Devotionary

In Isaiah 42:10-17, the prophet offers up a song of praise to God, sung in response to the news of Yahweh’s future restoration of the people of Judah. God has promised to send His servant, a clear reference to the coming Messiah, who will rescue and restore the people of God. This prophetic word from God, received while Judah was surrounded by Assyrian troops and still reeling from the news of the coming Babylonian invasion, was just what Isaiah needed to hear. He was beside himself with joy and gratitude to God for His gracious offer of future redemption. Yes, God was still going to punish His people for their rebellion against Him, but He was also going to redeem His people and crush their enemies one. Not because they would somehow deserve or earn it, but simply because God is a covenant-keeping God. In a sense, God was going to give the people of Judah what they deserved: Judgment for their sins in the form of the Babylonian invasion of their land and their exile as captives. But God was also going to giv

God has established Himself as the one true God. He has ridiculed and lampooned the false gods of the world, exposing them for what they were: Lifeless and powerless. And because God is the sovereign God of the universe, He has a plan for that universe, and in Isaiah 42:1-9, He reveals that a day is coming when His Servant will show up on the scene, with a God-ordained commission to accomplish His redemptive plan on behalf of sinful mankind. Not only does God have plans for Israel and Judah, He has plans for the world He has made and for all humanity. The omnipotent, omniscient God knows how the story ends, because He wrote it. He is going to send His Servant, the Messiah, not once, but twice. He will come the first time as God incarnate, God in the flesh. And He will die a sacrificial death on behalf of condemned mankind. But because Jesus died and rose again, there is a day when He will return again. And when He does, He will come as the King of kings and Lord of lords. God has decreed it, and God will do i

False gods have one major flaw: The are lifeless. Which means they have no power. They lack any capacity for speech, let alone any power to perform miracles. They can’t predict the future because they aren’t even aware of the present. In fact, they aren’t aware of anything, because they are mindless. And in Isaiah 41:21-29, God calls the idols of the world to task, demanding that they be physically dragged into His divine courtroom, where they are commanded to defend themselves. This chapter is full of sarcasm, as God exposes the lunacy of idolatry. He condemns His own people for their love affair with false gods and reveals in embarrassing detail the glaring inadequacies of these man-made gods they have chosen to worship in place of Him. The contrast between the sovereign, all-powerful, and all-knowing God of the universe and these lifeless, mindless, and powerless idols is meant to expose and embarrass the people of Judah for their unwarranted faithlessness to their creator. And by the time this mock trial

When you serve an incomparable God, you should learn to expect the unexpected. After all, He’s the Creator of the universe and so, there aren’t a whole lot of things that are beyond His pay grade. But sometimes we need a reminder that our God is truly great. In the midst of the difficulties of life, it can be easy to question His power or to doubt His ability or willingness to save. But, as we will see in Isaiah 41:1-20, God’s greatness becomes most visible and believable when we come to grips with our own smallness. His power is made perfect in our weakness. His glory shines best in the gloom of our own darkness. And while the people of Judah were struggling with their lot in life, God wanted them to know that He was there for them. But He also wanted them to know that He was behind all that was happening to them. When it came to the question of who was behind the looming threat of Babylonian invasion, God replied: “I, the Lord, I am He.” The people of Judah may not have liked what was going on, but if they

Whenever someone says, “Trust me,” it almost always elicits a natural reaction of doubt. The very fact that they are asking you to trust them makes you think they might not be trustworthy. And, the truth is, a lot of people aren’t. But what about God? Can we trust Him? Well, in Isaiah 40:12-31, we’re going to get a primer on the trustworthiness of God, and it’s all based on the unequaled, unparalleled nature of God. He is trustworthy and true because he is holy. He is deserving of man’s trust because He is perfectly righteous and beyond reproach. He has never given man a reason to doubt his goodness or question His integrity. And yet, even His own chosen people doubted Him regularly and repeatedly. That was the whole reason He had threatened them with destruction at the hands of the Assyrians. And, while He had removed that nation as a threat, the Babylonians were next in line, because the people of Judah still found it difficult to trust God. But the difficulties they faced were meant to drive them back to t

