Bible Pathways 8/2/2000

August 2

Isaiah 5 -- 9

The prophet Isaiah foretold the judgment of God against the Kingdom of Judah for five specific sins. First, selfishness and greed: Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! (Isaiah 5:8). Second, drunkenness: Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink (5:11). Third, stubbornness, refusing to recognize themselves as sinners and parading their sins before God: Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope (5:18). Fourth, insincerity, self-deception, and hypocrisy: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil (5:20). And fifth, pride, the basis of all sin: Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes (5:21). Therefore My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge. . . . they have cast away the Law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people (5:13,24-25).
Isaiah spoke as if the captivity had already taken place, but continued to plead: Should not a people seek their God? . . . To the Law and to the Testimony: If they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no Light in them (8:19-20).
At this time in the history of Judah, wicked Ahaz was king and Assyria was the ruling world empire. The Kings of Israel and Syria attempted to force King Ahaz to join them in a confederacy to strengthen them against an invasion by Assyria. Angered when Ahaz refused, Syria and Israel then invaded Judah (II Kings 16; II Chronicles 28).
Isaiah appealed to King Ahaz to turn to the Lord for His protection, saying: Ask for yourself a sign of the Lord your God (Isaiah 7:11), then turn to Him and He will give you victory over them. Isaiah had also warned: If you will not believe (rely on God), surely you will not be established (7:9). Instead of trusting in the Lord and praying for deliverance, Ahaz robbed the Temple of its gold and silver and sent it to the powerful Assyrian Empire to defeat Syria and Israel.
When Ahaz refused to ask a sign of the Lord, Isaiah was given a glorious prophecy of the true King of kings: Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Immanuel (God with us) (7:14). Seven hundred years later, the Angel Gabriel confirmed to the Virgin Mary: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore the Holy One which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). To deny the virgin birth and question either the Deity or the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth is to deny the true nature of Jesus as the Son of God who is the Messiah.
The prophet Isaiah also had a glorious vision of the eternal King of kings when he foretold: His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus was Wonderful in His life on earth, Wonderful in providing eternal life to all believers by dying on the cross for our sins, and Wonderful in His triumph over death. He alone is the Wonderful Counselor, the Revealer of Truth, for He is Truth.
Jesus' conception by the Holy Spirit gave Him a sinless nature (I Corinthians 15:20-22; II Corinthians 5:21), and He lived His life on earth as a Man without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Since He was without sin, Jesus alone could die for our sins. He was able to do this because He had totally submitted to God the Father. The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for what things soever He does, these also does the Son likewise (John 5:19).
Christ Revealed:
As Immanuel, the Son of the virgin (Isaiah 7:14). Other prophecies concerning Jesus Christ are found in Isaiah 8:14; 9:2,6-7. Isaiah 9:6 reveals that a Child shall be born; a Son shall be given (crucifixion); and the government shall be upon His shoulders (His Second Coming). The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God (I Thessalonians 4:16).
Word Studies:
5:1 vineyard means the Israelites; My wellbeloved means The Lord Jesus Christ; 5:2 fenced it means dug it up; 5:5 go to means listen to Me; 5:12 viol means strings; tabret means tamborine; 5:23 justify means acquit; reward means bribes; 6:1 train means trailing robe; 6:2 seraphims are one of the various orders of angelic beings; 7:6 vex means terrorize; 7:14 Immanuel means God with us; 7:16 abhorrest means hate; 7:20 feet means legs; 7:25 lesser cattle means sheep; 8:7 the river means the Euphrates River; 8:14 gin means trap; 8:19 peep means whisper; 8:21 hardly bestead means sorely distressed; 9:8 lighted upon means spoken against; 9:9 stoutness means arrogance; 9:10 change them into means replace them with; 9:14 rush means bulrush.

Prayer:

BPM Staff: Benjamin Wallace · Pray for Stephen Wike, Media Management · Pray for the Bible Pathway International Radio Broadcast sponsored by Benjamin and Ilene Wallace · Country: Venezuela (20 million) on the northern coast of South America · Major languages: Spanish and Indian dialects · Religious freedom · 94% Roman Catholic; 1% Protestant; 1% Indian pagan religions · Prayer Suggestion: Pray diligently with other believers and God will answer (Acts 12:5-10).

Optional Reading:
Hebrews 10

Memory Verse for the Week:
I Thessalonians 4:18