Devotionary

God Is Faithful. Are You?

With the close of chapter 28, Moses is officially done with his recitation of God’s law and his declaration of God’s blessings and curses. Now, it’s time for the people to recommit themselves to keeping God’s law. They had made a covenant with God some 40 years earlier. Actually, it had been their parents who had ratified the covenant that God had made with them. But they were long gone, having died off in the wilderness because of their refusal to trust God and enter the promised land. But despite their departure, God’s covenant was still valid because God had kept His part of the commitment. And He was expecting the next generation to their part. He had proven Himself to be faithful, but would they do the same? Here they were, some 40 years later, standing on the eastern bank of the Jordan, waiting to enter the land God had promised to give them. They knew God’s law and they were painfully aware of the curses and blessings that accompanied either disobedience or obedience. Now, what would they do?

Deuteronomy 28 is a long chapter and it contains its fair share of depressing news. A great portion of its 68 verses have to do with the curses God warns He will bring upon the nation of Israel should they prove to be unwilling to keep His law and to faithfully worship and serve Him alone. And in verses 58-68 Moses wraps up his lengthy list of curses with the grand finale. If the people remain obstinate in their rebellion against God, He will see to it that they end up right back where they started: As slaves in the land of Egypt. Not only will they experience some of the same plagues that God had brought upon their former taskmasters, but they will find themselves living in the same abysmal conditions their ancestors had experienced. It will be the exodus in reverse. And their return to Egypt will be marked by the absence of rest, a lack of abundance, and a loss of the peace that accompanies God’s presence.                

Deuteronomy 28:52-57 is one of the most difficult passages in all of Scripture. In it, Moses explains to the people what will happen if they choose to disobey God. He has already warned them that God will bring curses upon them, but these verses describe something that would have sent chills up their spines. The judgment of God was going to be so severe and the ramifications of it, so intense, that they would end up committing atrocities that were beyond their ability to comprehend. Moses tells them that, when the city of Jerusalem comes under siege by the Babylonians, the people will end up starving and then resorting to cannibalism in order to survive. The self-destructive nature of sin was going to run its full course, producing a kind of barbarism among the people of God that was unthinkable, yet unavoidable. Failure to remain faithful to God was going to prove deadly, in more ways than one.              

hen Israel finally made it into the promised land, they would end up living life in 3D. And those 3 Ds would be disobedience, discipline, and destruction. While God had promised them an abundance of blessings if they would simply obey His commands, they were going to choose disobedience, which would eventually bring the loving discipline of God. That discipline was designed to bring repentance. But when the people of Israel failed to repent, the end result would be their ultimate destruction, brought upon them by God. In Deuteronomy 28:36-51, Moses continues to warn the Israelites about the very real consequences that will accompany their refusal to remain faithful to God. Things will go from bad to worse. Their rebellion against God will force Him to fulfill His promise of judgment. And it will not be a pretty picture when it happens. In fact, their disobedience will result in their ultimate destruction.             

How would you like to have been in Moses’ sandals, forced to deliver a less-than-appealing message of doom and gloom to the people of Israel? He was having to deliver some significantly bad news to the nation, warning them of what was going to happen should they choose to disobey God’s commands. And it wasn’t a pretty picture. In Deuteronomy 28:25-35, Moses continues to describe just how bad things were going to get in Israel should they decide to ignore God’s law and live in rebellion to His clearly communicated code of conduct. Moses presents a prophetic description of the future, complete with the defeat of Israel before her enemies, a plethora of devastating plagues, financial loss, destroyed homes, and domestic ruin. Things are going to go from bad to worse. And all because the people of God will refuse to obey the word of God.         

Moses has given the people of Israel the good news. If they obey, they will be blessed. But now, in Deuteronomy 28:15-23, he delivers the bad news. If they choose to disobey God, they will a experience a long list of curses that will come in a wide variety of forms, but all extremely negative and uncomfortable. The list is designed to stand diametrically opposed to all the blessings God promised if the people will only obey His commands. They have a clear choice to make. And to make their decision easier, God provides a black-and-white contrast between the two options facing them. They can obey and experience the blessings of God. Or they can disobey and feel the full weight of God’s wrath in the form of very tangible curses. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out. But the people of Israel weren’t the brightest bulbs in the box. In virtually no time at all, they would make their choice known and experience an unfortunate, but unsurprising reversal of fortunes.         

The warning about the curses came first. But Moses quickly follows it up with a list of blessings that will accompany obedience. If the Israelites will simply do what God has commanded, they will experience a life beyond their wildest imaginations. They will be blessed beyond belief. Even the pagan nations will become jealous when they see all that God does for His chosen people. But as Deuteronomy 28:1-14 makes painfully clear, they would have to obey God if they wanted to be blessed by God. Hearing was not enough. Familiarity with God’s laws was not going to cut it. He was expecting His people to hear and obey. Not only that, He was demanding that they love His laws as much as they say they love Him. As Jesus told His disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:14 ESV). Obedience is an expression of love. And God loves to reward those who prove their love for Him by obeying Him.    

Moses has spent a great deal of time telling the people of Israel what God expected of them. He has given them a lengthy to-do list and now, he’s going to tell them what will happen if they choose not to follow God’s commands. In Deuteronomy 27:11-26, we have the first of the curses that God warns will come upon the people of Israel should they decide to disobey His laws. And, as we’ll see, the list is lengthy and highly specific. It seems that God is quite particular about the behavior of His people. He didn’t simply command them to “be holy.” He told them exactly what holiness was to look like in daily life. And to ensure that they took His commands seriously, He attached to them some extremely serious-sounding curses. Holiness was going to be non-optional. Oh, they could choose to live unholy lives, but they would soon discover that to do so would cost them dearly.      

Israel’s status as God’s chosen people was not something they were to take for granted. They enjoyed a privileged position unlike any other people group on the planet. And as they prepared to enter the land promised to them by God, Moses commanded them to construct a stone monument that would serve as a memorial to God’s holiness, as reflected in His law. Their relationship with God had been His doing. They had done nothing to deserve His goodness and grace. But now, as they prepared to enter the inheritance He had provided for them, they were going to be expected to live up to their status as His precious possession. In Deuteronomy 27:1-10, Moses calls them to live up to their identity as the people of God by willfully obeying the commands of God.     

Love for God. Love for others. Both of these things were to be considered non-negotiables for the people of God. And as Moses prepared the nation of Israel for their imminent entry into the land of Canaan, he wanted them to understand just how important it was that they care for the needy among them. To claim a love for God while ignoring those less fortunate in their community, whom God had made, was nothing less than hypocrisy. Deuteronomy 26:12-19 contains a powerful reminder regarding God’s law concerning the offering for the Levites, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. These individuals had been designated by God to be the recipients of a special offering that was to be collected every third year and distributed on an as-need basis. The neglect of these four groups would be viewed as a personal affront to God. They were near and dear to Him and He had provided for them by blessing the rest of the community with more than they needed.

The recitation of rules and regulations is finally over. All of that had been intended as a preface, preparing the people of Israel for the moment when they would finally cross over the Jordan and enter the land of promise. And in Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Moses provides them with instructions concerning the offering of the first fruits. One of the very first things they were to do when they set foot in the land was to present an offering of praise and thanksgiving to God – made up of the first fruits of the very first harvest they gathered. This wasn’t a matter of if, but when. There was no doubt in Moses’ mind that God was going to get them into the land and bless them with a bountiful first harvest. And when He did, Moses expected the people of Israel to show God the gratitude He deserved for all that He had done for them. This offering would be an expression of thanksgiving for all God had done, and a declaration of faith in all that He was going to do.                    

The various scenarios that Moses presents in Deuteronomy are almost comical in nature. His seemingly endless list of strange situations and the particular laws that apply to them is truly amazing. But it just goes to show how deeply God cares about the holiness of His people. He leaves nothing to chance. And in Deuteronomy 25:11-19, Moses deals with three seemingly dissimilar and disconnected scenarios that appear to have little in common. But, in reality, they all deal with personal holiness as exhibited in the day-to-day interactions between the people of God. Their status as God’s chosen people was intended to make a difference in the way they lived their lives. Interpersonal relationships are so important in God’s family. The proper care and concern for each other’s well-being was mandatory. And all those who treated Israelites poorly were to be dealt with severely.                       

All of creation is the handiwork of God. And He chose to place mankind as stewards over all that He made. So, as Moses delivers to the Israelites God’s rules for regulating their behavior, he includes instructions regarding their care of domestic animals. But, oddly enough, he sandwiches it in-between rules about the proper punishment of criminals and the care of widows. All stewardship, whether of laws regarding the punishment of criminals or those regulating the proper care of widows, was important to God. He expected His people to watch over all the He held near and dear, including everything He had created and placed under their care. The actions of God’s people reflected back on Him as their Creator and Father. They could either honor or dishonor Him by the way they lived their lives. He had set them apart so that they might be holy as He is holy. And when they lived according to His will, everyone and everything stood to benefit.                        

We hear a lot of talk about justice these days. And rightfully so. God cares about justice and so should we. But it is important that we define justice according to God’s terms and not those of the world. So, in Deuteronomy 24:14-22, Moses continues to outline God’s expectations for the people of Israel concerning their treatment of one another. These verses concentrate on the needs of the less fortunate and the under-represented who were part of the family of God. These individuals, whether they were widows or hired workers, had few rights and were dependent upon the goodness of others to survive. In God’s grand scheme, everyone deserved to be treated fairly and justly, regardless of their social status or ability to contribute to the well-being of the nation as a whole. Caring for the needy, the downtrodden, and the underdogs of life was critical to the nation’s spiritual health. No one was a second-class citizen. Everyone had value in the eyes of God.                  

Individuality and community. Both are important to God. And nowhere is this made more clear than in Deuteronomy 24:5-13. In these verses, Moses outlines some very specific rules and regulations regarding life within the corporate community of Israel. This collection of individuals was made up of people all ages and from every walk of life, but they shared a common faith and the very same ancestry. They were to function as a unified whole, but never at the expense of the individual. Membership in the community of faith did not obliterate the rights of the individual. And in these verses, Moses reminds the people of Israel that a big part of life within the community is based on extending one another common courtesy. People matter to God. And He expects His children to love one another and to dwell together in unity. For God, protecting the rights of the individual while maintaining the health of the community was non-negotiable.                 

Moses spent a great deal of time elaborating on a host of “what-if” situations that might occur within the nation of Israel. It wasn’t that he doubted that these scenarios could or would take place, he was simply covering any and every imaginable circumstance that might result in the people of God committing sins and blaming their actions on ignorance. He wanted them to know that God had an interest in every area of their lives and had provided them with rules and regulations to govern all their behavior. And in Deuteronomy 24:1-4, Moses outlines God’s laws concerning divorce. But, in this case, he gets very specific, dealing with a very particular issue regarding divorce that, at first glance, seems unlikely to be a major problem. But God knew better. He knew the hearts of His people and so He provided detailed restrictions that covered even the most unlikely of circumstances. If a sin could be committed, the Israelites would figure out a way to do it.               

It would be a rare occasion for an Israelite to encounter a situation where he had to ask the question: What would God have me do? That’s because God had provided His people with a very detailed and comprehensive list of rules and regulations for life. And Deuteronomy 23:15-25 contains yet one more compendium of commands that cover a wide-ranging set of circumstances. These were essentially regulations for real life that covered virtually every conceivable situation they might encounter along the way. From how to treat a runaway slave to the making of vows. Everything was important to God, including the lending of money, the moral integrity of children, and care of the less fortunate. So, He made sure that the people of Israel had a comprehensive list of clearly understood instructions that left no room for speculation or confusion. The topic of holiness was too important to leave to chance.           

Purity was to be a high-priority for the people of God – in every area of their lives. There was no place or potential circumstance where the pursuit of holiness was either unnecessary or failed to apply. And as we’ll see in Deuteronomy 23:9-14, even the front lines of battle were to be considered holy unto the Lord. These verses provide the men of Israel with God’s clear instructions regarding times of war. When they were called to assemble for battle, they were to remember their status as God’s chosen people – set apart for His glory and tasked with honoring His holy name. And, as always, God gets very specific, providing them with detailed instructions regarding their personal holiness and hygiene during wartime. The battlefield was not to be used an excuse for spiritual apathy or moral laxness. The priority of personal and corporate holiness took precedence over everything, including war.        

The worship of God is serious business. And not everyone is worthy to enter into His presence. When God set apart the nation of Israel as His chosen possession, he also provided them with His law. Those decrees and commandments were intended to regulate their behavior, so that they could remain unstained by sin and capable of worshiping alongside the rest of the assembly. And the sacrificial system was the God-ordained means by which those who committed sins could receive atonement and cleansing – once again, making it possible for them to worship God in the manner He deserved. But in Deuteronomy 23:1-8, Moses provides the people of Israel with additional rules designed to restrict the access of some from the God-ordained times of corporate worship. This has less to do with the unworthiness of those who were restricted and more to do with the holiness and worthiness of God.     

Moses isn’t done dealing with the topic of marriage. In Deuteronomy 22:22-30, he provides further rules and regulations governing the institution of marriage among the people of Israel. Their view on marriage was to be radically different than that of the pagan nations around them. For them, marriage was to be a living illustration of their covenant relationship to God. If they couldn’t remain faithful to their marriage partner, how in the world could they hope to remain faithful to God. So, Moses provides them with a series of scenarios designed to illustrate just how serious God was about the sanctity of the marriage covenant. What was considered acceptable behavior among the pagan nations occupying the land of Canaan was to be off-limits for the Israelites. There was no point at which adultery should be justified or rape be treated as normal behavior. Acts of wickedness had no place within the covenant community of God’s people.   

In Deuteronomy 22:13-21, we have yet another strange scenario presented by Moses to the people of Israel. This one involves the institution of marriage, something near and dear to the heart of God because it was His idea. As we look at this particular regulation, it is essential that we keep God’s view of the sanctity of marriage in mind. He knew full well that the Israelites, due to their sinful dispositions, would be prone to treat the marriage covenant flippantly, and to view any commitments they made as essentially non-binding. Lust would tend to overshadow love. Infidelity would become commonplace, with the all-male leadership of Israel developing all kinds of work-arounds and loopholes that would allow them to violate God’s ban on divorce with impunity. But God wasn’t going to make it easy on them. For Him, the holiness of His people was non-negotiable and the sanctity of the marriage covenant would be key to them living set-apart lives.

As Moses continues to inform the people of Israel about God’s laws regulating every aspect of life within their corporate community, the rules seem to get stranger and ever-more specific. In Deuteronomy 22:1-12, Moses deals with everything from the care of livestock and regulations concerning horticulture to, believe it or not, a ban on cross-dressing. All in the context of 12 verses. But we have to remember that God was interested in every area of Israelite life. There was to be no secular-sacred split when it came to the people of God. This lengthy list of rules and regulations was intended to provide direction for all of life, from the home to the workplace. God’s interest in Israel’s holiness was all-encompassing and non-negotiable. He refused to leave anything up to their imaginations or sinful inclinations. God’s people were expected to live according to God’s will.      

In Deuteronomy 21:22-23, Moses follows up his teaching concerning the inheritance of the firstborn son and the death of the rebellious son with a rather short instruction regarding the body of an executed criminal. This is another example of God giving very detailed laws concerning what seems to be a point of minutiae. But as always, God was concerned with every detail of the Israelites’ lives. Nothing escaped His notice and there was no activity surrounding daily life in which He did not take an interest. Including the death of executed criminals and the proper disposal of their bodies. And, as always, we’ll see that there was much more behind God’s law than met the eye. He was concerned with the holiness of His people and provided them with very detailed laws to govern every aspect of daily life. For their good and His glory.    

Today’s passage is a doozy. It deals with two potential scenarios involving the relationship between a father and his son. And these two sample situations could not be any more different or disparate in their outcome. One involves how to handle an inheritance when a man has more than one son because he has more than one wife. There was to be no place for favoritism. God had rules concerning the inheritance of the firstborn and He expected those rules to be followed. The second scenario also involves a son receiving what he justly deserves. Except in this case, rather than an inheritance, he is to receive a death sentence for his stubborn and unrepentant behavior. In one case, God is preserving the rights of the firstborn. In the other, God is preserving the spiritual integrity of the community. But in both cases, He is expecting His people to live according to His laws – for their own good.   

Reading the book of Deuteronomy can be like watching a game of Rubgy. It looks vaguely familiar but then, all of the sudden, you find yourself asking, “What in the world just happened? “This isn’t football!” you shout. “There’s no rules! It all makes no sense!” And in Deuteronomy 21:10-14, you’re going to find yourself questioning what Moses has to say to the people of Israel. He gives them some counsel that appears to contradict the expressed will of God as found in His law. Moses seems to be giving them permission to take wives from among the pagan nations they conquer. Something God has clearly forbidden them to do. So, what’s going on? Is Moses outlining the rules for a different kind of game than the one we’ve been watching? No, as we’ll see, God is consistent but He is also considerate, always taking into account the propensity of His people to give in to temptation.

In Deuteronomy 21:1-9, Moses presents a strange, yet very specific scenario involving what to do in the case of a murder where the guilty party remains unknown. Like the law of God, Moses was leaving few, if any, loopholes that would allow the Israelites to permit sin to remain in the camp. In this particular circumstance, while the name of the guilty party was not known, the guilt of their crime remained. And because God viewed the Israelites communally, He held the entire nation responsible for the crime committed. Atonement must be made. Justice must be served. And, just because the identity of the murderer remained a mystery, it did not relieve the condemnation the crime had brought upon the people of God. One man’s sin had contaminated the entire body. And it was up to them to rectify the situation by doing what was right in God’s eyes by purging the sin from their midst.

The cross is barren. The tomb is empty. The Lord is risen. The price has been paid and God has been fully satisfied. Sin and death have been conquered. Salvation has been provided, and all our sins have been taken care of once and for all. Forgiveness has been made available. Mercy has been meted out. Underserved grace has been extended. Eternal life has been granted. And the unfailing love of God has been expressed to all men through the unwavering faithfulness and unquestionable sinlessness of Jesus Christ.

Reading the Old Testament can be a bit disconcerting at times. After all, within its pages are found countless stories of men perpetrating all kinds of evil against one another. And oftentimes, their seemingly godless actions are in keeping with God’s commands. They are simply doing what He has told them to do. Which can make reading the Old Testament a challenge for those of us who understand God to be a gracious and loving God. And in Deuteronomy 20:10-20, Moses gives the people of Israel some rather disturbing instructions concerning the occupants of the land of Canaan. In those areas that God had deemed as their inheritance, the people of Judah were to completely wipe out the inhabitants. No one was to be left alive. But as harsh as it all sounds, God had a method to His seeming madness.

Once the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan and entered the land of Canaan, the real work would begin. They would be expected to do battle with the current occupants of the land, defeating them and dispossessing them from their homes, villages, towns, and cities. It was going to require a great deal of effort and, as with any war, there would be casualties. So, God had Moses inform the people of Israel about a series of exemptions from battle designed to protect the family unit. While everyone would be expected to do their part in the conquering of the land, God graciously provided His people with legal exemptions from military service. At the end of the day, any victory they enjoyed would be because God was fighting for them. So, He could afford to give some of His people time off from doing battle.   

God had set apart the people of Israel, deeming them to be His treasured possession. As such, they were expected to live differently than the other nations around them. And to make sure they understood just how distinctive their lives were to be, God had given them His law as a code of conduct. He had left nothing to chance. They were not free to establish their own rules or to live according to their own standards. God had given them an extremely detailed list of rules intended to regulate every area of their lives – from the minuscule to the major and the common to the holy. And in Deuteronomy 19:14-21, Moses provides the people of Israel with some last-minute reminders about God’s law and His expectation that they hear and fear them. In other words, obey them.

Nothing surprises God. There is never a moment when He is caught off guard or finds Himself asking, “How did that happen?” And we’re going to see that truth lived out in Deuteronomy 19:1-13, as God reveals His plan for the cities of sanctuary that were to be established by the Israelites once they entered the land of Canaan. God was preparing for future events, long before they ever happened. He was lovingly protecting His people from unknowingly committing a sin. The Israelites were only human and God knew they would be prone to act according to their emotions. He knew the land of promise was going to be filled with people who could and would hurt one another – even kill one another. So, He had Moses provide them with His plan for the inevitable so that they would not do the unthinkable.

The Bible is one book that emanated from a single source: God. Yes, He used a variety of human authors to pen the words, but each did so under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The words they wrote were, as Paul put it, God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). And what makes the Word of God so unique is its unbelievable continuity and cohesiveness, even though its content was written over a lengthy period of time by a diverse array of individuals from different backgrounds and living in different centuries. When reading the Bible in its entirety, one is able to see the divine authorship of God as he weaves a narrative that points to His plan of redemption for mankind. And there are few places where this is made more clear than in Deuteronomy 18:15:22.

Holiness is a non-negotiable as far as God is concerned. It is not a suggestion that He has left up to our discretion or according to our definition. He has a strong opinion about what holiness is and how His people are to pursue it. And in Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Moses is going to remind the people of Israel that God had high expectations for them when it came to their lifestyle. He had set them apart as His own treasured possession, given them His law as a code of conduct, and He fully expected to live according to His standards and not those of the world. They were to live distinctively and differently. There was no room for compromise and complacency. And as God’s people, they were to resist the temptation to blend in with the world around them.

The Levites were one of the 12 tribes of Israel. But they were different from all the rest. God had set them apart and ordained them to care for the tabernacle and to meet the spiritual needs of His people. But how did this one tribe receive this illustrious responsibility? What was it about them that earned them the privilege of acting as God’s priests? To understand Deuteronomy 18:1-8, where Moses addresses the role and responsibilities of the Levites, we have to go back to the book of Genesis. This tribe, the descendants of Levi, were under a curse, pronounced on them by their own father. But it was well-deserved. Yet, God would redeem this unlikely and undeserving tribe, setting them apart for His service and honoring them with the responsibility of caring for His tabernacle and the spiritual needs of His people.

God is omniscient. That’s a theologian’s fancy way of saying that God knows everything. He is all-knowing. There is nothing that escapes His attention. And unlike us, God doesn’t find out about things as they happen. He knows about them in advance. So, when Moses told the people of Israel that there was a day coming when they would demand to have a king just like all the other nations had, he was letting them in on a little secret that no one but God knew. At this point, they weren’t even thinking about kings and kingdoms. They were just hoping to survive their takeover of the land of Canaan. But in Deuteronomy 17:14-25, God provides Moses with a glimpse of the future that he shares with the people of Israel. In time, the Israelites would decide they wanted a king. But God wanted them to know that He was going to be very particular about the kind of man who would rule over His chosen people.   

We live in an age when tolerance is the mantra of the day. Acceptance is the new sign of true enlightenment. There is no such thing as truth, because truth is relative. And we are told that we have no right to push our version of the truth on anyone else. But God would beg to differ. He is the one who established the rules for life and determines the basis for all truth. It is not arbitrary or left up to the imaginations of men. That’s why Moses provided the people of Israel with a much-needed reminder, encouraging them to take God’s laws seriously and to keep them diligently. In Deuteronomy 17:8-13, we find Moses urging the people of Israel to purge the evil from their midst, not tolerate it or cozy up next to it. There was no room for compromise or complacency. God was not going to allow His people to live according to their own set of standards. He had rules and He expected them to be followed.

As Moses attempted to prepare the people of Israel for their entry into the land of promise, he covered every imaginable topic. In Deuteronomy 17:1-7, he addresses the issue of committing an abomination to the Lord. But what exactly does that mean? The Hebrew word actually means “disgusting thing” and was used to refer to anything having to do with the worship of God that was unacceptable. But it also included the worship of false gods. It was an extension or elaboration of the very first commandment of God. The people of Israel were not free to worship false gods. But they were also not free to worship the true God in a false or inappropriate manner. Anyone who did so would be deemed disgusting and unacceptable by God. And the men who would be appointed as judges over the various tribes would be held accountable to deal with such people promptly and severely.

God has always chosen to use men to accomplish His will. Over the centuries, He has placed certain men in positions of leadership over His people, even though those men were far from perfect and, at times, anything but holy. They were commissioned by God to act as His representatives on earth, providing His people with leadership, direction, care, and even discipline, when necessary. And in Deuteronomy 16:18-22, Moses provides the people of Israel with God’s directives concerning the establishment of leadership once they arrive in the land of promise. Yes, God was their sovereign and the one to whom they owed their unwavering allegiance. But God wanted them to appoint judges and officers who would render righteous judgment and prevent perverted justice. They would act as His agents, dispensing His divine will at the local level and in relevant, easy-to-relate-to ways.  

Moses continues his exhortation of the Israelites to keep the various feasts and festivals instituted by God. These annual events were non-optional and every single Israelite was to participate in them, from the oldest to the youngest and the richest to the poorest. In Deuteronomy 16:9-17, Moses outlines the seven feasts that were to be celebrated each and every year. But even he was oblivious to the hidden meaning behind each and every one of these festivals. They were to act as precursors, pointing the way to the coming Messiah. In one way or another, He fulfills and completes each one of the festivals, providing mankind with more than enough cause to celebrate. At least for those who have placed their faith in Him. These feasts and festivals were to be times of joy, celebration, and thanksgiving, providing God’s people with the opportunity to rejoice in all that God had done for them, over the previous year and the many generations since He had made them His own.

Forgetfulness. We all suffer from it at one time or another. But for the people of Israel, forgetting God was going to be a constant problem. And Moses knew that it would be. So, in Deuteronomy 16:1-8, we have recorded his words warning the Israelites to never forget all that God had done for them. And the way they were to keep all His mighty acts seared into their memory was by keeping the various feasts and festivals He had prescribed for them. From the Passover to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, God had provided a host of annual commemorative ceremonies designed to keep the memory of God’s goodness alive and well. While God had great things in store for the people of Israel as they prepared to enter the Promised Land, He also wanted them to never let all His past deeds on their behalf fade from their memories. Remembering was going to be a great way of reminding the Israelites to keep trusting.

In Deuteronomy 15:19-23, Moses is going to bring up the topic of the firstborn again. He first addressed it in chapter 12 and then again in chapter 14. But this time he is going to discuss the sacrifice of the firstborn of the flock and the herd. The doctrine of the firstborn was to have strong significance for the people of Israel, providing a link all the way back to the days before the exodus from Egypt. As a result of God sparing the firstborn son of every Hebrew family, as well as the firstborn of their sheep and bulls, the Israelites were to dedicate these animals as offerings to God. They belonged to Him. And the presence of the Levites among the other tribes was to act as a constant reminder that they stood as substitutes for every firstborn male among the Israelites. The tribe of Levi had been dedicated to God for His service. And the firstborn of the flocks and herds also belonged to God – as tokens of thanks and expressions of worship.

Poverty and need are nothing new. They have been a part of the human condition ever since the fall. In fact, they’re both a byproduct of sin’s entrance into the world. With sin came death. And not just the physical kind. Poverty is a form of economic death that leaves an individual, a family, or even a community experiencing the slow and debilitating loss of life. When the resources necessary for experiencing fullness of life are unavailable, it results in a host of people who become like the walking dead, robbed of their dignity and devoid of any real hope of change. In Deuteronomy 15:12-18, Moses addresses the issue of poverty among the people of Israel and gives them God’s divine plan for alleviating it. In a nation that was guaranteed the blessings of God, there should be no one who suffered want. God’s blessings were meant to be shared.  

God is a gracious God, and no one should have known that better than the people of Israel. He had repeatedly extended to them His grace and mercy and, in most cases, in spite of them, not because of them. He had chosen them as His own, not because they deserved it, but because He wanted to express His love for them. And God expected His chosen people to treat others with the same graciousness and goodness that they had received from Him. In Deuteronomy 15:1-11, Moses encourages the people of Israel to care for the poor and needy among them. He had even come up with a plan for forgiving debt and allowing people a chance to start their lives anew, with no threat of prosecution or slavery should they fail to pay all they owed. These kinds of initiatives, ordained by God, were meant to set the people of Israel apart from all the other nations and to mirror the loving, gracious, and forgiving nature of their God.

In Deuteronomy 14:22-29 Moses is going to remind the people of God of their obligation to keep the designated feast days that God had established for them. These were non-negotiable events in which every Israelite was to participate. But the feasts and the sacrifices that accompanied them were about more than law-keeping. They were designed to be communal festivals of celebration and thanksgiving to God. Three times a year, the nation of Israel was to gather at the site of the tabernacle and share the joy of being God’s chosen people. They had ample reason to rejoice and God wanted them to do it together – as a family. And He made sure that everyone was to be included, from the widow and orphan to the foreigner in their midst. They were to share their food and their common sense of gratitude to God for all that He had done for them.

The Israelites were meant to stand out from the crowd. They were to be distinct and different, from their actions and attitudes to the way they dressed and the food they ate. God had called them to be His prized possession, having set them apart as uniquely His and having provided them with His law which would dictate every aspect of their behavior. He had even come up with regulations regarding their food consumption. They were not free to eat whatever they wanted to eat. Rather than allowing themselves to be driven by their appetites, they were to live in submission to the will of God. God knew what was best and by obeying His commands, they would express their trust in Him. While the rest of the world did whatever they deemed best, the people of God were to do what God had determined to be holy. And in Deuteronomy 14:1-21, Moses makes that point perfectly clear.

As followers of God, we are under constant attack from the enemy as he attempts to deceive us and draw us away from our devotion to God. He will never be content with our faithfulness to God and will do everything in his power to cause us to defect. His attacks are relentless and merciless. His temptations are unending and his techniques are deceptive and deadly. And in Deuteronomy 13:1-18, Moses warns the people of Israel that the enemy will prove highly resourceful, using the least likely sources to convince them to abandon God. The call to commit idolatry doesn’t necessarily come from expected sources. Moses lists the prophet, a close friend or family member, and the society as a whole as three possible threats to their faithfulness to God. If the people didn’t remain alert to the threat, they would find themselves drawn in and dragged down the path of apostasy.

God had intended for Israel to stand out as a nation. He had chosen them and set them apart as His own prized possession. Now, as they prepared to enter the land God had promised to give them, Moses warned them to maintain their set-apart status. They were not to blend in or cozy up to the nations occupying the land. There was no place for compromise or thoughts of coexistence with the Canaanites. In fact, God had made it clear that the Israelites were to eliminate every last Canaanite and to purge the land of anything and everything associated with them, including the altars and high places they had constructed to their false gods. In Deuteronomy 12:29-32, Moses reminds the people that emulating the Canaanites was a bad idea. Worshiping their gods was even worse. And any thought of adapting their forms of worship were to be avoided at all costs. In this case, imitation would NOT be the sincerest form of flattery.

