Isaiah 18, Take 2

Let's try this again.

Isaiah 18- This chapter is a prophecy against Cush.  "Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends ambassadors by sea...(v 1)" I looked at a map of this time period and up until now, all of the groups Isaiah has prophesied about were right next to Israel (Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus).  Cush, however, is in Africa, under Egypt.

The passage says that Cush is tall, smooth, and powerful (v 2). Then the next verses are a call for everybody to pay attention. (v 3). Pay attention to what? I think God is going to cut Cush down to size so that everybody can know that He is more powerful (v 4-7).

I think that's the point of this chapter.  God is more powerful than Cush. God is more powerful than any of our governments, so pay attention!

If I'm missing something, or if I just missed the mark completely, write me in the comments!

Here's the song of the day.  Cuanto nos ama, (How he loves), the Spanish version of a very popular worship song in English.

English version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FxaUYjRtkc

What's going on?!?!?!? Proverbs, that's what.

Isaiah 18

Isaiah! What are you doing?! This is way too poetic for me to understand right now! I'll try again later...

For now, Proverbs!

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.

For people my age (for everyone, really), it's really easy to think we know it all or that we are indestructible, but often times we are reminded that that's not the case.  Sometimes we have to face consequences for the decisions we make, and sometimes those consequences are not so pretty.  How can we avoid making bad decisions? By letting God make them for us! We have to (listen, of course, and) trust Him so that He can guide us.

After reading a friend's blog, I decided I wanted to include a song at the end of the post. I tried a couple of posts ago, if you noticed.
Here we go- By Our Love-Christy Nockels

The Price of Forgetting

Isaiah 17

This passage is a prophecy against Damascus.  Once again, God is not happy with these people, and their punishment is coming.

What can we learn about God?
God is pretty jealous.  Sometimes it's so strange for me to think of God with such human emotions, but He created us and gave us emotions. Therefore, it would make sense that our emotions are also reflections of His. Anyway, God tells Damascus that they have forgotten him (v 10). So he destroys everything they focused on so that they would once again remember their God. This may or may not be relevant, but I noticed that v2 says the ruins of the city will be for the flocks to lie down.  The animals that depended on God will have what was taken away from the people who did not.

What can we learn about people? 
The people of Damascus "forgot" about God. They pushed Him into the back of their minds and didn't think about Him, didn't care about Him. (v 10) They had everything going well for them- plentiful harvests, security of fortresses. Only when all of this was taken away did they look for God (v 7), but at that point it's too late for their city.

What can we take away from this passage?
In Proverbs, there's a passage that says "give me neither poverty nor riches...lest I be full and deny you and say "Who is the Lord?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. (Pr 30:7-9) We can see some of that here.  Don't just look for God or be angry at Him when things are going wrong.  Remember him when things are going well.

Mercy for Moab

Isaiah 15-16

So Moab is being destroyed.  It's ruined and everyone is suffering.  They mourn by wearing sackcloths and shaving their heads. Their land is in ruins, their people have been killed.  This once proud city is now just a group of refugees. God tells His people to help them out (give counsel, grant justice, make your shade like night at the height of noon, shelter the outcasts.) Then at the end it says "this was the prophecy for Moab in the past, but  now the Lord says 'In 3 years...the glory of Moab will be put into contempt." In other words, get ready, all of this is about to happen.

What can we learn about God? God is a God of justice, and as we've seen here and in the past chapters, He destroys His enemies.  But we also learn that God is a God of love, and He tells Israel to comfort the refugees.  He explains in Isa 16:4 that the "oppressor" is gone.  God's enemies have been destroyed, these people need love.

What can we learn about people? We really focus on the wrong things sometimes.  Moab was brought down because it was a proud kingdom (16:6) They were proud of their harvests, of their vineyards, in their wines... not in God. Another thing we learn is we should be willing to help the needy. Many times it's not their fault that they're going through this trouble, and even when it is, God loves them, so we should too. 

What can we take away from this? Remember that your pride is in what God has done for you, not what you have done for yourself.  Reach out to people who are going through tough times, because God has a heart for them (15:5 "My heart crys out for Moab;" 16:9 "I drench you with my tears;" 16:17 "My inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab.")

Another prophecy of destruction for the enemies of God

Isaiah 14, v 28-32

Now King Ahaz, the king who didn't trust in God a couple of chapters ago, has died.  This prophecy seems to be for Philistia.

What can this teach us about God? God is in control of nature (famine, snakes). God uses nature to punish people sometimes.

What can this teach us about people? Timing- people wait for the opportune moment to do something, in this case, the Philistines were probably waiting for Ahaz to die so that they could attack his kingdom.

What can we take away from this? The Philistines were enemies of God's people, and by extension, enemies of God. Through this prophecy we see they didn't even have a chance. God is someone you don't want as an enemy! Why so many destructive prophecies? I think they also serve as warnings...If Babylon, Assyria or Philistia happened to have completely repented and turned towards the Lord, I think they would have been forgiven and spared. (That's what happened in Ninevah-see book of Jonah).  But these people were confident in their gods, and they were ok with being the enemies of God. Destruction

Inevitablis

Isaiah 14:24-27


What does this teach us about God? God makes plans and goes through with them (v24),
God has a purpose for the whole earth (v26),
No one can stop God (v27)

What does this teach us about people?
Assyrians [all of us, really] are vulnerable to God's plans.  We can all be broken or trampled.. People are smaller than God. (v 25)

What can we take away from this?
Jumping back to Assyria, God declares that He will defeat them. Again, why is He destroying people? These people were the enemies of His people, but also His enemies because they did not believe in Him. Then God asked if there was anyone who could change this, who could annul His decision.  But no one can.  It's inevitable.


Song of the day" You'll never be alone by Capital Kings

Not just a nice guy

Isaiah 14

Knowing that Babylon's days are numbered, we now learn that the remnant (survivors) of Israel will be restored-- They will get their land and possessions back. (v. 1-2)

Then, from v 3 to v 22, God teaches the people a taunt for the king of Babylon.  Taunt?  Like making fun of? Hmmm. So I looked up the word taunt... According to Google, it means a remark made in order to anger, wound, or provoke someone. So God is teaching His people to anger,wound or provoke someone? Is that right? Hmmm. So I looked up Isa 14:4 (the verse in question) in multiple translations... "you will taunt the king... they will make fun of the king... you will jeer at the king... take up this taunt.... this satire...etc" 

So there's no getting around it. Once Israel recovers, it says, they will taunt the king of Babylon with this song. The whole song is about how the king tried to exalt himself and that God has brought him down low; his past victims will say "you've become as weak as us!" (v 10) and that his kingdom will be destroyed. 

God isn't just some super nice person who blesses people and brings good fortune or something.  He gets jealous, and he is protective. He's not dumb and won't be manipulated. And He reminds people who's boss, sometimes with an attitude or a sense of humor even. (My favorite examples of this in another post.)

Here, the king of Babylon has established himself as a god. The king made his people worship him and everything was all about him. Wrong. God is showing him, and Israel, and us, that everything is about Him, and He does this by humbling the king and letting the king get taunted.