Woe

DEVOTION

ISAIAH

WOE

Isa 5:18-21

18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, 19 to those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it."

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

NIV

A series of woes for the people of Israel, and maybe for us as well. This drawing sin with a rope, with a cart rope carries the meaning such as a rope maker. He makes his rope and keeps getting it longer and longer with no end to it. They sinned and sinned heaping sin upon sin with no end and to make matters worse it makes it sound like thy laughed at God. “Come on bring on your judgments” “Let that is going to stop us”, Hurry up God, bring it on”. Did they not fear him? What about us? Do we fear him enough, his judgement? “But we have Jesus, our sins are forgiven”, we say. True they are, but should we go on and continue to sin that his grace should abound, God forbid! But it is this defiant sin which is what is depicted here. We do not intend to defy God, we simply make a mistake, forget to keep guard, we slip up, not intentional, but just because we are human, not that we should make that our excuse, but it is a fact. The idea of calling evil good and good evil is again in defiance to God. We will decide what is good and what is evil, it is how we define sin that counts, not how God defines it. See how clever we are, at least in our own eyes. We are a legend in our own minds. We think we are wise, because we study that scriptures and interpret them for our own benefit, seeing the true as we perceive it, using our own filters, our intelligence to define sin, to decide what is good and what is evil, we make our lists of the do’s and the don’ts. That is how we decide what we do and want we don’t do, but our own set of rules, then we gather in groups and set our perimeters, our definitions of what is light and what is darkness, we call ourselves a denomination. How arrogant we have become, each one of our little groups deciding what the truth is, defining what is right and wrong. How wise we have become, or have we? We are so clever, or are we? What are to do?  We certainly do not want to hear the woe.

Chasing who

DEVOTION

ISAIAH

CHASING WHO

Isa 5:11-17

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. 12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands. 13 Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst. 14 Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers. 15 So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. 16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness. 17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.

NIV

It seems difficult to image the common man of those days sitting around feasting and drinking in an all-night party atmosphere. That makes more sense for the nobles, or people of wealth. But then this could also be speaking in an analogy speaking about people who rise early in the morning and stay up late at night all in the interest of self-pleasure or doing whatever it takes to gain their desires. Surely believers are not the people who start drinking the first thing in the morning nor have great parties where much food and wine are consumed during the evening hours. The key to understanding how this should be viewed is in the fact this type of people have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands. We know that the Lord never chases after drink in the morning nor parties at night. We know the Lord’s deeds have everything to do with keeping his people, the work of his hands is always for the good of his people, even when he disciplines it is for the good of his people. He provides for us, everything he did, all of creation was for us to have a place to live. But for his glory, his honor, his pleasure. We are here for him, he is not here for us, although in some sense that is true, he is here for us, to sustain us, to provide for us, to save us from sin. But still it is all for his glory. Nevertheless, what we see is people living their own selfish lives without regard for the reason they are here, to bring him glory. They are chasing after the ways of the world, always being about self. They seek to bring about their own desires, whether that be wealth, possession, anything material, or even about gaining fame in the religious realm, amassing great crowds to listen to a their silver tongue and support their lavish lifestyle. God will not be mocked, he will not stand idle and allow his name to be slandered. Woe to those who do such a thing. The Lord will deal with all those who disregard his deeds, the work of his hands. They will all be brought low, the grave will swallow them all up. The arrogant will find out the justice of the Lord. Woe to anyone who does not pay attention to how God desires us to live. This life of a believer is not about all our man-made restrictions we put on ourselves, such as the Pharisees did, being whitewashed tombs. We might look good to others, but instead are we truly believers, or do we rather trust in ourselves more than God. We trust in our rules and regulations, we trust in our abilities to provide for our desires. The question we have to be honest with ourselves is whether we put more trust in ourselves then God for the physical things in life. Do we really believe, are we really believers, or do we just pretend to believe God completely? Let us not chase after from the crack of dawn into the night hours, the things of this world, Let us chase after God, with all our heart, our mind, our soul and our strength. Let us put to rest that question; who do we chase after? We are the sheep of his pasture, we will graze among the ruins of the rich. It is any clearer?