The sacrificial system, instituted by God, required the shedding of animal blood in order to atone for the sins committed by men. This seemingly barbaric and gruesome ordinance was required by God and practiced by the people of God so that they might remain in His good graces – in spite of their ongoing struggle with disobedience and unfaithfulness. During their years in the wilderness, the people were required to slaughter all their animals at the tabernacle. It was there and there only that blood could be shed. But, now that they were preparing to enter the land and the permanent home of the tabernacle would prove to be too far away for some of the tribes, God was providing a special dispensation. Deuteronomy 12:15-28 reveals that God would allow the people to slaughter animals within their own territories, but the divine ban on the consumption of blood held fast because the life is in the blood.  

As Christians, we tend to make a habit out of doing things our own way. Even when it comes to worship, we have strong opinions about what kind of worship we find most enjoyable and acceptable. But the problem is that worship was never intended to have man as its focus. We are the worshipers, not the ones being worshiped. So, our worship is meant to be God-directed, not man-centered. And in Deuteronomy 12:1-14, Moses warns the people of Israel that their worship of God was going to be according to God’s standards, not their own. Once they arrived in the land of Canaan, there was going to be one divinely approved place of worship. No more setting up shrines and altars wherever they felt like it. And they were to refrain from adapting and adopting the pagan shrines, converting them for the worship of Yahweh. That was going to be unacceptable. Doing what was right in their own eyes was not going to be an option. Their worship of God would have to be on His terms, or not at all.

Wholehearted obedience to God flows from a heart of love for God. Without love, obedience becomes nothing more than legalism, a heartless attempt to do what God requires – out of fear rather than faith. Instead of viewing God as a loving Father who has our best interest in mind, we begin to view Him as a taskmaster who demands that we earn His favor through self-empowered adherence to His commands. But heartless obedience is doomed to failure. And that is what Moses attempts to warn the Israelites about in Deuteronomy 11:13-25. God wanted to bless them. But it was going to require that they obey Him. Yet God was not interested in an obedience motivated by fear and driven by a desire to earn good things from God while avoiding His bad side. No, God wanted the Israelites to obey Him because they loved Him. Their adherence to His commands was to be driven by their appreciation for His goodness and grace.     

God demands obedience from His people. But that expectation is not based on some need on His part to feel important. He doesn’t require affirmation and He is in no need of an ego boost. God’s demand that His people obey Him is based on His desire to bless them. In Deuteronomy 11:1-12, Moses will remind the people of Israel of God’s faithfulness. While the younger generation had an excuse, because they were not yet alive when God delivered Israel from captivity in Egypt, their parents had every reason to trust and obey God. He had more than proven His trustworthiness and His capacity to bless those who obeyed Him. But the next generation was going to have to learn to trust God on their own. If they wanted to enjoy all that the land of promise offered, they would have to walk in obedience to God’s commands. Because obedience brings blessings.   

We serve a great God. At least, that’s what we say. But far too often, our perception of God seems to be a lot less flattering. We tend to see Him as distant and disinterested in our lives. Worse yet, there are times we view God as simply good, but not great. We look at our circumstances and deem His power to be limited. Either that, or His love for us is insufficient. And when we have a less-than-flattering view of God, it changes the way we interact with Him. Our obedience becomes spotty. Our faithfulness can grow weak and wavering. And the same thing was true of the Israelites in Moses’ day. That’s why, in Deuteronomy 10:12-22, we have Moses reminding the Israelites of God’s greatness and the need for them to fear, love, and serve Him. Their lives were to reflect His nature, emulating His mercy, love, and justice. As His children, they were to exhibit His character in every area of their lives.

If you’ve ever lost your job, you know how demoralizing that can be. Whether you were fired or laid off, the outcome is the same. You feel a sense of loss coupled with humiliation. Regardless of the circumstances, you find yourself entertaining thoughts of failure. But the best response at a time like that is action, not lethargy. Mourning over your loss, while natural, cannot become your long-term strategy. Our response will play a huge part in our ability to rebound and restart our life. In Deuteronomy 10:1-11, we have Moses retelling the story of Israel’s failure to keep God’s commands. While he had been on the mountaintop receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the people had decided to replace God with an idol. And their actions would bring judgment from God. Not only that, they would lose their job as God’s royal priesthood. Their sin would result in the forfeiture of their priestly role and their failure to enter the land of promise.  

Israel was totally unworthy of God’s goodness and grace. They were undeserving of all that He had done for them and had proven themselves incapable of living in faithfulness to Him. Yet, God had continued to bless them – in spite of them. Their entire history up until this point had been marked by rebellion and not righteousness. Even as they stood on the border of the land of Canaan, they had a long track-record of disobedience to God. Yet, in Deuteronomy 9:13-29, we will see Moses reminding them that God remained faithful to them because He was the covenant-keeping God. He had plans for them and those plans included their continued existence as a nation. God had promised that He would bless them and that they would be a blessing to the nations of the earth. It would be God’s plan to bring redemption to the world through a rebellious and unrighteous people. Because He is a faithful God.

“I just want what I deserve.” How many times have you heard that or even said it yourself? And yet, we all know that if we got what we deserved, we’d probably be highly disappointed. But how easy it is to assume that we are better than we really are. Our false perception of our own self-righteousness can be highly deceptive. And Moses knew that the people of Israel suffered from an inflated sense of self-worth as well. And it was only going to get worse after they entered the promised land and began enjoying all the blessings God had in store for them. In Deuteronomy 9:1-12, Moses continues his address to the people of Israel, reminding them that all God was about to do was going to be in spite of them, not because of them. He was not rewarding them for their good behavior. His was extending His undeserved grace and mercy to a people who had proven their penchant for stubbornness and rebellion. They were unrighteousness and undeserving, but God would prove faithful and true to His promises.

We’ve already covered the topic of forgetfulness, but it seems that Moses is not quite done with this point. In Deuteronomy 8:11-20, he is going to raise the issue of forgetfulness one more time, reminding the people of Israel that they needed to avoid it like the plague. God had done amazing things on their behalf and had even more He was going to accomplish as they prepared to cross the River Jordan and enter the land of promise. But Moses knew they ran the risk of suffering from short-term memory. Once they got into the land and began to enjoy all the fruitfulness and blessings it provided, they would begin to think that they had somehow earned or deserved their newfound prosperity. That is why Moses warned them to remember God. If not, forgetfulness of God’s role in their conquest of the land would lead to self-exaltation and self-reliance, robbing God of glory and rewarding themselves with credit they did not deserve.

How easy it is to forget God. Even those of us who claim to believe in Him and have had our relationship restored to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, can find ourselves forgetting all He has done for us. We grow indifferent and immune to His goodness and grace. We can even find ourselves complaining about what we believe to be our unfair lot in life. And the Israelites were no different. Even though they had been rescued out of slavery in Egypt and delivered to the borders of the land of promise, they were guilty of forgetting all that God had done for them. Which is why, in Deuteronomy 8:1-10, we have Moses reminding them of God’s past acts of goodness, and encouraging them to believe that He will continue to provide for them in the days ahead. The land of promise was rich and abundant, but the blessings it provided would be from God. A point Moses did not want the Israelites to miss.

Moses out of a burning bush. He had led the Israelites through the wilderness by making Himself visible as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When God had descended upon Mount Sinai to give the law to Moses, He had made His presence known both visibly and audibly through the means of thunder, lightning, fire, and smoke. And the people had been so impressed by this tangible show of force that they had refused to approach the mountain out of fear. Now, in Deuteronomy 7:17-26, Moses tries to encourage a new generation of Israelites to remember the Lord their God. As they prepared to enter the promised land, it was going to be essential that they not forget God. He may be invisible, but He was going ahead of them and would turn back their enemies before them. As long as they remained faithful to Him.

God had big things in store for Israel. And all that He had promised to do for them was backed by His covenant commitment. He had told them what He would do and He could be trusted to keep His word. But the problem was that the covenant He had made with Israel had been a bilateral one. That means both sides had to keep their part of the commitment. Any hope they had of enjoying all the blessings God had promised was directly tied to their willingness to remain faithful to Him and fully obedient to all the requirements of the law. As a nation, they had given their word to do everything the Lord had commanded. But Moses knew they were a fickle people who had a track record of unfaithfulness. So, in Deuteronomy 7:7-16, he provides them with a much-needed reminder that their status as God’s chosen people was based on grace, not their own goodness. But if they wanted to continue to enjoy His presence and provision, they would have to be faithful.

Being set apart as God’s chosen people was not enough. Just because God had designated the Israelites as His prized possession did not mean that they were inherently different or distinct from their pagan neighbors. In fact, they were very much like the other nations around them. The only thing that set them apart was their relationship with God and their possession of His law to guide their daily lives. It was the law that was to separate them from every other people group on earth. But it could do so only if they chose to obey it. And Moses knew that was going to prove a problem for the Israelites. So, in Deuteronomy 7:1-6, we have recorded his words reminding them of their status as a holy nation, and their need to separate themselves from the rest of the inhabitants of the land.  

Belief. As Christians, we talk about it a lot because it is central to our concept of salvation. But sometimes we fail to grasp the true significance of what it means to believe. We tend to think of it as a cognitive act, requiring some kind of mental assent to a given truth. But faith really begins in the heart. Head-knowledge alone won’t cut it. And in Deuteronomy 6:20-25, Moses is going to call the people to obey God’s laws, but to do so, they were going to have to believe in who He was and all that He had promised to do for them. Their obedience would need to be motivated by faith, not fear. And their faith was to rest on the character of God – as evidenced by His unwavering faithfulness to them. He had done all that He had promised to do, so He could be trusted. And that trust should result in willful, heartfelt obedience to His commands.

Forgetfulness can be frustrating. The inability to recall a name or to remember an important piece of information can create a sense of vulnerability and weakness. It is as if we can’t fully depend upon ourselves. We can’t trust our mind to come through for us when we need it most. But just think how God feels when His people forget Him. When His people fail to remember all that He has done for them and begin to take Him for granted. That’s the worry Moses had concerning the people of Israel. So, in Deuteronomy 6:10-19, we have him warning the Israelites about the danger of forgetfulness. He wasn’t worried that they would forget an important date or the names of their children. He was afraid they would fail to remember God and all He had done on their behalf. Forgetfulness would lead to faithlessness. And that would be dangerous.  

What good is a law that goes unheeded? How effective is a regulation that is ignored? Unless it is obeyed, a law is little more than words on paper, carrying little weight or influence over the lives of men. And Moses knew that the people of Israel were going to be prone to ignoring and disobeying the laws of God. So, in Deuteronomy 6:1-9, we have recorded his call for the Israelites to hear and to heed the law. Obedience was going to be critical to their successful conquest of the land of Canaan. But knowledge of the law was not going to be enough. Head knowledge without a heartfelt desire to apply what you know to how you behave is of little use. Commandments written on stone are of little use if they never make their way into the heart of man.

In Deuteronomy 5:22-33 Moses reminds his audience about the day when God gave His law on Mount Sinai. This historical reference point was intended to prompt the people of Israel toward obedience to that law. Their adherence to God’s commands was going to be critical if they wanted to enjoy all of the blessings associated with the land of promise. Their ancestors had sworn their allegiance to God’s law, but had proved unfaithful. Now, a new generation stood poised to enter the land and Moses was well aware that they were predisposed to follow the example of their predecessors. Obedience to God’s law would be impossible if their hearts were not in it.

Deuteronomy 5:16-21 continues Moses’ recitation of the law. In it we have six more of God’s commands that are focused on man’s interrelationship with his fellow man. They are horizontal in nature, dictating the way in which the Israelites were to treat one another. These are practical laws dealing with everyday activities between God’s people. Not only were the Israelites to show reverence and respect for God, they were to treat one another as God’s creations, showing honor to one another through their attitudes and actions. By keeping God’s laws concerning their interpersonal relationship, the people of God were to reflect His holiness and righteousness to the pagan nations around them.

In Deuteronomy 5:1-15, we find Moses reciting the Ten Commandments to the next generation of Israelites who were preparing to enter the land of promise. He had personally received this divine code of conduct from God Almighty on the top of Mount Sinai, and he knew how important it was that the people of Israel take these commands seriously. Any success they hoped to have in their conquest of the land of Canaan was directly tied to their willingness to remain obedient to God’s laws. Obedience would bring blessing. Disobedience would result in curses. But what about us? As believers living on this side of the cross, what is our relationship to the law? Have we been absolved from having to keep it? Or has our relationship with Christ simply changed the nature of our relationship to it?

God thought of everything. But that shouldn’t surprise us. After all, He’s the all-knowing, all-powerful God of the universe. Nothing escapes His notice. And nothing takes place outside His sovereign will. So, in Deuteronomy 4:41-49, Moses reveals God’s plan for cases of unpremeditated murder. God knew it was going to happen. It was the inevitable outcome of fallen men and women living in a fallen, sin-marred world. Accidents would happen. But what were the Israelites supposed to do when they did? God had a plan. Because He did not want one sin leading to another. This section is going to cover God’s creation of the cities of refuge. This unique program of asylum for anyone guilty of committing murder, but without premeditation and malice, reveals a great deal about God and His justice and mercy.

God is invisible and impossible for mere men to know or comprehend – unless He chooses to make Himself known. And in Deuteronomy 4:32-40, Moses is going to remind the people of Israel that their God had made a habit of making Himself known for centuries. From the first day He had appeared to Abraham in Ur, God had been revealing Himself to the descendants of Abraham in a variety of ways. In fact, it was to Abraham’s seed that God had chosen to make Himself known. And the nation of Israel represented the mighty nation God had promised to produce from Abraham and Sarah. He had kept His promise and now He was about to reward His people with the land He had set apart for Abraham’s seed. And Moses wanted the Israelites to never forget that God had proven Himself faithful and they had no reason to ever doubt His existence or presence.

In Deuteronomy 4:15-31, Moses goes out of his way to remind the people of Israel that they needed to avoid idolatry at all costs. If they chose to worship other gods, their time in the land of promise would prove to be marked by curses, rather than blessings. And if they attempted to make an idol to represent Yahweh, they would find Him infuriated, not flattered. One of the things they needed to understand was their unique status as the image-bearers of God. They were His chosen people and He had set them apart so that they might reflect His glory and goodness through their willing obedience to His law. And the very first commandment He had given them was to have no other gods before them. No idols were allowed. In other words, no man-made representations of God were going to be tolerated. And, if they made the mistake of worshiping a false god made in man’s image, they would live to regret it

Having God’s law and obeying it are two separate things. They shouldn’t be, but that it how any set of rules and regulation work. They establish a set of guidelines or a code of conduct, but they cannot guarantee compliance. And nobody knew that better than Moses. He had been the one to receive the Ten Commandments from God on top of Mount Sinai. Then he had faithfully passed on those commands to the people. But over the years, he had watched as the people repeatedly disobeyed God’s laws, even choosing to violate the first commandment prohibiting the worship of any other gods. Moses was fully convinced that the key to Israel conquering the land of Canaan and enjoying the inheritance promised to them by God was their obedience to God’s law. So, he begged them to not only remember those commands but to keep them.

As Moses continues his little speech to the people of Israel, he reminds them of their obligation to keep the laws handed down to them from God. While Moses would not be joining them in their conquest of the land, he wanted them to know that they could not afford to ignore or disobey God’s commands. Any hope they had of successfully conquering the land of Canaan and of enjoying the blessings of God would come as a result of obedience to His law. And there was another aspect to their faithful keeping of the law that Moses wanted them to understand. God had given His law to the Jews alone and He expected them to keep every one of them. When they did, it would show the nations around them what true righteousness looks like. And the wisdom of God would be evidenced in the lives of the people of Israel, proving to the pagan nations living in Canaan that Yahweh was the one true God.

In Deuteronomy 3:23-29, Moses reminds the people of Israel that he will not be going with them into the land of promise. He painfully recounts the story of when he attempted to rob God of glory and, in doing so, he treated God as unholy. This had been a serious mistake on the part of Moses and it had come with serious consequences. God had banned him from ever setting foot in the land of Canaan. After rescuing the people from their captivity in Egypt, leading them across the wilderness, then having to put up with 40 more years of wandering because they had refused to enter the land the first time, Moses was going to miss out on the joys of Canaan. But God provided Moses with the assurance that Joshua would complete what he had begun. The God of Israel would remain faithful to His promises. And while Moses would never spend a single, solitary moment in the land of promise, he could rest assured that the people of Israel would.

Israel is still on the wrong side of the Jordan. They have yet to cross over and it was because God had work for them to do on the east side of the river. According to God’s command and with His divine help, they defeated the armies of Og and Sihon, capturing their cities and putting all their inhabitants to the sword. These battles on the eastern side of the Jordan had to take place before Israel could begin their conquest of Canaan. And God had good reasons for requiring these seemingly unnecessary battles. He was preparing the Israelites for the years of warfare that loomed before them and was revealing that what He did east of the River, He could do in Canaan as well. But before they had time to celebrate their God-ordained victories over the Amorites, Moses found himself faced with a potential problem. The tribes of Gad and Reuben approached him with a request to settle in the recently liberated lands located outside the land of promise. They saw an opportunity to settle in an area with prime pasture lands, perfect for their many flocks. But Moses saw a rebellious people refusing to do what God had commanded them to do, and he had been down that road before.

God has His way of doing things and He fully expects His people to follow His lead. In accomplishing His will, He rarely requires our opinion or advice. He doesn’t seek our viewpoint or give us the option of replacing His divine plan with one of our own. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. And in the book of Deuteronomy, we have plenty of examples of Moses and the people of Israel attempting to help God out by opting for their own strategies in place of His. But this plan-B tactic rarely works out. We may not understand or even like what God has told us to do, but there is never a case where our preferred option will produce better results. It just won’t happen. A big part of being a child of God is learning to obey Him, which requires that we trust Him. We have to believe that what He is telling us to do will be for our good, whether we understand it or not. He knows what He is doing. And Moses and the people of Israel were going to learn that lesson time and time again as they began their conquest of Canaan. In fact, it would start before they entered the land.  

There’s a line in the closing chapter of the book of Judges that gives us a glimpse into what things were like in the days after Moses and Joshua were dead and the nation of Israel had been in the land of Canaan for some time. It simply reads: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 25:25). Everyone did what was right. That’s an interesting phrase, because the Hebrew word translated as “right” actually means “righteous.” They thought that what they were doing was righteous and good, but it was based on their own subjective viewpoint, not that of God. And this kind of self-righteous decision making was something they had begun long before they even arrived in the land. We see a case of it in Deuteronomy 2:26-37 and it involves Moses, their divinely appointed leader. In this passage, we’ll see Moses receive very specific instructions from God, but then watch as Moses attempts to do what was right in his own eyes. He probably thought he was going the right thing, but it was not God’s thing. While Moses might have had reservations concerning God’s plan, that didn’t give him the freedom to alter it.

As Christians, we have been so inculcated with the doctrine that our salvation is by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, that we've almost become numbed by it. Yes, it's true and is a foundational doctrine of our faith, but if we're not careful, we can become complacent and lazy regarding our faith. The apostle Paul makes it quite clear that salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it (Ephesians 2:9). But the same man wrote, "Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear" (Philippians 2:12). And then Paul provides the undeniable tension that lies between our role and that of God. "For God is working in you, giving you the desire the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13). While it's true we can't save our sanctify ourselves,  we do have to participate and cooperate. And the Israelites were going to discover that their occupation of the land promised to them by God, was going to require some blood, sweat, and tears. 

In yesterday’s episode, we saw what happens when the people of God attempt to do the will of God, but in disobedience to His ways. It never works out well. He will not accompany those who refuse to do His will. He will not fight on behalf of those who choose to do things their own way and against His wishes. But now, God gives the next generation of Israelites another history lesson designed to show them how God had been with them all the way, ever since the days of Abraham. He will bring up the descendants of Esau and Lot, two groups of distant relatives, who were living near the land of Canaan. The Israelites were going to have to pass through the lands belonging to the Edomites (descendants of Esau), and the Moabites (descendants of Lot). The very existence of these two nations was tied to events that had happened long before the Israelites had ever arrived in Canaan. And yet, God, in His sovereignty, had pre-ordained that these two nations would be ready to assist the Israelites when the time came. God had been with the Israelites ever since the beginning, even before the people in Moses’ audience had been born.

The Israelites had been led by God right up to the edge of the land of promise. The only thing that remained to be done was for them to enter and possess the land. But that was going to take faith because there were enemies in the land. And Moses knew from past experience, that when the going gets tough, the tough tend to get going ­– but in the wrong direction. That’s exactly what the first generation of Israelites had done when they had the opportunity to enter and possess the land. And their refusal had brought God’s condemnation and a curse. They would be doomed to wander in the wilderness until their entire generation died off. Then God would give the next generation the privilege of living in the land He had promised. But Moses recounts how that first group of Israelites attempted to prove to God just how obedient they could be. The only problem was they chose to disobey God to prove their obedience to Him. And, as a result, they would go into battle without His permission or His help. And that kind of thinking is never a recipe for success.

Belief is a theme throughout the pages of Scriptures, from the book of Genesis, all the way to the last chapter in the final book of the Bible, Revelation. Belief is an integral part of faith. And as the author of Hebrews reminds us, “it is impossible to please God without faith.” As we make our way through the book of Deuteronomy, we will see that faith and belief were a necessary requirement for the people of Israel, if they wanted to fully experience the blessings God in store for them in the land of Canaan. They were going to have to take God at His Word and trust His command to enter a land filled with enemies whose armies were better equipped and whose cities were well-fortified. God had said the land was theirs, but they were going to have to fight to prove their faith. God had said He would go before them, but they were going to have to follow. And when they did, they were going to have to take the fight to the enemy. Obeying God always requires faith. But the temptation is to allow the circumstances of life to produce doubt in God’s Word. And when we do, the next thing that happens is disobedience, which always leads to defeat, and never blessing.

Why can’t you all just get along? Oh, if I only had a dollar for every time my mother asked that question of my three siblings and myself. I would be a rich man. You see, we didn’t get along very often. We fought. We bickered and argued. And we seldom spent more than a few hours together without an argument breaking out among us. As you can imagine, family vacations were particularly fun for my mom and dad. Four kids crammed into the family car and forced to spend prolonged periods of quality time together in close quarters. Moses must have felt like my dad. Except his family numbered in the millions and the number of the daily disputes left Moses feeling overwhelmed and ready to turn in his title as the deliverer of Israel. This poor man was required by God to lead a veritable host of hostile, perpetually unhappy campers who had made a national sport out of bickering and complaining. And while Moses had hired extra help to handle the caseloads from all the disputes, the interpersonal climate among the people of Israel had not exactly taken a turn for the better. And Moses knew that if they couldn’t learn to get along, they would never get far in the quest to conquer the nations of Canaan.

Today, we begin a lengthy and hopefully enlightening study in the Book of Deuteronomy. This incredible Old Testament book provides us with a glimpse into the preparations Moses went through in order to ready the Israelites for their long-awaited entrance into the land of Canaan. This was the “promised land” – the tract of property located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River – that God had told Abraham would be the home of his descendants. And now, nearly half a millennium later, those descendants stood on the border waiting to enter in and take possession. But Moses had been here before and things had not gone so well. Forty years earlier he had watched as the previous generation had refused to obey God, choosing instead to listen to the dire warnings of the spies who came back with reports of a bountiful land filled with powerful armies made up of giants. Suffice it to say, they didn’t cross over the border and, therefore, they came under a curse from God. That reluctant and rebellious generation died off in the wilderness. Now, Moses stood in front of a new group of Israelites, who were going to have to take God at His Word and take Canaan by force. But before the first battle was fought, Moses gave his charges a few last words of encouragement.    

Just a word to explain the delay in our recording schedule. Yes, I am well aware that we are behind and I am desperately attempting to catch up. But it is taking some time. So, please bear with me. In the meantime, if Devotionary has been a help to you, I would love to hear from you. My email is [email protected]. Also, if you wouldn't mind, please got to the Apple Store and give us a positive review. That will go a long way to improving our position in their search engine. 

Why do you do what you do? To ask it another way, what motivates your behavior? There is always a reason behind what we do. And it could be good or bad. But as followers of Jesus Christ we must constantly ask ourselves why it is we attempt to live the Christian life. We must regularly assess our motivation and the source of the strength we put into our efforts. You see, sanctification does require work on our part. But we must never forget that, at its core, it is the work of God. That is why Paul reminds us, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” We must work hard, but never forget that God is working in us. We are working alongside Him, in the power of His Spirit, and in keeping with His will for us. And we must remember that the end goal of all our Spirit-empowered effort is our future glorification. We are not to pursue our best life now in the here-and-now, but the better life God has prepared for us in the hereafter.

Imagine running a race without a finish line in mind. You’d be running with no objective and no hope of ever finishing the race, let alone, of winning it. A race without a finish line is not a race at all, but merely an exercise in futility and, ultimately, frustration. And the Christian life would be the same thing if it did not have a final objective or outcome. As we discuss the doctrine of sanctification, we must never forget that it is directly tied to two other major doctrines and cannot exist without them. One is our salvation. The other, our future glorification. And all three are dependent upon our resurrection. Paul told the believers in Corinth that “if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.” And then he added, “if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” In other words, without our resurrection and glorification as our final goal, our sanctification will be like running in a race with no hope of victory.

Most Christians would have no problem admitting that they still struggle with sin. But there’s a huge difference between a Christian who is aware of their sin and a Christian who tends to see themselves as a sinner. As a Christian, your tendency to sin should not determine your identity. From God’s perspective, you are a saint or set-apart one. You have been consecrated by God and have been imputed the righteousness of Christ. Because of that, God considers you to be holy. Which is why Paul referred to the believers as saints in the various congregations to which he wrote. And he was constantly reminding them of their new identity as sons and daughters of God. He wanted them to live distinctively different lives based on their identity as saints, not as sinners. While there is value in remembering the past from which we were saved, we are not to dwell on it or to identify ourselves with it. Instead, we are to remember what Paul said, “The old has gone, the new is here!”  

“I can’t wait until…” You fill in the blank. What kinds of things do you eagerly anticipate? A new season of your favorite TV show, the opening of a new blockbuster movie, the birth of a child? When I was a child, I couldn’t wait until Christmas. I looked forward to it all year long, and the closer it got to December 25, the more excited I became. And, interestingly enough, the apostle John expressed that same kind of eager anticipation when speaking of our future glorification when we receive our redeemed, sin-free bodies. And he wasn’t alone in his thinly veiled enthusiasm for this future event. The apostle Paul also expressed his determination to press on or focus all his attention on that future day when he would win the prize of the upward call of God. Paul longed for his resurrection. And his deep desire for it impacted the way he lived his life as he waited for its arrival. One of the things that will impact our current sanctification is to remember that it will culminate with our future glorification. God will complete what He starts. Paul and John knew it and believed it. Do we?     

“I feel like a new man!” We usually hear or make that kind of statement in relationship to a change in circumstances. Maybe after a good nap or a much-needed vacation. When we attempt to repair something and our efforts turn out well, we say something like “Good as new!” That’s because, in our minds, new is good. If we see an advertisement that states, “New and improved”, we take it for granted that whatever it is that is being sold is somehow better than it was. But why is it, that when the Scriptures tell us we are “new creations” and that we have the power to “walk in newness of life”, we don’t believe it? The New Testament has a lot to say about the old nature and the new nature. Paul, in particular, seems to be always talking about putting off the old and putting on the new. But for some reason, we have a difficult time believing it because we don’t always feel or act like a new man.  

The psalmist wrote, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Those are powerful words and a bit foreboding. But do we believe them? Better yet, do we heed them? Do we fully understand that our way is rarely the right way? And the truth is, the counsel we receive from this world usually ends up less than successful. The means by which God has chosen to sanctify us doesn’t always make sense and, sometimes, it isn’t very attractive. But it is the best way because it is Gods’ way. Yet, we are constantly tempted to take another path, to pursue a different set of objectives, hoping for the same outcome. But God’s will can only be accomplished God’s way. And no matter how wise the ways of this world may sound, they can’t deliver what God has promised. God has great things in store for us, and while the world may offer tempting detours and shortcuts, they always end in death.  

Life requires focus. We all know that. But it’s easy to get distracted along the way and to allow all kinds of things to take your eyes off what is truly important and necessary. The occasional distraction is not a problem, but they can easily add up and leave you wondering why you never get anything done. And the same is true in our spiritual lives. Paul had a lot to say about running the race of life with a goal in mind. He was a determined man who expected those who sat under his teaching to live with the same sense of purpose and potential. And he knew that the enemy was adept at distracting Christ-followers from what was truly important. Satan knows how to take the good things and make them the most important things in our lives. He is like a skilled magician who uses sleight-of-hand to refocus our attention on the trivial rather than the vital. And we end up missing what God has in store for us.  

Faith is meant to be productive. I know that sounds odd because faith is usually juxtaposed with works. As Christians, we’ve had it drummed into our heads that salvation is based on faith alone and is not the result of works. That way, none of us has any reason to brag or boast. But faith not only requires an object, but an objective. It is to produce fruit. When Jesus Christ died for our sins, He did so that we might experience newness of life. And for that to happen, He sent His Spirit to come and take up residence within us. It is the Spirit who produces fruitfulness from our faithfulness. The more we rely on His presence and power, the more fruit we will bear, all to the glory of God the Father. While some have pitted James and Paul against one another, claiming that each seems to contradict the other, they are actually saying the very same thing but from slightly different perspectives. Faith is always fruitful.      

When we think about the power of the Spirit of God, we tend to focus on the miraculous. You know what I mean. Those unbelievable, inexplicable outpourings of His power like we read about in the New Testament. Like what happened on the day of Pentecost when the disciples suddenly found themselves able to speak in foreign languages they didn’t previously know. Or how they were able to perform miracles such as healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, or even raising the dead. Now, that’s power. But one of the true miracles that accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit was the radical transformation of the lives of the disciples. They went from being timid, cowering-in-the-corner followers of Christ to bold, Spirit-filled proclaimers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And within days their number had grown from a handful to more than 3,000. And they had all things in common, including their love for Christ and for one another. All as a result of the power of the Spirit.

