Year 6, Day 59: Jeremiah 6

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.

When I read through Jeremiah 6, it is clear that this chapter is a verse spoken out of frustration.  God complains that Judah – His own people – will not listen.  They won’t respond.  They won’t heed His words.  They won’t take note of the people that He sends among them.  God mourns their disobedience and He mourns their closed ears.

In many respects, I feel like God is the parent and Israel is the teenager.  If you read through this chapter, don’t you feel like God’s people are teenagers?  They are old enough to know pleasure and want pleasure, but nowhere near mature enough to put any limits on their life.  They are old enough to be taught wisdom, but they are nowhere near wise enough to actually heed any of it.  God’s people are flexing their own identity and their own interests and casting aside the teachings of their youth.  As I read through this chapter, I truly feel for God as He speaks through Jeremiah.

Every parent knows what it feels like to love their children unconditionally.  But every parent knows what it feels like to have a teenager turn away from what they’ve been taught and pursue their own interests to their own peril!  But that doesn’t mean that the parent stops loving.  That is God here in this chapter as well.  He is still the Father.  Even though they have uncircumcised ears and cannot listen, even though they scorn the very words of their Father, even though they don’t know to be ashamed when they make a transgression, even through all of these things, God still loves.  We know from a historical perspective that these people that the judgment that God brings down upon His people is not permanent. 

God truly is like a Father.  He loves us unconditionally.  He blesses us when we listen and obey.  But he also punishes us when we deserve it and require it. 

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Year 6, Day 58: Jeremiah 5

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.

God and Jeremiah have a very interesting conversation in this chapter.  God asks Jeremiah to go through all of Jerusalem and try and find a single righteous person.  In fact, God even seems to make a wager that if Jeremiah can find one then He will relent from the judgment that God has planned.  And before you guess, I want you to know that I don’t find this passage because of the massive number of people who aren’t righteous.  I’m not surprised by that.  I live in the world.  I know just how many human beings are not righteous in God’s eyes.  I know how many human beings live with themselves as the center of their life as they “look out for number one.”

What I’m surprised by is Jeremiah’s lack of response.  I honestly believe that Jeremiah understands how much righteousness is not present.  But look at what Jeremiah never says.  He never says, “Hey, God, I’m righteous!”  He never says, “What about my disciples, God?”  Jeremiah knows better.  There are no righteous people.  There are no people who seek God’s will on their own without the help of God.  Jeremiah knows the appetite that lives within His heart.

I think that this is one of the qualities that I respect about the prophets.  In truth, I think this is one of the qualities that I respect in anyone.  I respect people who have an honest evaluation about themselves.  I respect people who are not afraid to look in the mirror and see just how sinful they really are.  I do think that it is when we can see the sinful appetite within that we are then able best to rely fully upon the grace of God the best.  After all, only when I can accept that even I am not righteous on my own can I truly cling to the righteousness that God offers me for free.

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Year 6, Day 57: Jeremiah 4

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.

I find myself somewhat uncomfortable when reading through judgment chapters.  Of course, judgment is by its very nature uncomfortable.  Nobody likes to read verses talking about how unhappy God is at any particular moment.  But there is also a certain amount of familiarity with the condemnation.  I know I am not innocent of my own sin.  Often, I find that my own sin isn’t really all that different than the sin of the people being condemned.  When we read judgment chapters, the message typically hits home very much.

Therefore, I was struck today by the early thoughts of this chapter – especially the thoughts regarding “breaking up your fallow ground.”  Anyone who knows about an agrarian lifestyle knows that it is important to break up the fallow ground.  Sure, seeds that fall on the ground and lay there can sprout.  Trees do this kind of thing as they litter the ground with thousands – if not millions – of seeds every year and a few grow.  But if we break up the ground and plant a seed within the earth, the plant is far more likely to grow and thrive.

So where is the challenge?  The challenge is in how excited I get when I think about myself being fallow ground.  The challenge comes when I think about what it means for God to break open my fallow nature.  Do I want my nice, comfortable, and reliable life broken open?  Of course I do, but it is certainly a challenge to think about what God might do if I let Him.  The challenge is realizing that if I really do want to grow in m closeness with the Lord, I need to accept the challenge of having my fallow life broken open so God can find fertile ground to grow.