His Delight

DEVOTION

ISAIAH

HIS DELIGHT

Isa 5:7-10

7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. 8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.

9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: "Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants. 10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain."

NIV

Well, we were thinking we were that vineyard, and so it is, although here Israel is, at the time of the saying, but it still bears true of the church, the body of Christ, the community of faith. We are his delight and the question that is before us is whether the Lord God sees justice or bloodshed when he looks upon us. Does he see righteousness, or does he here cries of distress? What is the difference between justice and bloodshed? In the Hebrew, justice carries the meaning of living in the divine law, acting in accordance with love, while bloodshed means to oppress. Have we turned this living in love to oppression by making up our lists of do’s and don’ts? Do we oppress new believers with all the things they are not supposed to do now that they have joined our little band of law followers? Is this the righteousness God is looking for and only hears the cries of distress from those trying to live by their laws? Doubtful, as he is looking for those who simply trust in Jesus, for he is our righteousness and our only righteousness, for we have none of our own, no matter how sinless we try to be, because we always are going to fail. That is just the facts. If we think we will not fail and we have achieved our own righteousness, then we deceive ourselves and call God a liar. We will always be in distress trying to live up to the standard we set for ourselves with our laws, our rules, and our set of lists. We think we have taken all that from the word of God, but we might be more like the Pharisees then we want to admit, adding our own brand of righteousness.  It is not like we should go about looking for ways to sin, by no means, but the fact is no matter how hard we try to not sin, we still sin. So no oppressing anyone or ourselves for that matter, with all our man-made rules and regulations and let us live in the righteousness of Christ. God did all the bloodshed that was needed when the blood of Jesus was spilled out for us. Then we have to turn our attention to this building house to house and all our fine mansions, leaving no room to live in the kingdom of God. When we spend our time gaining the whole world we will lose our souls. This chasing after financial security, this storing up for our golden years, this retirement scheme devised by man to put the older, wiser, productive people out to pasture to make room for the younger ones, is just a scheme of man. God never intended for us to retire from life and sit back and enjoy, drink and be merry, watching all our bigger barns. Here the prophet tells Israel their mansions will become desolate, their vineyard unproductive, their fields will yield very little. Is that what we want to happen to us? Not a chance, but if we put our trust in the things of this world, that might just be the case. So we trust in the Lord. We look to him for everything, first our salvation, and our righteousness. Then we look to him as our provider, our rock, our fortress, our tower of strength, our redeemer, our all in all. Let us be his delight.

Fine WIne

DEVOTION

ISAIAH

FINE WINE

Isa 5:1-6

5:1

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. 2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

3 "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it."

NIV

There is more to be said about this subject following what we have here, but this is enough for now to get something to ponder on. After all the Lord God did for Israel, bringing them out from Egypt, giving them this Promised Land, setting them up in the best possible location, there is not much he gets in return. He looked for good grapes and all he got was bad grapes. As a result he tears down the wall or hedge of protection around them and we know the history of how Israel had those times of being taken captive and taken away from the land. We can see a picture today that relates to the same type of story. God has down everything needed to create a vineyard today. This vineyard is the church, the body of Christ, the community of believers, we who are born again. Of course the whole of mankind can also be seen as the vineyard and what the Lord did is create all that is needed. The choice vine is Jesus and whoever is in Christ or accepts Jesus becomes the shoots, the branches and as long as we remain in Jesus, the vine, we produce good fruit. Those who are not in the vine will not produce good fruit, but only bad fruit. But, this can apply also just to we believers. Even though we have been planted in the vineyard, and we are in the vine, is it possible for us not to produce this good fruit? Can we become apathetic in our walk with the Lord? Can our life just become a habit, can we just go through the motions, without truly being connected to the vine? What does God consider to be good fruit, and what is the bad fruit? We would think the fruit of the Spirit would be the good fruit. Be then how does that fruit become wine? What is the winepress? It presses the grapes, it squeezes them to make the wine. The Lord disciplines us in order to produce the wine, the product of the fruit we bear as a result of remaining in the vine. Again, we have to see the fruit is not for the branches, we who produce the fruit. We are squeezed out so others may enjoy the taste of the fine wine which has been made from the fruit we bear. If we are not producing that fruit, look what the Lord did to Israel. Could that happen to us? Let us remain in the vine, and let us produce that fruit and let the Lord squeeze us out into fine wine.