Fruitfulness. It’s a well-documented expectation in the New Testament. God expects His people to live fruitful and productive lives, but on His terms and according to His power, not their own. Yet, we tend to make fruit-bearing a competition sport, where we score points with God by producing more fruit than the believer next to us. It becomes an endless and hopeless endeavor to manufacture that which only God can produce. Jesus told His disciples that fruit-bearing required abiding. He clearly communicated that, apart from Him, they could nothing that even remotely bore the resemblance of the kind of fruit God was looking for. But when they did abide in Him, they would be productive and fruitful, giving ample proof that they were His followers. And their fruitfulness would bring glory to the Father because His Holy Spirit would be the ultimate source of their fruit.

Most of us as Christians would agree with the premise that the Holy Spirit lives within us. Jesus promised it. The disciples experienced it. And the way we live our lives should reflect it. But in order for us to reveal the presence of the Spirit within us, we must learn to rely upon the power He has made available to us. And that is going to take a concentrated effort to recognize His presence and to understand our complete dependency upon Him for all that we have been called to do as Christ-followers. Paul calls us to set our mind on the Spirit. But what does that mean and how are we to do it? To have the mind of the Spirit is to live under His influence, to think as He thinks, and to act according to His will and in the power that He provides. The Holy Spirit is not just some disembodied force we can tap into and utilize for our own selfish desires. He is the Spirit of God who wants to radically alter our actions and our attitudes.

If you’re like any other red-blooded western Christian, you’ve probably asked yourself the question: What’s the key to living the Christian life? And, no doubt, you’ve come up with a varied list of answers, most of which you have tried – to one degree of success or another. But have you really discovered the secret to successful Christian living? Is it more effort, increased faith, greater sacrifice, or a larger expenditure of selfless love? It seems that Jesus gave us the key to living the Christian life and it was the presence and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He referred to is as “living water” – “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” And His disciples experienced the life-changing nature of this spiritual water when the Holy Spirit of God came upon them at Pentecost. They learned that the Spirit within them was meant to empower them so He could flow out from them. They would be like PVC pipes through which the life-transforming power of God’s Spirit flowed to the world around them.

You are a new creation. You have experienced new birth and have been given a new nature. How many times have you heard those truths? But how much do you really believe them? There is a part of each and every one of us as Christ-followers that embraces those Scriptural realities intellectually, but still find it difficult to live them out in everyday life. We don’t feel new. We don’t always act like new creations. And our old nature seems far more in control than whatever new nature we received. So, our doubt turns to duty. In the face of what appears to be a less-than-new lifestyle, we tend to look for a list of things we need to do in order to grow up, measure up, and muster up some much-needed righteousness in our life. But Paul would have us look up - to God. He has done it all. He not only saved us, but He has provided everything necessary to sanctify us.

Most Christ-followers know that their life is to be characterized by progressive spiritual growth. But the question is, do their lives reflect that understanding? Do they display an ever-increasing spiritual maturity that reveals their ongoing transformation into the likeness of Christ? The New Testament is filled with allusions to the growth that should take place in the believer’s life, comparing it to the physical growth of an infant to adulthood. A baby that does not grow is abnormal, an anomaly. The same is true of a Christian who does not display a steady increase in spiritual maturity. And the sad thing is that we are told that we have everything we need to grow spiritually. It is not as if we have been left to survive and thrive on our own. We have all the resources necessary to grow from innocent infancy to full-blown adulthood. But are we taking advantage of them?  

Love one another. We’re all familiar with those words, but do we live them out in real life? If so, are we guilty of pre-determining who the “other” is referring to? Do we tend to make our own list of who we want to love, conveniently leaving off all those we find unlovable or simply unlovely? A big part of the doctrine of sanctification is learning to allow the love that God shows us, to not dead-end on us. In other words, He loved us so that we might love others. And Jesus commanded that we love others in the same way that He loved us: Selflessly and sacrificially. Jesus didn’t love as long as He was loved back. He didn’t withhold His love from those who lacked the capacity to love Him back. In fact, Jesus loved us when we were at our worst. He loved us when we were mired in our sin and lacking any capacity to reciprocate. Love is to be a non-negotiable mark of what it means to be a Christ-follower. We love because He first loved us. And we love because His love resides within us and must flow out from us.

Remember that exchange between Peter and Jesus, just days after His resurrection? Jesus had just finished having breakfast with the disciples, when He asked Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” And Peter responded, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Then Jesus preceded to repeat His question to two more times, and in each instance, Peter gave the same answer. Jesus’ questions were accompanied by three imperatives: Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, and feed my sheep. And Jesus ended the conversation with the same two words He had used more than three years earlier, when He had called Peter to be His disciple: “Follow me.” It’s important to note that Jesus was about to leave them, but He was asking Peter to follow Him. Not to a destination, but in the pursuit of the Father’s will. And Peter and the rest of the disciples would soon find themselves empowered to follow Jesus in full obedience, proving their love for Him as they followed His example by feeding His sheep.

Living the Christian life is essential, but not always easy. Yet, the reason we find it so difficult is not because God has made it hard, but because we fail to do it in the manner He has prescribed. We attempt to live godly lives without God’s help. And when we do, we not only find it difficult, but impossible. We may succeed for a time, but it won’t last long and it won’t produce lasting results. In Romans 8:1-11, Paul reminds us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We have been set free from the penalty of death that accompanies a life of sin. By placing our faith in Christ, we received forgiveness and stand before God as fully righteous in His eyes. But we are expected to live up to our new standing or identity. God is not demanding perfection from us in this life, but a growing awareness of our need for His Spirit’s power.

God’s grace. We talk a lot about it, but I’m not quite sure we fully appreciate it. And when we read passages like 2 Corinthians 12:9, where Paul describes God’s grace as being sufficient, we’re not quite sure what to do with that information. How is His grace sufficient? Exactly what is it sufficient for? For Paul, it had to do with strength in his moments of weakness, contentment in times of calamity, and confidence even when facing uncertainty. Grace was enough. Paul didn’t need to add anything more. Because God’s grace was fully sufficient, Paul could rest in the knowledge that he was in no way deficient. As Peter put it, Paul had everything he needed for life and godliness. Which is why Paul could boldly claim, “I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13 NLT). Paul’s confidence came from God, not himself.

The grace of God is a remarkable thing. But we sometimes take it for granted. It’s almost as if we think we somehow deserve God’s grace, which would end up making it something other than grace altogether. Grace is undeserved and unmerited. You can’t earn it. It’s not payment for services rendered. And the more we recognize that it is a free gift bestowed on us by God, the greater its value will grow in our estimation. Paul understood grace and never took it for granted. He knew his entire life, from his birth to his new birth, his apostleship to his sonship, were the result of God’s grace and mercy. Rather than giving Paul what he deserved, God had graciously given Paul what he could have never merited on his own: A relationship with Himself based on the saving work of Jesus Christ. Paul knew who he was and he had no problem admitting that it was because of God.

When it comes to the topic of sanctification, most of us know that it has to do with what we call Christlikeness or being transformed into the image of Christ. Or to put it in simpler, easy to understand terms, to grow in spiritual maturity. But no matter how you describe sanctification, one of the things that should accompany your definition is the need for fruitfulness. Someone who is being sanctified should also be producing fruit – the fruit of the Spirit. And in John 15, we have recorded the words of Jesus as He ties fruitfulness to abiding. And it is important that we keep those two things permanently linked. Abiding is required for fruitfulness to take place. In other words, you don’t produce fruit on your own. Just as a branch can’t produce grapes unless it abides in the grapevine. Fruitfulness is not the byproduct of human effort. It is the result of dependence upon God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

One of the major debates concerning our sanctification revolves around roles and responsibilities. Who is ultimately responsible for your sanctification or growth in Christlikeness? Is it all up to God? Does it all fall on your shoulders? Or is it some combination of the two? As you read the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul, you can’t help but sense that we have a significant part to play in our sanctification. After all, he uses imperative statements like, “put on…”, “put off…”, and “grow up…” He commands us to “strive…for holiness.” So, it sure sounds like we have our work cut out for us. But are these commands meant to tell us we are somehow insufficient? Is Paul suggesting that our sanctification is incomplete and our quotient of righteousness somehow lacking? No, Paul is not telling us to fill up what is missing, but to live out what is ours in full.

In this episode we are going to continue to explore how Jesus was comfortable in His own skin. He knew who He was and was fully aware of His God-ordained purpose in life. Jesus was at peace with His identity and did not allow the enemy to tempt Him into believing He deserved better and could have more. He was the Son of God who took on human flesh. He became a man and, of His own admission, He came to serve, not be served. He viewed Himself as a humble servant who faithfully fulfilled the will of His Heavenly Father. And the apostle Paul encourages us to have the same attitude that Jesus had. We are to come to grips with our true identity, made available to us through our relationship with Jesus. And we are to let our knowledge of that identity dictate the way we live our lives. Knowing who you are can go a long way in helping you accomplish your God-given purpose in life.

Do you know who you are?  I’m not suggesting you’ve somehow lost touch with reality and are living some kind of fantasy, devoid of a clear understanding of your true identity. But I am suggesting that you may be a bit confused about who you really are and makes it so. In our world, our identity tends to get wrapped up in all kinds of superficial things. From the brand of clothes you wear to the make of car you drive. But, as Christians, our identity is not determined by material possessions, the color of our skin, the address of our house, the size of our bank account, or the number of friends we have on Facebook. We derive our identity from our relationship with Christ. It is because of Him that we are deemed righteous by God and called His sons and daughters. In this episode, we’re going to continue to explore the firm grasp Jesus had on His identity. He didn’t let what others thought of Him or did to Him determine His identity. He was comfortable in His own skin and at peace with His Father’s will for Him.

Doubt is a powerful weapon in Satan’s arsenal, and he uses it against the people of God on a regular and relentless basis. It was doubt in God’s word that caused Eve to listen to the lies of the serpent and disobey the warning not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan began his temptation of Eve by raising doubts about what God had said. And he tried the same tactic with Jesus in the wilderness. But on that occasion, his efforts failed because Jesus knew who He was and what He had been sent to do. One of the things that makes us particularly susceptible to the temptations of the enemy is an unhealthy understanding of who we are in Christ. Satan began each of his temptations of Christ with the words, “If you are the Son of God…” He wanted to cause Jesus to doubt His identity. Because he knew if Jesus failed to recognize who He was and why He had come, he could be distracted by false promises of pleasure, power, and prominence. But He refused to buy what Satan was selling. And so should we.

In Philippians 2, Paul told his readers to have the mind or attitude that Christ had. In other words, they were to think about themselves in the same way that Jesus thought about himself. They were to recognize their new identity made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection, and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit. But in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul provides the incredibly good news that we already have the mind of Christ. It is not something we have to seek out. It exists within us because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. And, as a result, we can understand the things of God. We have been given the Spirit-empowered capacity to understand spiritual truths. That means we are able to read God’s Word and not only understand it, but we can apply what it says to our lives. And while there is much about faith that we may still find difficult to comprehend, we can rest easy knowing that the Spirit of God will reveal what we need to know when we need to know it.

You’re familiar with the phrase, “think before you speak.” Most of us have heard it after we have said something particularly stupid, that was lacking tact, or a case of bad timing. It always pays to engage the mind before you put the mouth in gear. And the apostle Paul puts a high priority on the mind as well. Except, he wants believers to put thought into the reality of their relationship with Christ and all that it makes possible in their lives. In Philippians 2, he challenges us to have the same mind that Christ had. Rather than calling us to follow the example of Christ by emulating His behavior, Paul encourages us to think like Jesus did. And the thoughts Paul has in mind are focused on Jesus’ understanding of His identity. He knew who He was and what He had come to do. And that knowledge influenced His actions. Jesus never lost sight of His identity and never stopped thinking about His God-given mission. And neither should we.

Paul encourages us to consider ourselves dead to sin, but that sounds like so much spiritual-speak. How in the world are we supposed to pull that off when our lives seem so alive to and allured by sin? This is the part of sanctification that we find not only difficult but, at times, impossible. Like Paul, we find ourselves doing what we don’t want to do and failing to do what we know God would want us to do. Our sin nature seems far from dead. It’s interesting to note that Paul reminds the believers in Rome that they were no longer under sin’s dominion. It had lost its power to rule their lives. Why? Because Jesus paid the penalty for sin with His death on the cross. The only hold sin had was the penalty of death. But Christians are alive to God in Christ Jesus. But we must constantly remind ourselves of this new reality. Sin has lost its hold. Death has lost its sting. Christ has made us new creations. And we should live like it.

Do you love God? I hope your answer is a resounding and unapologetic, “Yes!” And if I was able to ask you why you love God, I assume you might say that it is because of all that He has done for you, especially for providing the gracious gift of salvation made possible through His Son’s death, burial and resurrection. But do you realize that your capacity to love God is also a gift from Him. The apostle John would have us remember that we love because God first loved us. In other words, our ability to express love to God and others is not self-manufactured or the product of our own determination. It is the result of Christ’s redemptive work on our behalf and the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God in our lives. As we’ll see in this episode, God has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who He has given us. And, as a result, we now have the capacity to love the one who first loved us.

There is a story recorded in the gospel of John that tells of the death of Lazarus and his miraculous resuscitation back to life by Jesus. When Lazarus had become ill, his two sisters had sent word to Jesus, hoping that He might come and heal their brother. But Jesus delayed and Lazarus died. By the time Jesus showed up in Bethany, Lazarus was long dead and buried. But Jesus commanded that the stone be removed. And Martha responded, “Lord, by now he stinks. It has already been four days.” Lazarus, once alive and well, was dead and decaying. But Jesus spoke a word and restored his dead friend to life. And that is exactly what Jesus does for the spiritually dead. Through the indwelling presence of His Spirit, Jesus regenerates the life of those dead in their trespasses and sins. And the stink of spiritual death gets replaced with a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.

The believer’s unity with Christ is an essential, yet often overlooked topic that is meant to provide us with a strong sense of assurance and hope in this life. Jesus came to earth and took on the very nature of a man. He was born as a helpless baby and spent His early years navigating the ups and downs of childhood and adolescence. He worked alongside his father, Joseph, and no doubt enjoyed the company of friends and companions in His hometown of Nazareth. But as He reached the age of 30, Jesus began His earthly ministry, fulfilling the will of His heavenly Father. Jesus became a man so that He might one day complete the task given to Him by His Father from before the foundation of the world. Jesus came to live as a man, but more importantly, so that He might die in the place of sinful men. And because He lived in perfect obedience to His Father we are able to live to righteousness.

In this episode, we continue to discuss the topic of our union with Christ. In Hebrews 2:8-11, we are going to see that this union has tremendous ramifications for us. By placing our faith in Christ, we become one with Him, sharing in His death and resurrection. All our sins were put to death on the cross and, when He was raised from the dead, we were raised along with Him. Just as He enjoyed new life, so do we. We have been raised to walk in newness of life. And our union with Christ also results in our sanctification. As the author of Hebrews would have us remember: “he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.” Jesus was set apart by God and given a specific role to play. And the same is true of us. We too have been set apart and deemed holy by God. We are one with Christ. And we share in all that is His – both in this life and in the one to come.

Union with Christ. It’s a comforting idea, but rather difficult to get our heads around. It has a religious-sounding ring to it that can often end up producing more sizzle than steak. For all the verses that speak about the Christian being united with Christ and Christ indwelling the believer, we sometimes find ourselves wondering just what all the talk is about. When we read the words of the apostle Paul: “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” we can easily find ourselves questioning whether Christ has vacated the premises. His presence seems difficult to discern. And, far too often, the glory His presence is supposed to ensure, seems in short supply. But one of the amazing things the doctrine of sanctification guarantees is our unbroken union with Christ, made possible through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament is fairly clear about the fact that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within those who place their faith in Christ. Jesus promised it, the book of Acts describes it, and generations of Christians can give testimony concerning it. And yet, we still find it hard to imagine the third person of the Trinity actually taking up residence within us. Especially when we consider how unsuitable our earthly tents can become at times. After all, we still find ourselves committing sins that grieve the Holy Spirit. And, far too often, we do things that end up quenching the full weight of His power in our lives. And yet, as we will see in today’s episode, His presence within us is guaranteed, and proof that we have indeed been made fully righteous and holy by the blood of Christ.  

Most people prefer the light of day over the dark of night, unless they’re trying to sleep. Darkness is great if you’re trying to rest, but when you need to see where you’re going, the lack of light can be a big problem. And the Bible has a great deal to say about darkness and light. It’s a reoccurring theme used to juxtapose the righteousness of God and the wickedness of this fallen world in which we live. And a big part of the message of sanctification is that God has made a way for people, who once were overwhelmed by the darkness of sin, to step into the light of His glory and grace. God sent His Son to be the Light of the world. Jesus took on human flesh, penetrating the gloom and despair left as a result of man’s rebellion against a just and holy God. And those who place their faith in Him are delivered from the domain of darkness and redeemed as children of light – sons and daughters of God.

Most Christians have no problem acknowledging their ongoing struggle with sin. It’s hard to deny it when the natural proclivity to sin is so obvious and seemingly unavoidable. In fact, the apostle John said, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.” But he went on to say, “if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” So, sin is an ever-present reality for every believer. But because of the presence and power of the indwelling Spirit of God, we have the capacity to resist sin and pursue righteousness. But that brings up an important aspect of sanctification that is sometimes misunderstood. Does God expect His people to sin less so that He might love them more? In other words, does our ability to live righteously make us more acceptable to God? Or is God already fully satisfied with our sanctification?

How righteous do you have to be? When it comes to salvation, how good does God expect you to be? These kinds of questions have plagued believers for more than two centuries. Few of us would deny the fact that we are sinners who tend to sin regularly. And we know that God is holy and cannot tolerate sin in the lives of His people. So, it only stands to reason that we must live righteous lives if we hope to have any kind of a relationship with God. But is that what the Bible teaches? Is that what the doctrine of sanctification is all about? In Matthew 9:10-13, Jesus reveals that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners. He didn’t die on behalf of those who had their spiritual act together, but for those whose lives were marked by sin, not sanctification. Jesus died for sinners. And it was His death that made righteousness available to those who could never have produced it on their own. When we come to faith in Christ, we receive His righteousness, and by virtue of that, we receive a right standing with God the Father.

Are you already sanctified, in the process of being sanctified, or in a temporary holding pattern as you await your future sanctification? If you answered yes, you’re absolutely correct. That’s right, all three are true. And that’s just one of the many mysteries surrounding the doctrine of sanctification. As we’ll see in today’s episode, our sanctification is much deeper and multi-faceted than we might have imagined. According to passages like 1 Corinthians 1:2, followers of Christ are already sanctified by virtue of their union with Christ. But in 2 Corinthians 7:1, Paul tells us to cleanse ourselves so that we might bring our holiness to completion. And according to Hebrews 12:22-23, we’re already enrolled in heaven where we stand as perfect before God. So, whether you refer to your sanctification in the past, present, or future, you’re covered. And that’s good news.   

What does God want from you? What are His expectations? If salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, what could we possibly do that adds anything to our relationship with God? Well, while we can do nothing that will earn us a right standing with God, that does not mean there is nothing left for us to do. We have been called to live holy lives. That is, we are to conduct ourselves in a way that lines up with our status as God’s children. And in Leviticus 10:10, God provides a necessary prerequisite for living a holy life: We have to know the difference between the holy and the common, the unclean and the clean. Otherwise, we will tend to live our lives in a state of constant moral compromise. God is holy and He has set us apart as His own, fully expecting us to live lives marked by holiness. But if you don’t know what holiness looks like, living a holy life will be impossible.

Be holy! You won’t find two other words like these that are as capable of striking fear into the life of a Christian. Whether you read them in Leviticus 11:44-45 or 1 Peter 1:14-16, they carry the same weight and produce the same impact. In either case, God is calling His people to be holy, as He is holy. That’s a seriously lofty standard that would leave anyone questioning the sanity behind the command and the viability of anyone ever pulling it off. And yet, both the Old and New Testaments call us to be holy. So, what exactly is God’s expectation of us? Is He demanding that we become what we are not, or is He encouraging us to live as who we already are? The doctrine of sanctification has gotten a bad rap because too often we assume that our spiritual growth is up to us. God saved us, but we somehow have to perfect ourselves. But nothing could be further from the truth.      

“He looks just like you!” How many times has a father heard that said of one is own children and felt his chest fill with pride? And God, our Heavenly Father is no different. He receives great joy when His children reflect His character and live out their lives in such a way that they bear His divine image. And in 2 Peter 1:3-4, the apostle reminds us that God has provided us with everything we need to do just that. We share His divine nature. We have His Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. So, we have no excuse if we fail to live godly lives. God has set us apart as His own, provided us with the power to live holy lives, and assigned us the task to bear His image in a world mired in and marred by sin. Adam and Eve lost their image-bearing capacity when they sinned. But, because of our faith in Christ,  we are able to reflect His glory because we share His divine nature.

God has deemed us holy, because of the righteousness we have received from Christ. Then why does the author of Hebrews tell us to “strive…for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord”? Are we holy or not? Have we already been sanctified or is it something we are to pursue? The answer is, “Yes.” As we saw in yesterday’s episode, we have been and are being sanctified. And in Hebrews 12:14-17, we discover that God expects us to strive to live a life of holiness. We are not to rest on our laurels or bask in the joy of our status as God’s child. We are holy, because God has deemed us so. And He has made a life of holiness possible because He has placed His Holy Spirit within us. Not only do we enjoy our status as God’s set-apart ones, we rely upon the power He has made available to us, so that we might live with holiness as our constant obsession.   

Past, present, future. When it comes to your sanctification, which is it? According to 1 Corinthians 1:2, your sanctification is a past-tense reality. But that’s not Paul’s final word on the topic. It seems that the doctrine of sanctification can’t be relegated to the past, present, or future. It is ongoing. In one sense, we have been sanctified. Yet, we are also in the process of being sanctified. And, one day, we will stand before God as completely and finally sanctified. But the one reality most Christians seem to overlook is their status as having been sanctified or set apart by God at the point of their salvation. He has deemed them holy and, rather than seeing them as sinners, He views them as saints. And it is that unbelievable reality that should prompt us to live lives that are in keeping with our new identity in Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, the apostle Paul reminds his readers of their privileged position as God’s chosen people, but he also reminds them that it had nothing to do with them. In other words, God had not chosen them because they deserved it. They had not earned His favor or worked their way into His good graces. Paul describes them as having been weak, foolish, low, and despised. It was because of Christ that they had access into God’s presence. Their faith in Christ was the sole reason they enjoyed a right standing with God. There was no reason for them to boast in their own merit. Their right to come into God’s presence was because they had received the righteousness of Christ.

Salvation is intended to be simple, so that anyone might understand it and enjoy the incredible benefits that come with it. As we’ll see in today’s episode, when the Philippian jailer asked Paul what he must do to be saved, Paul simply stated, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” It doesn’t get any simpler than that. But we would be wrong to think that the Gospel message is simplistic or uncomplicated. Because, while salvation only required belief on the jailer’s part, there was far more involved behind the scenes to make his belief possible and effectual. Salvation is a miracle of God. And without His plan for it and His Son’s obedient role in it, the Philippians jailer would have had no hope of salvation.

As we’ve stated before, sanctification is often described as the process of a believer increasing in Christlikeness. As they mature in their faith, they take on the character of Christ. They begin to act and think like Him. But one of the unique things about the doctrine of sanctification is that Jesus is described as having been sanctified or consecrated by God. So, was Jesus incomplete in some way? Was He in the process of maturing or growing in godliness? No, Jesus was 100 percent God from the moment He took on human flesh – even as an infant. Yet He was sanctified or set apart by God for a purpose. He was sent by God with a specific task to complete and He lived up to his God-ordained mission.

For many of us, the doctrine of sanctification is all about movement or progress. We tend to think of it as a process that requires us to move from spiritual infancy to adulthood. We even refer to it as growing in “Christlikeness” or “spiritual maturity.” And it’s not that those designations are wrong. It’s that they are incomplete or insufficient. Sanctification is a much deeper, richer doctrine than most of us realize and, whether we recognize it or not, it is faith-based just like salvation. We have been set apart by God as His own and while we are expected to live in that reality, God does not demand or expect us to achieve holiness on our own. In fact, He tells us to be holy, not become holy. Why? Because He already sees us as holy.

One of the many problems facing mankind since the fall has been our insatiable desire for glory. Because we were made in God’s image and were intended to reflect His glory, we ended up becoming glory grabbers. In a sense, we chose to make ourselves like God. In fact, that’s exactly what Satan said would happen if Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit – “you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” And ever since, mankind has been trying to play god. But the only problem is, God will not share His glory with anyone. And the doctrine of sanctification does not suggest that sinful man can become like God. It teaches that, because of Christ, we can once again do what we were created to do: Reflect the glory of God.

Man was made in the image of God, but something happened that changed all that. And it was sin. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the one tree in the garden He had made off-limits. And their decision to eat the forbidden fruit proved to be a life-changing one. While Satan had promised that, by eating the fruit, their eyes would be opened, they actually experienced a blurring of their spiritual vision. Yes, they now had the capacity to know good and evil, but they couldn’t tell the difference. They went from living in the light of God’s glory to wandering around in the darkness of sin. Which is why God sent the final Adam, Jesus Christ, to bring the light of God’s glory back to earth and restore sinful men and women to their former status as God’s image bearers.     

Everybody is familiar with the story of Adam and Eve. But even some Christians don’t know that Adam was the first model off the assembly line. But, unlike many prototypes, Adam was made without a single flaw, because he was made by God. Even God deemed His creation, “very good!” But something happened. That Adam 1.0 model failed to live up to its creator’s expectations. He developed a glitch in his software. It began with Eve, the female version of this unique species. Made in the image of God, these two chose to disobey Him. In other words, they sinned, and it resulted in their expulsion from the garden and away from God’s presence. But while Adam’s system glitch was passed on to his successors, God introduced Adam 2.0, a totally new model, with the intent of eliminating the problem that plagued the original.  

We all want to make a difference in this life. It’s hardwired into us. In fact, most of us long for a sense of accomplishment and hate the idea of living our life with nothing to show for it when we’re done. And, that sense of impact and influence should be especially true for those who claim to be followers of Christ. We are to live with a sense of purpose and with a desire to leave a positive impression on those with whom we live and interact in this life. Just as Jesus did when He walked this earth. Jesus was an influencer. He made a difference. His life left an impression on everyone He met. And, as His followers, we are to do the same. But to make an impact in this life, we have to model our lives after His, seeking to bear the image of God to those who need to experience the love of God.   

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. And the apostle Paul would say that the imitation of Christ is the greatest form of sanctification. To be like Christ was his greatest desire and his life’s passion. He was so confident in his determination to follow Christ’s example, that he confidently challenged others to step in line behind him. He was not afraid to offer himself as a reliable role model for Christlike behavior. But the secret to Paul’s confidence was his unwavering determination to follow the example of Jesus Himself. Paul lived in lockstep with His Savior, doing everything he could to follow in His footsteps and model not only His behavior but His perspective on life. Paul wasn’t bragging when he said, “Imitate me,” he was simply inviting others to join him in his imitation of Christ.  

What does the creation account have to do with the doctrine of sanctification? Everything. In the beginning, God created the first man and woman – in His image. As the pinnacle of God’s creation, they were meant to reflect His glory. And for a short time, they did. In fact, immediately after making man God deemed His creation “very good.” He was satisfied with all that He had made. But something happened. The image bearers disobeyed the one whose image they bore. And their sin replaced the blessing of reflecting the image of God with the curse of being cast from His presence. Like the moon passing behind the earth and losing its access to the light of the sun, Adam and Eve lost their image-bearing capacity. But God sent another Adam to set things right. 

With today’s episode, we’ll be taking a detour from our normal approach of unpacking entire books of the Bible, verse-by-verse. Instead, this will be a topical study on a singular issue that will explore various passages of Scripture from both the Old and New Testaments.

The topic I have chosen to explore is sanctification. While the word may be unfamiliar to you, the topic won’t be, especially if you are a follower of Christ. All of us, regardless of whatever Christian denomination or church we grew up in or currently align ourselves with, will have a perspective on this critical topic. At its most basic, sanctification has to do with the spiritual growth or ongoing maturity of the believer. But as we will see, there is far more to this word than we might imagine. And we will be unpacking its rich and significant meaning in the weeks ahead.

Mankind was made to bring glory to God. But the fall threw a wrench into that plan, placing mankind under a curse and incapable of glorifying God in any way whatsoever. So, God raised up a people, the nation of Israel, and set them apart as His own. They were to have been His royal priesthood, a holy nation who represented Him on this earth and whose lives were intended to reveal the glory of God as they lived in submission to His will and in obedience to His law. But they failed to live up to their calling. In fact, they proved to be just as wicked, stubborn, and rebellious as the rest of the world. And in Isaiah 66:15-24, the prophet of God wraps up his book by revealing a future day when God’s people finally do what they had been set apart to do: Bring Him glory. They will declare His glory, through their actions and their words. The chosen people of God will finally accomplish the will of God by declaring the glory of God with their lives. And the entire world will sit up and take notice. Psalm 19:1 says that the heavens declare the glory of God. And the day is coming when the new heavens, the new earth, and the newly restored people of God do the same thing – forever

Everyone enjoys rejoicing. We like to celebrate, whether it’s someone’s birthday, a victory by our favorite team, the marriage of a friend, or the achievement of some life milestone. But the thought of rejoicing without a tangible reason to do so sounds crazy. It makes no sense. And yet, in Isaiah 66:7-14, the prophet calls on the people of Judah to rejoice – even though their present circumstances were far from rejoicing-worthy. They were facing the judgment of God in the form of the Babylonian empire. Their destruction was eminent, and their future looked far-from-appealing. But here was God’s prophet telling them to “rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her.” They must have thought he was crazy. Somewhere along the way, he had lost his mind. Or had he? Isaiah was speaking on behalf of God, revealing to the nation of Judah the plans He had in store for them. And while the majority of those plans would not take place in their lifetimes, the people of Judah were still expected to rejoice in all that God was going to do. He was a faithful God who would follow through on every commitment He had made. They could count on it and rejoice over it. And there was no reason to wait for it. They could and should rejoice!

