Devotionary

In our day and age, sin has become little more than an afterthought. We have so minimized the significance of sin, that we tend to refer to it with terms like, mistake. And we seem to think there is no need to confess our mistakes, because, in the grand scheme of things, they are just not that important. We have come to believe that God forgives and forgets. After all, He is a loving and gracious God. But Isaiah 9:18-10:4 paints a starkly different picture of God’s outlook on mankind’s sin. He doesn’t view it as some kind of an oversight or innocent mistake. No, God sees our sins as transgressions against His holiness. He views us as rebels, who stand in stubborn opposition to His divine decrees. He doesn’t excuse our sinfulness or take it lightly. His holiness will not allow Him to do so. He must punish sin. He must deal justly and righteously with rebellious men and women. Why? Because He knows that sin, if left unaccounted for, will spread like a cancer. It is deadly. And man is incapable of dealing with i

Things weren’t looking good in Judah. Of course, it depended upon your particular perspective. The people of Judah were bothered by the presence of enemies and the threat of invasion. But God was much more concerned about the presence of sin in the midst of His people. In fact, the very reason the people of God were having to worry about invasion was because they had sinned against God. He was the one who was bringing destruction in the form of pagan nations. And He was doing it because the entire nation was marred by sin. From the politicians to the religious leaders, corruption and immorality filled their ranks and trickled down to the people under their care. Spiritual darkness filled the land and, while God had promised to send the light of new dawn, there were going to be some lightless days in the foreseeable future. His judgment was going to fall on the nation. He was not going to tolerate or overlook their rebellion against Him any longer. Everyone was guilty and deserving of His divine wrath.

Darkness. Sometimes it can be palpable, almost as if you can touch it. And when it comes to spiritual darkness, there is a very real and tangible aspect to it. Living in the darkness of sin can become a comfortable place. We can find ourselves believing that our sins remain out of sight and hidden from God’s view. The darkness becomes a place where we feel unexposed and our true condition, undetected. But God is all about exposing the darkness of sin in the lives of men. And in Isaiah 9:1-7, He informs the people of Judah, who were living in distress and darkness, that a light was going to dawn. The spiritual night of their circumstances was going to be broken by the dawn of a new day. God was going to do something new. He was going to shine a bright light into the darkened corners and hidden recesses of His chosen people, exposing their true spiritual condition and providing them with a means of being restored to a right relationship with Him. In spite of all that these stubborn and rebellious people had don

The author of the book of Hebrews provides us with the following statement intended to encourage us in our walk of faith: “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” He was simply paraphrasing Psalm 118:6 which reads: “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Both authors were attempting to remind their readers not to fear men. With God on your side, there is no reason to fear mortal men. Even Jesus picked up on this theme when He told His disciples, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28 ESV). Sure, men can take your life, but they can do nothing to impact the eternal state of your soul. Those who have placed their faith in Jesus are guaranteed an eternal existence with God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But we face opposition in this life. We come under threats for our faith. So did Isaiah, and that is why, in Isaiah 8:11-22, G

Isaiah 8:1-10 continues the theme of God’s presence. In chapter 7, we were introduced to the child who would be born of a virgin, and whose name would be Immanuel. The future, long-term fulfillment of this promise would be Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel. But this chapter will reveal that another baby boy would be born to Isaiah, who would end up with two names. One name was decreed by God. The other was given by the boy’s birth mother. And we will see that both names were appropriate, because each represented an aspect of God’s relationship with the rebellious people of Judah. This infant boy would symbolize God’s pending judgment and His unfailing presence. Despite what they would see happening around them and to them, they could trust in the fact that God was there. He would remain Immanuel, God with us. Even the birth of this baby boy, in the face of the coming judgment was meant to be a sign of God’s good fortune and future blessing. He would live to see the fall of Judah, but his name was an assuran

