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?