8th March
Read Proverbs 1
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
The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
for gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;
for receiving instruction in prudent behaviour,
doing what is right and just and fair; (v1-3)
These are the opening words of the Book of Proverbs which we shall use as our Sunday readings for a while having completed the Psalms. We also come to the end of the book of Isaiah.
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Isaiah 64:1-7
“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down” this chapter opens with as the prophet expresses his wish that God would break into the world and sort things and he harks back to the delivery from Egypt with the great and miraculous acts that made their enemies see and tremble. There will be times when we will wish the same but the prophet adds that although God comes to help those who do right yet for themselves, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (v6). He sees that if they look for righteousness in themselves, they will only find uncleanness and this is always the situation in our lives and it is why in our services of worship we always seek a place of confession where we may plead with God for his forgiveness. We don’t come to God with our goodness but for his kindness.
Tuesday Isaiah 64: 8-12
The prophet likens God to a potter whilst we are the clay being worked in his hands (v8). There is always a tension in scripture between God’s sovereignty and our responsibility which we see here and in the following verse in which he asks God not to be angry beyond measure and not to remember our sins. Sin can only be the fault of us for it is disobedience to God and that is not the shaping of his hands. However he does claim, “we are all your people” (v9) and pleads for a restoration of the ruined city and the destroyed temple.
This mixture of God’s sovereignty yet our sinfulness is streaked through scripture and is only resoled in Jesus who takes on our nature and under the hand and judgement of God bears our sins that we might go free.
Wednesday Isaiah 65:1-7
In chapter 65 God contrasts his people, Israel, to whom he held out his hands but who wouldn’t listen to him with those to whom he hadn’t revealed himself but who sought him. It contrasts the majority of the people who turned away from him and his laws with the few, the remnant, who he brought back from Babylon to the promised land and the city of Jerusalem. Behind that however is the truth shown by the apostle Paul in the later Romans chapters about the Jews who would not hear the gospel of Jesus with the Gentile nations who did, the New Testament Church becoming composed mainly of Gentiles whilst the majority of Jews turn their backs.
We look however to the days when the Jews will be brought back in faith and trust, united with the Gentiles at the close of the times. The stern words in the first seven verses show the wrath of God against those who spurn him in the face of his kindness and grace from whatever people or background.
Thursday Isaiah 65:8-16
Having spoken of the punishment of his people who had been obstinate and who provoked him to his face in v8 he says that he will not destroy all but will save a remnant of them. He will bring forth descendants of Jacob to inherit the blessings promised them but for those who forsook him they will be destined for the sword. (v12)
From v13 God contrasts the difference in outcome of those who obey him and are blessed and those who displease him and find loss, shame, weeping and other signs of failure and judgement. This separation Jesus also brings to the fore in his ministry. There is a division, a separation between those who hear and ocey and those who don’t. The judgement of God has to be taken seriously because the Bible doesn’t speak of universal blessing for all regardless of life.
Friday Isaiah 65:17-25
In the remaining part of the chapter we hear of God’s plan of a new heaven and a new earth in which will be righteousness and no evil, the former things not even being remembered. This prophesy is brought to light in the New Testament in 2 Peter 3:13 and in Revelation 21:1&2 where this Isaiah passage is affirmed and developed.
This becomes linked with the doctrine of the resurrection which isn’t a doctrine of earthly resuscitation to a similar life of what we know about here but the resurrection into a completely new and different experience. A lot of the images are based on present earthly life because our minds cannot understand all that will be because as the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12 our vision is as through dark glasses on spiritual matters but then, in the resurrection, we will see with clarity or , as he says, “face to face” with Christ.
Saturday Isaiah 66:1-6
When God declares that heaven is his throne and earth his footstool he is declaring his sovereignty over every thing and he challenges those who think they might find him a home on earth. The people and place where he is and looks with favour on are those who are humble and contrite in spirit and respect his word (v2). In verse 3 we find his diatribe against all who go about religious practices but who he finds unworthy because of their hypocrisy. He mentions the sacrifices that the Israelites would practice but describes them as dirty or unclean because they chose their own ways instead of his.
Those who heard and obeyed his word find that they are hated by the mass of their hypocritical fellow men – always the case with those who seek to hear and obey – yet God will be glorified and when Jerusalem is being overcome by its enemies (v6) it will be God repaying the disobedient and being glorified in his faithful followers.