Isaiah Highlights Part 3 (the end)

The rest of my highlights:

43:2 - "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass over the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." This goes on to talk about how God has ransomed us and will save us. What I love most is the promise that he'll be with us. There are hard times, but he will be with us and keep us safe.

43:18 - "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." I find it so hard to move on from past hurts. I used to bounce back so easily. Now those past wounds become stumbling blocks. But God is doing a new thing, making a way in the desert.

48:18 - "If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like the river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea." Obedience isn't about rigid rules. God's commands are there to protect us, and they bring about peace.

55:2 - "Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Only one thing ultimately satisfies. Everything else brings only temporary delight.

55:9 - "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Thank goodness. I've certainly proven that my ways and thoughts aren't always the best plan!

66:2 - "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." I am so far from humble. But that's the spirit God desires of us. I have a lot to learn about humility.

I skipped a few, but I felt like this series was getting too long, so I'm ending it here.

Isaiah Highlights Part 2

Here are some more of my highlights from Isaiah:

30:15 - "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it." We make ourselves so busy, but the real strength is in rest, quietness - relying on God.

30:18 - "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!"

30:20-21 - "Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." I love the moments when I feel I've got that kind of tangible guidance.

32:17 - "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever." Now there's a motivation to pursue righteousness.

33:6 - "He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure."

40:8 - "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." I don't live for this temporary world. I live for the One who stands forever.

I'll stop there for now.

Isaiah Highlights

I finished Isaiah this morning, and here are my highlights:

7:4 - "If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." God makes it pretty clear all throughout the Bible that he doesn't like wishy-washy faith. You're either in or out. This verse convicted me - am I standing firm?

16:5 - "In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of the righteous." Of all the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah, this one was new to me. And I love the description of Jesus seeking justice and speeding the cause of the righteous.

17:7-8 - "In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands." God is incomparable. Nothing in this world deserves our attention over him.

25:1 - "O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago." This one gave me perspective. When we're going through hard times, we can hold on to the fact that God plans marvelous things well in advance.

25:8 - "The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth." Not much to say about this one - I just look forward to that day.

29:13 - "These people come near me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men." This reminded me of DC Talk: "The greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

29:16 - "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it. 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" Above this world of women who feel they don't look good enough, and  who constantly compare themselves to others in all kinds of ways, there is a Creator who shaped you just the way he wanted you.

OK. This is getting long and I'm not even halfway through Isaiah. I'll stop there and continue tomorrow.

Doubt

I hate before-the-fact smack talk. I'm all for smack talk after a great shot or a big win, but when you're all assuredly like "I'm going to win this!", it annoys me.

Reading Isaiah 36-38 reminded me of that. King Hezekiah of Israel and King Sennacherib of Assyria are about to go to battle. And Sennacherib is basically like, "What up Hezekiah? You got no skills, you got a tiny army, and we're gonna crush you! And it was your God who told us to do this!" Then he gets on the wall to tell everyone in the country, "Don't listen to Hezekiah if he says God's going to help you win. He's not!" (That's all paraphrased.)

Hezekiah tears his clothes, a sign of mourning. He's disturbed by this smack talk for sure. But he sends for Isaiah, who prophecies this (I'm not paraphrasing this part): "This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers. Listen! I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.”

And Sennacherib, on the brink of another war, takes the time to send this message to Hezekiah: "If your God is telling you you're going to win, he's lying! We've beat all kinds of other gods before, loser!" (Another paraphrase.)

So now Hezekiah is left to decide who to listen to. This voice of doubt, Sennacherib, who has all the military advantages, or a little prophet with a word from God. He goes to the Temple, praises God, and acknowledges his power. He asks for God's help.

And then at night, while everyone is sleeping, an angel of the Lord goes to Assyria and kills 185,000 people. BOOM. Take THAT Sennacherib! (Sennacherib, as predicted, returns home, and his sons kill him with swords.)

I was reading this and thinking about the voices of doubt in my own head. How I often hear one voice saying, "No way, you can't do that!" and another voice saying, "God will help you! Go for it!" And unlike Hezekiah, I often fail to recognize the true power of God to help me. And I listen to that voice of doubt.

But if God can defeat 185,000 men without any human army even having to fight, he can surely conquer anything I'm doubting in my life.