Year 6, Day 31: Isaiah 47

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

Ambition.  It’s a very necessary human attribute.  Without ambition we are slothful.  Without ambition we never improve ourselves.  Without ambition we stay the same and never grow.  Without ambition creativity is stifled.  Ambition can be a good thing.

However, too much ambition and we become competitive in an unhealthy manner.  Too much ambition and we think more of ourselves than we should.  Too much ambition and our focus shifts from bring God’s peace to the world around us and instead shifts onto fulfilling our own desires.  Too much ambition and we find our life actually losing meaning rather than gaining it.

We can actually see this in the Babylonians in this passage.  God called the Babylonians to conquer the Assyrians.  God called the Babylonians to be judgment upon the Assyrians – who suffered from an unhealthy level of ambition themselves.  At first, the Babylonians were fine.  They did the work of God.  But their heads swelled.  The wanted too much.  They took too much.  Their ambition pulled them out of the will of God and into their own will.  Their ambition brought them from the blessing of God into the wrath of God.

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Year 6, Day 30: Isaiah 46

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

In Isaiah 46 we continue to hear God’s rant against idolatry.  We really need to consider why it is that God rants for so long against idolatry.  I think the answer is really simple.  God rants against idolatry because human beings are so prone to it!  We make idols out of the work of our hands.  We make idols out of our dreams.  We make idols of the culture around us.  We can make an idol out of just about anything.

The interesting thing about this chapter is God’s logic.  When we create an idol and set it up as an idol in our life, can it actually do anything for us?  Can an idol genuinely make us happy?  Can an idol of our own creating generate satisfaction and purpose in our life?  Can an idol provide for our needs?  Can an idol hear our prayers, comfort our sorrows, and carry us in his hands?  No.

The danger of idolatry is that we lose sight of God’s provision.  In fact, I think this is a cyclical pattern.  Because we focus on priorities that may be out of order, we lose sight of God’s provision.  This means we have to try and provide for ourselves.  But that only causes us to lose more sight of God’s provision and the cycle grows.

Only God can provide for us.  Only God can meet our needs.  Only God can genuinely satisfy us.

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Year 6, Day 29: Isaiah 45

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

In my blog three years ago, I comment on how much I like this chapter.  I still do.  It is chapters like these that push us out of our restrictive theological constructions that we as human beings like to make.  We like to think of Jesus as the only Messiah.  Of course, Jesus is the only Messiah who can wash away our sins and grant us access to eternal life.  But as this chapter clearly says, Jesus is not the only anointed one of God.  Cyrus is God’s Anointed.  The word in Hebrew that we often translate as anointed one is the word from which we get the English word Messiah.

For the record, David was called God’s anointed.  The phrase anointed one just means someone who is doing the will of God.  That’s why God calls Cyrus His anointed one.  Cyrus is anointed to come and bring judgment upon Babylon.  Cyrus is anointed to come and open the doors for the people to return to Jerusalem.  Cyrus is in no way the one anointed to give us salvation, but he still is anointed by God to do His will!  And what’s really significant is that Cyrus is a Gentile king!

So what does this mean for us?  It is a huge reminder for us who are in Christ to remember that we are anointed by God for a purpose.  We are not Christ.  We are not anointed to grant salvation through our sacrifice.  But we are anointed to bring this message of salvation to the people around us.  We are anointed to teach people about God’s grace through our love and peacefulness and kindness and gentleness.  We are not The Anointed One, but are called.  We are anointed by God as Cyrus was called.

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Year 6, Day 28: Isaiah 44

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

This chapter of Isaiah is one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible with respect to idolatry.  It begins with such a great series of verses illustrating the greatness of God.  He has formed us in the womb.  He will pour out His Spirit upon us.  Who is anywhere close to being like Him?  He has been before all people and seen all people.  Who among mankind can say that?  He is our rock.  Of course we should worship Him.

The end of this chapter is a great passage about redemption.  He blots out our transgressions.  He accepts our return even though we rejected Him.  He makes it possible for our offspring to rise up even though we may be trampled down.  Again, why wouldn’t we worship Him?

But for me, what really makes this passage outstanding is the section in the middle.  Here God mocks our idolatry.  An ironsmith takes iron and fashions it into some sturdy object of our worship.  But if the ironsmith doesn’t eat or drink, what happens to his strength?  How can anything made by a man who faints after a few hours of lack of nourishment have any real power?  Or what about the carpenter?  He cuts down a tree.  With part of the wood he burns a fire to keep warm and it is destroyed.  With another part of wood he makes an idol.  How can anything that doesn’t have the power to protect itself against being burned have any great lasting power?  Even more reason why we should worship God.  Is any fruit of our own hands really worth our worship?