While the people of Judah were ecstatic at having been spared defeat at the hands of the Assyrians, the future was not as bright as they had hoped. Because Isaiah has just delivered the news from God that the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem will one day fall to the Babylonians – the very same nation to which Hezekiah pridefully revealed all the riches in his treasury. So, what is Isaiah supposed to tell these people? He has spent years trying to warn them about the coming judgment of God which would manifest itself in the form of the Assyrian army. But now, the Assyrians were gone and the next bully on the block was Babylon. And, this time, God says the nation will fall and the city will be destroyed. The people of Judah were facing the undeniable prospect of a life of captivity in a foreign land. But in Isaiah 40:1-11, God gives Isaiah a rather strange message for the people of Judah. And it begins with the words, “Comfort, comfort my people.” While the future looked dim, God wanted His people to r

Hezekiah has been healed by God. His physical infirmity was gone and he had a guarantee from God of another decade and a half of life. But the king had another problem. Pride. Which manifested itself in an inordinate love affair with power, possessions, and prestige. In Isaiah 39:1-8, Hezekiah’s pride problem gets put on full display for all to see. And it’s not a pretty picture. Here was a man who had been given a second chance by God, but rather than living in humble gratitude and singing praises to God in the temple like he promised to do, he sang his own praises and flaunted his own glory. Never a good move for any God-appointed leader. And it shouldn’t be overlooked that in chapter 38, Hezekiah had been just days from death and faced with the possibility of losing everything he held near and dear. But now that he had received a reprieve from God and an additional 15 years to enjoy life, he reveals what he loved the most: Power, possession, and prestige.

Let’s face it, It’s easy to sing God’s praises when everything is going your way. When all is right with your world, praise comes naturally and effortlessly. It’s only normal. But what about those times when things don’t turn out quite the way you expect or desire them to? Does your praise for God flow quite as easily when the going gets tough? In today’s passage, Isaiah 38:9-21, we have recorded a song of thanksgiving, written by King Hezekiah in response to God’s announcement that, rather than immediate death, he would enjoy an additional 15 years of life. The king is ecstatic and expresses his gratefulness to God. He also shares the range of emotions he experienced while waiting to see if God was going to answer his prayer. In these verses, Hezekiah displays a natural human reaction to suffering and pain. He wanted deliverance from it. But the real lesson to be learned from this story is whether we are ready, willing, and able to praise God, even when the circumstances of life give us no reason to do so.

You’ve probably seen the bumper sticker that says, “Prayer changes things.” But the real question is whether prayer changes God – His mind that is. When we pray, do we have the capacity to alter the will of God? There are more than a few cases in Scripture where we seem to see it happen. And Isaiah 38:1-8 appears to contain one of them. Hezekiah has been given a message from God by Isaiah, telling him to get his affairs in order because he has only a short time to live. This bad news comes as Hezekiah was having to deal with the presence of the army of Assyria, camped outside the walls of Jerusalem. But upon hearing this shocking report, Hezekiah doesn’t panic, he prays. And we’re told that God hears his prayer and tells the king he will live an additional 15 years. In grateful response, Hezekiah writes a song of thanksgiving to God. But the question remains: did Hezekiah change God’s mind or was it the other way around. It’s a matter of perspective. And a case of the sovereignty of God.

God is the god of the impossible. There is no challenge too great, no problem too large, and no enemy too powerful, that God is not greater, larger, and more powerful. He is incomparable. He is unconquerable. He is all-powerful. And in Isaiah 37:21-38, King Hezekiah is given an up-close-and-personal glimpse of just how great God really is. After he took the problem of the Assyrian siege to God, Isaiah gave King Hezekiah a message from God. He was going to deal with the Assyrians quickly and effectively. Despite all their arrogant boasts, they would never breach the walls or get beyond the gates of Jerusalem. God would deal with Sennacherib and his mighty army. In fact, He would delegate the job to one of His angels, revealing just how sovereign He really is. And, for all this to happen, Hezekiah simply needed to turn to and trust in God. In response to Hezekiah’s simple, yet passionate prayer, God answered and brought about a salvation that had to have left the people of Judah slack-jawed and awe-struck. Prac