A primary reason that men fail to trust God has to do with their failure to recognize that He is with them. They judge the reality of His presence based on the condition of their circumstances. If things are going well, He is with them and obviously happy with them. But if things happen to take a turn for the worse, the natural assumption is that God has vacated the premises or chosen to forsake His child. But Isaiah 7:10-25 makes it clear that the reality of God’s presence must be judged by His character and nature, not the conditions surrounding us. King Ahaz finds himself faced with the difficult choice of trusting God, when he could not clearly comprehend God. Things looked bleak. Conditions were less than ideal. But in the midst of all the confusing circumstances, God gave Ahaz a reassuring word. He promised to send someone to assist the people of Israel. But not just anybody. It would be Immanuel, whose name means, “God with us.” It was God’s way of letting Ahaz and the people of Judah know that His com

st me. How many times have you heard someone say that phrase and leave you feeling like it was the last thing you should do? People who ask you to trust them typically do so because they have given you ample reason not to trust them. Someone who has earned your trust through their actions shouldn’t have to ask for it. And yet, In Isaiah 7:1-9, God is going to expose the people of Judah’s lack of trust in Him, even though He had proven time and time again that He was a trustworthy God. One of the greatest signs of their lack of trust was their worship of false gods. Every time they did so, they were telling God they didn’t trust Him. They were putting their hopes in something or someone else. And King Ahaz was going to be faced with the task of taking God at His word, or allowing the circumstances surrounding him to dictate his decision-making. Would He trust God, in spite of what was going on around him, or would he allow his fear to overwhelm his faith in God.

Free will. It’s a hotly debated topic in Christian circles and has been for centuries. But in our blatantly self-reliant, me-centered society, it seems to have taken on a life of its own. Modern man sees himself as thoroughly autonomous and self-ruled, vehemently opposed to any outside control and determined to be the master of his own fate. Even God-fearing Christians wrestle with the idea that God might somehow be in control of their lives. Self-rule and self-determination have become like badges of honor that we proudly display and strongly defend. But in Isaiah 6:9-13, we have one of those passages that seems to throw a wrench in our cherished concept of free well and self-determination. As God commissions Isaiah as His mouthpiece, He warns him that the people of Judah were not going to listen to what he had to say. They would prove to be spiritually deaf and blind – incapable of hearing and heeding the message of the prophet. And it would all be the sovereign work of God. The only thing the people of Jud

Isaiah was a messenger for God. He had been hand-picked by God Almighty and commissioned to carry a message of warning and a call to repentance to the people of Judah. But before Isaiah could fulfill His God-appointed role and point out the sins of the people of Judah, he had to have his own sins exposed and expunged. In Isaiah 6:1-8, we are shown how God prepared His spokesperson by cleansing him from his own unrighteousness and unworthiness. As God’s prophet, Isaiah was going to need purification before he could call the people to repentance. His lips would need to be cleansed before he could communicate the holy words of a righteous God. But, in spite of his awareness of his own unworthiness, Isaiah displays a remarkable enthusiasm to be used by God, saying, “Here I am, send me!” He wanted to serve Yahweh by offering his life in faithful service. And he was willing to go through the painful purification process required by God in order to become a mouthpiece for God. He had been given the privilege of seei

Contentment. In some ways, it’s like the holy grail. For centuries, men have heard about its powers and desired to discover if it can really do all that its legend portends. But like medieval  knights on a never-ending quest, most of us spend our entire lives in a vain search for the illusive prize of contentment. And the people of Judah were no different. In fact, in Isaiah 5:8-17, God pronounces a series of woes against the nation because their lives were marked by greed and an insatiable desire for more. They were anything but content, even though God had richly blessed them in a variety of ways. And their self-centered, self-pleasing determination to have more revealed a strong lack of love for God and others. And God condemns them, warning that they would experience His curses, because they refused to be satisfied with Him and all that He had graciously given them. Discontentment is a disease that is communicable. It can spread from one person to the next, infecting the entire family of God. Which is why