But for me what makes this chapter brilliant is how Isaiah uses his manner of writing to make his point.  When Isaiah talks about God, he is writing in his traditional poetic verse.  But to contrast our human idolatry, Isaiah suddenly turns to prose.  His point is clear.  God should be the subject of our worship.

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Year 6, Day 27: Isaiah 43

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Reading through Isaiah 43 truly gives us a great figurative history of God’s work.  In Abraham, God gave the people faith.  Then the people went to Egypt, rebelled, and God had to ransom them.  He started by ransoming them out of Egypt.  As they were coming out of Egypt, God gave His people the Law to help them be more obedient.  They rebelled once more and now God is sending them to Assyria and Babylon.  He will ransom them once more out of bondage.

Why has God done all of this?  God has proved to all of humanity that we can handle neither grace nor law.  We receive them.  We certainly benefit from them.  But we cannot handle them.  Therefore, God takes matters into His own hands.  That’s why He sent Jesus to us.  God sends us Jesus to make the atonement that we can’t even handle.

That’s what I truly love about this chapter.  This chapter begins with God promising salvation.  In the middle we hear about our humanity and our inability to truly obey and follow God.  Then we hear that God is doing a new thing.  He’s doing something that only He can do.

Ultimately, that’s what makes Him worthy of being king.  Only he is capable of resolving the issue that we can’t resolve.  Only He is capable of doing something new – something that we can’t do.

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Year 6, Day 26: Isaiah 42

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

Isaiah 42 gives us a great opportunity to feel the challenge of calling.  In this chapter, we hear God calling to the Hebrew people.  But let’s be careful and make sure that we understand the calling.  God called them to be His chosen people.  What does that entail?  Does it entail them being more privileged and ruling over the world?  Does it entail them living a life of ease and luxury?  Of course not!

God called them to be His offering into the world.  They were called to receive the Law and live it out in their lives.  They were called to show the world that living according to God’s ways was better than living according to our selfish desires.  He called them to open the eyes of the world.  That was their calling!

They rebelled.  God called His own people blind and deaf.  They didn’t receive the calling as He hoped they would.  They didn’t live out their relationship with Him as He called them to do.

Of course, this is a great opportunity for us to ask the same question.  Am I living out God’s calling in my life?  If people were to see into my life, would they see a life lived according to God’s rule?  Would they be drawn in to see how a life set upon God’s ways is better than a life lived in selfish pursuit?

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Year 6, Day 25: Isaiah 41

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

Most days, my capacity to think is my undoing.  When I think, I make plans.  When I think, I look to the future and try and determine how conversations will go, how the activities of the day will go, what foods I’ll eat, what purchases I want to make throughout the next few weeks, and things like this.  When I think, I inherently make dreams about my desires.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t genuinely believe that there is anything wrong with looking to the future for hope.  I think God wants us to enjoy the life ahead of us and our opportunity to live in His creation.  The problem isn’t that I do these things.  The problem is my motivation and my focus when I do them.

You see, quite often when I’m looking into my future I’m planning how I want things to go.  I’m setting myself up for as much success as I can grab.  The problem with this is that it is so easy to forget God in it all!  It is so easy to have my dreams and aspirations occupy so much of my mind that I forget God’s aspirations.  Of course, God’s aspirations for my life are far superior to anything I can conceive anyways.

The deep problem with this is that when I forget God’s desire for my life I also forget that I am only where I am in life because of God’s provision already happening in my life.  I am who I am only because of what God has done for me.

This truly is the point of this chapter in Isaiah.  The problem with the world is that human beings rely upon themselves and the people around them more than they rely upon God.  But who among us can honestly predict the future?  Which of our idols can genuinely provide for us and prepare us for the days to come?  No, it is God who provides best.

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Year 6, Day 24: Isaiah 40

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

So often we hear the words of Isaiah 40 echoed at the time of Christmas.  “Prepare the way of the Lord!  Make straight His highway in the desert!”  We often associate them with John the Baptizer.  But they are originally words given to Isaiah to call to the people in the time of persecution.

But as much as we have turned them into words of comfort, we forget that they are actually words of challenge!  That’s why they are so properly associated with John the Baptizer, too!  These are words that challenge us to change.  These are words that challenge us to become different people.  These are words that challenge us to accept that the Lord – or at the very least, His grace – is coming to us.  We don’t earn it, He gives it to us for free.  We are to prepare for its coming.

