Isaiah 6-7
This is holy ground today. Today we get a couple of great portions of Scripture.
Isaiah 6
V.1 Uzziah had reigned for 52 years. The only ruler that two generations of people had ever known was dead. The king who had kept peace and brought stability to the nation was gone. Everything was shaken. Although Uzziah had messed up, his sin had taught him humility and the fear of God. The world was growing very unstable. Now what? It may be that Isaiah was in the temple praying with this concern moving his heart. God had Isaiah just where He wanted him.
Vs. 2-3 I'm always amazed that the angels naturally declare God's holiness. They will do this in Revelation, too. Certainly this wasn't scripted. For whatever is happening among the angels that we don't see, God's holiness is a very emotional and important issue for them.
Also, notice that they say….and see… that the whole world is full of His glory. They can't help but see it. We don't see this….yet. Because of the body of death, we see as through a glass eye, darkly. (That's Mark Twain :))
V. 5 I don't think Isaiah was any worse than any of us. Why would God have chosen him to use his mouth if he had had a vile mouth. Still, like Job, when Isaiah saw the Lord, he realized that much of what he had said was complaining, ignorant, untrue and unjust regarding the Lord. Think back to Job’s words in Job 42:1-6.
V. 6 It is interesting that God wanted to use Isaiah's mouth, so we have this visual of cleansing. But really, the cleansing was of the heart, from which the mouth sometimes utters stupid stuff.
V. 8 This is Isaiah's commissioning.
Vs. 9-13 The basis of Isaiah's message to Israel will be judgment. But judgment will also bring mercy.
V. 9 Jesus quotes this.
V. 10 Paul quotes this.
Isaiah 7
Vs. 1-9 The southern kingdom of Judah was almost always at war with the northern kingdom of Israel. The occasion of this distress is the alliance of Syria and Israel against Judah.
V. 4 Notice how the Lord tells Ahaz to chill. Ahaz was to show quiet strength without anger or pride. This is a good word to us.
Vs. 10-17 So it is the fear of the people of Judah facing certain destruction that brings the occasion of one of the greatest prophesies of the Bible. Think of that. How often have we seen impending danger be turned into praise for the glory of God? Unfortunately it is a part of living on this planet of death. Fortunately there is a savior who loves us, who we can trust and follow.
V. 14 The word for virgin can also mean young woman, but what's the point? In order for this to have been a sign, it had to be miraculous. It had to have been miraculous back in Ahaz's day and then also surrounding the birth of Jesus.
Somewhere, a virgin known to the community in Jerusalem would have a child. Although it would be a miraculous event, it wouldn't be a child like Jesus, the son of God.
Why this kind of sign? Well, prophetically, it makes sense; but in that day, it must have been a sign that although the world was falling apart and although the northern kingdom would go into exile under Assyria, this child would grow in peace. You know how you hear people say that they don't want to have children because of the world they would be bringing them into. God shows that the kingdom of Judah will be safe for this child, even though, at that point, everything looked like it was coming to an end.
Knowing Christ, we really know what the world is like, and it's far more dangerous than anyone could ever guess. Yet even so, the hope in this world is symbolized and personified by Immanuel, Jesus, God with us.
V. 15 The curds and honey will be explained below.
Vs. 16-17 The "razor" (v. 20) God will use to "shave" the kings of Syria and Israel will be Assyria. This event will be a landmark event only rivaled by the splitting of Israel into the northern and southern kingdoms.
Vs. 20-25 I've heard the curds and honey explained as the way Assyria laid waste to the countries. Vineyards and crops didn't fare well and the main source of food was from animals: milk and cheese (you didn't want to kill your cows for meat) and looking for wild honey. Remember too, Israel was said to be a land flowing with milk and honey.
At this point, with such great portions of Scripture today there would be many songs to choose: “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Immanuel,” etc. I found this one by Todd Agnew that struck a chord with me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8eh23SulM8&feature=related
2 Corinthians 11:16-33
Vs. 16-21 These verses kind of explain themselves. Note that these super apostles took the liberty of striking people, possibly thinking of Nehemiah at the end of that book. Paul's words here are very pointed.
Vs. 21-29 Paul wrote something like this before in his very famous words in Phil. 3, but here there is a little more attitude. Actually the tone here seems to be one of sorrow rather than sarcasm or irony. Paul seems to be hurt that the Corinthians hadn't defended him.
V. 22 This is how we know the super apostles were Jews. Corinth was a very, very Jewish church and so these people found it easy to show they were true blue Jews. Remember, Paul was born in Tarsus in today's Turkey, not in Jerusalem. So Paul lacked that qualification on his pedigree.
Note that in this catalog of sufferings and mishaps, many things are mentioned that are not in Acts. The shipwrecks are not mentioned and the one at the end of Acts hasn't happened yet. We know of one beating in Philippi at the hands of the Romans, but nothing of these five at the hands of the Jews. Paul sounds like they should have had an action figure made after him. His theme song could have been, “Man of Constant Sorrows.”
Vs. 28-29 And this alone would be enough to choke a goat. I'm sure the Corinthians understood that they were a case in point.
Vs. 30-33 This sounds cool, but I think the idea is that of being hunted like a criminal. I'm willing to bet that none of the Jewish super apostles had anything like this happen to them. In fact, because they were trying to bring Christianity back to the law, they might have had some approval with the orthodox.
What is interesting here is that God did all of this to Paul. The Lord “made” Paul in the harvest, Paul did not make himself. Our ideas of our heroes, even today are driven by the world we live in. Jesus said, "for he who is least among you all is the one who is great." The Lord of the harvest made Paul the man he became. It wasn't Paul's education or guts. Few of us would be willing to suffer as Paul did. We should just look to following our Lord in the harvest and try to stay the least of all and servant of all.
Psalm 54
These were still the early days of David running from Saul. David had 600 rag-tag men and their families following him through desperately rough terrain. There were many, many troubled days and ups and downs. Now, Jonathan came to encourage David in the Lord. He left, and then David heard that Saul was on his way and the Ziphites were telling Saul where to find him. It was time to run again.
I couldn't find a good song written from this psalm, but I did think of another song that talks of being tired, but staying faithful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW1XOt_Y9X4
Proverbs 23:1-3
I've actually applied these verses. There will be something similar in Proverbs 25. What I see in them is to be cautious in humility when you are in a place where you are to represent the Lord. This is sort of along the lines of what Jesus said about not taking the prominent place in a gathering, but rather taking a place in back. When we represent the Lord, we should be cautious and respectful and never lose sight of the situation. Too often we relax, laugh too loud, speak too openly, eat too excessively and the result is that we are caught off guard and do not realize we've gone too far and endangered our testimony in the harvest. An ambassador is always on duty representing his Lord.
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