At some point, everybody thinks they’re god. Even those who express belief in God can find themselves acting like they’re in control of their own lives, calling the shots and living according to their own self-centered agenda. And in Isaiah 37:14-20, King Hezekiah of Judah receives a much-needed primer on the sovereignty of God. He alone is God. Not only are there no other gods but Him, there is no reason for anybody to act like they’re God besides Him. King Sennacherib had a god-sized ego that led him to believe he was invincible. And the people of Judah had a long track record of placing their hopes in a variety of gods besides Yahweh. But in these verses, we have recorded a prayer directed to God by Hezekiah, in which he acknowledges God’s status as the one and only God of the universe. The king, faced with the threat of Assyrian troops knocking down the city walls and taking all the people captive, found himself kneeling before his God in abject humility and helpless reliance. He needed the one true God t

Everybody has a bad day now and then. But for King Hezekiah of Judah, the bad days were beginning to stack up and looked like they were about to fall and crush his kingdom under their weight. The Assyrians were knocking at the gates of Jerusalem, threatening invasion if the people of Judah didn’t take their advice and surrender. The emissary for King Sennacherib had been taunting Hezekiah and the people; ridiculing their pitiable army, scoffing at their alliance with Egypt, and mocking their God. For Hezekiah, it was a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace. But God had other plans. And Sennacherib was in for a rude and unpleasant surprise. In Isaiah 37:1-13, Hezekiah finally decides to see the help of God and he receives some incredibly good news that reveals the paltry power of the Assyrians when faced with the omnipotent God of Judah. They were no match for God Almighty, and Isaiah provides King Hezekiah with some much-needed encouragement in the midst of all the pending doom and gloom. God was still on His

As God’s chosen people, the members of the nation of Judah were to have turned to Him for help in times of need. But they had made a habit out of seeking and serving false gods, not only for worship, but for rescue. And in Isaiah 36:1-21, God is going to indict them for their misplaced trust. Over the centuries, Judah had regularly placed their hope and trust in false gods and turned to foreign nations for assistance when facing difficulties. And most recently, they had turned to Egypt, forming an alliance with their former captors and paying them a large financial settlement in order to guarantee their help against the Assyrians. But none of this had been God’s will. He had never instructed them to pay their money or place their hope in the Egyptians. And even Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, knew that this costly arrangement between Judah and Egypt would prove to be a waste of money, because Egypt would prove to be an unreliable savior. Pharaoh had been quick to take Judah’s money, but would be slow to offer

Proverbs 14:12 reads, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Yet, ever since the fall, mankind has chosen to go his own way, ignoring the path prescribed to him by God. Even the people of Judah and Israel, the chosen people of God, had a difficult time staying on the path God had set out for them. He had called them to walk in all His ways, but they tended to wander off the path and take detours that landed them in hot water with God. So, in Isaiah 35:1-10, the prophet reveals some exciting news for the people of Judah. In spite of their wandering ways, God will bring them back and place them on His way of Godliness. There will be a future time of restoration and renewal that will impact not only the people of God, but the entire planet. God will strengthen the hands of the weak, make firm the knees of the feeble, open the eyes of the blind, and restore to the mute the ability to speak. In short, God will put His chosen people back on the path He originally planned for th

When you come to a passage like Isaiah 34:1-17, it can be somewhat disconcerting, because it reveals aspects of God’s nature that we can find difficult to reconcile. Especially if we prefer to see God as all-loving, all the time. These verses are full of imagery that reflects God’s wrath and righteous indignation. He speaks of slaughter and vengeance, death and destruction. But while this chapter may be difficult to accept, it must be taken with the rest of God’s Word. The prophetic pronouncements God makes within chapter 34 must be balanced with the other, much more encouraging portions of the Scriptures that provide us with the rest of the story. Speaking through His prophet, Isaiah, God makes it quite clear that His judgment is coming against Judah. And that judgment will be harsh and unavoidable. But God has also provided more than enough assurance that His divine will includes a day of future restoration and renewal. God will punish sin. He will judge His rebellious people. But the day is coming when He

