. He was lost, but someone who saw Gods favor as something to add to his collection of gods. This is not to say that Cyrus was not “used by the Lord.” He was most definitely empowered to succeed because the Lord had ordained it for His purposes.
It is possible to be used of the Lord and not know Him personally, just as it is possible to know Him, but not be used…because of unrepentant sin. God’s using a person is not always a clear indicator of their salvation…nor is His rebuke of believers an indicator that He has somehow rejected them. Salvation is by grace through faith. (Ephesians 2:8-9) God is always busy, accomplishing His purposes, and any tool among His creation is at His disposal. Consider Balaam’s donkey or Jonah’s “whale” (big fish).
Nothing that happens, even in international affairs, even to one of His “brightest and most faithful witnesses” on a college campus in Utah - is out of Gods control. There is no panic in Heaven. No emergency sessions of the Trinity because we are messing things up! When everything seems dark and out of control… never forget, God is in sovereign control. We don’t get it and that’s ok. What’s scarier… to not understand, or to believe the world is out of control. We will not always understand, but we can rest that God does. That ought to bring us comfort.
The clay cannot question the potter. The Lord who made the stars in the universe can order the course of history. What is this foolishness that questions God’s ability to raise up a Cyrus some 150 years later?
This type of unbelief will always be in opposition to prophecy. It questions not only the prophet but also the core reality that the prophet is simply delivering the message of God, who can call His shots 150 years in advance - even further. Before Israel went into exile, Isaiah was delivering God’s invitation of Grace.
The same level of faith that Israel was commanded to display is required of followers of Jesus. We must believe that Gods got this. That Jesus died and was resurrected, a past event, a prophecy already fulfilled, and that He is coming again to gather His followers and judge the unrepentant.
Love you all! Dig in!
Today we are in Isaiah 45.
We cannot overemphasize the way God used Cyrus The Great in Israel’s history. The successive victories of Cyrus against the Medes, Lydians, and Babylonians, recorded in secular history sources, bring into focus the astonishing accuracy of Isaiah’s prophecies given 150 years earlier. It was the Lord who called Cyrus and gave him these victories.
Some have argued that Cyrus was a believer, some sort of convert, but Scripture indicates that was not the case. He was lost, but someone who saw Gods favor as something to add to his collection of gods. This is not to say that Cyrus was not “used by the Lord.” He was most definitely empowered to succeed because the Lord had ordained it for His purposes.
It is possible to be used of the Lord and not know Him personally, just as it is possible to know Him, but not be used…because of unrepentant sin. God’s using a person is not always a clear indicator of their salvation…nor is His rebuke of believers an indicator that He has somehow rejected them. Salvation is by grace through faith. (Ephesians 2:8-9) God is always busy, accomplishing His purposes, and any tool among His creation is at His disposal. Consider Balaam’s donkey or Jonah’s “whale” (big fish).
Nothing that happens, even in international affairs, even to one of His “brightest and most faithful witnesses” on a college campus in Utah - is out of Gods control. There is no panic in Heaven. No emergency sessions of the Trinity because we are messing things up! When everything seems dark and out of control… never forget, God is in sovereign control. We don’t get it and that’s ok. What’s scarier… to not understand, or to believe the world is out of control. We will not always understand, but we can rest that God does. That ought to bring us comfort.
The clay cannot question the potter. The Lord who made the stars in the universe can order the course of history. What is this foolishness that questions God’s ability to raise up a Cyrus some 150 years later?
This type of unbelief will always be in opposition to prophecy. It questions not only the prophet but also the core reality that the prophet is simply delivering the message of God, who can call His shots 150 years in advance - even further. Before Israel went into exile, Isaiah was delivering God’s invitation of Grace.
The same level of faith that Israel was commanded to display is required of followers of Jesus. We must believe that Gods got this. That Jesus died and was resurrected, a past event, a prophecy already fulfilled, and that He is coming again to gather His followers and judge the unrepentant.
Love you all! Dig in!
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