This is why the verses that follow these are so focused on human beings like grass when compared to God.  Grass fades every season.  Compared to the lifespan of a human, grass lives such a short growing season.  So are we to God.  He is the great one.  He is the eternal one.  He is the giver, we are the recipients.

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Year 6, Day 23: Isaiah 39

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

In this chapter we hear of a blunder that Hezekiah makes.  The nice thing about this chapter is that we get to remember that Hezekiah is human after all.  It is easy to think of Hezekiah as a repentant superhuman after reading the last chapter.  Today we are reminded of his stumble.

When threatened with Assyria, Hezekiah hears about the Babylonians.  They had been under Assyrian captivity, but they were able to manage a rebellion of their own.  The Babylonians break free of Assyrian captivity for a short time.

Hezekiah is impressed with this.  Hezekiah sees a potential ally.  Hezekiah invites the Babylonian envoys into Jerusalem and tries to impress them.  Why would he want to impress them?  He wants their help.  He wants their approval.  He wants them to help them overthrow the Assyrian threat in Jerusalem as they had done in Babylon.

Unfortunately, when we seek the approval of men instead of the approval of God, things usually work out wrong.  First, Hezekiah doesn’t know that the Babylonian rebellion would only last about 9 months.  The Babylonians would be no help the Jerusalem.  Second, the Babylonians will not forget the wealth that Hezekiah shows them in order to impress them.  When Assyria is deposed, Babylon will march to Jerusalem and take it because of their greed.  Finally, Hezekiah’s desire to seek human approval only guarantees God’s disapproval.  Their own captivity is assured because Hezekiah seeks the approval of men.  Approval is a dangerous thing indeed.

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Year 6, Day 22: Isaiah 38

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

Hezekiah’s character is on full display in this chapter.  Hezekiah is told that he is going to die.  He decides to repent, fully confessing his humanity.  He places his life in the hands of God.

God responds.  God gives Hezekiah 15 more years.  Hezekiah proceeds to use the time wisely in order to produce an heir so that the line of Judah could continue.  He makes copies of the Law so that as the people are saved from Assyria God’s ways could be taught to those Jews who were not dragged off into captivity.  Hezekiah makes the most of his time.  He shows character by responding when God gives him a second chance.

However, I think there is an even bigger display of character than what we see in his actions.  If we look at the song that Hezekiah composes, we hear that Hezekiah actually looks upon his illness with joy.  Hezekiah realizes that his illness – even the pronouncement of his upcoming death – was for his benefit.  Because he was told that he was going to die, his life completely changed.  How do we know that Hezekiah is a man of character?  When faced with a life changing situation, rather than grumbling and complaining Hezekiah allows his life to change and praises God for the opportunity.

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Year 6, Day 21: Isaiah 37

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

When I read this section of Isaiah I always get excited.  This is the place where the promised deliverance happens.  This is where the rubber meets the road.  This is the crux of the issue.  This is where the Hebrew people find redemption and salvation in the power of God against the Assyrian threat.

But look at the qualities of leadership that we see displayed in Hezekiah in this chapter.  He gets bad news from the Assyrians.  Hezekiah tears his clothing and mourns.  He prays to God.  He takes the letter to God’s holy temple and bears his soul.  He then turns to seek God’s counsel in Isaiah.  When the Assyrians send another threatening letter he continues to believe in God and listen to Isaiah.

We could talk about so much with respect to Hezekiah.  His Up is clearly focused on God and the worship of Him.  He wants the Hebrew people to be saved so that God’s name is glorified!  Hezekiah certainly sees God as King and knows that the universe is under His control.  Hezekiah certainly is displaying character by leaning upon God and not his own understanding or his own fear.

But what is the most dramatic of all of these things?  In the overwhelming face of oppression, Hezekiah is still obedient.  When his obedience to God directly implies making his greatest threat angry, Hezekiah is still obedient.  When God tells him to trust that within three years time the Hebrew people will be planting in the fields out of their own stores of food, Hezekiah obediently listens and believes even though he has no worldly reason to think that such an outcome was even possible.  Hezekiah has every reason to crumble at the Assyrian threat and yet he instead chooses to remain obediently humble in the presence of the Lord.

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Year 6, Day 20: Isaiah 36

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

This is a great chapter to bring the points that I’ve been making over the last few days to life.  One of the greatest struggles in reading about the Hebrew captivity is to remember that this happened at the request of the Lord.  The Rabshakeh says as much in this passage.  He fully confesses that Assyria has come out because the Lord beckoned them to come.  It’s so hard to remember that such a painful event actually happened because the Lord desired it to happen.