Fruit and fruitfulness are common themes in the Bible. And, in His Word, God repeatedly uses imagery of the vine to describe His chosen people, Israel. Today’s passage, Isaiah 5:1-7, is a case in point. God often refers to Himself as the vinedresser and Israel as the vine. He planted them with the intention that they bear fruit. But God is rather particular about the kind of fruit they produce. They were to be fruitful, spreading through the land like a well-manicured vine planted in well-tended soil. But in this passage, God is going to reveal that His vine was producing unacceptable fruit – wild grapes that were not what He had expected and were absolutely good for nothing. He had created a vineyard with all the right ingredients to produce high-quality grapes that would result in sweet-tasting wine. But instead, Israel was guilty of producing unacceptable fruit. And that’s an important key to understanding what is going on here. They were producing fruit, but it was the wrong kind. It wasn’t what God inten

Judgment was coming. God had made that perfectly clear. And yet, in Isaiah 4:1-6, God also lets the people of Judah know that His favor was also coming. Yes, it would be preceded by their fall at the hands of the Babylonians. But there was a day coming when God would restore His people. He would show them His favor, even though it was totally undeserved and unmerited. But one of the truly amazing things about the book of Isaiah is that much of what God has promised the people of Judah has yet to happen. There is an aspect in which His promise has been partially fulfilled, but there is a far greater, far more substantial aspect to His promise that lies in the future, still awaiting fulfillment. But, because of what we know God did 70 years after the people of Judah were exiled to Babylon as captives, we can trust that His yet-unfulfilled promises will come to fruition. He will do what He has said He will do. He returned them to the land once, and He will do it again, showering them with His divine favor.

Just desserts. Getting what you deserve. Reaping what you sow. However you want to describe it, we all seem to believe in the concept that payback is inevitable in life. And even when we see an individual getting away Scott free, there is a part of us that longs to see them get what they deserve. In Isaiah 3:10-26, God warns the people of Judah that they were guilty, and there was no way they were going to get away with it. Judgment was coming. Payback was on its way. God was going to mete out justice in the form of His righteous judgment. From the lowest peasant to the highest ruler in the land, all would feel the wrath of His holy indignation. Why? Because they had failed to follow His rules and keep His commands. The leaders had misled the people, even failing to care for the poor and needy. They had failed to show justice. They had taken advantage of the weak and the fatherless. They had abused the widows, forcing them to cry out to God for justice. And the people had become fat and happy, materialistic a

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all struggle with misplaced trust. Especially when it comes to God. We say we believe in Him and we claim to trust Him, but there are so many times when we place our trust in something or someone other than him. We end up relying on ourselves or some other human being. We place our hope in our financial status or our capacity for hard work. We depend upon our own intelligence or that of someone we respect and of whom we seek counsel. But in Isaiah 3:1-9, God is going to warn the people of Judah that their misplaced trust was going to have drastic consequences. Their propensity to turn their back on God and turn to other forms of salvation was going to eventually blow up in their face. Their many false gods were going to be exposed for what they were: The fabrication of man’s imaginations and hands. And even the leaders the people of Judah had come to trust would be revealed as lousy replacements for God. When we forsake God and replace Him with gods of our own making, we

There is a day coming. That warning is repeated throughout the book of Isaiah, and in Isaiah 2:6-22, God warns of a future day when He will deal with the sins of mankind in a universal manner that causes every single pride-filled, sin-prone human being to hide in fear of His wrath. The book of Isaiah is prophetic in nature, and reveals to the people of Judah what God is going to do, both in the near-term and far-distant future. When we read this book, we have to carefully assess what has taken place and what remains yet unfulfilled. While a book of history, Isaiah also provides a prophetic glimpse into the future of not only Judah, but the entire world. God has a much larger plan in place than the people of Judah can even imagine. They are His people and He is concerned with their fate, but He is also concerned with the coming of His Servant, the Messiah, and the future redemption of the world. For the people of Judah, it was going to be easy to focus on their present circumstances, but God wanted them to hav