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Year 6, Day 56: Jeremiah 3

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.”

This chapter is like a roller coaster.  It begins with God absolutely slamming Judah through the words of Jeremiah.  After all, God compares Judah to a whore!  You don’t get much more critical than that.

What is it that Judah has done?  Judah has sought help from other nations.  Judah has sought help from the gods of other nations.  Judah has brought other gods into God’s Promised Land and worshipped them.  Judah has claimed to be faithful, but has proven themselves to be liars.  Judah is deserving of the condemnation.

But what is it that God says in the end of the chapter?  God looks to Israel – the northern kingdom, who is already in captivity – and promises to forgive them if they would just repent.  God even promises to grant them shepherds to lead them and teach them.  God says this as a sign to Judah.  If Judah would just turn and repent as God seeks from Israel, they too would be forgiven.

In the end, this is a very compassionate chapter after all.  We don’t deserve it, but God forgives us when we repent.  God accepts us even when we walk away from Him so long as we repent.

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Year 6, Day 55: Jeremiah 2

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.

When I read Jeremiah 2, it is a very interesting chapter from God’s perspective.  This is largely a chapter about God complaining through Jeremiah about how the people have abandoned Him.  As often happens with the prophets, the complaints from God about the people easily turn into a conversation about character.

How many times in this chapter do we hear God talk about how He brought htem out of Egypt.  But they did not respond.  They did not show gratitude.  They made up their own idols and worshipped them.  They cared more about their own lives and their own gain than they did about the people around them.  They even killed the prophets that God sent among them!  Although God set them up with everything that they needed, the people fell away from God.  They didn’t have the character to stay with God.

However, the character flaws don’t actually start with the people.  Do you hear the condemnation of the leaders of the people in these verses?  The teachers didn’t teach.  The priests didn’t uphold the Law and put God in the public eye.  The failure of the people is absolutely related to a failure of the leadership.  The character flaw about which God complains through Jeremiah is absolutely connected to a character flaw in the leadership, too. 

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Year 6, Day 54: Jeremiah 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

Jeremiah 1 is a great chapter.  In this chapter we hear the beginning of Jeremiah’s calling.  We hear how God calls Jeremiah.  We hear how God tells Jeremiah what he is going to be to the Hebrew people around Him.  God tells Jeremiah that he will build up, tear down, destroy, overthrown, and plant.  God has big designs for Jeremiah.

Of course, we also hear God tell Jeremiah to shut up.  When God comes to Jeremiah and tells him the plan, Jeremiah gets a bit nervous.  I can’t really say that I blame him.  Jeremiah is young.  He’s living in a time that is anticipating Babylonian conquest.  What’s not there to be nervous about?

But what I really love about this chapter is that God focuses Jeremiah away from his doubts and onto the power of God.  After all, it is God who will empower Jeremiah.  It is God who will enable Jeremiah to do what he will do.  If Jeremiah is looking to his future and looking at his own ability, he has every reason to be nervous.  But when Jeremiah remembers that God is king of the universe and Jeremiah’s authority to do these things comes from the king of the universe, suddenly he has nothing to worry about.

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Year 6, Day 53: Philemon 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Pioneer

• Pioneer: One who goes into the world under God’s authority to claim ground for God’s Kingdom that is not currently claimed.

I have always had a fascination with the book of Philemon.  To be clear, it isn’t because the book is short.  In truth, there are a number of short books in the Bible.  2 John and 3 John are in the New Testament and they are shorter than Philemon.  Jude isn’t much longer.  Obadiah in the Old Testament is shorter than Philemon as well.  Size doesn’t have anything to do with my appreciation for a book of the Bible, although admittedly it is neat to say, “I read a whole book of the Bible today.”

In truth, what I love about the book of Philemon is Paul’s entrepreneurial spirit.  Paul is absolutely being a trendsetter here in this book.  Mind you, the whole missionary journey in telling people about Jesus is a huge dose of trendsetting by going out on a limb.  So Paul isn’t on unfamiliar ground here.  But seldom do we get to see Paul putting this new theology into legitimate cultural practice as we see done in Philemon.  Philemon is one of the best books of the Bible to see theology applied to life in such a direct manner.