However, it is also such a good chapter to realize that just because the Lord brought forth the Assyrians that doesn’t mean that the Assyrians are behaving as God desires them to behave.  The Assyrians are challenging God’s people too much.  They are overstretching their purpose and their strength.  They may have been called to threaten the Hebrew people, but they have not been called to actually take and conquer Jerusalem.  The Assyrians had been called, but their ambition has grown too great.

We can hear this is the words of the Rabshakeh as well.  Do you hear the arrogance from the Rabshakeh?  They want to dominate the world.  They want to take not what they’ve been called to take but rather they want to take everything.  They are over-confident.  That’s their ambition growing.  When we start listening to our ambition we start reaching for things in ways that we should not reach.  Our ambition grows and our desire to humbly obey God diminishes.

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Year 6, Day 19: Isaiah 35

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father, King

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.
• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

There are some really neat contrasts from yesterday into today.  Yesterday we heard that the cities and civilized places would be run over with wild animals.  Today we hear that those places will become civilized once more and places of peace.  Yesterday we heard that the land would become inflamed, today we hear that the soothing nature will be returned.  Yesterday we heard that the land itself would become uncivilized, today we hear that peace and tranquility will be brought back through a way of righteousness.  In other words, there will be a time when judgment turns to peace.

However, let’s be very clear about what exactly is going on here.  It isn’t like human beings will suddenly learn to treat one another better.  It isn’t like one day human beings will wake up and realize that how they are acting is ridiculous.  It isn’t like humanity will cure itself.

The reason the state of existence will change is because of God’s presence.  God will come upon the situation and His will shall bring about the changes.  God will bring deliverance.  God will bring peace.  God will bring true civilized behavior.  God will teach us to put the needs of the other ahead of the needs of the self.  He is the king of the universe.  He’s the one who can teach us how to truly act.

In these types of passages I always try to also ask myself why this will happen.  Why does God do this?  I know the answer; yet it is good for me to be reminded of the answer.  God comes to us and brings peace into our lives because of His great love.  He is our Father, and He cares deeply for us.  He moves us from the consequences that we deserve into a life filled with His grace.  This happens because of His character and out of His character comes His love.

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Year 6, Day 18: Isaiah 34

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Appetite, Calling

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.
• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

When we look at this chapter, we see that the Lord is angry at the nations and once more bringing judgment against them.  As I explain in the commentary that I wrote three years prior, it is easy to read these words and understand that what the Lord is truly sick about is our violent tendencies towards each other. 

Let’s use Assyria for the test case example.  God called Assyria to bring His people under judgment.  But Assyria went too far.  They enjoyed destroying the Hebrew people.  They enjoyed enslaving them.  They enjoyed crushing their spirits.  God may have given them the power to do the task, but they certainly didn’t do the task according to God’s will.  God called them; they didn’t respond according to their calling.

God hates our violent tendencies.  He hates how we look to take what we can from others.  He hates how we try to dominate over one another.  He hates how we cannot treat each other with love and respect and grace and instead simply long to increase our own status in the world.  That’s where appetite comes in.  We hunger and thirst for the wrong things and we’ll be judged for it.

But there is more to it than just God reacting to our inability to listen to His calling and instead living through our appetite.  In the end of this chapter, Isiah gives us the test case of Edom.  We are told that Edom will flow with burning pitch.  What is pitch good for?  Pitch is good for keeping out water and keeping things on fire.  In other words, pitch is good for keeping out the soothing refreshment water brings and inflaming what’s left.  In the midst of God’s judgment, He will let us do what we do naturally.  He will let our appetite keep us from enjoying the peace that only comes from Him.

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Year 6, Day 17: Isaiah 33

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

Within this chapter of Isaiah we have a beautiful contrast of the unfaithful and the faithful.  The unfaithful act treacherously.  The unfaithful think that they can save Jerusalem by making an alliance with Egypt or other human powers.  The unfaithful lead people to place their hope in other people.  On the other hand, the faithful know that God is their refuge.  The faithful know that salvation can only come from the Lord.  The faithful know that there is only one place where we can truly dwell in security: the Lord.

In order to see why I chose to focus on Up today, let’s look at what drives the faithful.  In this chapter we hear that the treasure of the Lord is the fear of the Lord.  How are the faithful able to keep their focus upon God instead of turning to human sources of power and salvation?  They fear the Lord.  Up starts with a genuine fear of the Lord.  Remember, many places in scripture we hear that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Before ending today, make sure we truly understand what a fear of the Lord is. A fear of the Lord doesn’t mean that we are terrified, panic stricken, and unable to move.  A fear of the Lord is a healthy combination of fear, respect, and awe.  Having fear of the Lord means that we know that God is capable of judging us but we desire to walk with Him as He goes about His will.  Having a fear of the Lord humbly acknowledges that God is the righteous one and we are better off being a part of His work in this world.

