Isaiah
34 – 39
Verse 34:2 should break any mold about God being even
tempered:
For the Eternal
One is furious with all the nations. He has had it with their armies.
He
has marked them for destruction, and has given them over to slaughter.
If God was, why would He get “furious”?
Mankind has done what it always has done, throughout history. Rise from
despair, worshiping God, then slowly move from bondage to prosperity only to
get distracted and drift away. I believe every society in history will so this,
be it following God or not. We gain comfort and become complacent only to lose
it again. So why wouldn’t God get angry? And why haven’t we learned our lesson?
Verses 35:3 & 4 bring hope to the ones
that worry:
3 So,
with confidence and hope in this message,
strengthen
those with feeble hands, shore up the weak-kneed and weary.
4 Tell those who worry, the anxious and
fearful,
“Take
strength; have courage! There’s nothing to fear.
Look, here—your God! Right here is your God!
The
balance is shifting; God will right all wrongs.
None other than God will give you success.
He
is coming to make you safe.”
Sure things may be rough, but have faith
and don’t fret the rough spots since they are promised. Jesus never says rest
in me I will satisfy all your desires and give you what you want. No He wants
us to rest in Him to satisfy our desire for love and give us what we need in
strength. That is the point, we need to be like Paul and have joy be it a free
man with friends or in bondage for his beliefs.
Verse 39:6 sums up the real value of
“stuff”:
“The time is
coming when everything in your palace—everything of value kept, passed
down, and stored by your ancestors to this present time—will be taken away to
Babylon. Of everything that you showed this Babylonian contingent,
nothing will be left. Absolutely nothing will remain here,” says the
Eternal One.
When you get right down to it, what does it
really matter in the long run? Nothing, absolutely nothing will change the fact
that we can’t take it with us. The only thing we can rest on is glory in
heaven, which if you use the crown analogy, requires a bunch of work. “Stuff”
becomes a point of worship, be it a Golden Calf or a silver Porsche, we all
tend to worship things over God, even the most holy of us. Focus on God, if you
have the silver Porsche great, have fun and focus on God.
Note 34 with Lillith
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