I’m really going to focus on Isaiah reading in my devoted time with Him, and as always I’m blessed to share with you all as I write out my processing as encouragements.
GOD KNOWS IT ALL – why should we think we know much of anything – let alone more about God than God knows about us. We need to seek and learn of Him – about Him – FROM HIM…
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
There are people who think God is distant, doesn’t understand, or purposefully ignorant. These people’s souls still crave understanding (don’t we all?!) There are people who say “you need me to get to Him” – we really need Him and His Spirit directly. We need to tap into the Holy Spirit and ask for His presence, a fresh filling, and honestly a fresh mind to understand.
And yet God’s Ways ARE above ours, we can’t make God fit into our human reasoning. God says to realize He is Above all. He can also make some ignorant and asleep, so beware, and if you are one awake, then really pay attention, He is going to give wisdom to obedient ones. We don’t deserve this, we don’t, but like prodigal children, He is robing us in His Righteousness.
Isaiah does try to warn a disobedient Israel split kingdom situation, and all it’s foes too. Isaiah will switch over to speaking prophecies of Hope. If only Israel of that time could remember that Hope to come out of their lineage and pay attention to God. Endlessly God has said “pay attention” to Him over everything else, even now, they aren’t paying attention. They didn’t learn from their ancestors wandering around the desert, and they split their kingdom by ignorance, now are still not paying attention as God will allow 2nd exile before restoration. God waits. God waits for the awake to walk again with Him.
Jesus is the Hope that Isaiah will speak about in later chapters. He came to walk the earth and teach plus fulfilled the law (things told to Moses that we all fail at. Yet Jesus, by His sacrificial act, fulfilled them to be our righteous Savior). Jesus ALSO came and fulfilled the prophecies (told by Isaiah and others) and told the people the Way. Imagine that walk to Emmaus with disciples after He rose and filled them in on all the details. Jesus flipped the earthly kingdom upside down, a slave better equipped to understand than a ruker. Also now in the Kingdom, attention required from nations (for and against God) is to be individual attention. Yes, of course it is wanted for nations to yield to God, but at least we EACH have Jesus as each individual to be devoted. In a fight, hold on to not a flag but a Savior.
We must hold Hope in Jesus. Now, 2000 years after this 1st coming, and in His imminent return, any cloud now.
Keep your eyes in His Skies. Keep serving even as the world distress distracts. We must individually receive Jesus and share and SHINE Him.
Amen
—
Isaiah 29 – New King James Version
Woe to Jerusalem “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; Let feasts come around. Yet I will distress Ariel; There shall be heaviness and sorrow, And it shall be to Me as Ariel. I will encamp against you all around, I will lay siege against you with a mound, And I will raise siegeworks against you. You shall be brought down, You shall speak out of the ground; Your speech shall be low, out of the dust; Your voice shall be like a medium’s, out of the ground; And your speech shall whisper out of the dust. “Moreover the multitude of your foes shall be like fine dust, And the multitude of the terrible ones Like chaff that passes away; Yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly. You will be punished by the Lord of hosts With thunder and earthquake and great noise, With storm and tempest And the flame of devouring fire. The multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel, Even all who fight against her and her fortress, And distress her, Shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, And look—he eats; But he awakes, and his soul is still empty; Or as when a thirsty man dreams, And look—he drinks; But he awakes, and indeed he is faint, And his soul still craves: So the multitude of all the nations shall be, Who fight against Mount Zion.”
The Blindness of Disobedience
Pause and wonder!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine;
They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.
For the Lord has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.
The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says, “I am not literate.” Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”
Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, And their works are in the dark; They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?” Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Future Recovery of Wisdom
Is it not yet a very little while till Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, And the poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nothing, The scornful one is consumed, And all who watch for iniquity are cut off— Who make a man an offender by a word, And lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, And turn aside the just by empty words.
Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall not now be ashamed, Nor shall his face now grow pale; But when he sees his children, The work of My hands, in his midst, They will hallow My name, And hallow the Holy One of Jacob, And fear the God of Israel. These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding, And those who complained will learn doctrine.”
Debbie Upper 