I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Isaiah wraps up his prophecy that says that Cyrus will overthrow Babylon and return the Jews to Jerusalem. He then goes on to say that the craftsmen who fashion idols shall be shamed and the day will come when all of humanity will be forced to acknowledge that God is the only god. Babylon will fall and be destroyed. Its gods will be shown to be powerless and its magic users to be no threat. The people of Babylon lived at ease and sought after their own pleasure with no concern for the well-being of others. They acted wickedly with no fear of judgement. Isaiah told them that the day of judgement was coming and would strike them without warning (although, since he is here warning them, he seems to mean that they had completely ignored the warnings). Any people who get caught up in their own pleasures and who believe that there will be no judgement for their wickedness will experience the calamity that Isaiah here prophesied for Babylon.
We should be humble, gentle and patient. Tolerating one another out of love. We should strive for unity because their is only one body of Christ and only one Holy Spirit. Despite this unity of God, He has given us each separate gifts. However, all of those gifts serve the purpose of equipping God’s people to do His work and to build up the Church. If we join in unity with our fellow believers we will not be easily susceptible to new, false teachings. We will learn to speak the truth in love as we become more like Christ and He binds us together as one Body. Paul tells us here to seek unity, but not unity at all costs. He advises us to seek unity in the Spirit and in God’s truth, so as to avoid being susceptible to false teaching.
God is the God who saves us. He will destroy those who choose to be His enemies, those who oppress the weak and poor. We who have experienced His power should tell all the world of His might. Let us praise the Lord.
A house is built through wisdom and furnished through knowledge. This sums up the relationship between wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom is necessary to build. Knowledge provides the furnishings and decoration that make it a place that one would like to live.