Posts Tagged ‘Isaiah’

Our goal is WORSHIP during this Christmas Season, not simply Celebration this Christmas Season.  We desire to see through the decorations and the music and the lights and the gifts, and gleen what Christmas is all about – the arrival, the coming of Christ Jesus to the world!

Remember that the people of God chose an inferior king – 1 Samuel 8 details this.  They wanted a king they could see, a king they could physically take refuge and comfort in rather than the Superior King who can’t be seen.  In other words, they didn’t want to have as much faith as God required of them.  They wanted a shortcut to their preferred future instead of depending and treasuring the God of the Universe.

What is the result of following inferior kings?

We all know how it turned out for them.  Saul (the first king) failed.  David (the second king) failed.  Solomon (the third king) failed.  The Kingdom Divided.  The kings in the north and in the south led God’s people far away from God and into deep idolatry and eventually into slavery.  That’s what following inferior kings will always do – slavery.

What is the big deal with the Superior King?

• He came to “us” – Isaiah 9:6.  We are the ones who rejected him, yet he is the one who rescues us!
• He is nothing like the inferior king(s) – Isaiah 9:6.  He will have the government upon his shoulder, and he will be known as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father.  He’s not Saul or David or Solomon or Rehoboam or Jeroboam or Ahaz or any of the other kings in 1 Samuel – 2 Kings…
• His Kingdom will rule forever – Isaiah 9:7.  He will reign forever and his peace will have no end.  He will rule not with idolatry and selfishness, but with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

Oh how Christmas Season is my favorite because of this truth:  the God who we have rejected is the God who sent the Son to rescue us!  That’s the message of Christmas.

1 Samuel 8 details for us the people of God rejecting God as their King for an inferior king.  They received a warning from God that if they do in fact reject God as their King, then life will turn out quite badly for them…their lives would end up in slavery because of their rejection of God as their King.  They refuse the warning, reject God as King and the result is a long of oppression, idolatry, suffering, and regrets and tears.  Listen to these verses of Isaiah 8 that detail how life looks for rejectors of God:

• “Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered…”(8:9)
• “They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry…”(8:21)
• And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish…” (8:22)

This week has been brutal for me for some reason.  Life.  Kids.  2nd grade Homework.  2 year olds. Marriage and balancing of relationships.  Pastoring.  Studying.  And so forth, and so on.

How’s your week been?

I’ve been down the latter part of the week – until today around 8 am or so.  I was able to spend some quality time with God in Isaiah 39-44.  And I’m so glad I did.  (Quick Note:  I never regret spending quality time with God.  He always lifts my chin, even when loving correcting and convicting me about “stuff and sin” in my life.)

Isaiah 39 talks about hardship coming to the people of God.  Hezekiah was told by Isaiah:

“Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon.  Nothing shall be left, says the Lord.  And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”  (Isaiah 39:6-7)

Good news this is NOT for Hezekiah and the people of God he leads.  Hardship.  Pain.  Loss. Frustration.  Questioning.  Lots of questioning.

Isaiah 40 begins by Isaiah comforting and bringing a word of hope to the people of God even though hardship was on the horizon.

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God…A voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a pathway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed…” (Isaiah 40:1, 3-5)

As you read Isaiah 40:3-5, remember John the Baptist’s mission from God and what he proclaimed as he came on the scene.  He said:

“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.  For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ” (Matthew 3:1-3)

Wow.  As the people of God are struggling, particularly Hezekiah, Isaiah speaks from God’s heart proclaiming that even though they’d be walking through a dark time, God would not forget them.  He would bring comfort.  He would send another prophet after Isaiah named John the Baptist.  And John would proclaim that darkness and hardship would cease through the Savior, Jesus Christ.  That Jesus would be the revelation of the glory of the LORD.  And he would show the glory of the Lord through this way:

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.  He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.” (Isiah 42:1-4)

So, Christ reveals the glory of God to all peoples by bringing justice to the nations.  The love of God is the justice of God punishing those who reject Christ, and welcoming those who receive Christ.  Those who believe in Christ, the Son of God sent by God to redeem the world will hear Isaiah 43:1 & 3, “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:  ’Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine…For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.’  ”

So even though we’ve sinned against God, he redeems us by calling us to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the chosen servant to die and raise again for the sins of the world.

So the strength to serve God and the strength to persevere in God’s calls on our lives is all dependent on us remembering the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It not only saves us, but it also sustains us to continue the journey on God’s Agenda to be salt and light.

Hey RiverStone and Friends,

It’s good to be back from B’ham after a great vacation with family and friends, ringing in the new year.  We drove off Christmas Day around lunch time (by the way, no restaurants are open on Christmas Day, just FYI), and pulled in to B’ham around 9:15 p.m.

We had an eventful time to say the least with our trip, beginning with a real life A Christmas Story dinner at the Golden Palace Chinese Buffet in Dothan, Alabama. It was so much like the movie it was unreal.  After Dothan, we continued North towards B’ham, and encountered what was to us like a Southern Blizzard!  Around the Brundidge, AL area we had such heavy snow flakes falling that we could hardly see.  (This was amazing to Emma because up until this point she had never seen snow before).  We made it threw the blizzard to reach our destination of my parents house in Trussville, AL – a suburb of B’ham – and the first thing we noticed upon getting out of the crammed Sedan was that the entire ground was covered in the white stuff!  Immediately, Emma, my dad and I engaged in a snow ball fight and the Christmas vacation was on!

As I reflected over the White Christmas we had in ‘Bama, a verse continued to be on my heart looking over the blanket that covered the ground:

Isaiah 1:18 says “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:  though your sins are scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

This verse was on my heart the entire trip – I would look out of the windows and just see a glimmering white reflection of the sun.  Think about this with me…Isaiah is saying sin is in our lives and it looks like scarlet, and it is as crimson…Deep red…deeply staining our lives…Yet with God, those sins are covered over completely and perfectly in the blood of Jesus.  He provides for us the forgiveness of sin, and the cover we desperately need so that we aren’t stained and doomed in our sin.  The snow in ‘Bama represented for me Jesus’ love and perfection, the cross, and the ramifications of the cross – purity and righteousness in God’s sight through faith in His Son, Jesus!  Wow!

I hope this encouraged you today, and continues to stir you towards digging deeper into Jesus in 2011!

CD