Survivors

DEVOTION

ISAIAH

SURVIVORS

Isa 4

4:1-6

In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, "We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!"

2 In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. 3 Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. 4 The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. 5 Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

NIV

It is thought these first couple of verses should be a part of the last chapter, concerning the great battle and how many men fell in battle there were not enough men for each woman to have her own mate. So a great number, here symbolized by the number seven, of women needed to gather around one man in order to repopulate the land. Women would become the suitors chasing after the men. It seems history repeats that lifestyle. As a youth it would never have been possible to think women would be the aggressors of relationships, yet today it seems that appears to be more and more the case. But let us look further into the words of Isaiah here and see the city of Jerusalem under the shelter of his wing. The verbiage about survivors in a beautiful and glorious Branch of the Lord, with fruit of the land being their pride and glory, speaks of the Day of the Lord, the new city of Jerusalem under the protection of God. The survivors are those believers who made it through the great spiritual battle of life against the forces of evil. Those in that city will be called holy, and all who are called among the living in Jerusalem, those whose names are in the Book of Life. Everything said here is about that city, that place where God is there overshadowing the living, protecting those in the city. Oh to be there, to survive this life, this battle against evil, even the evil which beseeches us so easily. When we want to do that which is good, evil is right there with us. Those things we do not want to do, we do and what we want to do, we do not. Why is life such a battle? That is why God has given us his armor, so we can be ready for this battle. To ignore this battle would be foolish, like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand. Yet we also have to know throughout this battle, the Lord is overshadowing us with his glory. He provides a cloud by day and a fire by night, as a canopy we are covered under the blood of the Lamb. He is our hiding place, our shelter, and our refuge, in this storm and rain, or reign of evil in which we live. Evil is everywhere we turn, all around us, it encamps, encircling around us, like a whirlwind, but God has us in the palm of his hand and we will not be overtaken by evil. He has bestowed us with the Spirit, who lives within us, as a guarantee of our inheritance. Evil cannot reside where the Spirit does, so we know we are victors, we are survivors.

Never Destitute

DEVOTION

ISAIAH

 NEVER DESTITUTE

Isa 3:12-26

12 Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path. 13 The LORD takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people. 14 The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people:" It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. 15 What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?" declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

16 The LORD says," The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. 17 Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the LORD will make their scalps bald."

18 In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, 19 the earrings and bracelets and veils, 20 the headdresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, 21 the signet rings and nose rings, 22 the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses 23 and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.

24 Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding. 25 Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle. 26 The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.

NIV

There is no question Israel was brought to its knees many times and laid bare, in fact it was destitute for centuries until 1948 when after World War II the Jewish people were given back the land God had promised to Abraham. The city of Jerusalem stands, but the temple of the Lord is no longer. In the day of Isaiah, the people had turned their backs on God and became a nation of sensuality. There were temple prostitutes, women ruled by with their sensual lures. We think how Samson was sapped of all his strength because of a woman’s touch. However, all this vision could simple be how God sees the whole of Israel as a women, or living in the ways of the world rather than in his ways. It could be how the world is the woman and traps the people of God with its lustful ways. When the people of God have such an affair with the world they are an adulteress people, entrapped by their lust for the sensual. We only have to look at many of the ways the world advertises with the use of sexuality to know lust is in the heart of man. Beauty is in the forefront, the multitude of products and services to enhance our looks, both male and female, is staggering. Health aids, performance aids, steroids to build a better body, diets to make us more slender and thus more appealing are everywhere. The world has become more and more consumed with the physical and forsaken the real need of life, the spiritual. The physical will fade with time, what once was fragrant will become a stench in the grave. Old age rips all from once was. That beautiful skin is now old and wrinkled. That muscular physique has been turned to flab. The mirror does not lie. The youth that once ruled our bodies is now sackcloth. How can we become so consumed with that which is temporary while paying little attention to what is eternal?  Before is it too late and we have the stench of death in our bones, we need to make sure the spirit is alive in Christ, for when we give up this body and it takes it last breathe we will fly away to be in the presence of our Lord. Sure we use that age old concept the our bodies are the temple of the Lord and so we should take care of it, but think about it, why would he want to live in something that is going to die. We are the temple, our spirit, who we are, is the temple of the Lord, our eternal being is where he resides. The world is entrenched with the physical form and we should not allow its ideologies to influence us. Let us live in the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit and we will never sit on the ground, nor be destitute.