Let’s look at this book.  Paul was in prison.  While he was there, he met a runaway slave named Onesimus, who happens to be a slave owned by a man that he knows personally, Philemon.  Paul shares the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Onesimus and begins to teach him about the ways of God.  As Onesimus learns, he is convinced by Paul to return to Philemon.  Paul convinces Onesimus to return to his master in the spirit of Christ and repent for running away.  Talk about pioneering new ground and applying faith into life!

But that isn’t the end of the pioneering spirit that we see in Paul.  Paul then turns to Philemon and asks him to forgive Onesimus.  Paul asks that Philemon simply forgive the error of Onesimus without exacting retribution.  Paul asks Philemon to treat Onesimus as a brother in Christ and not a returned runaway slave.  Paul imitates the model he found in God through Jesus Christ and asks that any debt Onesimus might have incurred against Philemon might be charged to Paul instead.  In fact, Paul tells Philemon that he believes Philemon will do even more than this.  Paul not only pioneers a new way for slaves to think of masters, Paul pioneers a new way for masters to think about their slaves.

This is indeed a place that we can see Paul claiming new ground.  Paul is taking the culture around him and shaping it so that it looks more like the world he sees in Christ.  This is what I love about the book of Philemon.  Here we see theology take real shape and impact the world of slaves and slave owners around him.

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Year 6, Day 52: Titus 2-3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Imitation

• Imitation: This is the second over-arching step of the discipleship process.  First we gain information, then we imitate our spiritual mentor.  Imitation leads to innovation of spirituality in our own life.

When we look at these last two chapters in the book of Titus, we have an excellent opportunity to look at the topic of imitation.  After all, look at how chapter 2 opens.  We have directions for male elders sober-minded, dignified, faithful, loving, and steadfast.  We see that the female elders are to be reverent, not drinking too much, and refraining from slandering people around them.  Then we have a note as to why.  Notice why it is that elders need to live a proper godly way?  They are to be an example to the next generation.  They are to train other people how to live in the faith.

This should make much sense to us.  We know that we are not saved through our good works.  We do not earn our salvation.  So why do we do good works?  Of course, we do it to show our obedience to God.  But more importantly, we do good works so that we can inspire good in others.  We do good works so that people can have an example to imitate.  We who are in the faith do good works for the sake of those who come after us.

We cannot earn our salvation.  We should never think that we can.  But that shouldn’t stop us from doing good works.  There is always an example to set.  There is always an opportunity to speak through our life and into the lives of others.  There is always a time and a place to be obedient to the will of the Father so that others can see this obedience and be inspired to imitate it.

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Year 6, Day 51: Titus 1

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.

One of the teachings that the book of Titus is known for is Paul’s instructions on appointing church leaders.  Specifically, this first chapter contains a good amount of teaching on the qualifications for a good elder.  While the qualifications may be important, what I really want to do is to take a step back and view this idea through the lens that Paul gives us at the end of the chapter.  How do we know a good elder?  How can we pick a good mentor?  Look into their life.  If their life is bearing godly fruit, then chances are they can help your life bear godly fruit as well.

I hate to say it, but it really is that simple.  Jesus teaches us the same thing when He is talking about blind guides in Matthew 15:14 or Luke 6:39.  If a blind person leads a blind person, won’t they both fall into a pit?  Can a person who isn’t capable at performing a task actually help someone else perform it? 

Of course not.  When we are looking for elders in the church, we want to look for people whose lives bear godliness.  Even more importantly, when we are looking for people to influence our life we need to look into their life and examine their fruit.  If a person does have good fruit in their life, then we should reasonably anticipate that they can help us develop similar fruit in our life.  Conversely, if a person doesn’t have good fruit in their life, why would we ever think that they could help us have good fruit in our life?

Speaking of these people, notice how Paul ends this chapter.  Those people who lack good fruit claim to know God but have no evidence.  Paul calls them detestable, disobedient, and unfit.  Those are some pretty serious words of condemnation.  This is all the more reason to bear good fruit.