God hates pride because pride is a form of self-glorification. It is an unhealthy and undeserved glory in one’s own worth or accomplishments. And God, as the Bible reminds us, is a jealous God who will not share His glory with anyone or anything. In Isaiah 66:1-6, we’re going to see that God will not even share His glory with the temple, which had been built by Solomon to contain His glory. The people of Judah had missed the point behind the temple and the sacrificial system and ended up putting far more value in the rituals and rites of their religion than they did in God Himself. And they wrongly believed that as long as the temple of God stood in Jerusalem, they had the approval of God. After all, it was His house, and His shekinah glory hovered over the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. His presence was a permanent fixture among them as long as the temple stood in Jerusalem. But they were about to learn a very painful lesson. There was no place for pride among the people of God. And neither the temple or the sacrificial system was going to save them from the wrath of God.

When God made the universe and all it contains, He repeatedly stated, “It is good.” At each phase of the creative process, He deemed all that He created as worthy of His seal of approval. That included the sun, moon, planets and stars, as well as all the plants and animals. And the crowning achievement of His creation was man, whom He made in His own image. All was good. All was unblemished and without any kind of flaw. Then, sin entered the scene, and everything changed. The sin of Adam and Eve put mankind and the rest of God’s creation under a curse. And it has been that way ever since. But the day is coming when God will make all things new, and in Isaiah 65:17-25, God presents a picture of what that marvelous day will look like. God is going to redeem and restore His wayward people, but He is also going to remake the heavens and the earth. He is even going to create a new and much-improved city of Jerusalem, where He and His Son will dwell among men. It will be a place marked by perfect righteousness and complete sinlessness.

The Old Testament talks a lot about the concept of the remnant. And we see it demonstrated time and time again in the history of the Israelites, as God sovereignly spares a small number of His chosen people in order to keep the nation alive. When they deserved to be destroyed because of their unfaithfulness and unrepentant sin, God preserved a remnant, in order that He might keep the covenant promise He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And in Isaiah 65:8-16, God reveals that there is yet another remnant He is going to spare and, this time, because they had remained faithful to Him while all their friends and neighbors had turned to false gods. This faithful few had stood against the rising tide of disobedience that had flooded the nation of Judah. And God was going to reward them for their courage and tenacity in the face of overwhelming pressure to capitulate and compromise. And, as we will see, God also has plans for another remnant of His chosen people, a group who will one day witness the restoration of their nation and the arrival of the New Jerusalem.  

God pursues His people, but He also loves when His people pursue Him. After all He had done for the people of Judah, God every right to expect them to seek Him with all their hearts. But they had done just the opposite. Rather than seek and serve God faithfully, they had proven to be unfaithful and spiritually adulterous. And, after Isaiah pleads with God to show them mercy, God responds by declaring their guilt and labeling them as without excuse. They had been His chosen possession, but rather than respond in love and adoration to the one who set them apart as His own, they had treated Him with contempt and drug His holy name through the mud. He had called them to repentance, but they had refused to listen. He had lovingly declared to them, “Here I am,” but rather than return, they had chosen to reject Him for other gods. In Isaiah 65:1-7, God is going to warn the people of Judah that He is about to repay them for their deeds. He is going to punish them for their wickedness. But, even then, God will not stop calling, “Here I am!” He will never stop offering Himself as the solution to their problem.  

The potter and the clay. This imagery is used throughout the Bible and is always intended to juxtapose the sovereignty of God over His creation, especially humanity. And this relationship between the potter and the clay is used repeatedly to remind the people of God that they are to live in willful submission to God. In Isaiah 64:8-12, the prophet addresses God as the divine potter and confesses that he and the rest of the people of Judah are little more than clay in the Almighty’s hands. He recognizes that their circumstances were out of their control and that any hope they had of redemption and restoration was up to the one who had made them. Their fate was in God’s hands. So, Isaiah pleads for God to be lenient and to remember that they are His chosen people. The prophet appeals to God as a Father, calling on Him to show mercy to His children. And Isaiah paints the scene surrounding Judah in a very tragic light, describing the city as a desolation, Mount Zion as a wilderness, and all the pleasant places as ruins. Isaiah saw Judah as clay in need of the potter. They were flawed and required reshaping at the hands of the Master.

Let’s face it. It’s hard to say, “I’m sorry.” And poor Isaiah has been trying to get the people of Judah to confess their sins and express their sorrow to God for 63 chapters. Now, as if in a last-ditch attempt to assuage the anger of God, Isaiah takes it upon himself to act as the corporate confessor for the nation of Judah. He stands in as their representative, presenting himself before God and begging the Almighty to accept his humble confession on behalf of his fellow citizens of Judah. But Isaiah not only hopes for forgiveness and restoration from God, he longs to see God in all His glory. Isaiah 64:1-7 reveals Isaiah expressing his desire For God to come out of hiding and to reveal Himself with all the pomp and circumstance He displayed on Mount Sinai. We’re talking thunder, lightning, earthquakes, smoke, and fire. Isaiah was looking for a show from God. But he had a reason for his request. He wanted the people of Judah to see God for who He was: The all-powerful, holy God of the universe. Maybe if they could see God, they would learn to fear, honor, and obey Him.

Sometimes, when going through a time of difficulty, we seem to forget that God has been good to us in the past. The present pain seems to induce long-term memory loss, causing us to doubt God and His goodness. We call out, demanding that God rescue us, but we fail to remember all the times He has done so in the past. But present pain should be a good reminder of God’s past mercies. He has always been there and, if we look closely, He has always come through for us. Maybe not according to our liking or our preferred timing, but He did come through. In Isaiah 63:7-19, the prophet is going to call out to God, pleading for Him to rescue His people. But Isaiah will show no signs of memory loss. Instead, he will recount to God the many examples of His grace and mercy and beg Him to rescue His wayward people yet again. Isaiah wasn’t attempting to jog God’s memory, but he was trying to remind his own people of the faithfulness of their heavenly Father. They were His children and He would care for them. Yes, they had been rebellious, but their God was gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness.

Christians are encouraged to long for the coming of Christ. We are to eagerly anticipate His return, first for His bride, the church, and then in His second advent, when He returns to earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords. And in Isaiah 63:1-6, Isaiah is given a glimpse of that future day, when Jesus returns in all His might and glory, bringing the final judgment against Satan, Antichrist, the false prophet and all the nations of the world that stand opposed to God. Isaiah records the words of Jesus Himself as He declares that His day of redemption has come. He will finish what He began, completing the divine plan for the redemption of His chosen people, the recreation of the world, and the removal of Satan and all those who follow him from the scene. The final phase of God’s judgment, unleashed during the seven years of the Tribulation, will come to a close as Jesus defeats the forces of evil and establishes righteousness on earth once and for all. And nobody longs for that day more than Jesus Himself.

Forgotten and forsaken. That’s exactly how the people of Judah felt. While Isaiah has spent the last 61 chapters pointing out their sins and warning them about the coming judgment of God, they couldn’t help but feel like they were the ones who had been ignored. They saw themselves as the forsaken ones. It wasn’t that Isaiah had failed to expose their guilt and corporate culpability. It was that they just couldn’t bring themselves to believe that their circumstances were of their own making. Yet, in spite of their refusal to take responsibility for their sins, God is going to offer them the promise of His future restoration. Isaiah 61:1-12 reveals that they were going to experience the unbelievable and totally undeserved joy of being redeemed by God. God had not forsaken or forgotten them. He had not turned His back on them. He had great things in store for them, and He wanted them to keep their eyes focused on the future, when they would become once again, the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, sought out, and a city not forsaken.  

As Christians, we talk a lot about the glory of God. Sometimes, I’m not even sure we quite know what we mean. We talk about giving God glory. We sing of His glory. We refer to Him as being glorious. But are we sure what we mean when we say these things? The people of Israel thought they were giving glory to God by going through the motions of keeping His law and offering the sacrifices He had prescribed. But their hearts were far from Him. They called Him glorious but didn’t treat Him as such. But in Isaiah 61:4-11, we hear of a day when God will get all the glory He deserves and not just from His chosen people. The entire earth will glorify Him for who He is and all that He has done. And He will bring glory to Himself by restoring His rebellious people to Himself – all by Himself. The nations will sit up and take notice. The world will recognize Him as God and marvel at the glorious nature of His power, mercy, and grace. All to His glory.

The Bible is a story. A single story with a clear beginning and an end to it. But in spite of the opinions of some, it is not a work of fiction. It is history. Or, as some like to say it HIS story. The story of God’s redemption and restoration of sinful mankind. And in Isaiah 61:1-3 we are given a glimpse into the future when that final chapter of the story will be written. It involves the servant of God. This individual will play a starring role in the culmination of God’s story and will bring about the final phase of His redemptive plan. And, as we will see, Jesus Christ was and is that servant. He came the first time to pay the price for the sins of man. He gave His life as a ransom for many. He sacrificed His own life that those who were enemies of God might be made friends of God. Not only that, so that they might become children of God. And while the majority of the Jews, His own people, rejected Jesus as their Messiah, there is a day coming when He will return again. When He does, He will restore His rebellious fellow Jews to a right relationship with God. And that’s the rest of the story.

Today’s passage contains three little words that carry a punch: But the Lord… In Isaiah 60:17-22, God reveals His future plans for the people of Judah. While the near-term prognosis looked bleak, with judgment hovering over their heads, the people of Judah could rest in the promise that God had something remarkable in store for them. Their immediate prospects were less-than-ideal, but His long-term plans were better than they could have ever hoped or imagined. The future would feature a complete reversal of fortunes, turning the circumstances surrounding Judah and Israel on their heads. God was going to do great things for them. But the events described in this passage are still yet to be fulfilled. They remain on the distant horizon – a part of His end times strategy that will bring His redemptive plan for mankind and the world to a final dramatic conclusion. While it can be easy to look at the current state of affairs in the world and lose hope, we must always remember those three powerful words that hover over all time and history: But the Lord… He has a plan and He will bring it about.  

As the book of Isaiah begins to draw to a close, the prophetic tone of the book seems to increase in intensity. While the people of Judah were facing some serious judgment from God, He was letting them know that the future was bright. In spite of their rebellion, God was going to do great things among them. As He had spoken through the prophet, Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” From their limited perspective, things looked bleak, but God could see all the way to the end, the literal end, and He knew how the story would eventually unfold. Isaiah 60:1-16 is a marvelous reminder of God’s promise to be Israel’s Savior and Redeemer. And while the people of Israel had initially rejected His Son when He came to earth the first time, God is going to make sure that His Son’s second advent results in the salvation of His people. Despite generations of rebellion and a lengthy track record of rejecting God, the people of Israel would one day find their darkness illuminated by God’s light and their status as His chosen people restored.

Chapter 59 of Isaiah is full of strong words of condemnation against the people of Judah and they come from the lips of Isaiah himself. Deeming himself the spokesperson for the entire nation, Isaiah confesses their corporate guilt and places all the responsibility for God’s judgment of them squarely on their own shoulders. Their predicament was of their own making. They deserved all that God was doing and He was righteous and just in all His actions. But in verses 16-21, there is an interesting twist that takes place. While the people of Judah had refused to extend justice to one another and had failed to help the oppressed in their midst, the God of the universe was going to show them justice and provide them release from their oppressors. He would do what they had refused to do. And He would do it even though they were undeserving of it. The two little words, “God will…” reveal so much about God’s character. They wouldn’t, but He would. And the fulfillment of that promise lies yet unfulfilled. But no need to worry, because, as Isaiah said, “God will.”

It’s amazing how we will demand justice from God but refuse every opportunity to extend justice to those around us. We find it easy and justifiable to berate God for His lack of deliverance when we call, but when someone we know begs us for assistance, we’re quick to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear. In Isaiah 59:9-15, the prophet is going to do what no one else in Judah seemed ready and willing to do: accept personal responsibility for the sad state of affairs in Judah. While Isaiah was not complicit in the sins of his people, he saw himself as culpable. After all, he was a member of the tribe of Judah and knew that, together, they stood before God as a community guilty of abandoning Him through their repeated acts of unfaithfulness. Isaiah had the guts to admit that God was in the right and fully justified in bringing judgment upon His disobedient children. And they had no reason to complain about unfulfilled justice or delayed deliverance. After all, they were the ones who were guilty of refusing to dispense justice and offer deliverance to the poor and needy among them. And God had had enough.

Peace. We all long for it, but it seems to be increasingly more difficult to come by. We live in an age of turmoil, tension, increasing polarization, and intensifying animosity. But peace is available. The problem is, there’s only one source for peace: God. And the people of Judah had long ago forgotten that lesson. They had a long history of longing for peace, but always ended up seeking peace in all the wrong places and from the most unreliable sources. But in Isaiah 59:1-8, we see God, once again, offering His wayward people a chance to experience peace, if they will simply return to Him. But they remained obstinate and unwilling to turn to the one source where peace was in abundant supply and hope never returned empty handed. The problem with the people of Judah was that the peace they desired remained elusive, because their sin remained more attractive to them. It was all they could think about. And, as a result, they had no peace, no joy, no justice, and no righteousness. Their world remained dark and their future looked dim because they preferred pleasure over peace.

Denying self is difficult, whether you’re talking about passing up your favorite dessert or refusing to satisfy an immoral urge. More often than not, we tend to give in to our inner desires, because the alternative is much harder. But God is all about self-denial and self-sacrifice. In His economy, self is not a god to be worshiped, but a false idol to be avoided at all costs. And one thing God particularly loathes is when His people give Him lip service, pretending to honor Him through acts of self-denial, when all the while their own needs remain their number one priority. In Isaiah 58:1-14, God is going to level some serious charges against the people of Judah, exposing their hypocrisy and false displays of self-denial and sacrifice. They were doing all the right things, but for all the wrong reasons. And yet, they thought their acting had been good enough to fool God. But He was not impressed by their fasting and pious-looking displays of religious zeal, because He could see into their hearts.   

It’s difficult for most of us to admit when we have a need. We have been hardwired to be self-sufficient. And we’ve been trained to believe that any confession of need is an admission of weakness or failure on our part. But when reading the Bible, it becomes increasingly clear that God tends to pour out His favor on the weak, the needy, the helpless and the hopeless. He has a soft heart for the down-and-out and the underdogs of society. Even Jesus, during His earthly ministry, tended to spend much of His time with those whom the world considered outsiders and outcasts. He was accused of befriending prostitutes, tax-collectors and sinners of all kinds and He was more than willing to plead guilty as charged. And in Isaiah 57:14-21, God is going to call on the people of Judah to admit their need for Him. He wants them to humble themselves, confess their sin, and admit their need for His help. They could turn to their false gods, but it would not turn out well. Or they could humbly turn to God and trust that He would do what was best. They were sinners. That was non-debatable. But were they willing to confess it and place their hope and trust in the only one who could save them?

We love having choices. While dining at our favorite restaurant or shopping online at our favorite retailer, we prefer having a wide range of items from which to choose. To a certain degree, it gives us a sense of control. We can customize our meal or our outfit to fit our tastes at that particular moment in time. But when it comes to choosing a deity, God has a fairly strong opinion that options are out of the question. He is a jealous God and He will not tolerate the worship of anything or anyone other than Him. And since He is the one and only true God, there really are no other options. Yet, in Isaiah 57:3-13, we will see God hammering the people of Judah for their seemingly insatiable need to have options when it comes to deities. God Almighty was just not enough. They wanted more. And God is going to give them an ultimatum. He was going to challenge to make their final choice. Which god were they going to serve? If they wanted options when it came to which god to worship, God was willing to let them, but they were going to have to live with the consequences of their choice.   

In our day and age, everyone is concerned about security. You can’t even get on an airplane anymore without first going through “security.” For most of us, it is just a necessary inconvenience and a sign of the times. And while we might complain about the delay this kind of security creates, all of us recognize the need and most of us prefer that the TSA agents doing the screening do their job well. After all, what use is the process if those in charge of it don’t take their job seriously? And in Isaiah 56:9-57:2, God is going to level some serious charges against the security forces of Judah – namely the spiritual shepherds of the flock of God. These men had a God-given responsibility to care for God’s people, but they were like night watchmen who made a habit of falling asleep on the job. They were unreliable and failing to warn the people of Judah about the coming judgment. While Isaiah was preaching a message of repentance, these men were saying that all was well, there’s nothing worry about. Claiming to speak for God, they were actually lying in the name of God. Something God takes quite seriously.    

Walk the talk. I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase before. It’s meant as a challenge and, in some cases, as an indictment against those who are quick to declare their strong beliefs about a given topic, but whose lives don’t seem to align with their words. In other words, they’re hypocritical. They say one thing and do another. And God hates hypocrisy, especially in His people. So, in Isaiah 56:1-8, God is going to challenge the people of Judah to walk the talk. He is going to call them to live out what they say they believe in real life – in the form of obedience to His commands. And, in particular, when it comes to their treatment of non-Jews. The people of God saw themselves as special, and they were. They were His chosen possession. But that did not give them the right to look down their noses at those around them. God did not choose them because they were special or somehow deserved His attention. He chose them in spite of them. And now, He wanted them to extend the same kind of mercy to all those around them. He wanted their external behavior to live up with their expressed beliefs, and with the character of compassion found in their God.

Everyone loves to receive an invitation in the mail or, in today’s online world, an evite. We like getting invited to things. But an invitation is useless if no one accepts it and shows up as a result of it. An invitation that goes unheeded and unaccepted is pointless and of no value. And in Isaiah 55:1-13, God is going to extend an invitation to the people of Judah, not once, but five separate times. He is serious about them accepting His offer and taking advantage of all He has in store for them. But God has extended invitations before, only to have them ignored. He has offered the people of Judah countless opportunities to repent and return to Him. But their response has always been to ignore His gracious offer and to turn to other gods whose invitations sounded more attractive. The amazing thing about God’s offer is that it is absolutely free. No cost involved. Just acceptance. And a belief that God is good for His word and will do all that He has promised to do. In a world filled with people who are dying of spiritual thirst and trying to quench that thirst with anything and everything but God, He continues to offer the spring of the water of life without payment. But the offer only has value if it is accepted.

Faithfulness seems to be in short supply these days, whether you’re talking about the relationship between a husband and a wife, an employee and his employer, or a politician and his constituency. When the going gets tough, everyone seems prone to bail on the relationship and to seek greener pastures. There is no doubt that people let us down and we do our fair share of failing those who depend upon us. But God would have us be a people of our word, committed to sticking it out regardless of whether the circumstances are ideal or not. And in Isaiah 54:1-17, He is going to use Himself as the greatest example of faithfulness, describing His multifaceted relationship to the people of Israel over the centuries. He had played the role of their Maker, served them as their faithful Husband, and rescued them time and time again as their Kinsmen-Redeemer. In the face of repeated acts of infidelity, God had continued to love His people with an unconditional love. The book of Isaiah has made it clear that God brought His loving discipline upon the people of Israel, but He had never given up on them. He had made them, married them, repeatedly rescued them, and He assures them, one will one day He will restore them.  

When reading the book of Isaiah, one must never lose sight of the fact that it is a prophetic book. While it provides an accurate historical record of the fate of the people of Judah, it also revealed many things that had not yet taken place. It provides a vivid portrait of future events that God had planned for His people. Some of these events took place not long after the book was written, but many of them would remain unfulfilled for centuries. And Isaiah 53:1-12 provides us with a glimpse into God’s revelation concerning His coming servant, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. This chapter is a Messianic passage, containing God’s promise concerning the coming servant and much of it deals with Jesus’ gruesome death. While other prophetic passages promise the coming of the Messiah in much more glowing terms, portraying Him as the conquering king, Isaiah 53 portrays Jesus as the Suffering Servant. He would suffer and die, paying the debt owed for the sins of mankind. And His faithful submission to God’s will was to be an example for the people of Judah as they faced difficult days ahead.

We like to think of God as being in control of all things. But the problem is, we don’t really believe that it’s true. As we look at all that is going on in the world, it is so easy to conclude that God is not in control. In fact, things appear to be spiraling out of control. Even within the context of our own personal affairs, we can begin to feel like God has somehow vacated the premises or somehow lost His grip on the reigns of our life. That’s exactly how the people of Judah must have felt as they assessed their situation and attempted to figure out where God was in all that was going on around them. But in Isaiah 52:1-15, God is going to assure His people that He rules and reigns, in spite of all that their circumstances may say to the contrary. He wasn’t asleep. He hadn’t been distracted. And their difficult situation was not a sign that He didn’t care. He was simply sticking to His divine plan and keeping to the timeline He had established before the foundation of the world. God wasn’t in a panic and He was in no rush. The times were difficult, but the message was simple: Your God reigns.   

Nobody likes to wait. Impatience seems to be bred into the human DNA and affects each and every individual to one degree or another. And yet, the Bible is full of admonitions from God encouraging His people to wait on Him. And in Isaiah 51:16-23, God encourages the people of Judah, reeling from the news of their pending fall to the Babylonians, to wait on Him. He has plans for them. While the coming days were filled with the threat of God’s punishment, He wanted them to know that there was good news on the horizon. It might not arrive immediately, but it would come in time, according to God’s perfectly orchestrated plan. God even issues a much-needed wake-up call to His people, challenging them to come to grips with the reality of their situation and to acknowledge their culpability for their circumstances. They had sinned against Him, and yet He was going to do great things for them. Not right away. Not even in their lifetime. But they were expected to wait in Him, trusting that He would implement His plan at just the right time and in perfect compliance with His promises to them. Waiting can be hard, but when we wait for the Lord we know we will not be disappointed.

If I were able to ask you if you believed God to be powerful, you would likely respond with an enthusiastic, “Yes!” But the truth is, there have been plenty of times in your life when you doubted the power of God. And, more than likely, your assessment was based on your circumstances. When things take a turn for the worst, we tend to doubt God’s power or question His love. But God would have us remember that His love never wavers and His power never diminishes. And that is the message He tried to convey to the people of Judah as recorded in Isaiah 51:1-15. In these verses, God addresses a small remnant of His faithful followers. In all of Judah, there was only a handful of those who pursued righteousness and remained true to God. And God wanted them to know that they could trust Him, in spite of all that was going on around them. He knew that they were beginning to have their doubts. They were looking around and starting to question whether God was going to come through for them. And God wanted them to know that His righteousness was drawing near. They could count on it. It may not be in their lifetime, but they could rest in the knowledge that God never abandons His own.

You’ve probably heard someone refer to history as His story, the story of God and His relationship with mankind. And the Bible is a record of that story, beginning with God’s creation of the first man and woman and spanning across the generations to His call of Abram and His choosing of the people of Israel as His chosen possession. And if you fast-forward to the end of the book, you come to the literal end of the story, where God sends His Son to bring judgment to the nations and restoration to His chosen people. And in Isaiah 50:4-11, God reveals to the people of Judah that He has plans to send His servant, the Messiah, to shine as a light in the darkness brought on by own their sin and rebellion. But there is a sense in which the Jews were going to have to embrace the light that God was sending, refusing to live by the dim glow of their own self-righteousness. The arrival of the servant was centuries away, but they were expected to take God at His word and trust His promises. God had already told them, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light,” but they were going to have to believe that it was true.

There is no situation so bad or circumstance so hopeless that God is not able to step in and bring help and rescue. His power is never limited or His strength insufficient to handle whatever it is we are facing. And yet, how easy it is to look at our circumstances and draw the conclusion that God is either too weak or too busy to deal with our problem. But sometimes our suffering is due to our own sin. Our poor choices end up bringing the discipline of God and then we try to make Him responsible for our situation. And in the first three verses of Isaiah 50, that is exactly what we see the people of Judah doing. Unhappy with their lot in life, they try to blame God for their less-than-satisfactory situation. They attempt to hold Him responsible for the sorry state in which they find themselves, but God will not allow them to pass the buck. While He would be the one responsible for sending the Babylonians, it would be because of the sins of the people of Judah. Their circumstances were not to be seen as proof of God’s weakness or as evidence of His lack of love for them. It was all a reflection of His holiness and His hatred for sin. He had the power to deliver, but He also had the responsibility to discipline those whom He loves.   

There are times in the life of every child of God when they feel abandoned by Him. The circumstances surrounding their life seem to indicate that God has turned His back on them. The darkness feels overwhelming and the light of God’s presence seems distant and dim. And it at those moments, we are tempted to say, “My Lord has forgotten me.” That is exactly what we see happening in Isaiah 49:8-26, as the hopelessness and helplessness of the people of Judah are made painfully apparent. But God, speaking in prophetic terms, assures His people that their feelings are unreliable and their conclusions about Him are inaccurate. He has not forgotten or forsaken them. He has not abandoned them. Yes, their immediate circumstances were bleak and the outlook for the foreseeable future wasn’t any better. But God has long-term plans in place of which they were unaware. And He wanted them to know that He could be trusted because He is faithful, just, and committed to His covenant promises. While their immediate comfort and happiness was all they could think of, God had greater plans in store that included eternal life, not just temporary relief from pain.

One of the joys that comes from reading the Old Testament books of prophecy is that you discover some of the things that remain still unfulfilled. The messages given by God through His prophets and concerning future events, have not all taken place yet. There are aspects of God’s prophetic word that remain on the horizon of world history. But God is faithful and He always keeps His word. What He says will happen will happen. What He promises to do, He will do. And in Isaiah 49:1-7, we are given a glimpse into a future day when God sends His special servant to accomplish some amazing things on behalf of the people of Judah and Israel. This Old Testament passage reveals the future work of Jesus, the Messiah, when He returns at His second coming. On that day, He will complete the decrees outlined by God in these verses, doing for the people of Israel and Judah all that God has promised. Jesus, who came the first time as the Suffering Servant, will come again, but this time He will come as the all-victorious

Savior.

It’s easy to slam the wicked. Finding fault with the faithless comes naturally to most of us. But, as Christians, we sometimes fail to understand that even our sin has ramifications. Just because we are followers of Christ doesn’t make us immune to the consequences of sinful choices. When we sin, there are ramifications. Yes, we enjoy forgiveness, but that doesn’t mean we can sin with impunity and without any fear of consequences. In Isaiah 48:12-22 God is going to let the people of Judah know that He had plans for them. Some of those plans had to do with their destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. But it didn’t have to be that way. God had repeatedly offered them the chance to repent and return to Him, but they had refused. They could have enjoyed a restored relationship with God, if they would have heeded His warnings and humbly returned to Him with penitent hearts. Now, they would suffer similar fates as the wicked pagans from Babylon. And they would learn the painful lesson that there is no peace for the wicked, even those who are called by God’s name.

No one in their right mind would want to have God as their enemy. But as we have seen throughout the book of Isaiah, the people of Judah seem to have gone out of their way to get on God’s bad side. They had regularly and repeatedly disobeyed Him, even being so bold as to replace Him with false gods. And in Isaiah 48:1-11, God is going to spell out His disfavor with His chosen people. They were little more than hypocrites, claiming that they still honored and worshiped Him as their God, but proving otherwise by their actions. As we will see, they were quick to confess Yahweh as their God, but not in an honest and just manner. In essence, they were lying, saying one thing and doing another. They claimed allegiance but demonstrated their true colors by their actions. They were disobedient and unfaithful. And yet, God promises to redeem and restore them, not because they deserved it, but because of His own reputation. They had dishonored God, dragging His reputation through the mud by virtue of their infidelity. But God would protect the honor of His name by redeeming them in spite of them.                   

There’s no place for cockiness or arrogance in the life of a Christ-follower. And for anyone who believes in the sovereignty of God, it makes no sense for them to think of themselves as being self-made. Yet, how easy it is to become infatuated with our own significance and over-confident in our own abilities. And this tendency to place far too much weight on our own worth is nothing new. The people of Judah struggled with this same tendency. And, as we’ll see in Isaiah 47:1-15, they were not alone. God is going to reveal that the Babylonians were going to struggle with inflated self-worth and a false sense of security. Operating under the sovereign will of God, they were going to enjoy unprecedented military success, defeating virtually every nation who dared to oppose them. Even the nation of Judah would fall before the forces of Nebuchadnezzar. Yet, they had no reason to gloat. Their boasting was uncalled for and premature, because God had other plans in store for Babylon. No matter how much success they enjoyed, they were no match for God Almighty.

Judah’s very existence as a nation was due to the will of God. If God had not called Abram out of Ur and led him to Canaan, there never would have been a people known as Israel. And the kingdom ruled by Solomon would never have split in two, resulting in the creation of the southern kingdom of Judah. So, as Isaiah continues to deliver his message of repentance to the rebellious citizens of Judah, he attempts to remind them of their total reliance upon God. He was their maker. Without Him, they would not exist. And in Isaiah 46:1-13, God will personally confront the people of Judah, reminding them of His unequalled status as the God of the universe. There are no other gods besides Him. He has no equal. In fact, God has already addressed the unparalleled nature of His existence. Back in chapter 40, Isaiah records God’s rhetorical question: “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” And here in chapter 46, God reiterates His incomparable nature, reminding the people of Judah that He has made them, and that it is He who will bear, carry, and save them.

Sometimes we think of the gospel as being relegated to the pages of the New Testament. But the good news of God’s redemptive plan for mankind is found throughout the Bible, from the pages of Genesis to the closing chapters of the book of Revelation. God’s plan for the world and its inhabitants is redemptive in nature. God created all things for His glory, including man, and He will not be satisfied until all creation worships Him for who He is: The One True God. And in Isaiah 45:14-25, God reveals that a day is coming when all men will acknowledge Him as God. In the meantime, the world continues to reject His Lordship and substitute Him with a wide array of false gods and unreliable saviors. The people of Judah had turned their backs on God and were suffering His judgment as a result. But God wanted them to know that He would remain faithful to them in spite of their unfaithfulness to Him. He was going to redeem them and restore them to a right relationship with Himself. And He wanted them to know that the day was coming when all nations would honor Him as the one true God.

Everybody has opinions and most of us have no problem sharing them ­– even with God. Let’s be honest, there are times when we find ourselves at odds with what appears to be God’s will for our lives. And when things happen that we don’t particularly like, we are quick to let God know. We even give Him unsolicited advice on how to the remedy the situation. But in Isaiah 45:1-13, God is going to let the people of Judah know that His will for their lives is not up for debate and He doesn’t require their permission or approval. God is all-knowing and so, He is never at a loss as to what to do. He never finds Himself stymied by a problem and in need of advice. He is never surprised or caught off guard by the events surrounding our lives. He is in control of all things, at all times – even those things that we see as unwelcome and of no apparent value. In the case of Judah, God was even going to use an unlikely source to accomplish His will regarding His people: The pagan king of a foreign nation. He will even refer to this king as His servant. And while none of this made sense to the people of Judah, it was the sovereign will of God Almighty.

