How the mighty have fallen

Isaiah Chapter 13

I'm not sure why there's a jump from Israel-Syria-Assyria to Babylon, but here we have a prophecy for the kingdom of Babylon. And it's not a good one.

I learned a little about Babylon in a world history class in middle school.  It was a big kingdom, very powerful, and they created a certain irrigation system called the hanging gardens, which let them make beautiful gardens in Babylon. Pretty amazing, yeah?

Well, I guess all of this got to their heads, because according to this passage, they were very prideful. (v. 19, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans).  On top of that, of course they were a nation that didn't believe in God.  Rather, they had many gods.  So God tells Isaiah that He's going to destroy them.

"The LORD of hosts is mustering a host for battle... They come from a distant land... Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them... And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorroah when God overthrew them." (Isa 4b,5a,17a 19)

So I feel that the point of this passage is to show that even if people look really successful, if they don't believe in God, they will fail someday-maybe sooner or maybe later... That's what I understood.

Favorites from Proverbs 3

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding
In all your ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct your paths.

My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline
or be weary of His reproof
for the LORD reproves him whom He loves
as a father the son in whom he delights

Salvation

Isaiah 12

"You will say in that day:
I will give thanks to you, O LORD,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away 
that you might comfort me..." (v 1)

I thought this was really cool. Isaiah just finished talking about the coming(s) of Jesus, and this next passage opens up like this.  "For though you were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me." The rest of the chapter is about the Lord being strength and salvation.

Once again, the immediate reference is to Israel celebrating their salvation from Assyria, but after that Jesus passage, we can also see this passage with that lens too, because that is what the Gospel is:

Because we were sinners, we deserved to stay away from God forever and suffer.  However, "though God was angry with us, His anger turned away" because He loves us so much. That's why Jesus died to take the punishment we deserve, so that we can be with God.

I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me.

JESUS!!!!

Isaiah 11

Isaiah starts talking about a branch or shoot coming from the stump of Jesse. Genealogically speaking, this person will come from the line of King David.  And this person will have the Spirit of Lord. He will be righteousness and because of Him, there will be peace on the whole planet, even among animals!  Then it goes on to say that all of the nations will stop fighting and He will rule the world.

This is pretty amazing stuff. As a Christian, I can see that this is Jesus we're talking about. But if we stop and think, kids still don't generally play with snakes, and wolves don't generally hang out with sheep, unless they're planning on eating them. There are definitely still wars and pain and suffering going on.  If Jesus is this person, why all of this?

The answer is that this part has not been accomplished yet.  Something similar happens in Isaiah 61. The person in the passage is there to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of God's vengeance. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus is in a synagogue, and He reads the first part of this, declaring that He is here to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he stops and says "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." He hadn't come to proclaim vengeance yet, but the Lord's favor. Similarly, back to Isaiah 11, this time of peace has not come yet.  These things will happen when Jesus comes back.  The prophets saw both comings, but since it wasn't clear, they saw it as one.  This drawing explains it a bit.

So what I'm taking away today is that even from before the time of Jesus, we know that Jesus will end all fighting and pain and suffering and bring peace. And now we know that He will do that when He comes back.

What was wrong with tonight's sermon

As described in my other blog, tonight I went to a church and I was not impressed with the sermon. At all. It started ok, as he opened with familiar statements like "Life is fine, until you talk about Jesus," and "Life is full of trouble." Then he started to talk about Joy.  It was a very interactive sermon, and he had us repeat many phrases of his, like "Joy is important." That didn't bother me. What bothered me was that he had not opened his Bible and he was 20 minutes in.  He began going through the scientific evidence that laughter is good for you.  "1 minute of laughter is as refreshing as 45 minutes of relaxation." "Smiling alleviates infirmity faster than medicine." And his repeat-after-me take-aways were getting just as cheesy. "Tell your neighbor laughing is good for him." "A smile is cheaper than aspirin."

When he finally opened the Bible, he started reading out of Habakuk and Deuteronomy, out of Psalms and Proverbs.  A lot of what he read he took out of context.  Proverb 17:22 says "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Well, the preacher then started to talk about how he knew a depressed woman whose bones dried up so that she couldn't walk.  He read out of Deuteronomy 28:47-48 saying something like "because you did not serve the Lord with gladness.... you will be destroyed."  This passage was geared towards Israel at that point of time, but he applied it to everyone, and while it's true that you should serve the Lord with gladness, he was missing the point here.

What bothered me the most was that his whole sermon was how to use Joy to triumph over crises in life.  There was virtually no talk of Jesus or the Gospel. Just Joy. And on top of that, he was really describing happiness rather than joy, with his statistics on smiling and laughing. It was frustrating to say the least.