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Year 6, Day 16: Isaiah 32

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.

Yesterday I focused on God as King.  Today, I’m going to focus upon God as Father.  As we talk about the coming of the captivity under Assyrian and then Babylon, Isaiah looks beyond this into a time of hope.  Isaiah sees a time when God restores the nation.  Isaiah perceives a time when righteous reign, justice thrives, and leadership can be counted on to put forth a good role model.

What brings about this time of peace under God?  God Himself brings it to us.  The Father loves us and cares for us.  He wants to bring us into a time of His peace and His righteousness.

What I find truly telling about this dynamic is that we hear God speak through Isaiah into the women.  Isaiah isn’t reaching the leaders and the men of Jerusalem.  Now, God uses Isaiah to try and reach the women.  If Isaiah wants to bring a message of hope from God, what better people to hear this message than the women, the mothers, the leaders of the home, and the people responsible for raising future generations?  We can see the hand of the Father in this chapter as God speaks into the homes of a besieged city and gives them a message of hope in which they can believe.

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Year 6, Day 15: Isaiah 31

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

In this chapter, we see multiple sides to the fact that God is king of the universe.  The first area that we see God as king is the fact that He asserts that the Egyptians cannot save the Hebrew people from Assyria.  After all, what is all of the collective might of any nation next to the salvific power of the Almighty God who is the Creator and King of the universe?  When stated this way, doesn’t it seem silly to put our hope in humanity?  Yet how many times do we abandon the help of the King of the universe in order to put our trust in what we can see and touch?

As we move through the chapter, we also hear that God is King because He has the authority and the ability to forgive when we turn aside.  The King is the one who can pardon criminal activity.  The King is the one who can stay an execution.  The King is the one who can extend grace and cause His subjects to live.  Even though the Hebrew will reject God – as we all do – the King is willing to forgive and bring them all back into the fold.

God is King.  God is the one who saves.  God has the authority to forgive, pardon, and keep us in life.

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Year 6, Day 14: Isaiah 30

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Isaiah 30 contains an interesting set of perspectives.  These perspectives aren’t unusual to hear in Isaiah.  In fact, they aren’t unusual to hear in the Bible.  God complains that His people have rebelled.  God complains that His people aren’t listening.  God warns them about impending doom.  But how does this chapter end?  It ends with God looking forward to a time when He is with a remnant of people who have returned to Him.

Isn’t God glorious?  We don’t deserve His grace, yet desires to forgive us anyways.  That’s God.

But I want to take a deeper look at the human condition.  Do you hear what Isaiah says?  Human beings aren’t just rebellious.  We don’t want to hear correction.  We want the people who see us clearly and truly to be quiet.  We don’t want to hear about our depravity.  We don’t want to hear about the call to change.  It’s not just that we are undeserving.  We are actively rebellious and desiring to cover up the truth so that we can have our way.  That’s what Isaiah 30:8-14 are all about.

Yet God forgives.  He seeks ways to bring salvation into our life.  So often even when we intentionally walk a direction opposite from God He hunts us down just to show us His love.  That’s forgiveness.

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Year 6, Day 13: Isaiah 29

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

I’ve always thought that the prophets are humbly sad.  Of course, they contain great wisdom and insight into the human condition.  But what they reveal is often so sad.

For example, look at what we see here in chapter 29.  Ariel – or Jerusalem – will be besieged.  It will look really bleak.  But then the Lord will appear and the people will be saved!  But look at what the average person does.  Their appreciation of salvation is short-lived.  They turn back to their lives.  They are quick to turn and focus on what they want.  It is sad to see people who are saved by His hand and yet who cannot turn and give the glory to God for their life.

But fortunately, we do not end on a dark note.  There are some who will remember the work of the Lord.  The poor will be in God. The humble will be in God.  The people who cannot help themselves will be mindful of who it is that saves them day after day.

What is the key to being in the presence of God?  The key is humbleness.  When we are humble before God, we worship Him.  When we are humble, we give Him the glory.  When we are humble, God and His awesome nature can take the center stage.  In other words, when through our humbleness God can be the focus of our Up, we will be found in His presence.

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Year 6, Day 12: Isaiah 28

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

What a horrible chapter to read if you are looking for good leadership!  Isaiah looks at the leadership of Israel and sees what looks like a bunch of drunks.  They think they are wise, but they are fools.  They think they are invincible but they are unable to see their own lack of ability.  They think that they can make great decisions but in reality the judgment is skewed and they simply cannot see clearly.  Sounds like drunkenness to me!