No one likes to be forgotten. Whether it’s remembering our birthday or noticing when our presence is missing, we all want to be remembered. But there are those times when we can feel neglected or simply taken for granted – as if we don’t really matter. But in Isaiah 44:21-28, God wanted the people of Judah to know that He had not forgotten or forsaken them, in spite of all that was happening to them. It was only natural for them to assume that the presence of the Assyrian army in their backyard was a sign that God had abandoned them. It appeared as if He had turned His back on them. But He wanted them to know that He was there and that He cared. Yes, He was punishing them for their sin and rebellion, but He was not giving up on them. And in these verses, we have a series of powerful statements from God, designed to remind His people of His persistent presence in their lives throughout the centuries. The same God who created the heavens and the earth had formed them into a nation. And while defeat and exile was in their immediate future, restoration and redemption were part of God’s long-term plan for them

They say, “Ignorance is bliss.” They also say, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” But both of aphorisms, while containing a degree of truth, are actually quite deceiving. Ignorance can actually be quite painful. Not knowing that touching a hot stove can result in a nasty burn can leave a toddler vulnerable to harm. And ignorance of a topic doesn’t provide you with some magical protection from pain. I may not know that others are spreading lies about me, but when the news finally reaches my ears, it will be just as painful as if I had heard it first-hand. In Isaiah 44:9-20, God is going to confront the people of Judah about their ignorance concerning idols. They were seemingly blind to just how ridiculous their love affair with false gods really was. So, God goes out of His way to expose the absurd nature of their infatuation with false gods. Yet, they couldn’t see it. They were ignorant of it. So, they just kept doing it. Sin has a way of deluding us and destroying our ability to see reality. They could take a single log and use part of it to create a god to worship, and another part to create a fire for warmth. And never see the absurdity of it all.

Anyone who has spent much time in and around the church, recognizes the significance of the term, “Redeemer.” It’s a common term, most often used in reference to Jesus Christ. He is the one who died on the cross, offering His Himself as a substitute for sinful mankind. In so doing, He provided a means of redemption for sinful men and women, offering them the opportunity to be freed from their captivity to sin and death. But redemption, while a familiar concept to most Christians, is not always fully appreciated or understood. And in Isaiah 44:1-8, God is going to reveal Himself as the Redeemer of the people of God. Despite their deception, lies, and dependence upon their own human effort, God would one day redeem them. The redemption of sinful man by a holy God is not something we should take lightly or treat flippantly. God doesn’t have to redeem. He is not obligated to rescue sinful men. But He chooses to do so because He is a faithful, loving God who wants to manifest His glory and magnify His name among the nations of the world.  

There’s something about newness that appeals to all of us. Who doesn’t love that new-car smell or enjoy seeing a newly released movie you’ve been dying to see? And while some of us don’t mind the status quo or business as usual, most of us would prefer the new-and-improved over the tried-and-true every time. And in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, verses 14-28, God is going to tell the people of Judah about something new He is going to do. They were mired in their same old habits of sin and rebellion. As a result, they were suffering the righteous judgment of God. In other words, they were going through the same old thing their ancestors had experienced. It was a case of déjà vu. But God was letting them know that He had plans in store for them that they would never have guessed. He was going to do something new. This merry-go-round of sin, rebellion, judgment, and restoration was going to one day come to an end. Their treadmill-like existence, running fast but never getting anywhere, was about to be replaced with something new and exciting. Something they didn’t deserve, couldn’t earn, and would hardly believe when it happened.  

Sadly, in our modern-day context, saviors are like opinions – we all have one. And in some cases, we have saviors for virtually every circumstance and day of the week. But in Isaiah 43:1-17, God is going to remind His chosen people that they were to have no other saviors but Him. He was the one who had called them and set them apart as His own. He had showered them with His grace and mercy, redeeming them from slavery in Egypt and providing them with a land they could call their own – a land flowing with milk and honey. In other words, overflowing with natural resources and filled with the presence of God. But over the years, the people of Judah had decided to seek out their own saviors – in the form of false gods, military alliances with pagan nations, and an assortment of not-so-godly kings and leaders. But when all was said and done, God wanted them to understand that He was their only Savior. And He had promised to one day send His Son as the Servant/Savior who would rescue and redeem them once again. This time, not out of physical slavery in Egypt, but out of spiritual slavery to sin and death.     

I sometimes refer to myself as being in God’s remedial school for slow learners. It just seems that God keeps holding me back, not allowing me to move on to the next grade level because I haven’t quite picked up the lessons He wanted me to learn. Sometimes, this is just a case of stubbornness on my part, not stupidity. And the nations of Israel and Judah suffered from the same tendency. As we read the Old Testament history of God’s interactions with His chosen people, we can’t help but notice that they seemed to go through the same painful lessons over and over again. But they never seemed to learn. And the book of Judges provides one of the greatest illustrations of the cyclical tendency of the people of Israel. They would sin and then suffer the consequences. That prompted them to cry out to God, who would send them a rescuer in the form of a judge. God would redeem and restore them. But, in a matter of time, the people would rebel again and the cycle would repeat itself. Ad nauseum. And in Isaiah 42:18-25, we have the serial unfaithfulness of Judah juxtaposed with the faithfulness of God.  

In Isaiah 42:10-17, the prophet offers up a song of praise to God, sung in response to the news of Yahweh’s future restoration of the people of Judah. God has promised to send His servant, a clear reference to the coming Messiah, who will rescue and restore the people of God. This prophetic word from God, received while Judah was surrounded by Assyrian troops and still reeling from the news of the coming Babylonian invasion, was just what Isaiah needed to hear. He was beside himself with joy and gratitude to God for His gracious offer of future redemption. Yes, God was still going to punish His people for their rebellion against Him, but He was also going to redeem His people and crush their enemies one. Not because they would somehow deserve or earn it, but simply because God is a covenant-keeping God. In a sense, God was going to give the people of Judah what they deserved: Judgment for their sins in the form of the Babylonian invasion of their land and their exile as captives. But God was also going to give them what they didn’t deserve: Their future restoration to the land and to their place as His chosen people. And for Isaiah, that was news worth singing about.  

God has established Himself as the one true God. He has ridiculed and lampooned the false gods of the world, exposing them for what they were: Lifeless and powerless. And because God is the sovereign God of the universe, He has a plan for that universe, and in Isaiah 42:1-9, He reveals that a day is coming when His Servant will show up on the scene, with a God-ordained commission to accomplish His redemptive plan on behalf of sinful mankind. Not only does God have plans for Israel and Judah, He has plans for the world He has made and for all humanity. The omnipotent, omniscient God knows how the story ends, because He wrote it. He is going to send His Servant, the Messiah, not once, but twice. He will come the first time as God incarnate, God in the flesh. And He will die a sacrificial death on behalf of condemned mankind. But because Jesus died and rose again, there is a day when He will return again. And when He does, He will come as the King of kings and Lord of lords. God has decreed it, and God will do it.

False gods have one major flaw: The are lifeless. Which means they have no power. They lack any capacity for speech, let alone any power to perform miracles. They can’t predict the future because they aren’t even aware of the present. In fact, they aren’t aware of anything, because they are mindless. And in Isaiah 41:21-29, God calls the idols of the world to task, demanding that they be physically dragged into His divine courtroom, where they are commanded to defend themselves. This chapter is full of sarcasm, as God exposes the lunacy of idolatry. He condemns His own people for their love affair with false gods and reveals in embarrassing detail the glaring inadequacies of these man-made gods they have chosen to worship in place of Him. The contrast between the sovereign, all-powerful, and all-knowing God of the universe and these lifeless, mindless, and powerless idols is meant to expose and embarrass the people of Judah for their unwarranted faithlessness to their creator. And by the time this mock trial is complete, it will be clear that there is no god but Yahweh.

When you serve an incomparable God, you should learn to expect the unexpected. After all, He’s the Creator of the universe and so, there aren’t a whole lot of things that are beyond His pay grade. But sometimes we need a reminder that our God is truly great. In the midst of the difficulties of life, it can be easy to question His power or to doubt His ability or willingness to save. But, as we will see in Isaiah 41:1-20, God’s greatness becomes most visible and believable when we come to grips with our own smallness. His power is made perfect in our weakness. His glory shines best in the gloom of our own darkness. And while the people of Judah were struggling with their lot in life, God wanted them to know that He was there for them. But He also wanted them to know that He was behind all that was happening to them. When it came to the question of who was behind the looming threat of Babylonian invasion, God replied: “I, the Lord, I am He.” The people of Judah may not have liked what was going on, but if they would only trust God, they would learn that His ways were always best.

Whenever someone says, “Trust me,” it almost always elicits a natural reaction of doubt. The very fact that they are asking you to trust them makes you think they might not be trustworthy. And, the truth is, a lot of people aren’t. But what about God? Can we trust Him? Well, in Isaiah 40:12-31, we’re going to get a primer on the trustworthiness of God, and it’s all based on the unequaled, unparalleled nature of God. He is trustworthy and true because he is holy. He is deserving of man’s trust because He is perfectly righteous and beyond reproach. He has never given man a reason to doubt his goodness or question His integrity. And yet, even His own chosen people doubted Him regularly and repeatedly. That was the whole reason He had threatened them with destruction at the hands of the Assyrians. And, while He had removed that nation as a threat, the Babylonians were next in line, because the people of Judah still found it difficult to trust God. But the difficulties they faced were meant to drive them back to the always reliable and trustworthy arms of God.    

While the people of Judah were ecstatic at having been spared defeat at the hands of the Assyrians, the future was not as bright as they had hoped. Because Isaiah has just delivered the news from God that the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem will one day fall to the Babylonians – the very same nation to which Hezekiah pridefully revealed all the riches in his treasury. So, what is Isaiah supposed to tell these people? He has spent years trying to warn them about the coming judgment of God which would manifest itself in the form of the Assyrian army. But now, the Assyrians were gone and the next bully on the block was Babylon. And, this time, God says the nation will fall and the city will be destroyed. The people of Judah were facing the undeniable prospect of a life of captivity in a foreign land. But in Isaiah 40:1-11, God gives Isaiah a rather strange message for the people of Judah. And it begins with the words, “Comfort, comfort my people.” While the future looked dim, God wanted His people to remember that the future was in His hands. And He had a plan in place.

Hezekiah has been healed by God. His physical infirmity was gone and he had a guarantee from God of another decade and a half of life. But the king had another problem. Pride. Which manifested itself in an inordinate love affair with power, possessions, and prestige. In Isaiah 39:1-8, Hezekiah’s pride problem gets put on full display for all to see. And it’s not a pretty picture. Here was a man who had been given a second chance by God, but rather than living in humble gratitude and singing praises to God in the temple like he promised to do, he sang his own praises and flaunted his own glory. Never a good move for any God-appointed leader. And it shouldn’t be overlooked that in chapter 38, Hezekiah had been just days from death and faced with the possibility of losing everything he held near and dear. But now that he had received a reprieve from God and an additional 15 years to enjoy life, he reveals what he loved the most: Power, possession, and prestige.

Let’s face it, It’s easy to sing God’s praises when everything is going your way. When all is right with your world, praise comes naturally and effortlessly. It’s only normal. But what about those times when things don’t turn out quite the way you expect or desire them to? Does your praise for God flow quite as easily when the going gets tough? In today’s passage, Isaiah 38:9-21, we have recorded a song of thanksgiving, written by King Hezekiah in response to God’s announcement that, rather than immediate death, he would enjoy an additional 15 years of life. The king is ecstatic and expresses his gratefulness to God. He also shares the range of emotions he experienced while waiting to see if God was going to answer his prayer. In these verses, Hezekiah displays a natural human reaction to suffering and pain. He wanted deliverance from it. But the real lesson to be learned from this story is whether we are ready, willing, and able to praise God, even when the circumstances of life give us no reason to do so.

You’ve probably seen the bumper sticker that says, “Prayer changes things.” But the real question is whether prayer changes God – His mind that is. When we pray, do we have the capacity to alter the will of God? There are more than a few cases in Scripture where we seem to see it happen. And Isaiah 38:1-8 appears to contain one of them. Hezekiah has been given a message from God by Isaiah, telling him to get his affairs in order because he has only a short time to live. This bad news comes as Hezekiah was having to deal with the presence of the army of Assyria, camped outside the walls of Jerusalem. But upon hearing this shocking report, Hezekiah doesn’t panic, he prays. And we’re told that God hears his prayer and tells the king he will live an additional 15 years. In grateful response, Hezekiah writes a song of thanksgiving to God. But the question remains: did Hezekiah change God’s mind or was it the other way around. It’s a matter of perspective. And a case of the sovereignty of God.

God is the god of the impossible. There is no challenge too great, no problem too large, and no enemy too powerful, that God is not greater, larger, and more powerful. He is incomparable. He is unconquerable. He is all-powerful. And in Isaiah 37:21-38, King Hezekiah is given an up-close-and-personal glimpse of just how great God really is. After he took the problem of the Assyrian siege to God, Isaiah gave King Hezekiah a message from God. He was going to deal with the Assyrians quickly and effectively. Despite all their arrogant boasts, they would never breach the walls or get beyond the gates of Jerusalem. God would deal with Sennacherib and his mighty army. In fact, He would delegate the job to one of His angels, revealing just how sovereign He really is. And, for all this to happen, Hezekiah simply needed to turn to and trust in God. In response to Hezekiah’s simple, yet passionate prayer, God answered and brought about a salvation that had to have left the people of Judah slack-jawed and awe-struck. Practicing humble faith when faced with trouble unleashes the God of the impossible.

At some point, everybody thinks they’re god. Even those who express belief in God can find themselves acting like they’re in control of their own lives, calling the shots and living according to their own self-centered agenda. And in Isaiah 37:14-20, King Hezekiah of Judah receives a much-needed primer on the sovereignty of God. He alone is God. Not only are there no other gods but Him, there is no reason for anybody to act like they’re God besides Him. King Sennacherib had a god-sized ego that led him to believe he was invincible. And the people of Judah had a long track record of placing their hopes in a variety of gods besides Yahweh. But in these verses, we have recorded a prayer directed to God by Hezekiah, in which he acknowledges God’s status as the one and only God of the universe. The king, faced with the threat of Assyrian troops knocking down the city walls and taking all the people captive, found himself kneeling before his God in abject humility and helpless reliance. He needed the one true God to do what only He could do: Save His chosen people.

Everybody has a bad day now and then. But for King Hezekiah of Judah, the bad days were beginning to stack up and looked like they were about to fall and crush his kingdom under their weight. The Assyrians were knocking at the gates of Jerusalem, threatening invasion if the people of Judah didn’t take their advice and surrender. The emissary for King Sennacherib had been taunting Hezekiah and the people; ridiculing their pitiable army, scoffing at their alliance with Egypt, and mocking their God. For Hezekiah, it was a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace. But God had other plans. And Sennacherib was in for a rude and unpleasant surprise. In Isaiah 37:1-13, Hezekiah finally decides to see the help of God and he receives some incredibly good news that reveals the paltry power of the Assyrians when faced with the omnipotent God of Judah. They were no match for God Almighty, and Isaiah provides King Hezekiah with some much-needed encouragement in the midst of all the pending doom and gloom. God was still on His throne, and the Assyrians were powerless to do anything outside His will or without His permission.  

As God’s chosen people, the members of the nation of Judah were to have turned to Him for help in times of need. But they had made a habit out of seeking and serving false gods, not only for worship, but for rescue. And in Isaiah 36:1-21, God is going to indict them for their misplaced trust. Over the centuries, Judah had regularly placed their hope and trust in false gods and turned to foreign nations for assistance when facing difficulties. And most recently, they had turned to Egypt, forming an alliance with their former captors and paying them a large financial settlement in order to guarantee their help against the Assyrians. But none of this had been God’s will. He had never instructed them to pay their money or place their hope in the Egyptians. And even Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, knew that this costly arrangement between Judah and Egypt would prove to be a waste of money, because Egypt would prove to be an unreliable savior. Pharaoh had been quick to take Judah’s money, but would be slow to offer any form of aid in return. And the people of Judah were going to learn a very painful lesson about misplaced trust and their missing faith in God.

Proverbs 14:12 reads, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Yet, ever since the fall, mankind has chosen to go his own way, ignoring the path prescribed to him by God. Even the people of Judah and Israel, the chosen people of God, had a difficult time staying on the path God had set out for them. He had called them to walk in all His ways, but they tended to wander off the path and take detours that landed them in hot water with God. So, in Isaiah 35:1-10, the prophet reveals some exciting news for the people of Judah. In spite of their wandering ways, God will bring them back and place them on His way of Godliness. There will be a future time of restoration and renewal that will impact not only the people of God, but the entire planet. God will strengthen the hands of the weak, make firm the knees of the feeble, open the eyes of the blind, and restore to the mute the ability to speak. In short, God will put His chosen people back on the path He originally planned for them. He will seek them in their lostness and restore them to the Way of Holiness, where they will make their way back to Him and experience true gladness and joy.

When you come to a passage like Isaiah 34:1-17, it can be somewhat disconcerting, because it reveals aspects of God’s nature that we can find difficult to reconcile. Especially if we prefer to see God as all-loving, all the time. These verses are full of imagery that reflects God’s wrath and righteous indignation. He speaks of slaughter and vengeance, death and destruction. But while this chapter may be difficult to accept, it must be taken with the rest of God’s Word. The prophetic pronouncements God makes within chapter 34 must be balanced with the other, much more encouraging portions of the Scriptures that provide us with the rest of the story. Speaking through His prophet, Isaiah, God makes it quite clear that His judgment is coming against Judah. And that judgment will be harsh and unavoidable. But God has also provided more than enough assurance that His divine will includes a day of future restoration and renewal. God will punish sin. He will judge His rebellious people. But the day is coming when He will make all things new.

There is only one kind of salvation that really matters: The kind that comes from the hand of God Almighty. Any other kind of salvation is short-lived and insufficient to bring lasting results. The people of Judah might find temporary relief from the threat of Assyrian invasion by trusting in the Egypt, but it wouldn’t last. Especially since the destruction they faced was coming from God Himself. Isaiah knew that the only hope for Judah’s salvation was if the people repented or God relented. The first one showed no signs of taking place. Isaiah had begged and pleaded with the people of Judah to repent and return to God, but to no avail. And so, the only option available was if God decided to extend mercy to His rebellious people. In Isaiah 33:7-24, the scene is bleak and the prospects look grim. But in the midst of the doom and gloom, God sheds a light of hope. He promises to show His power and might. And He pledges to deal with the Assyrians, turning the tables on them and making them the victim, not the victor. In spite of Judah’s failure to repent, God promises to restore them one day. He announces a time when He will be their Mighty One – their king, judge and lawgiver, restoring them to a right relationship with Himself – out of His love, mercy and grace.

The whole reason the nation of Judah was seeking the help of Egypt was because they longed for someone to save them from the looming attack of the Assyrians. But sadly, they never seemed to think about taking their problem to God. Maybe it was because they knew He would require them to change their ways. He would demand that they give up their sinful lifestyles and begin living as who they were supposed to be: The chosen people of God. So, when trouble came their way, they looked for a savior, but they refused to consider God. In a way, they were looking for someone to save them from God, because the Assyrians had been sent by Him for the express purpose of punishing the people of Judah. But God is in the salvation business. He would ultimately save Judah from the threat of Assyrian invasion. And, even after Judah fell the Babylonians, God would save them from captivity and return them to the land of Canaan. In Isaiah 33:1-6, Isaiah begs God to extend mercy to the people of Judah. He longs for God to save them from themselves. And, one day, God will. His Son will save them and make it possible for them to be restored to a right relationship with their heavenly Father.

etimes God’s promises sound too good to be true. They can come across as so “out there” that they lose any sense of reality. We begin to doubt that they will ever happen and, as a result, we start looking to things other than God to bring us joy, hope, satisfaction and significance. That was the problem in Judah and it was pervasive. In fact, in Isaiah 32:9-10, Isaiah is going to address the women of Judah, using some pretty colorful and offensive language to make his point. These women were guilty of finding their fulfillment and identity in material things. They had grown comfortable and complacent, enamored by their material possessions, and totally forgetting that they belonged to God. They were His possession. He had chosen them and made them His own, but they lived like they were independent agents who had full control over their lives and their futures. They were the masters of their own fates – or so they thought. God was going to humble these proud and arrogant women, along with the rest of the nation. But the day was coming when He would pour out His Spirit upon them, making it possible for them to willingly seek and serve Him and Him alone.

Waiting on God can be difficult, because He operates on a different time schedule than we do. In fact, He operates outside of time. For Him, the past, present, and future are all one and the same. He sees it all as if it is happening right before His eyes. But we are human beings and burdened by the limitations of our temporal existence. We are bound by time and space. We can’t see or know the future. That is, unless God reveals it to us. And in Isaiah 32:1-8, Isaiah is going to share some exciting news with the people of Judah, letting them know that God has some pretty amazing plans in store for them. While their present circumstances were anything but ideal, God wanted them to know that the day was coming when they would sit under the rule of a righteous king who would restore their nation to power and prominence. And better yet, He would restore righteousness to the land, making it possible for all men to live in perfect, unbroken fellowship with God Almighty. God was going to extend His grace and mercy to the people of Judah, in spite of their centuries-worth of rebellion against Him. He would be faithful, even though they were not.

The old saying states, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Bu that can mean a lot of different things. When difficulty comes, some people just bolt and run. Others stand their ground. We can be tempted to fight or take flight. But when it comes to God’s people, they are called to stand firm in the faith. Rather than run, they are to trust God. And, while the future may require them to fight, they will do so knowing that it is God who fights for them and with them. He will provide the victory. But in Isaiah 31:1-9, we see another option that every child of God faces when confronted by difficulty: Seeking help from something or someone other than God. The people of Judah were in a tough spot, but rather than turning to God, they chose to put their trust in Egypt. Instead of relying on God Almighty, they decided to place their hopes in the might of Pharaoh and his army. But they would be severely disappointed. Human help is never a good alternative to the holy help God offers. The power of men is no match for the omnipotence of God. And the people of Judah were going to learn that lesson the hard way.

Judging the presence of God based on the condition of our current circumstances doesn’t always produce accurate results. Sometimes, our situation may give the impression that God is nowhere to be found. But, in time, we come to realize that He was there all along. What appeared to be a lack of His presence was simply a deficiency in our faith. There are times when God allows His people to experience the pain of brokenness so that He might pour out His love and bind up their wounds. In Isaiah 30:18-33 God calls out to His people, begging them to return to Him so that He might restore them. He longs to pour out His compassion and shower them with His blessings. But time and time again, the people of Judah had revealed the hardness of their hearts and the stubbornness of their dispositions. Yet, God was and is patient. He has a long-term strategy that entails both their discipline and their blessing. He was going to punish them, but the day was coming when He would restore them. They had brought down His judgment upon themselves. But the day is coming when He will bind up the broken.

Screwing something up always seems to come easy to us. But finding a solution or remedy can be next to impossible. And when it comes to the predicament in which the people of Judah found themselves, they had ended up there with virtually no trouble at all. It had come easy and naturally to them. Like hard-headed children who stubbornly refused to listen to the warnings of their Father, they found themselves in a serious bind. But the remedy was easier than they thought. And in Isaiah 30:8-17, God reveals that all they had to do to get out of their difficult situation was to repent and return to Him. But for some reason, they found this simple solution impossible to carry out. They just couldn’t bring themselves to confess their guilt and admit their need for God’s help. They would rather turn to Egypt than trust God. They would prefer paying an exorbitant fee to have Egypt rescue them than sacrifice their pride and return to God in brokenness and humility. God longed to restore them, but they refused to heed His words of warning and His call to repentance. And they would live to regret their decision.

Where do you turn when the going gets tough? Is God your go-to source for help and hope, or do you find yourself seeking rescue in something or someone other than God? For the people of Judah, faced with the reality of God’s pending judgment in the form of defeat at the hands of their enemies, they decided to turn to Egypt for help. What an ironic development. Here was the nation that had been rescued from captivity in Egypt by the hand of God, turning to their former captors, in a futile effort to escape the coming judgment of God. And in Isaiah 30:1-7, the prophet will reveal just how ridiculous this plan really was. Egypt had not been able to stand up against God before, so what made the people of Judah think they could do it now? Worldly powers were no match for Almighty God. The Pharaoh may have been worshiped as a god, but he would prove anything but divine when he tried to thwart the will of the one true God. Judah would have been much better served by repenting of their rebellion and returning in humble submission to God. But they were like stubborn children and would rather turn to Egypt for help than turn back to God in repentance.  

The Bible is a book of history and prophecy. It is full of stories about the past and predictions about the future. It tells us how the universe was created by God, how sin entered into the scene, and how mankind went from being made in the image of God to being the enemies of God. In its pages, the Bible reveals the on-again-off-again nature of Israel’s relationship with God. It tells us about God’s promise to send a Messiah or Savior to restore fallen mankind to a right relationship with Himself. And then it shows how that promise was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ. The Bible, while thousands of years old, is a timeless book that deals with far more than ancient history. It is about the future and its impact upon the present. And in Isaiah 29:17-24, God gives the people of Judah a much-needed reminder that His plans for them extend well beyond their current circumstances. They were facing judgment because of their sin, but He promises them future blessing because of His grace and mercy. They couldn’t seem to stop rebelling against Him, but that would not stop God from pouring out His blessings upon them ­– in the future and according to His divine will.

Everybody likes to think they are in control of their own lives. We love the idea of being the masters of our fate and the captains of the ship of our life. And the people of Judah were no different. They wanted to live according to their own agendas and thought they could fool God into believing that they were being obedient to Him, when they were living in open rebellion to Him. They were so confident, that they believed they had God fooled. They had pulled the wool over His eyes and convinced Him that they were really good and faithful children. But Isaiah 29:9-16 reveals that nothing was further from the truth. God knew everything and He was well aware of their disobedience. He was not the one who was ignorant and deceived. They were. But in their arrogance and pride, they felt they had every right to tell God what to do. They operated under the misguided idea that He somehow worked for them and existed to serve their needs. But they were in for a rude awakening. The potter rarely takes advice from the clay. He was in full control and they were in full subjection to His will, whether they liked it or not.

By now, we should have a firm grasp on the reality that God never treats sin lightly. In spite of Judah’s status as God’s chosen people, He was not going to put up with their rebellion against Him indefinitely. He warned them repeatedly that their judgment was coming, unless they repented and returned to Him. And in Isaiah 29:1-8, God makes it clear that their refusal to repent would bring not only His judgment but their own deaths. Their disobedience was punishable by death. And while He had provided them with the sacrificial system as a means of receiving atonement for their sins, they had even treated it with disdain. They had even defiled the temple of God itself by setting up idols to false gods within its walls. This blatant disrespect for God, His house, and the sacrificial system He had provided, was not something He could overlook. So, Isaiah is forced to warn the people of Judah that their rebellion was going to turn the sacrificer into the sacrifice. Rather than seeking atonement through a lamb, bull or goat, the guilty people of God would be forced to shed their own blood and give their own lives as payment for their sins.

When a farmer plants, he does so with the expectation that one day he will be able to reap. Otherwise, there would be no reason to go through all the effort of preparing the soil and sowing the seeds. Planting is done because reaping is the expected outcome. And the same is true of God and His chosen people. In the 28th chapter of Isaiah, verses 20-29, God reveals through His prophet that a day is coming when He will reap the fruit of righteousness from the people of Israel. While their current spiritual condition was more like an unfruitful field full of weeds and incapable of producing any kind of harvest, God was not done with them. In fact, He was going to have to prune and cultivate them in order that, one day, they might yield the fruit for which they were made: The fruit of righteousness. God is always about the outcome. He focuses on the long-term and, because He is all-knowing, He has an unobstructed view of how things are going to turn out. And while He was forced to thresh His disobedient children to prepare them for future fruitfulness, He did so with the harvest in mind.

You don’t have to know a lot about construction to understand the necessity of having a firm foundation. It’s the primary source of stability for whatever is being built, whether it be a single-story house or a high-rise office building. A solid foundation is what provides a stable and reliable footing on which the entire structure stands. And a good foundation begins with a well-laid cornerstone. It is around this single stone that the rest of the foundation is oriented. It serves as the primary point of reference for the rest of the structure, so if the cornerstone is off, the rest of the building will be as well. In Isaiah 28:14-19, God has some strong words to say to the leaders of Judah, referring to them as scoffers, arrogant, pride-filled individuals who were guilty of building the nation of Judah on the wrong foundation. Through the misguided leadership of these men, Judah had started relying on other nations as sources of support and stability. But God was letting them know that their world was about to be rocked. Their little kingdom, built on lies and deception was going to prove unstable and unsustainable. When the storms of God’s judgment came, their walls would fall because their foundation was faulty.

Everybody loves success. And there’s nothing we love more than self-made success. It’s part of the American work ethic. Stories of self-achievement have been around as long as we’ve been a republic. The image of the self-made man is a popular icon in American culture, but it certainly isn’t unique to our nation or this century. It has been around since the beginning of time. In fact, this love affair with self-elevation and self-preservation is as old as time itself. And in Isaiah 28:1-13, we are going to see God address the runaway attitude self-importance that marked the Northern kingdom of Israel. Repeatedly referred to as Ephraim, the ten northern tribes had a long track record of pride and arrogance that was based on their unique status as God’s chosen people. It didn’t seem to matter to them that the way they lived their lives in no way reflected their position as the children of God. They were rebellious and disobedient, but they were also drunk on their own success and self-importance. Believing that they were somehow immune from God’s wrath, they refused to repent and continued their love affair with the world.

Isaiah is living in the midst of a time period when the people of Judah are facing the eminent judgment of God. They have spent years living in open rebellion against God, proving to be unfaithful to Him and living lives marked by ungodliness. Now, Isaiah has warned them that God is going to punish them for their years of stubborn disobedience to His will and persistent resistance to His calls that they repent. But at the same time, God has given Isaiah a message of hope to deliver to His rebellious people. And in Isaiah 27:1-13, the prophet will repeatedly speak of “that day” – a future period of time during which God will show unmerited favor toward His people. He will shower on them unprecedented acts of kindness and mercy, restoring them to a right relationship with Himself and fulfilling every promise He has ever made to them. And while they would eventually experience days marked by the judgment of God, they could rest assured that their future will feature the unmerited favor of God. That day, while still distant, is not to be discounted or dismissed. It will happen, because God has said it will.

