Isaiah 12 – 17
Some mornings you get started on the wrong foot, with missing energy drinks, no organic honey for the coffee, coffee which was not working right and a dog that runs in the house and pees all over the place, including our bed! With all this swirling around in my head, I am trying to digest one of the more difficult groups of chapters in the Bible. So excuse me if this does not flow real well.
Chapter 12 opens with verse 1 and 2:
1 You[will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. 2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation..”
Yep this is an awesome first way to start this particular morning. Think about what he is saying here. God is it no matter how your relationship with Him is; our main action is to trust Him. If we trust that whatever comes “down the pike” is something He will help us handle, life becomes much more manageable mentally.
The chapter finishes out praising God for everything. Verse 6 is clear that we should “shout and sing for joy” for we are in the midst of “the Holy One of Israel.” How else should we respond? I know me personally I start of almost all my prayers like I did this morning’s thought with a “woe is me” rant, yet God has been faithful and just my entire life. I see a beautiful sunrise out my window and can’t see it because the honey is not in the right place. Sometimes we all need a chapter like this to focus our perspective, like on a positive note; we were not awakened by blood curdling screams! Progress is being made on that end.
As I read the rest of these chapters it becomes an apocalyptic mess for nations and apparently the world. As I read these chapters one thing I notice is the great nation of Babylon, or Assyria, or Philistia, or Moab, or Damascus all no longer exist. We can see traces, but for the most part Isaiah’s prophecies all came true. How many ancient reading accurately predict the fall and complete obliteration of a nation that come true. I guess if you were to “prophesize” any great nation will fall, that will eventually come true. It would be interesting to see how many actually fell exactly the way Isaiah predicted.
Verse 14 gives Israel hope at all times that they will return to their lands. In verse 1 Isaiah said:
For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob
After Christ what does this mean for us? Do Gentiles who convert have a claim to these lands? If not do we have “claim” to any lands? More deep though that I am not prepared for this morning. Now high ho, high ho!!