30th November
Read Psalm 137
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept”, so begins this psalm of exile. The people were captive in a foreign land and while their captors wanted them to sing some of their songs they said, “How can we sing songs of joy in a foreign land”. The psalm is a remembrance of past times in Jerusalem and a desire for their enemies to be repaid according to what they had done to them. Sometimes songs of grief are appropriate.
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Isaiah 10:20-34
The message to the people is that only a remnant will survive of the people. It comes in two senses, first that only a remnant of the people will survive the terrible destruction that God will bring upon them and, secondly only a remnant will truly rely on the Lord (v20). It was true of the people of Israel in that they were scattered and only a few were faithful and were blessed with a return to their homeland.
This will happen but God tells the people not to be afraid of the Assyrians (v24) because very soon his anger against them will end and his wrath will be turned against the Assyrians (v25).
It is a message to us when we feel under the cosh of God’s anger to wait and see that he will turn and crush all that has been the source of our torment. In the next chapter he is going to tell of what will become of the people who have been so cut down.
Tuesday Isaiah 11:1-9
Christian people familiar with regular recurrent passages of scripture will recognise this passage from Isaiah as it is referred to in the Advent season about the coming of Christ. Israel has been cut down and John the Baptism gives the appraisal of the people in Matthew 3 where he speaks of the axe being laid to the root of the tree (being Israel). Her in Isaiah however he prophesies that a shoot will come from the stump of the tree and he refers to Kind David but looking forward to David’s greater son, Jesus, and speaks of the Spirit of the Lord being on him.
This new King Jesus, the shoot from the stump of Jesse, will judge with righteousness giving justice to the poor and death to the wicked. In his kingdom peace will be the characteristic which he pictures as nature being at peace such as the lion lying down with the lamb (v6) and the end result will be that the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. What a great picture to look forward to and it is not an imaginary one but a prophetic truth. Give thanks.
Banners are raised to gather people together usually for a cause and for battle and Isaiah speaks of the Root of David, Jesus the Messiah, raising a banner for the peoples, that nations to rally to him. He speaks of the nations and we understand that the King Jesus is to be King of all nations and not just one, however he adds that he will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people, Israel. It indicates that the peoples of the world, God’s worldwide elect, are to include also a remnant of his first covenant people. When Jesus gave his commission to his disciples to go into all the world (Matt 28:19), he was not excluding the Jews as Paul teaches in his chapters in Romans 9-11 and as the writer to the Hebrews also teaches.
In the following verses he speaks of a gathering of the people, the Jews, who have been scattered to the four quarters of the Earth and he speaks of there being no division among them as in the past between Ephraim and Judah (the split that came after the death of Solomon in the time of his son, Rehoboam – 1 Kings 12). He tells of the people swooping down on Philistia to the West (the strip of land on the sea (around present day Gaza) and plundering the people to the East, Edom and Moab (the Transjordan area, roughly present day Jordan and South East Jordan).
The prophecies of the return to Israel of the exiles speaks of waters to the South (Egypt) and to the North (Mesopotamia and the Euphrates) so that there will be a highway, an unbroken way for the people to return.
It is necessary to say that some find these prophecies as merely referring to the return of the remnant of the Jews who came back to the land after Cyrus the Great defeated Babylon and gave the Jews permission to return and rebuild Jerusalem in 538 BC (Ezra 1) but others see in these verses a much bigger and longer vision which may only refer to the 20th Century re-establishment of present day Israel in 1947 with ongoing issues still to happen. There can of course be a double reference to both.
Thursday Isaiah 12:1-6
Chapter 12 now brings praise to the fore where we hear the people say “although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me” (v1). The anger of God has been against them because of their persistent turning away from him and seeking other gods but he has saved them; “God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid” (v2). The picture scripture gives us is that we are sinners, persistent and deliberate, but God redeems us from our black situation and saves us from judgement and draws us to himself. This is what the people are praising and rejoicing for.
They have been saved from the idolatry of the past and now they declare “proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done” (v4) The destiny of God’s ancient people is to do just that for God has done glorious things “let this be known to all the world” (v5). The Christian church’s glorious end is to have God’s ancient people join with them to proclaim “great is the Holy One Israel among you” (v6)
We would normally think that it was the Assyrian Empire that was the dangerous threat from the North and indeed it was, Babylon, though an important power, was not the great power it would become later. It would be 100 years later that Babylon would come against Judah and deport her people into exile in Babylon nevertheless Isaiah speaks against them and we need to note that God looks long term in his dealing with the nations (something for us to remember in our present world scene).
Much of the beginning of the chapter is about the fierceness of the Babylonians and they speak of that future time when the people will suffer under them as being a Day of the Lord (v6 & v9). However, the phrase Day of the Lord is also used of the much longer time (past New Testament times) when suffering will come and the world will be punished for its evil (v11) and it will be a time of great hardship (see v13,14). However in v15 we hear of a coming punishment against the Babylonians from the Medes who would overthrow Babylon (v22) which they did and it started its long decline into an uninhabited ruin after a lot of its stones were taken for building materials elsewhere.
Chapter 14 tells of God having compassion on Jacob (remember, Jacob who was also given the name Israel, was the father of all the Israelite people) and the prophesy is about them being settled in their own land. This seems to hint at the people who returned after their exile in Babylon but there seems to be more here in that it speaks of foreigners joining them and Israel taking possession of these nations such that Israel rules over them.
Then the prophesy goes into a triumph over Babylon (v4) which is viewed as defeated and that the nations have rest and peace (v7). In the midst of the rejoicing which even nature shares in (v8) we are then transferred to the gloom in the realm of the dead where all those who were leaders rise up to welcome Babylon into the halls of the dead. Verse 12 tells of Babylon but, as many have seen, tells even of him who was behind the rulers of Babylon, one who fell from heaven due to his pride, the Devil himself of whom it is said “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God” (v13)
This place of death is a place where there will be no resurrection (v21). The Lord swears in v24 “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.” And in case any feel it is only the Assyrians that they fear as the crushing power over them, God says “I will crush the Assyrian in my land” as well and concludes with, “This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? (v26,27).
We may always only see the immediate powers that rattle their swords (Napolean / Hitler / Putin or Chi or whatever contemporary power we see about us but this prophecy points us to the powerful hand of God and how he will bring the world to its proper completion in his time.