Those who express belief in God must constantly strive to maintain their awareness of His omnipotence and His timelessness. God is all-powerful and operates outside the confines of time and space. He is not relegated to any particular time period and His knowledge is not limited to what has happened in the past. He exists outside of any time constraints, so to Him, the past, present and the future are all equally accessible and knowable. So, when God spoke to and through His prophets, He was delivering information that revealed future events as if they were present reality. In Isaiah 26:10-21, the prophet speaks as if the prophecies of God, dealing with as-yet-to-happen events, have already happened. He writes of future promises concerning the people of Judah with a confident assurance that they can and will happen. In fact, he almost gives the impression they have already taken place. He speaks of them as if they are in the past tense. It wasn’t that Isaiah didn’t know what God had in store. He knew that the fury of God had to fall before the mercy and grace of God could be experienced. But he wanted the people of Judah to have confidence that, once the fury of God had passed, the blessings of God would fall.

As Christians, we know we should praise God. The Bible makes that perfectly clear. But we don’t always do it. In fact, far too often we find ourselves whining and moaning to God, rather than singing His praises. Our circumstances can leave us complaining about our lot in life, and failing to recognize the grace, mercy, and kindness of God happening all around us. In Isaiah 26:1-9, we are going to hear a song being sung by the people of Judah, but it’s a song that has yet to be sung, because it is prophetic in nature. What we will see in these verses is a glimpse into the Millennial Kingdom, that 1,000-year period of time that comes at the end of the seven years of Tribulation that will come on the earth. The Millennium will feature Jesus Christ ruling in Jerusalem from the throne of David. He will be the King of kings and Lord of lords, and all those who live within His kingdom will sing His praises. The people of Israel and Judah, the Old Testament Saints, the Tribulation martyrs, and all those who come to faith in Christ during the church age, will worship God the Father and God the Son, singing their praises for all that they have done.

Current conditions have a way of clouding our understanding of God’s sovereignty and power. What we are going through any given moment of the day can easily lead us to believe that God does not have a plan. We can begin to think that He has lost control. But Isaiah would have us remember that God has plans that were formed of old – in other words, they have been around from before the world was made. God is not up in heaven reacting to conditions in the world with surprise. He is not knee-jerk reacting to unforeseen situations and circumstances. He is all-knowing and fully in control of all things, all the time. And in Isaiah 25:1-12, the prophet is going to provide us with a glimpse into the distant future, where we will see God’s redemptive plan played out in all its glory. At no point in time, has God’s plan been in jeopardy. And there has never been a time when He has been forced to alter His plans in response to some unexpected event that caught Him off guard. No, His divine strategy for the future restoration of this world is safe and secure. We may not always see what He is doing. We might not always think that He has His hands on the wheel. But God is in full control and His plans have not changed.       

There is a sense in which the people of God should always be singing the praises of God. If we truly believe that He is all-powerful and sovereign over all things, then we can rejoice in the fact that our God reigns over all – all the time. There has never been a time in history where God was out of control. And there never will be a time when the will of God fails to take place just as He has preordained it. When reading a passage like Isaiah 24:14-23, we are reminded that our God deserves our praise. Even in the midst of looming destruction, brought on by the blatant disobedience of His people, God reveals that He has a plan in store that will involve the restoration of a remnant. The judgment of God was coming, but so was the grace and mercy of God. The people of Judah would be disciplined severely for their sins, but they would one day experience the undeserved favor of God. And this incredible reality would leave the people of Judah rejoicing and praising God for His majesty. Like so many other passages in Isaiah, this one has a now/not yet aspect to it. Some of God’s promises have already been fulfilled in part. But there are still some as yet fulfilled elements to this passage for which the people of Judah can still eagerly anticipate.  

There’s a lot of talk these days about the condition of the environment. Politicians and pundits of all stripes use the earth’s ecological condition as a means to push various policies and political agendas. And there is little doubt that our world is suffering because of man’s abuse and misuse of this incredible resource provided for us by God. But Isaiah 24:1-13 is going to reveal that there is a greater problem behind the sorry state of the earth’s environment. It is sin. Ever since the fall, the sins of mankind have had a dramatic impact on this planet on which we live. Rather than acting as God faithful stewards, caring for the earth and all that it contains, we have tended to treat it with disdain and disrespect, taking advantage of its many resources and using them for our own selfish pleasures. And this passage is going to support the fact that a day is coming when God will renew His creation and return it to its original, pristine, pre-fall state. While we should care about the environment and do all that we can to clean up and care for the earth, God lets us know that it is irredeemable and unrepairable. He won’t just fix it. He will replace it. He will make all things new.

One of the things that even Christians find easy to forget is that God has a plan. And that plan is not only long-term in nature, it is unchanging and unstoppable. What God has purposed will take place. What He has planned will come about. And that includes blessings and curses, the good and the bad. As we continue to look at the oracles delivered to the nations by Isaiah on behalf of God Almighty, we will see the recurring theme that His plans concerning the nations have been fully thought out and will be completely fulfilled. In Isaiah 23:1-18, God brings bad news to the nation of Tyre. Unlike Babylon and Assyria, Tyre was a relatively small player on the global stage. It was not a military powerhouse and posed no real threat to Judah or any other nation. But it enjoyed unprecedented wealth, exercised tremendous influence over that part of the world, and had built a reputation as a financial force to be reckoned with. Yet, God was going to bring their pride to an end. He had plans for them. Including their eventual restoration and, in the end times, their worship of the one true God.

Authority, power, influence. Everybody wants these things, but few people can handle them. They can become a powerful temptation in the life of any man or woman, causing them to turn inwardly and to seek profit from their position. It can be quite easy to succumb to the lure of lust that so often accompanies a position of authority. With great power comes great responsibility. But that responsibility is to be outwardly focused. It conveys the idea of using your power and position to better the lives of those under your care. But in Isaiah 22:15-25, we are going to get a real-life lesson from a man who let his power go to his head. He used and abused his authority in such a way that it led to God to remove him. He was replaced and, while his successor proved to be a much better leader who used his newfound power more justly and selflessly, he too would eventually give in to the temptation to use his power for self-advancement. The two men we will see in this passage were representatives of the king who had a responsibility to use their power and position for the betterment of the kingdom. But they failed. As believers, we represent the King of kings on this earth. How well are we using the power and authority left to us by Jesus Christ?

It was Jesus who spoke of the valley of the shadow of death in the sample prayer He gave to His disciples. The use of the valley as a metaphor for difficulty was common in Jesus' day. It was used to juxtapose the experience of the breathtaking heights of the mountain that loomed over the valley. And in Isaiah 22:1-13, God is going to use the metaphor of the valley to refer Mount Zion, the elevated height upon which the city of David, Jerusalem, sat. This spiritually lofty locale was going to experience dramatic change in its circumstances – all because of disobedience to God. While Jerusalem was home to the temple and the seat of the royal dynasty of David, it was going to go through a major shift in its spiritual fortunes. The presence of the temple was not going to protect them from the wrath of God. The city's reputation as the holy mountain of God was not enough to counter their years of rebellion against Him. Judgment was coming because the people of Judah had continually rejected God's calls to repent. And the holy mountain was about to become the valley of vision. And the scene surrounding Jerusalem's fall would not be a pretty or pleasant one. 

If you stop and think about it, trying to run from God makes no sense at all. If He is indeed, all-knowing and all-powerful, any attempt to hide from Him will be unsuccessful. And if God intends to do something, any thought of escaping His judgment is wishful thinking. It was King David who wrote, based on his own personal experience, “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!” (Psalm 139:7 NLT). David went on to say, “even in darkness I cannot hide from you” (Psalm 139:12 NLT). If this is true, then why is it we spend so much time trying keep things from God or attempting get out from under the will of God? In Isaiah 21:11-17, Isaiah is going to deliver yet another oracle from God. This time to the nation of Arabia and lesser-known nation called Dumah. As we will, this is a somewhat veiled reference to the Edomites, who were close relatives of the people of Israel. One by one, God is eliminating every nation in Judah’s proximity as possible options to be their rescuer. God was bringing judgment on Judah and there was nowhere they could run and no place they could hide from His inevitable will.

Repeatedly throughout the Scriptures, we read the words, “Fear not.” And they are almost always in relationship to some troubling trial or difficulty. When the people of Israel were standing at the shore of the Red Sea with the army of Pharaoh bearing down on them, Moses had told them, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord.” Years later, when the Israelites were preparing to enter the land of Canaan, God told them, “Listen, Israel! Today you are moving forward to do battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted. Do not fear and tremble or be terrified because of them” (Deuteronomy 20:3 NLT). Paul would later encourage Timothy by reminding him, “God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7 NLT). But the truth is, we fear far more often than we would like to admit. And the people of Judah did as well. In Isaiah 21:1-10, we will see God calling His people to exhibit faith, rather than fear. Even with all that was going on around them, God wanted them to see His sovereign hand at work. If they had faith in Him, they would have a difficult time fearing what was taking place around them. Faith is the antidote for fear.

Discipline and mercy. Wrath and love. Judgment and justice. Rebuking and restoration. The Bible is full of paradoxes that make us shake our head in confusion. Throughout the entire book, we see God presented in ways that appear contradictory and difficult to reconcile. And in these last few chapters of Isaiah, there has been a steady stream of oracles warning of God’s pending judgment against the nations. And yet, in Isaiah 19:16-25, we will hear God say some strikingly different things to Egypt than He did in the first 15 verses. In fact, this portion of the chapter presents a somewhat surprising scene that features Egypt receiving healing from the hand of God. And the Egyptian people responding in praise, adoration and worship. Obviously, these things have not yet happened. There are no altars to the God of Israel in Egypt at this time. But Isaiah describes a day in which the worship of Israel’s God will be commonplace. And many of the other nations mentioned in these oracles will worship God alongside the Egyptians. God will judge the nations, but He will also restore a remnant from among the nations representing every tribe, nation and tongue.

Nobody likes being disciplined. And it doesn’t help when a parent tells the child they are about to discipline that, “This will hurt me far worse than it hurts you.” That well-used maxim has never been believed by any child of any age at any time in history. And the children of God are no different. Despite the fact that God assures us that He disciplines those He loves, we still avoid it like the plague. We will do anything in our power to escape the judgment and loving discipline of God – even if it means refusing to own up to the sin in our lives and rejecting His will for our lives. In Isaiah 19:1-15, we are going to encounter yet another oracle of God, this time delivered to the nation of Egypt. The nation of Judah had placed Egypt high on its list of potential candidates for the role of rescuer from God’s pending judgment. But God was going to let Judah know that Egypt would have enough problems of its own, and find themselves unwilling and incapable of doing anything to help Judah out of its predicament. We may not like the discipline of God, but we will never be successful in escaping it. He always disciplines those He loves.

God made the world. The book of Genesis makes that perfectly clear. But sometimes it is easy to forget that fact and to view God as some distant deity who is out of touch with a world that seems to be increasingly out of His control. But Isaiah would have us realize that God still rules over all that exists and His sovereignty extends to the ends of the earth. And in Isaiah 18:1-7, we will see God deliver another oracle, this time against the nation of Cush. While we know little about this kingdom, we do know that, to the average Hebrew in Isaiah’s day, it represented the ends of the earth. It was a relatively unknown land that remained a mystery to the people of Judah. Yet, God has plans for Cush. In fact, He has plans for all the nations of the earth – past, present, and future. As the people of Judah faced the prospect of God’s pending judgment, they were looking for someone to step in and rescue them. And they weren’t that picky when it came to potential rescuers. So, God makes it clear that the nations to whom they might turn would prove less-than-satisfactory saviors, because God has judgment in store for them as well.

Faithfulness is important to God, because He is faithful. And He expects those whom He chooses to call His own to respond to Him in faithfulness. But as we have already seen, the peoples of Israel and Judah found it virtually impossible to treat God with the honor and reverence He deserves. They were constantly pursuing false gods and putting their hopes in pagan nations. Regardless of the many occasions when God stood by His people, they continued to turn their backs on Him, treating Him with disdain and showing Him disrespect. And in Isaiah 17:9-14, God will accuse the people of Judah of forgetting Him, the God of their salvation. They will prove to have short-term memories, failing to remember all that He had done for them. And they will show a disregard for His involvement in their lives, thinking instead that they are somehow responsible for all the good things they enjoy. Their forgetfulness will bring upon them God’s justice. And while God would end up punishing their unfaithfulness, He will remain faithful to them.

God is the only god there is. There are no others. And as the sole deity in the universe and the creator of all that exists within it, God demands and expects to occupy center stage in the hearts of those He has created. But ever since the fall, mankind has found itself on a trajectory away from God. Sin, at the core of which lies pride, has caused man to drift from God, and doomed humanity to a futile quest to find significance and meaning in life. But this journey of discovery never ends. Sinful, pride-prone man never finds that for which he is searching. And yet, God graciously calls out, offering Himself as the sole source of man’s joy, comfort, meaning, and hope. He alone can deliver what man so desperately seeks. And in Isaiah 17:1-8, God continues His judgment against the nations. He delivers yet another oracle, this time pertaining to Syria. He lets them know what He has in store for them because they had allied themselves with Israel and had plotted to overthrow the nation of Judah. And God uses this verbal assault on Syria to remind His people to trust in Him. No nation in the world could stand against Him, so why wouldn’t the people of Judah trust in Him? In light of all He was going to do on behalf of them, why did they still refuse to seek Him?

In Isaiah 16:1-14, God continues His oracle concerning the nation of Moab. He has much more to say regarding this long-standing enemy of Judah. And much of what God reveals in this chapter has to do with events surrounding a future day that has yet have taken place. There is little doubt that God did eventually judge the Moabites for the role they played in Judah’s defection from God. He could not excuse them for the influence they had in leading the people of Judah astray. They would turn to their false gods for help, but would find them to be impotent to do anything to help them. They would prove no match for the omnipotent God of the universe. As we have seen before, God speaks of a day when the tables will be turned and the people of Moab will find themselves on the receiving end of God’s judgment. They will be the ones to weep and mourn over their loss. Like all the other nations who stood opposed to God and His people, the Moabites would learn the hard way that they were helpless against the righteous Judge and King.

It seems to be a universal principle that every truth has its counterfeit that shows up in the form of a lie. Everything that is real seems to have its false alternative. And this principle applies to God as well. According to the Scriptures, there is only one true God, but that has not stopped the proliferation of thousands upon thousands of false gods over the centuries. The Bible offers one objective standard of truth and righteousness, but that has not prevented the propagation of countless counterfeit alternatives. And, as we will see in Isaiah 15:1-9, this tendency of mankind to promulgate all kinds of substitutes for God and His Word has always been around. The people of Moab worshiped their own god, and they lived by their own set of moral standards. But the sad reality is that their preference for false gods and fraudulent ethical standards had caused the people of God to reject the one true God for a lie. The Moabites had proven to be a stumbling block to the people of Judah, causing them to turn away from God and pursue what would prove to be a false and faulty alternative. But Judah and Moab would soon learn that, not only does God have no alternative, He has no equal.

Humanity seems to be hardwired to rejoice at the fall of an enemy. We take a perverse pleasure in seeing someone we dislike get what we believe to be their just desserts. Whether we call it revenge, payback, retribution or comeuppance – it all means the same thing. And in Isaiah 14:28-32, God has a word for the nations, warning them about celebrating over the apparent fall of Judah too quickly. He specifically addresses the Philistines, the perennial enemies of the people of God, letting them know that their day of judgment was coming as well. So, while they might see the fall of Judah as good news worth celebrating, they needed to know that God was going to pay them back for the roles they had played in opposing the people of God and, in some cases, leading them away from God. While the book of Isaiah is primarily a message of God to His chosen people, it contains prophetic pronouncements concerning humanity as a whole. Even the land of Philistia would one day experience the judgment of God, because He rules and reigns over all.     

Humanity has a pride problem. Ever since the fall, mankind has displayed an uncanny ability to make far too much of itself. While we are the byproduct of God’s creative powers, we tend to believe the lie that, somehow, we are self-made men and women. We have convinced ourselves that, when it comes to our many achievements and advancements in everything from medicine and healthcare to science and technology, we deserve all the credit. But this pride problem has been around for a long time. In fact, Isaiah 14:24-27 deals with the pride of the nation of Assyria and provides God’s perspective regarding it. Let’s just say that the Assyrians were going to discover the hard way, that their power would prove no match for the omnipotent God of the universe. While He would allow the Assyrians to inflict pain and suffering on the people of Israel, God would not give them free reign to do as they wished. This pagan nation, like every other nation that has ever existed, were subject to the sovereign will of God Almighty. And no matter how prideful or powerful they became, they were completely subject to the plans and purposes of God.

The world has always been full of people and organizations that stand opposed to God. And that makes sense when we consider that the god of this world is Satan, who has long aspired to set himself up in place of God. And because Satan rules this fallen world, he has influence over unredeemed mankind, causing them to follow his ways and live with the same sense of pride and arrogance that marks his own nature. The nations of this world have long emulated the ways of Satan, coveting the power, position and possessions he offers them in return for selling out to him. And in Isaiah 14:12-23, we get a look at the impact Satan’s influence has on the nations of the world during the end times, particularly Babylon. God provided Isaiah with insight into the fall of Babylon that would take place in the not-so-distant future. But He also revealed details concerning the destruction of a future Babylon, that would exist during the days of the Tribulation. The kingdom of Satan and the kingdoms of men have no chance against the power of Almighty God.

God always has the end in mind. He knows the outcome of all things and, because He operates outside the restrictions of time and space, God is fully aware of how the story ends. Mainly, because He is the author of the story. There is nothing that happens on this planet that surprises God or catches Him off-guard. Every single aspect of human history has been pre-ordained by God and, as we will see in Isaiah 14:3-11, even the ultimate outcome of that history has been pre-determined by God. But, while God knows how the story ends, we as human beings tend to live with our eyes focused on the here-and-now, mesmerized by the current events that make up our lives. And the people of Judah were no different. All they could think about was the pending arrival of the Babylonians, as decreed by God and prophesied by Isaiah. From their vantage point, everything looked bleak. They had already seen their northern neighbors, the nation of Israel, fall to the Assyrians and end up in captivity. Now, it seemed like only a matter of time until they suffered a similar fate. But little did they know that God had a far different end in mind.

required to wait. We may even begin to wonder and doubt whether He is going to come through for us, but He always does. And in Isaiah 14:1-2, we have yet another promise from God that assures the people of Judah that their future will be bright – all because God has decreed it. He has made a covenant commitment and He will not go back on His word. These two short verses are pregnant with meaning and literally overflowing with encouragement. Yet, how easy it is to read them and miss all that God is trying to convey through them. For the people of Judah, the news of God’s pending judgment and the approaching armies of Babylon weighed heavy on their minds. They couldn’t see past the current predicament in which they found themselves. But over and over again, God assures them that He has great things in store for them. His plans for them include blessings that will far over-shadow any suffering they may have to endure. And they will happen because He is the covenant-keeping God.

God stands outside of time. He is eternal, having no beginning or end. And, as the eternal, transcendent God, He is just as knowledgeable of future events as He is of those that happened in the distant past. So, as we look at Isaiah 13:17-22, God is going to provide some insights into the future judgment of the nation of Babylon. And some of what we will see will include events that predict Babylon’s more immediate fate. From our vantage point, they are ancient history, having already taken place. But there will be other prophetic pronouncements that remain unfulfilled. God is speaking of the Babylon as Isaiah knew it in his day, but He is also revealing what will happen to the Babylon that will appear at the end times, during the days of the Great Tribulation. When it comes to God judging the nations, there are clear indications that His wrath comes all along the historic timeline. Nations have come and gone. Dictators and kings who once ruled are now little more than footnotes in a history book. But God, because He stands outside of time, has plans in place that have yet to happen. But part of the purpose of God displaying proof of His wrath against sin in history is so that His people will trust His promises to deal with sin in eternity.

Man has always had a unique ability to fabricate his own gods. Ever since the fall, humanity has made a habit out of creating false gods to replace the one true God. Yet, as Isaiah 13:10-16 will reveal, the day is coming when God will eliminate all the false gods from the face of the earth and judge all those who have chosen to replace Him with the lifeless products of their sinful imaginations. As Isaiah continues to discuss “that day” – the coming day of God’s judgment upon the world for their rejection of Him, he paints a rather bleak picture of the consequences of that judgment. God will deal harshly, but also justly. He will simply mete out the punishment rebellious mankind deserves. No one will be able to argue with Him or deny their guilt. His judgment will be just and sure. And while we may find the descriptions of this day disturbing and difficult to reconcile with our concept of an all-loving God, it is essential that we not diminish or downplay God’s hatred for sin and His righteous obligation to deal with those who have chosen to reject His rightful place as their God.

God has plans for Israel, but He also has plans for all the nations of the earth, including all those who stand opposed to His will and who futilely attempt to thwart His ways. In these opening verses of chapter 13, Isaiah delivers a divine oracle against Babylon. This powerful nation was going to be used by God to bring His judgment upon the people of Judah. But God would also punish them for the role they would play in the destruction of God’s people and city. While acting as instruments in the hands of God, that would not excuse them for their actions, because they would thoroughly enjoy the part they played. They would find great joy in defeating the people of Judah and would take unfair and unnecessary advantage of them. And God would eventually repay them, along with every other nation that stands opposed to Him. This oracle reveals God’s plans for the nations of the earth, and reminds us that He is sovereign over all, including every king and country that has been or ever will be. He alone is God and the coming day of the Lord will find every tribe, nation and tongue coming under His divine jurisdiction.

There is no greater praise of God than when His people are able to say, “He has done great things!” Deliverance by God and the provision of God are just a few of the many ways in which we can praise Him for His goodness and grace. As His children, there is not a day that goes by where we lack cause to praise Him. He is always active in and around our lives, oftentimes, in ways that we can’t even see. And in Isaiah 12, a very short chapter consisting of just six verses, Isaiah lets the people of Judah know that there is a day coming when they will give praise and thanks to God for His salvation. As with the last chapter, Isaiah is speaking of a future day when God will intercede for His rebellious and unrepentant people, replacing His well-earned wrath with undeserved mercy and grace. By the time God is done delivering and transforming them, they will know that it has all happened according to His power and in keeping with His promises to them. He will have done great things and they will gladly give Him glory.

God makes promises. But, unlike man, God keeps His promises. In fact, Numbers 23:19 states, “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?” And in Isaiah 11:11-16, we are going to see God remind His covenant people just how faithful He is going to be regarding His promises to them. While things may have looked dim from their perspective, God knew the future and was letting them know that He had a plan in place for them. He would not forget them. He would not permanently abandon them. In fact, He would one day restore a remnant of them to a right relationship with Himself. And He would do it by keeping the very promise He made to King David that there would one day be a permanent heir to his throne. God has promised that there will be a ruler, a Son of David, to sit on the throne of David. He has also promised a remnant of God’s people will one day rule alongside the Son of David is a restored Kingdom of Israel. And what God promises, He always brings about.

One of the amazing things about the Scriptures is how well they display their divine inspiration. The 66 books contained within the Bible, while written by a variety of authors over a more than 1,400-year period of time, have a synergy and syncretism about them that is difficult to imagine. They reflect their divine origin and communicate a single story that reflects the redemptive plan of God for the world and its inhabitants. And, in Isaiah 11:1-10, we are  provided with one of those amazing sections of God’s Word that reflects a far-greater scope to God’s message than first meets the eye. One of the truly great joys of reading God’s Word is to discover the remarkable connections that link the Old and New Testament. These hidden gems of truth provide evidence of the Spirit’s inspiration of the authors and God’s overarching agenda for mankind that goes far beyond any ethnic, regional, or historical confines. God has the big picture in mind. His focus is eternal in nature. And right when circumstances seem to indicate that God is done, He surprises us with His eternal plan.   

God does not do anything halfway. He is not in the habit of partially accomplishing that to which He sets His mind. He completes what He starts. He finishes what He begins. And when it comes to the peoples of Israel and Judah, God has long-term plans for their good that He has yet to bring to fruition. Centuries have passed and generations of Jews have come and gone, but God’s covenant promise to Abraham remains intact and His determination to fulfill what He promised remains unchanged. And in Isaiah 10:20-34, God will reassure His people yet again of His plan to reestablish them in their land and restore them to a right relationship with Him. When you consider all that the Israelites and their southern brothers, the people of Judah, had done to offend God, it is amazing to think that He is going to keep every single one of His promises to them. They had violated their covenant relationship with Him time and time again, but as the covenant-keeping God, He will remain true to His word – until a full end to His promises has come about.

The sovereignty of God is difficult to understand, but, at times, even more difficult to accept. When things are going well, we find it easy to accept God’s sovereignty. We like the idea of an all-powerful, all-knowing and completely-in-control God when things are going our way. But as soon as things take a turn for the worse, we begin to question His control. And when the Bible reveals God as using pagan nations to punish His own people, we get uncomfortable. And, as if to make matters even more confusing, the Bible reveals that God punishes the very nations He used to do His bidding. That kind of control seems unfair and even unethical. But in Isaiah 10:5-19, we will see just such a situation as God warns the Assyrians of their coming judgment. They had been instrumental in His judgment of the nation of Judah, defeating and destroying many of their cities. Then they had besieged the capital city of Jerusalem. All according to God’s sovereign plan. But then God turns around and warns them that He was going to punish them for doing what He had ordained them to do. Is God capricious and fickle? Or is He sovereign and holy, and completely right in all He does?  

In our day and age, sin has become little more than an afterthought. We have so minimized the significance of sin, that we tend to refer to it with terms like, mistake. And we seem to think there is no need to confess our mistakes, because, in the grand scheme of things, they are just not that important. We have come to believe that God forgives and forgets. After all, He is a loving and gracious God. But Isaiah 9:18-10:4 paints a starkly different picture of God’s outlook on mankind’s sin. He doesn’t view it as some kind of an oversight or innocent mistake. No, God sees our sins as transgressions against His holiness. He views us as rebels, who stand in stubborn opposition to His divine decrees. He doesn’t excuse our sinfulness or take it lightly. His holiness will not allow Him to do so. He must punish sin. He must deal justly and righteously with rebellious men and women. Why? Because He knows that sin, if left unaccounted for, will spread like a cancer. It is deadly. And man is incapable of dealing with its devastating influence on his own.

Things weren’t looking good in Judah. Of course, it depended upon your particular perspective. The people of Judah were bothered by the presence of enemies and the threat of invasion. But God was much more concerned about the presence of sin in the midst of His people. In fact, the very reason the people of God were having to worry about invasion was because they had sinned against God. He was the one who was bringing destruction in the form of pagan nations. And He was doing it because the entire nation was marred by sin. From the politicians to the religious leaders, corruption and immorality filled their ranks and trickled down to the people under their care. Spiritual darkness filled the land and, while God had promised to send the light of new dawn, there were going to be some lightless days in the foreseeable future. His judgment was going to fall on the nation. He was not going to tolerate or overlook their rebellion against Him any longer. Everyone was guilty and deserving of His divine wrath.

Darkness. Sometimes it can be palpable, almost as if you can touch it. And when it comes to spiritual darkness, there is a very real and tangible aspect to it. Living in the darkness of sin can become a comfortable place. We can find ourselves believing that our sins remain out of sight and hidden from God’s view. The darkness becomes a place where we feel unexposed and our true condition, undetected. But God is all about exposing the darkness of sin in the lives of men. And in Isaiah 9:1-7, He informs the people of Judah, who were living in distress and darkness, that a light was going to dawn. The spiritual night of their circumstances was going to be broken by the dawn of a new day. God was going to do something new. He was going to shine a bright light into the darkened corners and hidden recesses of His chosen people, exposing their true spiritual condition and providing them with a means of being restored to a right relationship with Him. In spite of all that these stubborn and rebellious people had done to offend Him, God was going to show them His grace and mercy, redeeming them even in their unredeemable state.

The author of the book of Hebrews provides us with the following statement intended to encourage us in our walk of faith: “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” He was simply paraphrasing Psalm 118:6 which reads: “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Both authors were attempting to remind their readers not to fear men. With God on your side, there is no reason to fear mortal men. Even Jesus picked up on this theme when He told His disciples, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28 ESV). Sure, men can take your life, but they can do nothing to impact the eternal state of your soul. Those who have placed their faith in Jesus are guaranteed an eternal existence with God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But we face opposition in this life. We come under threats for our faith. So did Isaiah, and that is why, in Isaiah 8:11-22, God told the prophet to fear Him and not men. He was to stay faithful, even when tempted to compromise and cave in.

Isaiah 8:1-10 continues the theme of God’s presence. In chapter 7, we were introduced to the child who would be born of a virgin, and whose name would be Immanuel. The future, long-term fulfillment of this promise would be Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel. But this chapter will reveal that another baby boy would be born to Isaiah, who would end up with two names. One name was decreed by God. The other was given by the boy’s birth mother. And we will see that both names were appropriate, because each represented an aspect of God’s relationship with the rebellious people of Judah. This infant boy would symbolize God’s pending judgment and His unfailing presence. Despite what they would see happening around them and to them, they could trust in the fact that God was there. He would remain Immanuel, God with us. Even the birth of this baby boy, in the face of the coming judgment was meant to be a sign of God’s good fortune and future blessing. He would live to see the fall of Judah, but his name was an assurance that God would be with them no matter what happened.

A primary reason that men fail to trust God has to do with their failure to recognize that He is with them. They judge the reality of His presence based on the condition of their circumstances. If things are going well, He is with them and obviously happy with them. But if things happen to take a turn for the worse, the natural assumption is that God has vacated the premises or chosen to forsake His child. But Isaiah 7:10-25 makes it clear that the reality of God’s presence must be judged by His character and nature, not the conditions surrounding us. King Ahaz finds himself faced with the difficult choice of trusting God, when he could not clearly comprehend God. Things looked bleak. Conditions were less than ideal. But in the midst of all the confusing circumstances, God gave Ahaz a reassuring word. He promised to send someone to assist the people of Israel. But not just anybody. It would be Immanuel, whose name means, “God with us.” It was God’s way of letting Ahaz and the people of Judah know that His coming judgment of them would not be a sign that He was no longer with them.

st me. How many times have you heard someone say that phrase and leave you feeling like it was the last thing you should do? People who ask you to trust them typically do so because they have given you ample reason not to trust them. Someone who has earned your trust through their actions shouldn’t have to ask for it. And yet, In Isaiah 7:1-9, God is going to expose the people of Judah’s lack of trust in Him, even though He had proven time and time again that He was a trustworthy God. One of the greatest signs of their lack of trust was their worship of false gods. Every time they did so, they were telling God they didn’t trust Him. They were putting their hopes in something or someone else. And King Ahaz was going to be faced with the task of taking God at His word, or allowing the circumstances surrounding him to dictate his decision-making. Would He trust God, in spite of what was going on around him, or would he allow his fear to overwhelm his faith in God.