There is only one kind of salvation that really matters: The kind that comes from the hand of God Almighty. Any other kind of salvation is short-lived and insufficient to bring lasting results. The people of Judah might find temporary relief from the threat of Assyrian invasion by trusting in the Egypt, but it wouldn’t last. Especially since the destruction they faced was coming from God Himself. Isaiah knew that the only hope for Judah’s salvation was if the people repented or God relented. The first one showed no signs of taking place. Isaiah had begged and pleaded with the people of Judah to repent and return to God, but to no avail. And so, the only option available was if God decided to extend mercy to His rebellious people. In Isaiah 33:7-24, the scene is bleak and the prospects look grim. But in the midst of the doom and gloom, God sheds a light of hope. He promises to show His power and might. And He pledges to deal with the Assyrians, turning the tables on them and making them the victim, not the vic

The whole reason the nation of Judah was seeking the help of Egypt was because they longed for someone to save them from the looming attack of the Assyrians. But sadly, they never seemed to think about taking their problem to God. Maybe it was because they knew He would require them to change their ways. He would demand that they give up their sinful lifestyles and begin living as who they were supposed to be: The chosen people of God. So, when trouble came their way, they looked for a savior, but they refused to consider God. In a way, they were looking for someone to save them from God, because the Assyrians had been sent by Him for the express purpose of punishing the people of Judah. But God is in the salvation business. He would ultimately save Judah from the threat of Assyrian invasion. And, even after Judah fell the Babylonians, God would save them from captivity and return them to the land of Canaan. In Isaiah 33:1-6, Isaiah begs God to extend mercy to the people of Judah. He longs for God to save the

etimes God’s promises sound too good to be true. They can come across as so “out there” that they lose any sense of reality. We begin to doubt that they will ever happen and, as a result, we start looking to things other than God to bring us joy, hope, satisfaction and significance. That was the problem in Judah and it was pervasive. In fact, in Isaiah 32:9-10, Isaiah is going to address the women of Judah, using some pretty colorful and offensive language to make his point. These women were guilty of finding their fulfillment and identity in material things. They had grown comfortable and complacent, enamored by their material possessions, and totally forgetting that they belonged to God. They were His possession. He had chosen them and made them His own, but they lived like they were independent agents who had full control over their lives and their futures. They were the masters of their own fates – or so they thought. God was going to humble these proud and arrogant women, along with the rest of the natio

Waiting on God can be difficult, because He operates on a different time schedule than we do. In fact, He operates outside of time. For Him, the past, present, and future are all one and the same. He sees it all as if it is happening right before His eyes. But we are human beings and burdened by the limitations of our temporal existence. We are bound by time and space. We can’t see or know the future. That is, unless God reveals it to us. And in Isaiah 32:1-8, Isaiah is going to share some exciting news with the people of Judah, letting them know that God has some pretty amazing plans in store for them. While their present circumstances were anything but ideal, God wanted them to know that the day was coming when they would sit under the rule of a righteous king who would restore their nation to power and prominence. And better yet, He would restore righteousness to the land, making it possible for all men to live in perfect, unbroken fellowship with God Almighty. God was going to extend His grace and mercy t

The old saying states, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Bu that can mean a lot of different things. When difficulty comes, some people just bolt and run. Others stand their ground. We can be tempted to fight or take flight. But when it comes to God’s people, they are called to stand firm in the faith. Rather than run, they are to trust God. And, while the future may require them to fight, they will do so knowing that it is God who fights for them and with them. He will provide the victory. But in Isaiah 31:1-9, we see another option that every child of God faces when confronted by difficulty: Seeking help from something or someone other than God. The people of Judah were in a tough spot, but rather than turning to God, they chose to put their trust in Egypt. Instead of relying on God Almighty, they decided to place their hopes in the might of Pharaoh and his army. But they would be severely disappointed. Human help is never a good alternative to the holy help God offers. The power of men is n