Of course, the leaders aren’t literally drunk.  They are figuratively drunk on themselves.  They are drunk on their own desires.  They are drunk on their ability to deny reality and the destruction of Assyrian and eventually of Babylon.  They are drunk because they don’t have enough character to see reality and they only want to acknowledge what they want to see.

But look at what God says in the middle of this chapter.  God will measure the leadership of Israel against true leadership.  God will set up a plumb line against these horribly blind leaders.  Who is that plumb line?  The righteous.  The true plumb line in this world are the people of character.  Who does God truly respect?  God respects those who do what is right and who see reality even when it is easier to pursue our own desires and see what we want to see.

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Year 6, Day 11: Isaiah 27

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Bear Fruit

• Bear Fruit: We bear fruit after we grow.  Bearing fruit is ultimately the goal of abiding and the goal of being called into the Kingdom of God.  However, while bearing fruit is our calling, it is not the end.  We bear fruit so that we can then prune, abide, grow, and bear more fruit in another season.  Bearing fruit is not the end, but rather only a portion of the whole rhythm of life into which God has called us.

We are progressing through a great set of chapters in the middle of Isaiah.  In Isaiah 25 we heard about restoration.  In Isaiah 26 we heard about judgment, salvation, and how God uses consequences to guide us and change us.  In this chapter we deal with what happens after we change.  Here we get a great sense of who God wants us to be.  Here we see what it looks like when we are truly His people, submitted to Him and waiting for Him to act before joining Him.

After the Lord contends with the Hebrew people in the captivities under Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, we hear God make a great promise.  This promise is found in Isaiah 27:6.  After God contends with them, then they shall take root.  Then they shall put forth new growth.  Then they shall bear fruit.  In fact, the will bear fruit all across the whole world!  What is the after effect of God contending with us?  Growth and fruit!

This is a great promise.  This is why we wait for Him.  This is why we pass through his judgment – even if it is a difficult time.  When we let God contend with our sinful human nature we discover that God has cleared room in our lives to take root in Him and not in the world.  We find that God has trimmed away the gnarled branches in order to let healthy branches grow forth.  We find that when we are rooted in God we can bear fruit that is worthy of Him.

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Year 6, Day 10: Isaiah 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.

This is a great topic to talk about as we flow from Isaiah 25 into Isaiah 26.  Yesterday we spoke about the fact that one of our main callings is to wait upon the Lord and then join God in action when He moves His hand into motion.  That’s what we hear in the definition of guidance that I have set before us today.  We wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.  In fact, that’s pretty much what one of the major points of this chapter in Isaiah is all about.

In the middle of this chapter Isaiah is clear in telling us that we learn through judgment.  God pronounces His judgment and we who are in the wrong – all of us, by the way – are humbled.  We all have something that we can learn through His judgment.

Of course, His judgment is not an easy process to endure.  Who likes to be told that they are wrong?  Who likes to think about how they can change?  After all, change is hard work!  But when God gives us guidance, it is often because we have something within us that needs to be tweaked and changed!

However, the goal of His judgment is for our salvation.  He does not just us to demonstrate our condemnation.  He judges us so that we might see the error of our way, repent, and receive His guidance.  In a very tight nutshell, that is what the Assyrian captivity is all about!  As Isaiah says in the middle of this chapter, if favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness!  That’s us, and that’s what guidance is all about.

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Year 6, Day 9: Isaiah 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling, Protection

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.
• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Isaiah 25 is one of my favorite hope chapters in the Old Testament.  Here we see very clearly that there will be a day when God wipes away every tear.  There will be a day when God sets out an incredible everlasting provision for us.  There will be a day when God delivers us and protects us even from the clutches of death.  That’s a testament of hope!

But as we go through this chapter, we need to really understand the issue of calling.  It is God’s calling to save us.  Isaiah 25:9 is really clear about this fact.  It is God who saves us.  We are not righteous enough to save ourselves, He will bring salvation into our midst.

Then what is our calling?  If we are not to save ourselves, what are we to do?  Again, Isaiah 25:9 tells us quite clearly.  We are to wait for Him.  When He saves us, we are to rejoice in His glory.  What is our job?  Our job is to wait for Him to act and then join Him in His action.  Once He acts, we are to rejoice in whatever it is that He is doing.