Free will. It’s a hotly debated topic in Christian circles and has been for centuries. But in our blatantly self-reliant, me-centered society, it seems to have taken on a life of its own. Modern man sees himself as thoroughly autonomous and self-ruled, vehemently opposed to any outside control and determined to be the master of his own fate. Even God-fearing Christians wrestle with the idea that God might somehow be in control of their lives. Self-rule and self-determination have become like badges of honor that we proudly display and strongly defend. But in Isaiah 6:9-13, we have one of those passages that seems to throw a wrench in our cherished concept of free well and self-determination. As God commissions Isaiah as His mouthpiece, He warns him that the people of Judah were not going to listen to what he had to say. They would prove to be spiritually deaf and blind – incapable of hearing and heeding the message of the prophet. And it would all be the sovereign work of God. The only thing the people of Judah would find themselves free to do would be to continue in sin.

Isaiah was a messenger for God. He had been hand-picked by God Almighty and commissioned to carry a message of warning and a call to repentance to the people of Judah. But before Isaiah could fulfill His God-appointed role and point out the sins of the people of Judah, he had to have his own sins exposed and expunged. In Isaiah 6:1-8, we are shown how God prepared His spokesperson by cleansing him from his own unrighteousness and unworthiness. As God’s prophet, Isaiah was going to need purification before he could call the people to repentance. His lips would need to be cleansed before he could communicate the holy words of a righteous God. But, in spite of his awareness of his own unworthiness, Isaiah displays a remarkable enthusiasm to be used by God, saying, “Here I am, send me!” He wanted to serve Yahweh by offering his life in faithful service. And he was willing to go through the painful purification process required by God in order to become a mouthpiece for God. He had been given the privilege of seeing God, and now he wanted to serve Him with his life.

Contentment. In some ways, it’s like the holy grail. For centuries, men have heard about its powers and desired to discover if it can really do all that its legend portends. But like medieval  knights on a never-ending quest, most of us spend our entire lives in a vain search for the illusive prize of contentment. And the people of Judah were no different. In fact, in Isaiah 5:8-17, God pronounces a series of woes against the nation because their lives were marked by greed and an insatiable desire for more. They were anything but content, even though God had richly blessed them in a variety of ways. And their self-centered, self-pleasing determination to have more revealed a strong lack of love for God and others. And God condemns them, warning that they would experience His curses, because they refused to be satisfied with Him and all that He had graciously given them. Discontentment is a disease that is communicable. It can spread from one person to the next, infecting the entire family of God. Which is why God, like a surgeon, was going to extract it from their midst.

Fruit and fruitfulness are common themes in the Bible. And, in His Word, God repeatedly uses imagery of the vine to describe His chosen people, Israel. Today’s passage, Isaiah 5:1-7, is a case in point. God often refers to Himself as the vinedresser and Israel as the vine. He planted them with the intention that they bear fruit. But God is rather particular about the kind of fruit they produce. They were to be fruitful, spreading through the land like a well-manicured vine planted in well-tended soil. But in this passage, God is going to reveal that His vine was producing unacceptable fruit – wild grapes that were not what He had expected and were absolutely good for nothing. He had created a vineyard with all the right ingredients to produce high-quality grapes that would result in sweet-tasting wine. But instead, Israel was guilty of producing unacceptable fruit. And that’s an important key to understanding what is going on here. They were producing fruit, but it was the wrong kind. It wasn’t what God intended and, therefore, it disqualified them as His vineyard.

Judgment was coming. God had made that perfectly clear. And yet, in Isaiah 4:1-6, God also lets the people of Judah know that His favor was also coming. Yes, it would be preceded by their fall at the hands of the Babylonians. But there was a day coming when God would restore His people. He would show them His favor, even though it was totally undeserved and unmerited. But one of the truly amazing things about the book of Isaiah is that much of what God has promised the people of Judah has yet to happen. There is an aspect in which His promise has been partially fulfilled, but there is a far greater, far more substantial aspect to His promise that lies in the future, still awaiting fulfillment. But, because of what we know God did 70 years after the people of Judah were exiled to Babylon as captives, we can trust that His yet-unfulfilled promises will come to fruition. He will do what He has said He will do. He returned them to the land once, and He will do it again, showering them with His divine favor.

Just desserts. Getting what you deserve. Reaping what you sow. However you want to describe it, we all seem to believe in the concept that payback is inevitable in life. And even when we see an individual getting away Scott free, there is a part of us that longs to see them get what they deserve. In Isaiah 3:10-26, God warns the people of Judah that they were guilty, and there was no way they were going to get away with it. Judgment was coming. Payback was on its way. God was going to mete out justice in the form of His righteous judgment. From the lowest peasant to the highest ruler in the land, all would feel the wrath of His holy indignation. Why? Because they had failed to follow His rules and keep His commands. The leaders had misled the people, even failing to care for the poor and needy. They had failed to show justice. They had taken advantage of the weak and the fatherless. They had abused the widows, forcing them to cry out to God for justice. And the people had become fat and happy, materialistic and addicted to their own sinful passions and desires. And God had had enough.

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all struggle with misplaced trust. Especially when it comes to God. We say we believe in Him and we claim to trust Him, but there are so many times when we place our trust in something or someone other than him. We end up relying on ourselves or some other human being. We place our hope in our financial status or our capacity for hard work. We depend upon our own intelligence or that of someone we respect and of whom we seek counsel. But in Isaiah 3:1-9, God is going to warn the people of Judah that their misplaced trust was going to have drastic consequences. Their propensity to turn their back on God and turn to other forms of salvation was going to eventually blow up in their face. Their many false gods were going to be exposed for what they were: The fabrication of man’s imaginations and hands. And even the leaders the people of Judah had come to trust would be revealed as lousy replacements for God. When we forsake God and replace Him with gods of our own making, we will always end up disappointed and disillusioned.   

There is a day coming. That warning is repeated throughout the book of Isaiah, and in Isaiah 2:6-22, God warns of a future day when He will deal with the sins of mankind in a universal manner that causes every single pride-filled, sin-prone human being to hide in fear of His wrath. The book of Isaiah is prophetic in nature, and reveals to the people of Judah what God is going to do, both in the near-term and far-distant future. When we read this book, we have to carefully assess what has taken place and what remains yet unfulfilled. While a book of history, Isaiah also provides a prophetic glimpse into the future of not only Judah, but the entire world. God has a much larger plan in place than the people of Judah can even imagine. They are His people and He is concerned with their fate, but He is also concerned with the coming of His Servant, the Messiah, and the future redemption of the world. For the people of Judah, it was going to be easy to focus on their present circumstances, but God wanted them to have a future-orientation that was focused on His sovereignty.

The Bible talks a lot about light and darkness. They represent the two extremes of spiritual reality in the world. God is light. He is the illuminating and enlightening agent of righteousness. While Satan represents the realm of spiritual darkness and moral depravity. In the Bible we are given a vision of this world as cloaked in a foreboding mist of darkness, caused by the presence of sin. The fall of Adam and Eve left their descendants with the curse of inherited sin and the death sentence that comes with it. But God, by choosing Abraham and promising to make of him a great nation, shed His light in the darkness of the world. He called the people of Israel to be His chosen possession and to illustrate what it meant for men to enjoy a right relationship with a holy God. That is why He set them apart and give them His law. It is why He provided them with their own land and demanded that they cleanse it of all spiritual impurity. But, the people of Israel failed to remain faithful to God. And their disobedience brought His displeasure and discipline. But He still longs to shine His light on them. And in Isaiah 2:1-5, He reminds them that one day, He will.  

Isaiah was a prophet, and like all the other prophets of God, he had a fairly simple message to deliver: Repent. If you boil down all that he had to say to the people of Judah, this was the core message he was trying to get across. He simply wanted them to return to God, in repentance, humility and dependence. And as Isaiah 1:21-31 will make painfully clear, God had some strong accusations against His people. They were guilty of some serious stuff, and God was not afraid to spell out their crimes in graphic terms. But one of the things we will see as we work our way through this book is just how stubborn fallen men and women can be. Granted, these were the chosen people of God, and they enjoyed a special relationship with Him that no other people group on the earth could claim. But like a father with rebellious teenagers for children, God was fed up with the actions and attitudes. He was calling them out and demanding that they repent or face the consequences.

Today’s episode is the first in a new series on the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It is considered a book of prophecy and the author’s name, as the book’s title suggests, was Isaiah. Isaiah lived in the city of Jerusalem and was called by God to carry a message to the people of Judah concerning their future fate. He would outlive four of the kings of Judah and spend a large portion of his life attempting to persuade the rebellious people of Judah to repent and return to God. But his message would, for the most part, fall on deaf ears. God had even warned Isaiah that his ministry would prove fruitless, because the people were far too stubborn to heed what he had to say. While this book provides us with a historical narrative concerning the people of Judah, it is far from ancient history. In fact, because of its prophetic nature, there are aspects of the book of Isaiah that reveal future events that were to take place long after Isaiah was gone. And much of the message contained in the book remains yet to be fulfilled. At the core, this is a book of theology that covers such vital topics as God, man, sin, and redemption. Despite its age, this book carries a timeless and practical message for the people of God in all ages. And it should provide ample proof of God’s love, power, faithfulness and sovereignty. Today, we open with Isaiah 1:1-20. Hope you enjoy it.

The final chapter of the of Numbers is not quite what one might expect. Chapter 36 introduces us to five daughters of a man named Zelophehad. He had a problem. No, it wasn’t that his name was difficult to pronounce. It was that he was dead. And he had died without a male heir. So, according the Mosaic Law, his unmarried daughters would inherit his land. But some of the other Israelites expressed their concern over this plan. They raised the question: What if one of these daughters were to marry a man from another tribe? Then the land would become his and the inheritance of Zelphehad would be lostThey brought their issue to Moses, who then sought the counsel of God. And what we see is God implementing a solution that had an immediate impact and long-term implications. He instituted a plan that kept the inheritance of Zelophehad within his immediate family and that required his daughters to adopt a long-term, corporate mentality that was designed to meet the concerns of the entire community of Israel.

We all make mistakes. And sometimes our mistakes have costly consequences. But I think it’s safe to say that there is probably no mistake more costly than involuntary manslaughter – the accidental taking of another human being’s life. That’s something for which a simple, “I’m sorry” doesn’t seem quite adequate. And in the Numbers 35, we have God establishing a plan for dealing for just such an occasion. He ordered the Israelites to establish six cities of refuge, located throughout the land of Canaan, and occupied by members of the tribe of Levi. These cities were intended to act as sanctuary cities, where anyone who accidently and inadvertently committed murder could run for refuge. God had also established another important policy associated with murder, that allowed the blood relatives of a murder victim to seek revenge on the one who took the individual’s life. But to prevent the blood avenger from taking the life of an innocent person, the cities of refuge were established. And believe it or not, all of this has a lot of application for us today.

The people of Israel are poised on the edge of the promised land. The time has come for them to cross the border and take what was rightfully theirs. It had been given to them by God, but it remained just a   promise as long as they stayed on the East side of the Jordan River. They were going to have go cross over and start the formidable task of ridding the land of its inhabitants and all vestiges of their pagan religions and false gods. This wasn’t so much about conquering as it was about cleansing. The land had been polluted and poisoned by centuries of occupation by people groups that worshiped everything from the sun, moon and stars to a litany of fabricated deities whose temples, shrines and high places dotted the landscape. In Numbers 33-34, God is going to give the people of Israel one final marching order before they cross over the Jordan River and begin their conquest of the land. And it would not prove to be an easy order to follow. Before they could occupy the land, they were going to have to purify it. And according to God’s plan, not their own. There was no room for compromise.  

Sin, like nuclear fuel, has a half-life. Its impact doesn’t really ever go away. Its shelf life is measured in years, not minutes. And while sin’s impact may be invisible, it is far from inconsequential. When you least expect it, the ramifications of sin can appear out of nowhere, which has led to the oft-repeated warning: Be sure your sins will find you out. But did you realize that this popular parenting tip is from the Bible? It’s found In Numbers 32 and the context for its original implementation might surprise you. As the people of Israel were preparing to enter the promised land, the two tribes of Reuben and Gad approached Moses with a request that they be allowed to settle outside the borders of the land of Canaan. They had spied some lush pastureland on the eastern side of the border and wanted to settle their families and flocks there. And while Moses eventually agreed to their seemingly innocent request, time would reveal that their motivation was anything but innocent.   

Sometimes, when reading the history of the people of Israel as recorded in the Old Testament, we arrive at a passage like that found in Numbers 30-31, and it makes us uncomfortable. In these two chapters we have God command that the people of Israel completely wipe out the Midianites. In essence, He orders them to commit genocide. And this image of God is not an easy one to reconcile. We see this portrayal of God as unattractive and, therefore, inaccurate. This can’t be the same God who sent His own Son to die for sinful man. After all, doesn’t the Bible say that God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son as an expression of that love? Yes, it does. But the Bible also tells us that God hates sin and, because of His holiness and righteousness, He must deal with sin. And while we might see God’s actions as somehow unfair or unjust, the real issue here is that of trust. Will we listen to what God is saying and do what He is commanding, because He knows best? It’s a matter of faith, not fairness. It’s a matter of trust, not trying to put God on trial for His actions.

The Old Testament sacrificial was costly. Not only did it cost the life of the animal that was used as a substitute or stand-in for the guilty sinner, it cost the one making the sacrifice. As required by God, each Israelite had to offer a sacrifice for their sins, and the sheep, goat or bull they brought would have had great financial value. There was a monetary price to be paid. But it was far less costly than the penalty God had placed on man’s sin: The penalty of death. When we read through Numbers 29, we are reminded that the sheer number of Israelites meant that the annual cost to the nation, in terms of livestock, was significant. And these animals were not the lame, the sick and the old. They were the best of the best. They were required to be without flaw and in excellent health. And once they were sacrificed, their value disappeared with their last breath. But what a picture this paints of the costliness of sin. And what a vivid reminder it provides of Christ’s priceless death on man’s behalf.  

Unlike Phinehas, Moses is a household name. And this Old Testament character, who wrote the book of Numbers under the influence of the Holy Spirit, is someone with whom virtually everyone is familiar. His exploits in Egypt on behalf of the people of Israel are well-known. His four decades of leadership of the people of Israel are well-documented in the Word of God. But one of the less familiar and least understood aspects of his life’s story is his barring from entrance into the promised land by God. In Numbers 27-28, we are given a glimpse into this part of Moses’ storied life. And what we get to see is a man who was a consummate shepherd – all the way to the end – and in spite of the incredibly disappointing news that he would never step foot into the land he longed to see. This is a difficult story to understand. But the one thing that stands out is the shepherd’s heart of Moses. He never let his disappointment keep him from completing his divine assignment. He led well – all the way to the end.

Phinehas, not exactly a household name. But it’s a name that carries a great deal of significance with God. In chapters 24-25 of the book of Numbers, we are introduced to Phinehas and a pinnacle moment in the history of the people of Israel. They have returned to the border of the land of promise after a lengthy hiatus that left them wandering in the wilderness for 40 years – all because they had refused to enter the land the first time they had come to this place. News of giants in the land had caused them to fear and led them to doubt God’s promise that He would give them victory over their enemies. Now, four decades later, the people of Israel had another problem. This time, it wasn’t larger-than-life enemies, it was apostasy. The men of Israel had chosen to have sexual relations with the women of Moab and to worship their false god: Baal. As a result, God demanded that Moses and the leaders of Israel put to death all those who were guilty of apostasy and immorality. But it will be the actions of Phinehas that will earn the praise of God.

Can God be trusted? While we know the answer to this question should be a resounding, “Yes,” we must admit that there are times when we find it difficult, if not impossible, to trust God. We can easily find ourselves in situations where He seems unavailable or, at best, disinterested in our condition. But Numbers 24 provides us with a much-needed reminder that our God is always in control and always fully aware of what is going on in and around our lives. Even when we are oblivious to the invisible dangers surrounding us, nothing escapes God’s notice. He is faithful to protect us from both seen and unseen dangers. And He is faithful to keep each and every promise He has made to us. God had chosen Israel as His very own possession and, while they had proven themselves incapable of remaining faithful to Him, He would not abandon them. And when the enemies of Israel were busy making plans for their demise, God was actively interceding on their behalf – keeping His commitment to bless them.  

It is Proverbs 14:12 that reads: “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” In other words, each of us has choices we face each and every day of our lives. We can do things our way or submit to God and do it His way. And, in Numbers 22-23, we get introduced to a man named Balaam, who was severely tempted to ignore the will of God and follow his own selfish desire for financial reward. In fact, Balaam became so blinded by his greed, that he couldn’t see the danger of his situation. God had clearly warned him, and had told what he could and could not do. But Balaam was strongly influenced by the offer of material gain. And, in one of those strange and quirky scenes found in Scripture, Balaam gets a much-needed lesson from the mouth of a donkey. God miraculously used a dumb animal to speak truth to an ignorant and money-hungry man. The apostle Peter used this story to warn his readers about the “way of Balaam,” the temptation to allow our greed to disregard the revealed will of God.

Been there. Done that. Sometimes, the Christian life can feel a bit repetitive, as if you’re going through the same lessons over and over again. It can begin to appear as if you’re in some kind of remedial school for slow learners, repeating the same lessons, all in hopes that you might one day learn whatever it is that God is trying to teach you. And in Numbers 20-21, the people of Israel were going to revisit a lesson they should have learned years earlier, at a place called Meribah. For the Israelites, their recurring lesson had to do with God’s provision and their tendency to complain. In spite of all that God had done for them, they found it easy to fall back into a pattern of ungratefulness and discontentment. And it usually stemmed from their unwillingness to trust God. Even Moses would find himself doubting the word of God and reacting in anger at the circumstances of life. And he would pay dearly for it. When we choose to disbelieve God, we tend to disobey God. And the results can be deadly serious.

The book of Numbers is full of references to sin and the need for cleansing. That was what the entire sacrificial system was all about. And in Numbers 19, God outlines a very specific kind of cleansing required for anyone who had become defiled by contact with a dead body. And, as is true of just about every single aspect of the Old Testament sacrificial system, this rite was intended to point toward an even more important cleansing that would become available when God sent His Son to die for the sins of mankind. He gave His life by dying in the place of sinful human beings, providing a cleansing from the contamination of death we inherited from Adam. And, unlike the sacrifices made in the tabernacle in the wilderness, Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was offered once and never had to be repeated. His purification of our impurity was permanent, not temporary. His sacrificial death was effective, making it possible for all who place their faith in Him to receive permanent cleansing from sin and release from the penalty of death they deserved.  

Why is it that we can fail to recognize the hand of God in our lives, but still blame Him for everything that goes wrong in our lives? It’s so easy to miss His blessings and yet hold Him responsible for the seeming curses that come our way. And in Numbers 17-18, we will see God providing a somewhat strange visual lesson designed to put an end to the bickering of the Israelites. If you recall, in chapter 16, God dealt severely with a rebellion among the people of Israel that had instigated by a man named, Korah. He had stirred up trouble, accusing Moses and Aaron of setting themselves up as somehow more holy than everybody else. Korah claimed that every single Israelite was holy before God, and there was no reason for Moses, Aaron or the Levites to set themselves apart as any more special than anybody else. But Korah and his fellow conspirators had to pay for their attempted coup with their lives. And in chapter 17, God gives Moses instructions to ensure that there would no more questions concerning whom God had set apart as holy and as His special instruments.

There’s one in every group. That individual who just can’t seem to be satisfied with the way thing are. He or she takes it upon themselves to stand up to the injustices they see taking place around them. And it’s usually because they feel slighted in some way. But if they can make it a group problem, they’ll be more effective in bringing about the changes they’re looking for. And, in Numbers 16, we have just such a situation laid out for us. It involves a man named Korah, who has decided that he doesn’t like the way things are going in the camp of Israel. As a Kohathite, he had been set aside by God to help care for the tabernacle and everything associated with it. His clan was responsible for moving the sacred objects from one camp to another. But he wanted more. He was dissatisfied with God’s organizational structure and decided to make his grievances known. He began to spread his dissatisfaction among the people of Israel, causing an unnecessary degree of animosity toward Moses. But God was unwilling to tolerate Korah’s rebellion. He knew that one bad apple could end up destroying the whole barrel.

There are two words that no follower of God should ever say: God can’t. And yet, whether we express those words audibly or not, we allow them to creep into our subconscience and contaminate our outlook on God. The next thing that happens is a subtle, but spreading sense of panic. We begin to play the what-if game, wondering just what terrible outcomes lie in store for us because our God is too weak to handle our problems. In Numbers 14-15, that’s exactly the scenario we will see lived out in the lives of the people of Israel. They have already decided to listen to the majority report of the spies and refuse to enter the land of promise. They begin to let their minds get away from them, as they play out all the worst-case scenarios that could happen. It is not a pretty picture. And it is not an isolated one. The truth is, we do the same thing virtually every day of our lives. We start to doubt God, and the next thing we know, we’re making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Faith is a well-worn topic among most Christians. We talk about it constantly. But the problem seems to be that most of us struggle with exhibiting it in our own lives. We put a much higher stock in the facts. We take a look around us and determine that things are too difficult for God. We see our problems as insurmountable and our enemies as unconquerable. The Israelites had the same problem. As they stood on the edge of the very land God had promised to give them, they heard the reports of the 12 spies and started to get cold feet. There were giants in the land. The armies were large and formidable. The cities were well fortified and their walls insurmountable. In Numbers 12-13, we have the well-known story of the 12 men who spied out the land of promise and came back with good news and bad news. It was fruitful, but it was also filled with powerful enemies. And the people of God decided to listen to the facts and set aside their faith in God. And that decision would have long-lasting and deadly consequences for them.  

t is one thing to share with God what it is you think you desire. But it is another thing altogether to demand of God what you believe you can’t live without. It is a sign of ingratitude and a lack of belief in God’s providence and wisdom. Yet, we do it all the time. And so did the Israelites. And in Numbers 10-11, we get an up-close and personal glimpse into their demand for more from God. He had miraculously provided them with manna. But they decided what He had given them was not enough. They wanted more. They had unmet appetites that were forcing them to voice their dissatisfaction with God and His provision. And that is a dangerous game to play. Rejecting God is risky business. Demanding more from our already generous and gracious God is not a tactic that ends well. Telling God you’re unhappy with His provision never ends well. And the Israelites were about to learn that lesson the hard way.

What does God want me to do? That’s a legitimate question that each of us has asked ourselves at some point in time. And in Numbers 9, we are going to see the Israelites having to react to the will of God when He let them know it was time to pack up and move out. God had let them know that He would lead them through the wilderness, all the way to the land of promise. He appeared to them in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. And when either one of the pillars moved from its place over the tabernacle, it was time for the Israelites to follow. They didn’t get a vote. They weren’t asked if it was convenient or fit into their schedule. When God said, “move,” they were to jump. It was all about obedience, and trusting that God knew what was best for them. Yet, the uncertainty associated with this kind of arrangement had to have left them frustrated at times. But that’s where trust was to come in. God knew best. He had a plan and was working it to perfection. All they had to do was follow.

The idea of substitutionary atonement is not new. Jesus Christ dying on the cross in the place of sinful mankind was not a novel idea that God came up with at the last minute. All throughout the book of Numbers, we see God allowing animals to stand in as substitutes for sinful men and women, sacrificing their lives so that atonement can be offered. And in Numbers 8, God continues to stress the role of the Levites who, as a tribe, were designated by God to be His substitutes, taking the place of the firstborns of Israel, each of whom had been claimed by God because of His sparing of them on the night of the first Passover, all those years ago in Egypt. They would be a foreshadowing of a greater substitute to come: Jesus Christ, who would offer His life as an atonement for many. He died so that men might live. He paid the penalty owed for mankind’s sin with His own life. The innocent died for the guilty. The sinless for the sinful.

Sometimes, within the body of Christ, we end up with a hierarchical structure that wasn’t necessarily intended by God. Yes, there are designated roles and responsibilities with God’s church, but that doesn’t mean that some are more important than others. It is a matter of responsibility and calling. And in Number 7, we are going to see how the people of Israel understood that they had a role to play in the everyday affairs of caring for the tabernacle. While the Levites were the ones responsible for the care and transportation of the tabernacle and its contents, the rest of the Israelites showed that they wanted to play a part as well. So, they provided the Levites with a gift of six carts and 12 oxen. This appears to be a freewill gift, unsolicited by God. But it shows that they understood that the tabernacle belonged to them as much as it did to the Levites. They benefited from it, so they wanted to give towards its care. And their gift was highly practical, making the job of the Levites much easier than it had been.

We know the Bible talks a lot about sin. But why? Because sin is an aberration. It was not what God intended when He made the world. That’s not to say that the entrance of sin into the world caught God by surprise. In fact, He had already made provision for it. He had determined before He had even created the world that He would send His Son to die for the sins of mankind. Sin was inevitable. Because man was given a choice as to whether He would worship God, he was free to choose a different path. And he did. The result was sin and the wages for sin is death. And in Numbers 5-6, God provides the people of Israel with some rather strange commands regarding the treatment of lepers, the diseased, and the adulterous. While God’s prescriptions for dealing with these things may sound harsh to our ears, they were meant to teach His people that He takes sin and its varied consequences quite seriously. Disease is nothing more than a sad byproduct of sin. So is death. Which is why God wants us to take sin seriously.  

Have you ever thought about the fact that God gave the people of Israel the tabernacle, a fairly detailed and intricate structure, that they had to transport all over the wilderness for almost four decades. I’ve had to move a few times in my life, but none of my relocations come anywhere near the sheer size and level of sophistication the relocation of the tabernacle required. Not only was there a lot of pieces to pack and carry, they were all considered holy by God. In fact, there were some items that only the priests could pack, because if anyone else even looked at them, they would die. But each and every time God determined it was time to move, the Israelites were obligated to pack up the tabernacle, according to God’s very detailed instructions, and set out. And because He expected His people to treat His tabernacle with reverence, He established a protocol that ensured they did so. God was serious about holiness, and He made sure that His people were too.

Sometimes, we read the books of the Old Testament and assume they have nothing to with us. They are just ancient history, chronicling the exploits of the people of Israel as they stumbled their way through the wilderness on the way to the land of promise. But if we look closely, we will see so many lessons that apply to us, right here, right now. And in Numbers 2-3 we get a wonderful preview of God’s incredible plan for our redemption. In these two chapters we are introduced to the substitutionary role the Levites played in the lives of the Israelites. They took the place of the firstborns, serving in their place and fulfilling God’s claim that these individuals belonged to Him. As we’ll see, God had a right to expect the firstborn males of each family to serve Him alone. But rather than requiring their undistracted service to Him, He called on the tribe of Levi to act as substitutes or stand-ins. The Levites gave their lives so that others might live. Just as Jesus Christ has don for us.

This episode launches our new study in the book of Numbers. This book is part of what is called the Pentateuch, a section of the Bible that also includes, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The word Pentateuch is from the Greek and simply means “five books.” These books are actually considered one book written by one author, Moses, and are referred to as the Torah by the Jews. They also go by the names, “The Law of Moses,” the “Book of the Law of Moses,” and “The Book of Moses.” The name of this book, Numbers, is derived from a translation of the Greek Septuagint title, Arithmoi. This name was chosen because of the two numberings or censuses commanded by God in the book. As the book opens up, we will see God providing Moses with instructions for the first of these two numberings, in order that the people might be organized for battle. The closer the people got to the land of Canaan, there was a growing need for structure and order. They would need to know how many men they had who could fight. God had a plan, and they would play an important role in it. But first, they would have to be organized and under strong leadership.

In chapters 26-27 of the book of Leviticus, God gives the Israelites one last set of instructions. And they have to do with the making of vows. This particular issue doesn’t seem to be one that we struggle with – at least on the surface. But it really has to do with the commitments we make to God. Each of us has probably had a time in our lives where we told God we would do something if He would only help us out of a predicament. It goes something like this: God, if you’ll only help me out of this situation, I’ll read my Bible every day for a year. When the desired rescue takes place, we are usually grateful and may even intend to keep our commitment to God. But in time, we find that our fervor fades and our determination to keep our word slowly ebbs away. It seems that God would have us understand that He takes our vows seriously, even if we don’t. He wants us to be people of integrity, especially when it involves commitments made to Him. So, He provides His people with an escape clause.

The Sabbatical Year and the Year of Jubilee. These two events on the Hebrew calendar are not exactly familiar to us. And it would be easy to assume that neither one of them has any application to our lives as modern Christians. But that assumption would be wrong. The truth is, like so many of the other commands given by God to the people of Israel, these two events provide us with some valuable lessons about dependence upon God. The Israelites were God’s chosen people and, as such, they were to look to Him for all their needs. He was not only their source for forgiveness from sin, He was the provider of all their needs. And yet, how easy it is to forget that God is our sole source of sustenance. So, these two recurring events were intended by God to remind the people of Israel that He was their provider and protector. He would meet all their needs. But they would have to learn to rest in and rely upon Him.

The Feast of Pentecost is just one of the many feasts God ordained and gave to the people of Israel to keep in perpetuity. But of all the feasts, this one has a special significance that carries over to us as Gentile believers in Jesus Christ. On this one day of the year, the Jews were allowed to bake bread containing leaven or yeast and use it as part of their sacrifice to God. For the Jews, leaven was a symbol for sin. Its ability to spread through a lump of dough was an illustration of sin’s pervasive and permeating power. At the Feast of Passover, they were to remove all remnants of leaven from their home, essentially modeling their desire to remove sin from their lives. But on the Feast of Pentecost, they were commanded to bake bread with yeast and present it to God as a wave offering. There is so much symbolism in this passage and it points to a future date when the Holy Spirit would come upon the apostles and the church would begin. From that day forward, the body of Christ, the church would be made up of a surprising blend of Jews and Gentiles.

