Tag Archives: Isaiah 42

Daily Bible Study

July 31, 2023 Bible Study — Do Not Be Afraid, You Have Been Chosen the One Who Made Everything

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 39-42.

I had planned to skip this entirely after I missed it and failed to discover I had done so until mid-day, but I decided to add this in for future reference.

So, Isaiah tells us that God is the Creator of the Universe and nothing can be compared to Him.  Isaiah points out that everything that is not God has been made, and worshiping it seems silly when you think about it.  If we put our faith in anything, or anyone, other than God, we will become exhausted trying to deal with life, but if we trust in God, He will strengthen us.  God has chosen us, so we should not fear.  He is with us, we need not be dismayed.  Do not be afraid, God will help you.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

July 31, 2022 Bible Study — Prepare The Way For The Lord

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 39-42.

In chapter 40 Isaiah writes of a voice calling out a message.  John the Baptist understood the voice to be in the wilderness calling out.  The translators of the NIV understood the voice to be telling us to prepare the way in the wilderness.  I like John the Baptist’s take a little better.  In any case, I think the passage is referring to our hearts, because that was what John the Baptist was doing when he said he was the voice: he was calling for people to make a way in their hearts for God.  I suspect that Isaiah actually meant to skirt the line between speaking about a voice calling out for a path to be made in the world for the coming of God’s Messiah and calling out for us to clear out the obstacles in ourselves to doing God’s will.  I don’t believe that God expects us to clear the path, to lower mountains and fill in valleys (either in the real world, or in ourselves).  No, He wants us to begin the task and He will finish it.  We need to be willing to destroy the obstacles in our lives to doing God’s will and we need to try doing so, but when it happens, let us give credit to God.

When I started this entry I intended to write something about lifting up our voices, without fear, to declare to people, “Here is your God.” I was about to skip over that, but I want to expand on it a bit.  First, that is good news, which will cause people to rejoice when they understand it.  Second, who is this God whose presence we declare, to whom or what can He be compared?  Well, He created all that we can see.  Think about the recent pictures released from the James Webb Telescope.  All that those pictures display was brought into being by God.  As carefully arranged as the Universe is, God consulted no one in its design and no one taught Him the engineering to make it work.  And, He does not grow tired.  Instead He gives strength to the weary.  Even the greatest athlete runs down, no matter how much work they put into enhancing their endurance.  But, if we put our trust in God, He will renew our strength.  Which brings me back to making a path in our hearts for God.  Clearing out the sins and distractions which obstruct God entering into our lives is exhausting, but if we keep calling out to God, He will give us the strength to continue.  When you grow tired of doing God’s will, cry out to Him and He will cause you to soar once more.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

July 31, 2021 Bible Study — With Whom Will You Compare God?

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 39-42.

Since I am going to be on vacation from July 31-August 9 I have already written my blog posts for these days and scheduled them to be posted.  However, I may not be able to post a link to them on FaceBook, Gab.com, or MeWe.com during every day (or any day) during this time period.  So, please continue to visit my site to read my daily devotional.

There are multiple things in today’s passage which are worth giving thought, but I want to write about God’s call on the idols of this world to tell us what is going to happen, and then His claim to be the first to reveal things to man.  For whatever reason, reading this made me think of all of the things which Christianity supposedly borrowed from other religions.  For example, Zoroastrianism contains many similarities to Christianity and is older than Christianity.  However, none of the pre-Christian documents concerning Zoroastrianism contain the elements which Christianity supposedly borrowed from Zoroastrianism.  All of the documents which contain those elements first appear long after the New Testament was written.  If one examines the similar claims from other religions, one discovers the same sort of thing, all of the documentation which is older than Christianity does not really look like the ideas in the New Testament.  Only after the New Testament was widely known do writings connected with these other religions contain elements which look like the elements of Christianity which were supposedly borrowed from those religions.

I know the above is a bit of a stretch from what is said in the passage (although I do believe it to be consistent with the point Isaiah is making here).  However, it is something which stirs me, because I used to believe those who claimed Christianity was derivative.  Perhaps someday soon I will do a separate blog on the topic of things which people claim Christianity borrowed.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

July 31, 2020 Bible Study Let Everyone Know That The Lord Is Coming

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 39-42.

The verse where Isaiah refers to a voice crying to make a straight path through the wilderness for the Lord is a prophecy which John the Baptist applied to himself.  However, it is part of a command for us.  We too should be shouting for all the world to hear that God is coming, both as Savior and as Judge.  He will provide water to the needy in a parched land.  He will also confuse and humiliate those who oppose and oppress His people.  Let us not be afraid to tell people that God is coming, both as an invitation and as a warning: a warning to the wicked, an invitation to the weak and lonely.  And remember that for most people our announcement should be both a warning and an invitation.