The bottom line is, he was not delving into the Word, and because of that, he is misleading many people.

Keep Calm and Trust God, pt 3

Isaiah 10:20-34

So Israel is going to be slave to Assyria because even though they hoped Assyria would wipe out their foes, Assyria took them prisoner too. In this passage, Isaiah is prophesying that one day, what's left of Israel will return from captivity. He points out the deja vu in v. 24: "..do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did."

Israel will have to be invaded, this is a consequence for not trusting in God. But God promises to "wield against [Assyria] a whip" and to save the remnant of Israel. He says that the survivors "will no more lean on him who struck him, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel."

In a way, all of this is saying that even in the midst of Judgement and destruction, God has a plan in motion and you should trust Him.

JUDGEMENT!

Isaiah 9:8-10:19

In this passage, Isaiah is describing the judgement that is falling on Israel and Syria for being arrogant and trying to work together to invade Israel.  God says he will use Assyria to punish them.  And Assyria does come to conquer.  However, Assyria's leader is also arrogant.  He thinks he took over because of his own greatness.  So God will put him in his place too.

Judgement is a word that made me nervous.  Sometimes it still does.  Someday God is going to judge me! But just before panic sets in, I remember that Jesus has made me innocent.  Because of Jesus, I don't have to be afraid of Judgement. He justified me so that I could start to become like Him.  Thank you Jesus.

Keep Calm and Trust God pt 2

So back in Isaiah chapter 7, God tells King Ahaz that he can ask for any sign to prove that He is with him. Ahaz, in false humility, does not ask for a sign--he's hoping that the Assyrians will take out his enemies and save them.  God had given him the chance here to trust in Him instead, but Ahaz didn't take it.  So God says "I'll give you a sign anyway."  And the sign is this- a virgin will have a child, and before the child grows up a lot, the land will be saved from its oppressors.

The first thing that comes to mind is Jesus! However, there is also an immediate fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 8, a baby was born named from a prophetess and the baby was called Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
But God wasn't finished. this prophecy was also going to be fulfilled more than 400 years later, with His own son, Jesus. Isaiah 9:6 confirms this, when it says what the baby will be called-- Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  

So with some help from my youth pastor, I got all of this and the point of it all: Ahaz is failing because he is trusting the Assyrians to save Israel, and so God gives him a chance in ch 7 to repent and trust him, which would preserve the line of David from destruction

So the sign of Immanuel is fulfilled in Christ also as a restoration of the line of David that Ahaz and others destroyed.

So trust God!

Wisdom is personified again as someone who will guard you if you look for her.  But if we step out of the personification and think, it's true.  If you seek wisdom and learn the fear of the Lord, you will be able to see that certain things won't end well if you try them.  You will be guarded against people who will try to use you, because you will be able to avoid them.  You will be guarded from destruction, because you will be able to go the other way. I think that is the value of wisdom that the writer of this passage is getting at. By seeking understanding and knowing the fear of the Lord, we find the wisdom- the discretion, the perspective, the insight- that God offers us, and we can make choices that will preserve us better.

I remember a conversation with a friend in which she said "even geniuses can fall into a trap."  This is true, because intelligence and wisdom are different things. Intelligence consists of things you know.  A genius could know that people trap other people and he might now many different kinds of traps.  However, a wise person would recognize red flags that he might be getting trapped, and he could find a way out before it's too late.  I hope this makes sense.

Anyway, all of this to say, this passage showed me that wisdom is important, and if we search for it, the Lord will give it to us.

Listening out for Wisdom

We're hitting Proverbs again; still stuck in Isaiah

Prov 1:20-33

The last part of chapter one has a personification of Wisdom, calling out in the streets and no one will listen to her. She then stipulates the consequences for not listening to Wisdom: death and destruction!
Verse 20 says "Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the market she raises her voice." I don't know because I wasn't there, but I would imagine the Israelite bazaar was a very noisy one.
What I do know is that here in Cordoba, the downtown city area is packed with people that are shopping, waitinig for friends? chilling, doing all sorts of things.  There are a lot--a lot-- of people selling flyers and candy and flowers and other things right there on the street.  The cry out "I SELL SOCCER BALLS I SELL SOCCER BALLS I SELL SOCCER BALLS," over and over and over again. So downtown Cordoba is really noisy.  And Wisdom is supposed to be another one of those voices crying out?
I guess the writer of this passage is saying that there are a lot of voices in life, telling you which direction to take. "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." "You only live once-YOLO!" "You've got to misbehave in Cordoba!"
But there is also the voice of Wisdom in our lives, and as Chrisitans we might call it the Holy Spirit, but in this passage it could also be plain old Wisdom- the fear of the Lord and common sense.  Pray for me to listen out for it here. And you listen out for it too.

