Isaiah
56 – 61
Verse 56:1 opens with an awesome comment:
Eternal One:
Take care that you do what is right and fair,
because before you know it, I will come to save you;
Soon
you will see how I rescue.
This is something we all need to consider;
when the chips are down and we are in a hole God will rescue us. Not saying it
will be tomorrow, we see that is never the case with God. The second 40 years
of Moses’ life he was stuck in the desert learning to humble himself. Joseph
was sold as a slave for 20 years before his purpose was revealed.
Life often sucks and we seem to think God
is silent, we are in bondage with debt or in a dead end job. What is God’s
purpose? Maybe God’s purpose is to teach you something or develop a necessary
skill. I know recently during my trials, God has been teaching me to be more
faithful that he will provide.
In 2007 we saw the economy turn and tried
to ride it out on credit, not thinking it would go as long as it did. I had
been out of engineering for 7 years and had little hope getting back into that
game. In 2008 our debt peaked in December and at the same time I got a junior
engineering position (most of my peers could have been my children). Today
after long hard struggling with paying down debt and settling obligations, we
are now out of credit card debt!!
As we dive into this prophecy we see two
distinct splits, the chastising the ones who left and giving hope to the
faithful. Verse 57:8 God calls out hypocrisy:
You declare
your obedience to Me, but all hidden away—as if I couldn’t see;
behind the very door and doorpost, you set up your shrine.
You
turned your back on Me and snuck off to be intimate with other deities;
you made promises to them and bound yourself to them all tight and
close.
I think we tend to believe there is one
God, which there is, but the “deities” may in fact be fallen angels and not
just manufactured idols. Follow me here, Satan and his cast of many wants to be
worshiped as God so they will do what it takes to distract us. The newest one
is “The Secret” which did explain God to me, but has a hidden danger of trying
to elevate us to a “god”. See if you can use God’s natural laws to your
advantage, suddenly God is less important.
They key is don’t put a façade of following
Jesus and then worship some idol or yourself in the background. This is the
danger that God was chastising Israel about, they lost focus. DON’T DO IT, KEEP
IN THE WORD!!! Test everything outside of the Bible on pure scripture and not
feelings. Feelings will get you in a bunch of trouble, into bad relationships,
debt and idol worship. Learn to test them also!!
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