Further, our announcement should server to show people that God is different from the gods made by humans.  God is not just an idea which people created to ease their fear of the dark and unknown.  God revealed long ago many things which have since happened, and has revealed things which are still to come.  He shows His power so that we can know that He is real.

Daily Bible Study

July 31, 2019 Bible Study — Clean Out Your Life and Make Room For God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am going to be on vacation today through August 10th.  I have prepared my daily Bible Studies for each day throughout that time in advance since I will have limited access to the Internet during this time.  The timing on when I publish these blogs may be erratic during this time.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 39-42.

John the Baptist applied Isaiah 40 to himself, which helps me see the prophet’s meaning.  When I read this passage I have a tendency to imagine God clearing a path in front of Himself, leveling hills and filling in valleys with the rubble, creating a smooth, straight path,  kind of like you might see in a Science Fiction movie.  But comparing what this passage actually says with John the Baptist’s ministry gives me another picture.  I picture each one of us clearing out the obstacles and distractions which separate us from God.  John the Baptist called for people to clean up their lives and open themselves to God.  I believe that is the image the prophet was going for here as well.  The prophet even tells us why we should clear the way for God to come to us.  God coming to us will bring us great joy.  We may not know it, but we want what God is bringing us.  

Isaiah goes on to describe God’s great and wonderful power.   No one and nothing can compare to God.  The sun, moon, and stars cannot compare because God made each and everyone of them.  What idol made by man could possibly compare?  God has spoken of what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.  God has performed wonders time and again.  Good luck finding an idol which can compare.  

Daily Bible Study

July 31, 2018 Bible Study — God’s Words Are Eternal, Human Ideas Disappear Like a Morning Fog

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 39-42.

    The first thought came to me about what to write came when I read Isaiah 40:6-8. Here Isaiah reminds us that people are here for just a short period of time. They flourish and bloom, but soon wither and fade. But God’s words stand forever. This made me think about how our society wants to throw away the guidelines God gave us in favor of human guidelines. God’s rules and guidelines last forever. Those of mankind are just temporary. We hear people talk about “social justice”, “injustice”, and “inequity”. They claim that we need these new rules in order to address these things. However, you cannot have justice if the rules keep changing. Only by following the unchanging guidelines given to us by God can we attain justice and equality.
    Part of me thinks that the above is reading into the passage something which, while true, goes beyond what the prophet intended with what he wrote. Another part of me sees how that connects to the verses just before that which speak of a voice calling us to “Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!” The call for straightening the curves and smoothing out the rough places is a call to trim away the human distortions of God’s guidelines. Every generation adds addendum and clarifications to God’s guidelines to help others see how they apply. Over time we mistake those aids for the guidelines. When that happens we need to strip the human additions away and go back to what God actually told us. However, all too often people mistake the guidelines God has given us for the add-ons which humans created and try to live without those as well.

    Isaiah goes on to inform us that there is no one and nothing which can be compared to God. As a matter of fact, he is reminding us that by comparing God to people or things we often lose track of the directions He has given us. As I read this I was reminded of how images representing Jesus as a blue-eyed blonde has led some people to mistake European cultural norms for God’s directions and others to mistake God’s directions as merely European cultural norms. When we begin to think that God is more like us than He is like other people we have lost the story. While we should constantly strive to be more like God today than we were yesterday, we should never think that He will favor us over others. The fact of the matter is that the more we become like God, the more we want Him to favor others over ourselves.

Daily Bible Study

July 31, 2017 Bible Study — A Straight Path Through The Wilderness

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 39-42.

    My first thought when I read where this passage talks about Clearing the way for the Lord and how transient people are was about how so often we set aside God’s directions for human ideas. Time and again I have heard people in the Church say that a particular passage, which they do not like, was written in a “different time”. They will say that life was different then, or the culture was different. Those passages no longer apply because people have changed. However, God knows how people change over time and His commands and instructions cut through the mountains and valleys of culture. God’s word will straighten the curves and fill in the rough places of human culture. If we follow the Scripture we will see that they clear a path through the wilderness of the culture around us.

    What I wrote in that previous paragraph is a bit of a stretch from the message I think the writer meant to convey, but it is consistent with what he wrote later in this passage. He tells us that the words of Scripture go back to before the world began. I do not think he means that literally. What it means to me is that the commands given in Scripture, the instructions in those passages which some of us dislike, are expressions of God’s intent from before He made the first human. The author addresses the idea that people have changed, that culture has changed, so that those passages no longer apply in chapter 41 verses 21-24. Those “changes” that supposedly invalidate the words of God are no more than idols. They are unable to tell us what is going to happen in the future. In fact, their very premise is that they cannot tell us what is going to happen in the future. Worse than that, those “new” ideas are unable to make things better now. They fail to show us a path into the future, and they fail to aid us today.