Good advice

Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
  and forsake not your mother's teaching.
For they are a graceful garland for your head
  and pendants for your neck.
My son, if sinners entice you,
  do not consent.. do not walk in the way with them;
Hold back your foot from their paths...

Proverbs 1: 8-19

-(Hit a bump in Isaiah... I'll get back to it after I talk to Bro Randy or John)

Keep Calm and Trust in God

Isaiah 7:1-9

A couple of years back, there was an explosive trend that one would see everywhere, and I mean everywhere. That trend involved posters that said Keep Calm and ______. Even now, there are a whole lot of them. You've probably seen them. I did a little research and apparently it started when an old World War II poster saying Keep Calm and Carry On was found.  Soonafter people online started making parodies of this sign that varied greatly, as you can see. Some kept the general theme of coping with stress, and others (not pictured) go way off the deep end and refer to different things..

 That brings us to my devo this morning. Though this trend started in 2000 (Meme Database) and was based off of a WWII poster encouraging people to stay calm in the midst of war, I found that the theme goes back much farther, to the first half of Isaiah chapter 7.

In this passage, Syrian King Rezin and the Pekah, the son of Israelite King Remaliah teamed up to go to war against Judah's King Ahaz. The Bible says that when they found out about this, "the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shook before the wind. (v. 2)" They were pretty terrified.

So God sends Isaiah and his son to deliver a message to Ahaz. "Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint... (v. 4)" Then, through prophecy, God explained that Syria and Israel will not succeed and won't even stand in the future.  The end of verse 9 says "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all." So after assuring Ahaz that everything was going to be ok, He told him to trust in Him.  If they were to put it on a poster, it might look like this.

I also believe that this poster is for us too. A lot of us might not be in the midst of war or in a time of emergency (although some of us are), but in the everyday struggles and worries of life, we should remember that God wants us to be firm in faith in order to be firm at all.  We should keep calm and trust God.

A Vision for all of us

Isaiah 6

What is it like to meet God? I always thought it would be amazing to be in the presence of the Creator and Savior of the world.  But the first part of this passage suggests differenly. After all, the exuberance I've felt when going to a concert and having a seat close to the singer is overwhelming enough for me as I think "O my goodness! I am standing so close to a famous person!" The seraphim in Isaiah's vision keep calling out "Holy Holy Holy is the LORD of hosts. The whole Earth is full of His glory!" So God is so "famous" (if we keep up this analogy, that everything in the world is proof of His fame. And Isaiah got to stand close to Him.

But what does Isaiah say? "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."

There's something here I hadn't considered, rather than just thinking about standing close to a superstar, to make the analogy accurate (and no analogy can perfectly capture this, but this one makes sense to me).  Rather, this is like finding yourself at a party in front of your favorite celebrity, and all you're wearing is your underwear, and it's dirty. How horrific! You're in front of someone you admire so much and you look pathetic, ridiculous and unworthy of their presence.  That's the sort of feeling Isaiah felt in front of God, because God is so much purer than us, since we are sinful.

But what happens next? One of the seraphim fly over to Isaiah and touches Isaiah's lips with a coal from the altar of God. Then he tells him that he's clean now.  "Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." Immediately, God asks who would be willing to send a message to the people of Israel, and I can see Isaiah's hand shooting up and waving as he enthusiastically says "Here I am! Send me!" 
And then the message God gives him is one of destruction that is coming, but that like tree stumps, a holy seed will remain (shout out to Jesus!)

Which connects this to Christians today. There's a sort of deja vu here since something similar happens in the Christian life.  As sinners, we are dirty and unworthy of being near God, but God's own son (not a coal this time) came to atone for us. Now we are worthy, and Jesus asked us to deliver a message to everyone, and that is the story about Him, the Gospel.

Wild Grapes

Isaiah 5:1-7

5 Let me sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones,
    and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded wild grapes.

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,
    that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield wild grapes?

This passage struck me because of the vineyard keeper's reaction. He did everything right- the contitions were perfect for perfect grapes, but instead he got wild grapes.  He worked so hard, but the result was more than disappointing. This response is one of indignant frustration. And then...

5 And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.

Rage quit. The vineyard keeper has had enough of these troublesome grapes. He's going to leave it to be destroyed. He probably didn't want to just destroy all he worked for, but the grapes are not good for him.  All they can do is be destroyed.

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
    are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
    but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
    but behold, an outcry!

So if this story was describing Israel's corruption and idolatry as wild grapes doomed to be destroyed (the Exile), how would we translate into this picture? True, this text is geared toward Israel, and they were punished like the passage suggested. However, as Christians, God is also working on us...even if you aren't Christian, God is working on you somehow. So what kind of grape are we going to be?