Running Amuck

DEVOTION

ISAIAH

RUNNING AMUCK

Isa 3:1-11

3:1

See now, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water, 2 the hero and warrior, the judge and prophet, the soothsayer and elder, 3 the captain of fifty and man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

4 I will make boys their officials; mere children will govern them. 5 People will oppress each other — man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the base against the honorable.

6 A man will seize one of his brothers at his father's home, and say, "You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!" 7 But in that day he will cry out, "I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people."

8 Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence. 9 The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

10 Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. 11 Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done.

NIV

We could take smaller bites of this, but it would lose its continuity, its whole message, and even this is not the whole, but enough to see something which we should be aware of. The first thing we should notice is the Lord removed his supply and support from Jerusalem and Judah. This is not saying the Lord God is not in control of all the earth or that God does not supply all our needs according to his riches in heaven. What it is saying that in his sovereignty he choose to leave them to their own devices. That means he is still in control of their situation, only their situation is now determined by their own evil plots and plans. Instead of God being their hero, their warrior, their judge and prophet or soothsayer and elder, or even their counselor, he will make all of them from mere boys. Children, those with no credible ability will govern them. That sounds a lot like some countries today, maybe even including ours.   When a country turns its back on the Lord, that country may well except to have all God's supply and support removed. We have to note that at the close of this condemnation against Jerusalem and Judah, he makes sure the righteous do not have anything to worry about. He will not remove his supply and support from them. This is why it is so important for us to remain apart from the ideologies of the world, or our country. Yes, we are to be engaged with them, involved in the affairs of life among them, so that we can be a witness of the supply and support of the Lord God. We are to be the salt of the earth. Consider the two greatest qualities of salt, other than giving us soft water. During the time of the ancients, salt was used to preserve food. Today we have the great salt mines which have been abandoned, not sure why, and have been turned into great halls of preservation for documents, films, pictures of value, as well as many other, what are considered, important items of historic value. We are to preserve the earth, not in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense, preserve the balance of evil with good. We are to preserve the influence of the Lord in the world. The other use of salt is to awaken the taste buds. It is not a seasoning which changes the taste of food, but rather serves to awaken our taste buds so we can enjoy the fullest flavor of the food. Here too, we are to awaken those around us, so they can taste and see how good the Lord is. We are also the light of the world. Without a light, darkness envelopes the world. If we had no light from the sun, we would have no light, no heat, no life at all could exist in the world. It would be a cold dark planet, void, empty and without form. Sounds just like before God started creation. Light is essential to life. In the Spiritual sense light overcomes darkness, the light of Christ overshadows the darkness of sin. But we have been commissioned to be the light now. We are supposed to shine the light of Jesus upon the earth. If we stay the course, remain faithful to the task, God will never leave nor forsake us, nor remove his supply and support from us. But woe to those who are not faithful, to those who have become infected with the ideologies of the world, who do not remain faithful. However we have to be careful in our efforts of not being infected with their ideologies, to remove ourselves from being able to be the light and the salt. We cannot hide within the walls of our church buildings. We have to be out there among them, but watchful. The wicked have a great stronghold on the affairs of the world, and God has turned them over to their evil ways. He has removed his support and supply to them. There are all alone, like children without a parent, just running amuck.