ez3728

Echad - The wholeness of God and our completeness in Him

We're intended by God to be complete in Him, as He is complete and whole and holy. He is in the healing business, on His divine terms.

Outside of Him is to-be-expected brokenness and incompleteness.

This message was spoken a year or 3 ago. It's a good one to remember, particularly if/when tough things or tough seasons might come upon us, and as our adversary accuses us, distracts us, accuses to the Lord to us.

QUES: Who are we to believe?

ANS: Our Lord.

 

Isaiah 16 - also w time in Amos 3&4

The ongoing theme remains the sovereignty of God, and the success of surrender as well as the worthlessness and jeopardy of disobedience to the One who rightly owns and controls the eternal patent rights over all of creation.

THE PLAN is to have us moving a little more quickly through Isaiah. This is NOT to imply that any single word of God is less important, but rather to continue our timely flow of understanding, having already established the absolute confirmable-by-history accuracy of all that was prophesied and has already occurred. John Walvoord (a commentator I've mentioned a few times already) believes some of the specifics of scripture were put to ink in order to shut the mouths of the skeptics. It is perfect they exist, and we as saints embrace those truths. And/but there's much to cover in the deep and timely book and we want to remain on pace with the Lord as to where He may be taking us.

That said, there may be weeks where Isaiah is more lightly touched upon, as I do not want to miss what the Lord may want to bring forth for us. We're on a SENSITIVE mission of SENSITIVITY here, to discover His will and to be moved upon by His spirit in that timing.

Be sure to tap into the brief discussion on this episode re the sons of Issachar, and Jesus, and donkeys, and timing, and Passover. It starts at Gen 49:14 and then wanders through David in Hebron and Jesus at Calvary. And here we are, in 2019. As the Righteous Brothers sang: Time has come today.

 

Isaiah 15 - and God's sovereignty over all nations

Isaiah 15 (and also 16 - to be discussed next time) are specifically about judgment on Moab, but also serve to provide us with insight into how God will address wickedness globally. God is God over all the nations, so worldwide accountability and how He deals with all nations is something for us to understand, beyond just wicked Moab. And we, His people, are invited to rest in His fairness and His plans to gets all things resolved in a holy manner. The battle is the Lord's.

Our great God is neither evil nor prone to flying off the handle. He is righteous and just and true and how He acts is always fair. His righteous love necessarily involves judgment. That truth permeates all of scripture and our understanding of that will keep us from silly toothless teachings and/or from taking offense when our Lord does what He tells us He will do at the conclusion of this age.

There's a good number of bunny trails (throughout both testaments) in this podcast episode to confirm and substantiate this topic, as well as to provide some background reference specific to Moab.

Some verses we will be discussing: Gen 19:35-37, Num 24:25-25:4, Isa 33:1, Rev 2:12-14, Jude 1:14-23, 2 Thess 1:1-8, Isa 37:21-27, Rom 12:17-19, Ezek 36:10-15, Isa 66:14-24

 

 

Isaiah 14

Our spiritual adversary, revealed in this chapter as the dark force behind the satanic kingdoms and satanic kings of this earth, is illustrated as prideful and arrogant. "I will", "I will", "I will". 

He will eventually be brought low, forever, along with those who ruled and reigned, temporarily, by inviting him into their domains. 

Isaiah 12 & 13

We're making fine progress - first backtracking (quickly, I promise) into chapter 11 and then digging into 12 and 13. This part of Isaiah is a prophetic continuum, and refreshing ourselves as to what the prophet had just told us in order to identify and respect (and understand) the context in which he is speaking, is a good thing.

Isaiah 11

The recurring question is: How do we get from the increasingly more troublesome and shaking current state of affairs (of an arrogant and rebellious world), to the place that God originally intended? Joni Mitchell ALMOST got it right in her "Woodstock" song when she sang: "we have to get ourselves back to the garden". What she got wrong is that WE can't get ourselves back to the garden as long as the world continues in its sinful self  will. That redemption and restoration can only be accomplished by our zealous and jealous God. Isaiah 11 points to the miraculous plan of eternal God raising up the Branch from the lineage of Jesse. It's truly wondrous. We will visit Ezekiel 39 and some other places to tie this glorious package together. Yea God!

Isaiah 10

Again we are pressing into knowing and understanding our great God, and how He works on earth, among His people and also among all the nations. Isaiah is prophesying to his contemporary readers, and to us.

The work of the Spirit is intended to enlighten us to the ways of God and to transform our minds so that our alignment might be most effective, for His purposes and for His glory. We begin w a passage in Jeremiah that tells us what to rejoice in. And by His grace, we move a little deeper into that understanding in this session. 

Isaiah 8 & 9

This is a critical session in the study of this powerful book.

Isaiah 9:6 was not breathed upon by our God to Isaiah the prophet so that we might have a Christmas card slogan. It was revealed so that we, upon whom the end of the age has come, might gain holy understanding as to how God will unfold His plan for redemption - starting from the virgin birth of a Savior to the eventual and total rule and reign over all the nations by that second-time-to-appear same Messiah.

It's no wonder the world will counsel us not to talk about politics (government) or religion, as both can be inflammatory to any start-up conversation.

And yet "government" and "religion" are precisely God's property as well as God's agenda. That being the case, in our Christmas card slogan both are addressed.

Isaiah 9:6
⁶ For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

(NKJV)

 

 

Isaiah 7

Isaiah 7 has the prophet speaking to King Ahaz, and/but we first go into the compromised kingship of this failed leader who progressively walks into the trap of idolatry and ongoing wickedness. There is much to learn, to note, to avoid, and also there is understanding to embrace.

My personal opinion is that the (even-now-used) Jewish word "tsuris" has its root in "sarar" and "sara" (best pronounced tsara or tsarar, and not to be confused with the great wife of patriarch Abraham, Sarah (whose name is pronounced with the same soft "s" sound we speak in English).

Troubling times are times for which the saints are called and graced to be prepared, so that we might accomplish great exploits spoken of by Daniel.

Isaiah 6 (finally!) and some 2 Chron 26 before that

We conclude last week's investigation back in 2 Chron to gain more insight into kings, priests, anointings, callings, accountability etc. And then we proceed into Isaiah 6, better recognizing some of what likely was the pain-of-remembrance of the aborted reign of Uzziah. NT kings and priests are called to greatness, in sobriety and humility and obedience.

Suggestion: Over the course of the next week or two, you might want to read 2 Chron chapters 26-36. It chronicles (hence the book's name) the upcoming downfall of the Southern kingdom, into eventual captivity by the Assyrians. It is a huge theme-of-warning throughout the book of Isaiah (the study that we plan to continue). In Isaiah we will see God speaking both to (a) the people of that time and also (b) the people of our time - as our world walks out the days prior to the return of our Lord, days that will necessarily involve troublings and shakings so that people might draw close to the one true Hope and Deliverer. In Him, as always, we are safe and find success.