The Bible talks a lot about light and darkness. They represent the two extremes of spiritual reality in the world. God is light. He is the illuminating and enlightening agent of righteousness. While Satan represents the realm of spiritual darkness and moral depravity. In the Bible we are given a vision of this world as cloaked in a foreboding mist of darkness, caused by the presence of sin. The fall of Adam and Eve left their descendants with the curse of inherited sin and the death sentence that comes with it. But God, by choosing Abraham and promising to make of him a great nation, shed His light in the darkness of the world. He called the people of Israel to be His chosen possession and to illustrate what it meant for men to enjoy a right relationship with a holy God. That is why He set them apart and give them His law. It is why He provided them with their own land and demanded that they cleanse it of all spiritual impurity. But, the people of Israel failed to remain faithful to God. And their disobedienc

Isaiah was a prophet, and like all the other prophets of God, he had a fairly simple message to deliver: Repent. If you boil down all that he had to say to the people of Judah, this was the core message he was trying to get across. He simply wanted them to return to God, in repentance, humility and dependence. And as Isaiah 1:21-31 will make painfully clear, God had some strong accusations against His people. They were guilty of some serious stuff, and God was not afraid to spell out their crimes in graphic terms. But one of the things we will see as we work our way through this book is just how stubborn fallen men and women can be. Granted, these were the chosen people of God, and they enjoyed a special relationship with Him that no other people group on the earth could claim. But like a father with rebellious teenagers for children, God was fed up with the actions and attitudes. He was calling them out and demanding that they repent or face the consequences.

Today’s episode is the first in a new series on the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It is considered a book of prophecy and the author’s name, as the book’s title suggests, was Isaiah. Isaiah lived in the city of Jerusalem and was called by God to carry a message to the people of Judah concerning their future fate. He would outlive four of the kings of Judah and spend a large portion of his life attempting to persuade the rebellious people of Judah to repent and return to God. But his message would, for the most part, fall on deaf ears. God had even warned Isaiah that his ministry would prove fruitless, because the people were far too stubborn to heed what he had to say. While this book provides us with a historical narrative concerning the people of Judah, it is far from ancient history. In fact, because of its prophetic nature, there are aspects of the book of Isaiah that reveal future events that were to take place long after Isaiah was gone. And much of the message contained in the book remains yet to be fu

The final chapter of the of Numbers is not quite what one might expect. Chapter 36 introduces us to five daughters of a man named Zelophehad. He had a problem. No, it wasn’t that his name was difficult to pronounce. It was that he was dead. And he had died without a male heir. So, according the Mosaic Law, his unmarried daughters would inherit his land. But some of the other Israelites expressed their concern over this plan. They raised the question: What if one of these daughters were to marry a man from another tribe? Then the land would become his and the inheritance of Zelphehad would be lostThey brought their issue to Moses, who then sought the counsel of God. And what we see is God implementing a solution that had an immediate impact and long-term implications. He instituted a plan that kept the inheritance of Zelophehad within his immediate family and that required his daughters to adopt a long-term, corporate mentality that was designed to meet the concerns of the entire community of Israel.

We all make mistakes. And sometimes our mistakes have costly consequences. But I think it’s safe to say that there is probably no mistake more costly than involuntary manslaughter – the accidental taking of another human being’s life. That’s something for which a simple, “I’m sorry” doesn’t seem quite adequate. And in the Numbers 35, we have God establishing a plan for dealing for just such an occasion. He ordered the Israelites to establish six cities of refuge, located throughout the land of Canaan, and occupied by members of the tribe of Levi. These cities were intended to act as sanctuary cities, where anyone who accidently and inadvertently committed murder could run for refuge. God had also established another important policy associated with murder, that allowed the blood relatives of a murder victim to seek revenge on the one who took the individual’s life. But to prevent the blood avenger from taking the life of an innocent person, the cities of refuge were established. And believe it or not, all of