So often we want to be ahead of God.  So often we want to guess what God is doing so that we can be in on the ground level.  But that really isn’t what we are called to do.  We are called to wait until God works and then join Him.  We are to let Him lead so that we can follow.  We get ourselves into trouble when we try and anticipate God.  He doesn't need us anticipating His job so that He has to correct our assumption.  He needs us to wait patiently and then get on board once He works.  That is our calling.

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Year 6, Day 8: Isaiah 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

This is a bit of a difficult chapter to read while focusing on discipleship.  After all, this chapter is the beginning of Isaiah’s apocalypse.  This chapter is about judgment and wrath.  This chapter is largely about how humanity has brought judgment upon all of creation.  The whole of creation mourns because we as human beings were sinful.

Given all of that, I think this is a good chapter to turn and look at the topic of identity.  Yes, we are God’s people.  Yes, God has paved the way of salvation.  Ultimately, our identity is in Him.

But what about our nature?  It is important once and a while to remember that our nature is corrupt.  The sinfulness of our flesh is contagious.  We impact all that we touch, and often not in a positive way.  We are inherently self-centered unless we work hard to be different.  We are deserving of judgment.  Our identity may be that we are saved by the hand of God, but our identity truly is a corrupt being that is saved by only by His grace.

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Year 6, Day 7: Isaiah 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

Unless you are an expert on this chapter or you’ve already read my commentary from three years ago, I am willing to be that the idea of provision is not a topic that you saw coming after reading this chapter.  After all, isn’t this a chapter about all of the Mediterranean Sea mourning over the loss of Tyre – the Phoenicians?

Yes, Tyre will fall.  Syria fell.  Arabia fell.  Israel fell.  Canaan fell.  Jerusalem will eventually fall.  Egypt won’t fall, but they will be beaten back.  Assyria will wreak havoc across the land.  The whole of the Middle East is falling under judgment.

So how is this a chapter on provision?  Do you notice at the end of this chapter that we are told that this will result in glory?  Eventually, all of these nations will be freed from captivity and they will trickle back to their homes.  The Hebrew people will come home and they will want to rebuild.  What they will discover when they do this is that the Phoenicians – the people of Tyre – will also be reestablishing themselves.  They will be reconstructing their lines of trade across the Mediterranean.  They will need partners who have something to sell and partners who are looking to buy.

Just as God orchestrated this moment of judgment, God will also orchestrate the return to glory.  God will provide a way to restoration for the Hebrew people.  God provides.

Of course, God provides the way to restoration in a very spiritual sense, too.  He provides the way for us to go from captivity to freedom in Christ.  This chapter is a literal analogy for the same provision that God will bring to us after judgment falls upon us as well.

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Year 6, Day 6: Isaiah 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Within the words of Isaiah 22 we get a grim picture.  Assyria has come to the doors of Jerusalem.  Much of the Middle East has already fallen to Assyria.  Hebrew refugees are likely coming to Jerusalem looking for salvation as one of the few remaining free places around.  As the Assyrians around Jerusalem capture the refugees, they are likely dragged away into genuine captivity.

Why have I set this scene?  As Isaiah looks out, he mourns for what is happening to the world around Him.  But he also mourns because of what he sees happening within Jerusalem, too.  Jerusalem is leaning upon their own strength.  They are securing the walls under their own power.  They are collecting water to endure a long siege.

Why does Isaiah mourn for what seems to be genuinely good and well-thought out planning?  Maybe you missed what Isaiah didn’t miss.  The people of Jerusalem aren’t doing it with God’s help.  They aren’t doing it and consulting God.  They are reacting to the stimulus around them and leaning upon their own strength to save their own necks.

The reality is that the Hebrew people of Jerusalem have an identity that is about themselves.  Their identity is not in God – at least for the majority.  They believe that they will only be saved by their ability to outlast the army of the Assyrians behind their powerful walls.

The sad part of this story is that we do know that the Hebrew people outlast the Assyrians.  But they don’t last because the Assyrians get frustrated and leave.  God sends a plague among the Assyrians and many of their soldiers inexplicably die.  They go home with their tails between their legs because God intervened, not because the Hebrew people were powerful.  Even though the Hebrew people do not have their identity in God, God saves them.

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Year 6, Day 5: Isaiah 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Isaiah 21 talks about the destruction of three different cultures at the hands of the Assyrians.  The Babylonians will fall, and this is where most of the chapter content resides.  The people of Edom – which is likely to what Dumah refers – will fall.  In fact, it is likely that Dumah is the Assyrian word for Edom, implying that in spirit Edom has already fallen.  Finally we have the people of Arabia falling as well.  The message is bleak.  The people of the Middle East will be swallowed up by Assyria.