Leviticus 22 appears to be more of the same. At first glance, it can appear as if God is in a rut, saying the same thing over and over again. But if we look closely and listen carefully, we will see that He is actually driving home a point that is all-too-easily overlooked by the people of God. If we’re not careful the concept of holiness can lose its significance. What God has deemed of great importance, we can end up treating as optional or of minimal importance. Too often, we define holiness on our terms, rather than God’s. We determine the least amount of effort required to keep God happy with us, but it usually doesn’t reflect God’s outlook. And in doing so, our lives become an unacceptable sacrifice to God. We go through the motions. We perform the expected duties and live up to the usual list of dos and don’ts. And all the while our hearts are far from Him. This complacent, minimalist approach to our own spirituality ends up giving our witness a poor reputation and God a bad name.

Holiness or sinfulness. As the people of God, we don’t get to choose one over the other. Of course, we can and do sin. But from God’s perspective, sin is not an option for the child of God. We have been called to be holy as He is holy. Our lives are to be distinctively different than those who do not belong to God. And in Leviticus 20-21, we will see God continuing His call that His people live holy lives. But He qualifies and clarifies that call with the statement, “I am the God who makes you holy.” In other words, our holiness is something He accomplishes in us. But it requires our obedience to His will. We must strive to keep His commands. The life He has called us to is one of radical distinctiveness. It is intended to set us apart from the rest of the world. But, like the people of Israel, we can find it so easy to compromise our convictions, downplay God’s calling, and blend in with the world. We would rather fit in than stand out.

Be holy. That’s a command and it comes from God. But, not only that, it comes with a qualification: We are to be holy as He is holy. Sound impossible? It is. But in Leviticus 19, God will tell the entire community of Israel, “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” He was to be their standard. And His rules and regulations regarding holiness were to be their guide to living holy, set-apart lives to Him. But this is about far more than religious rule-keeping and behavior modification. What God is interested in is heart change. He wanted His people to be different on the inside, not just the outside. In fact, Jesus would tell His disciples that it was not what goes into the body that defiles them, but what comes out of it – in the form of impure thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander. These are what defile us and make us unholy. So, when God calls His people to be holy as He is holy, He is talking about far more than keeping a list of dos and don’ts. He is calling us to reflect His character – from the inside-out.

In chapters 17-18 of Leviticus there is a great deal of emphasis placed on the significance of blood in the sacrificial system. Blood was integral to the whole program, because it was the shed blood of innocent and unblemished animals that made possible atonement. For the Jews, blood was to represent life, not just physical life, but spiritual life. The shedding of blood is what made it possible for sinful men to restore their relationship with a holy God. And God did not want them to take this matter lightly. So, He placed some strong conditions on their attitude toward blood. For one thing, they were not to consume the blood of animals. They were to completely drain the blood from any slaughtered animal before they ate it. This would help ensure that their attitude toward the blood remained pure and holy. As always, God was setting the people of Israel apart from the rest of the nations. He was placing on them restrictions that did not apply to anyone else. All so that they might enjoy their status as His chosen people.

Chapters 15 and 16 of Leviticus contain an interesting juxtaposition. One has to do with impurity and uncleanness, while the other speaks of atonement, the forgiveness for sin made possible by God through the sacrificial system. Sin was an ever-present reality in the life of the people of Israel. They were the people of God, having been separated by Him from the rest of the world for His use. In other words, they were holy in His eyes. They belonged to Him. But sin had a way of getting in the way of their relationship with God. It made them unclean and unholy and, therefore, unable to come into His presence. Sin made them unacceptable and, in their impure state, they found God unapproachable. But God had made provision for this problem. He had created the Day of Atonement, a single day on the calendar when the people of God could have their sins cleansed for by God. But it required that they humble their souls, bowing down before Him in recognition of their sinful condition and their need for His cleansing.

Leprosy. Not exactly something we worry about today. But in the book of Leviticus, chapters 13-14, God spends a great deal of time warning the people of Israel about the dangers of this deadly disease and providing very detailed instructions regarding how to spot it in their midst and deal with it. While we don’t have to worry about leprosy in our day and age, there are some valuable lessons we can take away from these two chapters. The threat of leprosy was an ever-present reality for the people of Israel. And it was a non-discriminatory disease. Anyone could get it, whether they were rich or poor. Which sounds a lot like sin. Except that sin infects each and every human being. It is the equal-opportunity spiritual disease of the soul. And just as the people of Israel were to take leprosy seriously, so we should take sin seriously. Leprosy was a threat to the whole corporate community. It was dangerous and deadly. So is sin. And while the symptoms of sin are not always as evident as leprosy, it is not to be taken lightly.

Holy. Unholy. Clean. Unclean. Pure. Impure. The book of Leviticus is full of these contradictory concepts. The whole sacrificial system was designed to take those who were separated from God because of their impurity and provide a means by which their sins could be atoned for and their relationship with God restored. The impure had to be made pure. The unholy, separated from God because of their sin, had to be cleansed so they could once more be separated to God for His use. Purification from sin is a constant theme in the book and, in Leviticus 12, we see that even a woman who delivered a child was required to go through purification because of her contact with the blood of childbirth. And her male child could not be circumcised until she did. God takes purification from sin seriously. He places a high priority on holiness. And His greatest desire is that His people stand before Him as pure and spotless. Which is why He sent His Son to die on our behalf.  

Any time we read of God striking someone dead, we get a bit uncomfortable. It seems to go against our modern sensibilities and our preferred image of God as all-loving and all-forgiving. But we tend to forget that He is holy and has a strong hatred for sin. All sin is an act of rebellion against Him. Sin is not simply a mistake we make, but a willful choice on our part to disobey God. It is to live our lives counter to His commands and in keeping with our own self-centered agendas. We sin because we tend to think we know what is best. We do what we feel like doing. We willingly fulfill our desires, in direct violation of God’s commands, just because it feels good. And in Leviticus 10-11, we are going to see two priests who make the same mistake and lose their lives because of it. God doesn’t threaten to physically kill us when we sin, but our sin always results in death. Sin kills our joy. It robs us of our intimacy with God. It destroys our witness and brings God’s discipline. But the amazing thing is, that if we will simply confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us. Just like that.  

Have you ever wondered what it must have been like for Moses or Aaron to see the glory of God? For most of us, that kind of experience seems far-fetched and unachievable. In fact, few of us ever anticipate going through anything remotely like what those two men experienced. And yet, in Leviticus 8-9, we are going to see the entire nation of Israel see the glory of God. Why? Because they did what He had commanded them to do. As a result of their faithful obedience to His commands regarding the sacrifices, He appeared before them in all His glory, just as He had promised to do. This wasn’t business-as-usual. What they experienced that day was out-of-the-ordinary and mind-boggling. In fact, it left them shouting with joy and falling down on their faces in reverence to God. This was like nothing they had ever experienced before. And it happened because they had been obedient. They had offered their sacrifices just as God had commanded. And He showed up in all His glory.

God knows how to share. He is far from a selfish or self-centered God. And the gracious gift of His Son should be ample proof of this fact. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else?” In today’s passage from Leviticus 6-7, we see that God has always been a gracious and generous God, even allowing His people to share in the bounty of the peace offerings made to Him. Each and every peace offering given to God was to be shared by those who gave it. They could enjoy the very meat of the sacrifice they made, as long as they did it according to God’s terms. There were stipulations attached. And if these requirements were violated, the original value of the offering was negated. It became unacceptable to God. God, in His generosity, was allowing His people to join Him in the enjoyment of the sacrifice. He enjoyed the pleasing aroma of the burnt offering, while they enjoyed the meat that was left over. Their willingness to make this voluntary offering to God was met with God’s gracious willingness to share it with them.

“Guilty as charged.” We’re all familiar with this statement. It’s typically spoken by a judge to an accused criminal, who stands in the courtroom awaiting the official declaration of his fate. And when those words are heard, the matter is settled. The accused becomes the condemned. The assumed innocence of the accused has been replaced with a sentence of guilt, and the guilt demands justice be served. A crime has been committed and restitution must be made. In the book of Leviticus, there are countless references to man’s guilt before God. Mankind has been marred by sin and each and every human being carries a predisposition towards sin that causes them to disobey God’s commands and leaves him standing before God guilty as charged. And while we can choose to deny our sin and ignore our guilt. God cannot and will not. Which is why He gave the people of Israel the sacrificial system. He provided a means by which their sins could be atoned. He made forgiveness possible. But first, guilt must be acknowledged and sins must be confessed.  

In chapters 2-3 of Leviticus, we run into a strange litany of disturbing images describing the sacrifices required by God in order for the people of Israel to experience forgiveness for their sins. These pages are filled with vivid details of the various offerings the Israelites were required to make in order to maintain a right relationship with God. There are peace offerings and sin offerings, involving the blood sacrifice of innocent and unblemished animals. And all of it seems so strange to our modern sensibilities. And yet, if we can manage to slog our way through all the graphic imagery, we will find ourselves exposed to the themes of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness. Repeatedly, we read that the Israelites were to present their offerings “before the Lord.” These sacrifices were to be presented to the Most Holy One, as a pleasing aroma to Him. As the Israelites obeyed the commands of God concerning the sacrifices, they would be worshiping and honoring Him for who He is: The Holy God of Israel.

The book of Leviticus is actually the third section of the Hebrew Torah or Law. It is a continuation of the book of Exodus and contains requirements of the Mosaic Covenant that relate to the Levites, the tribe that had been set apart by God to serve as priests for the people of Israel. Essentially, the entire book has to do with God’s commands concerning the proper worship of Himself. While primarily addressing the role of the priests, Leviticus reveals God’s expectations regarding the tabernacle, the sacrificial system, and the part the laity were to play in the whole religious life of the nation of Israel. Two of the key themes found throughout the book are those of holiness and unholiness. The book intends to show how Israel was to fulfill its covenant responsibility to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to the Lord. And while the content of the book speaks of a different dispensation than the one in which we live, it reminds us of God’s desire that His people, no matter the time period in which they live, live lives that are set apart and distinct from all those around them.

As Paul wraps up his letter to the believers in Philippi, he thanks them for a gift he had recently received from them, but he also lets them know he didn’t really need it. Philippians 4:10-23 presents an interesting and somewhat confusing reaction from Paul. He is grateful for the generosity of his friends in Philippi, but he reveals that their gift was unnecessary. It’s not that he didn’t have any physical needs. It’s that he was totally content with his circumstances because he was completely content with Christ. He lacked nothing. And as difficult as it is for us to comprehend that, it is exactly what Paul would have us believe and live out in our own lives. For the Christian, there is nothing in this life that we need, beyond Jesus. And, while we may nod in assent to that statement, our lives rarely reflect that we truly believe it. Yet for Paul, writing from house arrest in Rome, he was more than content with nothing more than Jesus.

The world is full of distractions. And, while not all of them are bad, they’re all capable of pulling the believer off course and into unchartered territory, where we quickly find ourselves struggling to maintain our faith and keep our focus. So, in Philippians 4:1-9, Paul provides us with more words of encouragement, designed to keep us from allowing the things of this world to distract us from our mission as ambassadors for Christ. Paul loved the analogy of the race. He used it repeatedly because it so well described the mindset a believer needs to have if they are going to make it through this marathon called life. If you’re going to make it to the finish line, you can’t allow the things of this life to lure you off course or tempt you to stop running altogether. And the worst thing you could do is allow the enemy to distract you with a detour that leads to a false finish line.

Are you satisfied with Christ? Be careful. It’s a trick question. On the one hand, we should be satisfied with Christ. He is all we need. He is more than enough. And Paul stressed the need for godly contentment. But he also warned of the danger of growing complacent or content with our current spiritual status. For Paul, there was such a thing as divine discontentment. And he refers to it in Philippians 3:12-21. It’s an attitude that is marked by a constant striving to know Christ better and to grow in our likeness to Him. When we come to know Christ, we receive the righteousness of Christ. But we don’t automatically receive the nature of Christ. We still retain our old sin nature and the propensity to live our old life styles. That is why Paul insists that we “put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you.” As long as we live on this planet, we will be faced with the constant need to grow more like Christ, and that will require a divine form of discontentment.

How well do you know Christ? For many Christians, we know Him well enough to know that we are going to heaven. But is that all He promised us? Is that the extent of what it means to know Him? For Paul, Christ was far more than a one-way ticket to heaven. Which is why, in Philippians 3:1-11, he stresses his desire to know Christ in an ever-increasing and ever-more intimate way. Paul knew Jesus as Savior, but he also wanted to know Him as Lord. He wanted to understand the power that came with a relationship with Christ. He wanted to experience the kind of suffering that Christ suffered. Not because he was a glutton for pain and punishment, but so that he could better experience God’s power in the midst of his own weakness. Paul wasn’t interested in knowing more about Christ. He wanted to know, intimately and personally, Christ Himself – on an ever-increasing basis.  

There’s a shortage in the church today. And I don’t mean a financial shortfall. What we seem to be missing are godly young leaders who will help take the church into the next phase of its existence on this planet. It’s not that these men and women don’t exist, but that the church has done a less-than-stellar job of raising them up and preparing them for their future responsibilities. But, in Philippians 2:19-39, Paul was able to list the names of two young men who he knew were ready, willing and able to minister to the church long after he was gone. He knew, because he had helped to prepare them for their future roles. The church is always in need of godly leaders, but these kinds of individuals aren’t born, they’re made. It takes discipleship and the commitment of older men and women in the church who are willing to pour into the lives of the next generation. The church is only as strong as its leadership. But godly leaders don’t just happen.

We are in this together. As believers, we are not meant to be independent contractors, operating on our own and obsessed with our own individual relationships with God. We have been adopted into the family of God. We have brothers and sisters who we are intended to love and care for. And, because the body of Christ is a melting pot, made up of people from all walks of life and every conceivable background and personality type, we face a formidable challenge. Not all of us are lovely or loveable. We all bring our sin natures with us when we come to faith in Christ. And, while the penalty for our sin is taken care of, our propensity for sin remains. But we have the Holy Spirit to assist us. And Paul would have us recognize that our transformation into the likeness of Christ shows up best when we allow the Spirit of God to assist in loving the people of God. In Philippians 2:12-18, Paul will remind us we are to be lights shining in a dark world and our light shines brightest when we love one another.

What does it mean to have the mind of Christ? For Paul, it was to think like Christ thought and to live like Christ lived. It was to emulate the attitude that Christ displayed while He walked this earth: An attitude marked by humility, selflessness and obedience. We are not to use one another as our standard of holiness, but Jesus Christ Himself. And He set the bar high. He was sinless and perfectly obedient to His heavenly Father. But before we give up in despair, Paul would have us remember that we have the Spirit of God living within us. We have all the power we need to live the life we’ve been called to live. And in Philippians 1:27-2:11, Paul gives us a much-needed reminder that our lives are to look a lot like Christ’s. We are to share His mindset when it comes to the things of this world and our purpose for life in this world. We are to hve the mind of Christ. Which translates into a life of selfless service, willful obedience and humble submission to His will.  

There is a huge difference between stubborn resignation and joyful acceptance of one’s lot in life. Saying you believe in the sovereignty of God does not mean you particularly like it or submit to it willingly. But for Paul, the circumstances of his life, whether good or bad, were ordained by His loving, all-powerful, and completely-in-control God. And in Philippians 1:12-26, Paul displays his confident trust in God by declaring his contentment with his imprisonment in Rome because he knew that it had resulted in the further spread of the gospel. Paul had longed to visit Rome. Now, he was there. Not in the kind of circumstances he had expected, but he was okay with it. Because he knew God was in control. Rather than focus on the perceived negative conditions surrounding his imprisonment, Paul chose to be motivated to make a difference. He saw his condition as the perfect opportunity to preach the gospel, and to encourage all those churches he had helped to start.

This is the first in our series on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Written while he was a prisoner in Rome, this letter is one of what are known as the pastoral epistles, letters written by Paul and intended to encourage the churches he had helped to start. Paul had a pastor’s heart that showed up in his intense desire that the believers in Philippi grow up in their salvation. These people were near and dear to Paul. They had even provided him with financial support. Like a loving father, Paul wrote to his children in the faith, encouraging them to keep on growing in Christ-likeness. In the opening chapter, and the first 11 verses, we will see Paul lifting up a heart-felt prayer on behalf of his friends in Philippi. He may be separated from them by many miles and prevented from visiting them because of his imprisonment. But he could pray for them, and he did. He was grateful for their friendship and support, but also for their increasing faith in God and their determination to live lives that mirrored that of Christ.

As we come to the conclusion of Paul’s letter to the Colossian believers, we will hear him make a call that they live wisely. He will encourage them to make the most of every opportunity that faces them. For Paul, the Christian life was not simply about forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. It was about visible life change and a tangible evidence of God’s power of redemption and renovation in the hearts of men. God saves us, not just to one day transfer us into His eternal Kingdom, but so that He mighty transform us, right here, right now. Our life on this planet, while transitory and temporary in nature, is not meant to be treated as some kind of a grab-all-the-gusto-while-you-still-can kind of moment. Our new life in Christ doesn’t start when we arrive in heaven, it began when we placed our faith in His sacrificial death on the cross. And when God saved us, He didn’t take us. In other words, He didn’t take us to be with Him. No, He left us here so that we might grow up in our salvation and share the good news we heard with others.   

For Paul, faith in Christ was to have practical application. In other words, it was to reveal itself in actions and attitudes. The believer’s position as a representative of Christ required a lifestyle that reflected the character of Christ. And the fact that each and every believer has the Spirit of God residing within them, means that they have a ready power source available that makes Christ-likeness not only possible, but non-negotiable. In Colossians 3:18-25, Paul provides his audience with some tips on practical piety. This is where-the-rubber-meets-the-road kind of stuff. Christianity was intended to be life-transformative. Not based on human effort alone, but because of the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God. Paul demands lives that model mutual submission, selfless love, radical forgiveness, and a no-holds-barred pursuit of holiness. We have been called to live starkly different lives that act as lights in the spiritual darkness of this world. Lives of practical piety that bring glory to God, not us.  

When was the last time you thought about heaven? Was it at a funeral or the result of a sermon you heard at church? For the apostle Paul, heaven was on his mind constantly, because he knew that was his ultimate destination. For him, this life was a detour on the way to some place much better. It was a temporary assignment where he was to live out his faith and fulfill his God-appointed assignment until such time as God called him home. He commonly referred to believers living in this world as sojourners, aliens and strangers. As the old song states, this world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through. But for too many Christians, the world is their home. It’s heaven that seems distant and difficult to comprehend. The very concept of a heavenly dwelling place where we will live for eternity is hard to get your head around. But Paul would have us make heaven our focus, not this life. This world, like our earthly bodies, is not meant to last. So, one day God will remake it. He’ll create a new heaven and a new earth. Perfect. Filled with His presence. Marked by perfect peace. And designed to last an eternity.

To be “in Christ” is a wonderful thing. It speaks of a relationship that is based on the finished work of Christ on the cross and that assures us of a restored relationship with a holy God. Being in Christ is what makes eternal life possible. But it is possible to be in Christ, and still fail to reflect Christ in our behavior. That’s why Paul challenged the believers in Colosse to “walk in him.” They were to follow the example of Christ, living their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit and according to the Word of God. And in Colossians 2:6-23, Paul goes out of his way to remind believers that we must never forget from where we’ve come, living lives that were marked by slavery to sin and carrying the weight of our guilt and shame. We were once dead, but Christ made us alive. He canceled the record of our debt and removed the death penalty under which we had lived. The key to our continued spiritual transformation isn’t more hard work, but an increased dependency upon Jesus. We must sink the roots of our lives deep into the reality of His love, grace and mercy.

Paul cared. Not passively, but actively. He put his life on the line so that others might hear the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and grow in their likeness to Christ. Paul was a teacher, preacher, disciple-maker, and church planter. He had a passion for the people of God and a no-holds-barred style of ministry that kept him on the road or locked up in prison for his efforts. In Colossians 1:24-2:5, we have Paul’s strong words of encouragement, written to the believers in Colosse, and written from his house arrest in Rome. Here he was, unable to visit the brothers and sisters in Colosse, but using his pen to pass on a message designed to encourage spiritual growth among them. He actively cared for them. He personally invested in them. He sacrificed himself on their behalf, just as Jesus had done. In Paul, we have a powerful model of what it means to be a servant of Jesus Christ, putting the needs of others first, and doing whatever it takes to see that every believer is mature in Christ.    

What does it mean to be a child of God? For far too many of us, it’s simply a designation that doesn’t seem to match the reality of our daily lives. Our actions tend to reflect a different reality. But in Colossians 1:15-23, Paul encourages us to see ourselves the way God does: As holy and blameless, without a single fault. Hard to believe? No doubt about it. What Paul declares us to be in Christ doesn’t seem to gel with how we behave in real life. But the point he is trying to get across is that our standing before God has little to do with us, and everything to do with Christ. He is the source of our righteous standing, not us. It was His death that satisfied the just demands of a holy God. He paid the price required to settle our sin debt with God. Jesus, the creator of all things, subjected Himself to live as a man, taking on human flesh and dying a sinner’s death, all so that we might be reconciled to God. And as a result, we are members in good standing of God’s family.  

Today, we begin a new series on Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Like all of Paul’s letters, this one has a strong pastoral element to it. While he had not yet been able to visit the believers there in Colosse, he had a strong interest in their spiritual well-being. Most likely founded by Epaphras, the fledgling church there was facing strong opposition in the form of false teaching. These relatively new believers were having to deal with a range of dangerous heresies that were causing confusion and leading to doctrinal compromise. In his usual loving, but no-holds-barred style, Paul will confront them and challenge them to remain faithful to the gospel as it was presented to them. Paul had a strong opinion regarding anyone who attempted to add to the gospel of Jesus Christ in any way. And he was not afraid to call them out as exactly what they were: Heretics. The integrity of the gospel and the vitality of the local church were near and dear to Paul’s heart as Colossians 1:1-14 will clearly reveal.   

This is it. In this episode, we will bring the remarkable story of David’s life to a close. Like all men, David’s long life had a time limit attached to it by God. His days were ordained by God, with both a beginning and an end. And while David’s life was particularly spectacular and marked by incredible accomplishments, what truly set his life apart was his relationship with God. It is the one consistent theme that flows throughout. That, and David’s humanity. In 1 Kings 2:10-12, we will learn that David reigned for 40 years. That’s a long time at the top. But he had to go through a lot to get there and, even after he ascended to the throne, things weren’t always easy. But through it all, God was with him. As a boy tending his father’s sheep, David knew what it was like to have God beside him. And the same was true when he found himself running for his life and hiding in caves. God was consistently, faithfully at David’s side, teaching him, preparing him, disciplining him, and molding him into the king he had appointed him to be.

David was near death, and getting ready to hand off his kingship to his son, Solomon. And as he prepared for the transition, he had given his son some sage advice. But, as we will see in 1 Kings 2:5-9, David also gave Solomon some unexpected chores to accomplish on his behalf, once he was dead and buried. David gave his son three pieces of unfinished business, two of which would put the newly crowned king in an awkward predicament of taking the lives of two men. This is a clear case of David passing the buck and leaving to his son a responsibility that was not his to handle. But, as we have seen before, David had a habit of shirking responsibilities. And he would pass on to his young son two duties he had been reluctant to take care of on his own. David was leaving his son a powerful and successful kingdom, but also a far-from-attractive set of instructions to do his dirty work for him.

What does a real man look like? What are the attributes of manliness? Every generation has had its own list but, for the most part, those lists almost always include a rugged independence, the search for power, a need for control, bravery in the face of danger, and a pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps mentality. But when David prepared to hand over his kingdom to his son, Solomon, he shared some dramatically different concepts about manliness and manhood. In David’s mind, a real man was a godly man. He had a heart for God and willingness to submit to the will of God, no matter what. Rather than pridefully independent, he would be humbly dependent upon God. He would recognize that his strength came from God and his life was to bring glory and honor to God. Like any father, David wanted to see his son succeed in life, but he knew that the key to that happening was directly tied to Solomon’s reliance upon God.

David has decreed that Solomon will be his successor to the throne of Israel. But this was not just a dictate from the lips of David, it was the divine will of God Almighty. God was circumventing the normal succession plan, choosing to place Solomon on the throne rather than Adonijah, the next is line by virtue of age. Because God had a plan that was going to include a King like no other king Israel would ever have. This King would be a descendant of David, but His kingdom would last forever. And He would bring righteousness to Israel as no one else ever had or ever could. He would be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. The Son of Man and the Son of God. He would be Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” He would be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the King of kings and Lord of lords. David would appoint Solomon to be his successor, but God had already established Jesus to be the future King of Israel.  

David is nearing the end of his life and reign as king of Israel. And he is being forced to step in and make an announcement regarding his successor. God had made it clear that Solomon was to be David’s replacement, but Adonijah, one of David’s other sons was conspiring to have himself named the next king of Israel. But this passage isn’t just about a battle for the throne. It’s about God’s desire to have the right kind of man wear the crown. As 1 Kings 1:28-40 will reveal, there is a huge difference between being a king and fulfilling God’s expectations of being a ruler over his people. Saul had been a king, but he had been a lousy ruler. He wore the crown, but did not wear the mantle of spiritual leadership well. So, God replaced him with David, a man after his own heart who shepherded Israel with integrity of heart and skillful hands. And it was God’s desire that David’s successor be the same kind of king and ruler.

We have already seen how David struggled with indecision. He had a flaw in his internal wiring that kept him from dealing promptly and forcefully when faced with important decisions. And in 1 Kings 1:11-27, David finds himself facing yet another son who is trying to take over his kingdom. This time it is Adonijah, who is following the script used by his deceased brother, Absalom. Adonijah has already recruited some of David’s key advisors and royal administrators, in the hopes of winning their support in his quest to follow David as king of Israel. Solomon was to be God’s appointed successor to the throne, but Adonijah was unwilling to accept that outcome. So, David was faced with yet another important decision to make. All eyes were on him. The future of his kingdom was at stake. What would he do? How would he respond?

With the opening of 1 Kings, we see David in the waning days of his kingdom and life. He is old and bed-ridden, and while Solomon was God’s appointed successor to David’s throne, he would face an unexpected challenger: His own half-brother, Adonijah. This scene is eerily reminiscent of Absalom’s attempt to usurp the throne from David. Once again, we see one of David’s sons exhibiting disrespectful and rebellious tendencies, all because David had failed to provide him with proper guidance and discipline in his life. In 1 Kings 1:1-10, Adonijah will mirror the methodology used by Absalom in order to win over some of David’s key advisors and leaders, including Joab, his former military commander and Abiathar, the priest. David, relegated to his bed, would be able to do little to stop what was about to happen. In his younger days, he had suffered from complacency and indecisiveness. Now, he was hampered by debility and helplessness.

David had made a huge mistake and realized it. So, he confessed his sin to God. But there was still payment due for his sin. David’s actions had been representative of the heart of the nation. His trust in God, like that of the people, had begun to diminish. As his reign neared its end and his power and prestige had grown, he had begun to get cocky, believing that his military might was the reason for all his success. As a nation, they were enjoying the fruits of David’s military exploits. It was a time of peace. They had defeated all their enemies. And, as a result, they had become complacent about their relationship with God. David had seen the error of his way, but he was still going to have to pay the piper. And in 2 Samuel 24:11-25, we’ll see God giving a David a choice of judgments. His sin was going to require blood sacrifice. He had offended a holy God and, even with his confession, restitution would have to be made.

Why is it that those who claim to have trust in God tend to struggle so much with trusting Him? We claim to believe He is all-powerful, loving, and kind. But then we turn around and place our hope and trust in things other than God. And David was no different. He was a man after God’s own heart who sometimes let his heart go after other things. And in 2 Samuel 24:1-10, we see David getting in trouble with God, because he decided to take a census that would reveal just how big a standing army he could muster if he needed to. And God didn’t take David’s decision too well. For one thing, it was not something God had ordered him to do. Secondly, it revealed that David had begun to believe his own press, thinking that it was his military power that made him great. When all along it had been God. Late in his life, David would learn the invaluable, yet painful, lesson that God is enough. No census necessary.  

It seems a bit odd that when David compiled the list of his mighty men, he conspicuously left off one name: That of his long-term friend and commander of his army: Joab. There is no doubt that David and Joab didn’t always see eye to eye. But that David would leave this one man out of his list of those who had performed mighty deeds on his behalf, shows that David had never gotten over Joab’s insubordination. But the truth is, Joab was the most likely candidate for a best friend that David had. He was willing to speak up. He wasn’t afraid to point out David’s faults and to call him on the carpet when he thought it was necessary. Joab wasn’t a fair-weather friend. And he wasn’t the type to ply David with false flattery. He loved him enough to say the tough things. But as we will see in 2 Samuel 23:24-39, Joab’s name is nowhere to be found.  

There is a lot said about friendship in the Bible. And in the story of the life of David, we are told about the friendship between David and Jonathan, the son of King Saul. When Jonathan was killed in battle against the Philistines, David mourned his loss. But 2 Samuel 23:8-23 makes it clear that David had other friends and companions along the way. His circuitous journey to the throne of Israel was not done in a vacuum. From the very moment he fled from Jerusalem, seeking to put some distance between himself and Saul, David found himself surrounded by men who not only loved him, but were willing to die for him. And these men would stick with David through thick and thin, all the way to the bitter end. Even when he made the ill-fated decision to seek refuge in Philistia, they refused to abandon their friend and leader. The godly life is difficult, and it only becomes harder if we attempt to live it without the help of friends who share our faith and are committed to our growth.

David was a shepherd who became a king. But even as the God-appointed sovereign over the nation of Israel, David’s role was remained primarily that of a shepherd. He was to care for and protect the sheep of God’s flock. And according to Psalm 78:72, he did his job well. “With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.” But, as we come to the end of David’s long and action-packed life, we are going to see that his reign had a time limit. His days on earth were going to run out. But the promises God made to David would not. He would be faithful to place a descendant of David on his throne who would rule and reign forever. There was going to come another ruler from the lineage of David, who would also be a Shepherd King. He would prove to be the fulfillment of God’s covenant promise. And while He does not currently sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem, one day He will. And He will prove to be a just and righteous king.