The question with which I am left is why these countries will fall.  There are two messages being portrayed here and both have the same underlying principle.  The countries will fall because they have allowed other things to become their focus.  They are not in relationship with God.  They believe their strength and power is within themselves.  God is not their King.  It’s actually that simple.

The other message that this chapter brings comes in a reminder of why Isaiah wrote these warnings.  Remember that the nations about which Isaiah wrote may not have ever heard Isaiah’s words.  That means that these words are likely for the Hebrew people.  God’s message is simple.  The nations around the Hebrew people will fall.  They cannot help them.  They will not be there to save them.  The only way that the Hebrew people will be saved is if they turn and remember that God is king.  We do know that the people of Israel will not turn.  But the people of Judah will turn in their darkest hour.  That’s the reason Isaiah speaks.  Isaiah reminds the people that their hope remains only in God their true king.

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Year 6, Day 4: Isaiah 19-20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Do you recall all of the hatred between God, God’s people, and Egypt?  The Egyptians oppressed God’s people.  The Egyptians taught the Hebrew people to worship false idols.  The Egyptians taught the Hebrew people to depend more on human military strength – especially in horses and chariots – than on God’s power of salvation.  The Egyptians constantly lured the eye of the Hebrew people with all of their gold, impressive buildings, and cultured lifestyle.  From the perspective of the Old Testament, there are few greater nemeses to God than Egypt.

That is why the ending of Isaiah 19 is so profound.  As we get to the end of Isaiah 19 we hear about a time when Egypt will worship God.  In fact, we hear about a time when Egypt will worship God with Assyria!  This chapter is a great example of the true forgiveness of God.  God cares so much for humanity that He seeks the day when even His greatest adversaries come to Him for relationship.

What an incredible statement about God.  We cannot outdistance God’s love.  We cannot ever be unreachable by God if we are willing to listen to Him.  There is always an opportunity for forgiveness with God.

Naturally, I have to turn to myself and ask if I am this way.  Do I long for the day when my greatest nemeses come to me for relationship?  I suppose in a way I do, but I realize that it will be great struggle and it will be strange.  I wonder if I’d ever be able to trust my greatest nemeses even if they did come.  I might aspire to model God’s love and forgiveness, but I am convinced that I’d never be able to model it in such a genuine and easy way as God.  Not that this is a surprise, mind you.  I’m not God.  But I can aspire to be like Him in all ways – especially forgiveness.

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Year 6, Day 3: Isaiah 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

Isaiah 18 is such a great place to talk about calling.  Let’s start with a place that we already know.  Within this chapter God makes it clear that the Assyrians are doing His will.  They are called by God to be a judgment upon the nation of Israel and to be a warning to the people of Judah.  Of course we know that they go about their calling from God in a wrong manner and take it way too far.  For that, the Assyrians themselves will be judged.  So we learn that we need to hear God’s calling and obey without taking it too far and going about it in the wrong way.

Of course, we are also familiar with the Hebrew people.  They are being called into a time of judgment.  Of course they will resist.  But we also hear that in God’s compassion this time of judgment will not last very long.  They are called into judgment now, but not for forever.

However, what I really find inspiring today is the calling of the Cushites.  The Cushites are told in this passage to not get involved in this area of the world.  They are called to go back home and not worry about the Assyrians.

I find this interesting.  Often we look for places to which we are called.  But how often do we acknowledge the places to which we are not called?  How often do we acknowledge that God does not want us to go down a particular path?  How quick are we to consider the process of determining where we are not being called as a legitimate part of the calling process?

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Year 6, Day 2: Isaiah 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Appetite

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.

Appetite is a great perspective through which we can view the oracle against Damascas.  After all, one of the premier words that Isaiah uses to describe the people of Syria is “fat.”  So much of this oracle is spent talking about how the people of Syria will have their possessions, their livelihood, even their very being stripped away.  They will become lean and desolate.  Their plants will produce little fruit.

Of course, this is a great place to return to the idea of appetite.  Why is it that the people will come upon this judgment?  The people come upon this judgment because they have forgotten God.  They have forgotten from where their salvation comes.  They have become a people that get their fill upon their own strength, their own productiveness, and their own thinking.  They have lost any acknowledgement that God is the main reason that they are fruitful.  Their appetite is focused inwardly upon themselves.

When our appetite is focused anywhere but God we simply grow more and more hungry.  The only way to bring us out of that hunger is through judgment.  We are weaned off of that which made us fat.  In other words, we must be made lean again so that we can learn to have an appetite that is based upon God and His ways.

This is not just the story of Damascus in Syria.  This is the story of all humanity.  We should learn what we can here.

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