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Year 6, Day 50: Isaiah 66

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.

I think that this last chapter of Isaiah is a really neat portal through which we can view the idea of approval.  I’m going to talk specifically to the people who know of God, too.  I’m not going to look at anyone who is seeking approval and denying God at the same time.  I’m going to talk about people who know about God and are specifically seeking His approval.

If we remember where we’ve come in the book of Isaiah, we understand that Isaiah is a book that brings us from sin and rebellion into judgment.  From judgment Isaiah takes us into repentance.  Repentance brings us to forgiveness and restoration.  Restoration brings us back into life with God, our Creator and Father.  It is upon this pattern that the book of Isaiah is written.

The question for this last chapter, then, is what we do with this.  Isaiah has some very harsh words about this topic.  His words at the beginning of this chapter belong up with some of my favorite verses of all time: Psalm 51:15-17, Joel 2:13, Hosea 6:6.  Upon whom does the Lord look?  He looks upon the humble and the contrite in spirit.  He looks upon the one who trembles at the Word of God.  See Isaiah 66:2 for confirmation.

So often we think that by attending church on Sunday morning and putting our check in the offering plate that we are getting God’s approval.  So often we think that by doing our weekly duty in the worship of God that we are getting God’s approval.  So often we think that by teaching Sunday, mowing the church lawn, and making the church pretty that we are getting God’s approval.  Don’t get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with any of those things so long as God has asked you to do them.  But that’s God’s point.  God approves of the one who is humble before Him.  God approves of the one who seeks His will first and then accomplishes the will of the Lord.  God approves of the one who is content in God trembles before His Word.

I think so often we get God wrong.  We try to buy His love.  We try to do the right things to compensate for our sinfulness.  But all God wants is for us to stop, humble ourselves, and align ourselves with His will.  We do so much, but He really just asks us for so little.

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Year 6, Day 49: Isaiah 65

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.

Isaiah 65 makes a very interesting challenge into our lives.  The opening of the chapter reminds us that we are a stench in the nostrils of the Lord.  Our sinfulness displeases Him.  Our rebellion disgusts Him.  Our selfish pursuits confound Him.  Our misuse of His creation saddens Him.

As a result, we have a choice to make.  Please note that it is not He who chooses.  We are the ones who choose.  We can choose to continue on in our humanity.  When we do that, we choose judgment and wrath and condemnation.  Alternatively, we can be a part of a small remnant that does choose God instead of our human pursuits.  When we do that we experience God’s grace, love and mercy.  But in the end, it is absolutely our choice.  We can choose grace or wrath.

We can be a part of the people about whom Isaiah speaks in the final third.  We can be a part of the people who live in God’s blessing.  We can be a part of the people who reap in God’s provision.  We can be a people who live according to His ways and who are likewise blessed in life.  But we have to choose that life.  We have to be intentional about answering His challenge to rise above our human sinful nature and look to Him for guidance, direction, and meaning.

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Year 6, Day 48: Isaiah 64

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• 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.

The middle verses of this chapter, Isaiah 64:6-8, are an incredibly powerful witness to the state of human existence.  We are unclean, wrapped in our sinfulness as we wrap ourselves in clothing.  We are temporary, living a full and vibrantly life but then dying and passing away much like a leaf fades on a tree.  We think ourselves to be strong, but we find that like iron we are susceptible to melting under heat and pressure.  We think ourselves to be sturdy until we realize that we are more like clay that is malleable until shaped and dried.  We think we are so much, but without God we are nothing.

That’s really the point of this chapter.  As we draw an end to the book of Isaiah, we can step back and truly gain perspective.  The Hebrew people underwent trial and tribulation.  They were made captive and they were brought through it.  God promised redemption and He delivered.  It is we who walk away from God; it is God who brings us back to Him.

He is the Father who cares for our well-being.  He is the King that is empowered to shape our lives.  He is the one that can take our temporary lives of selfishness and turn them into an everlasting witness to His greatness.  He is the one who deserves the power, honor, and glory.

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Year 6, Day 47: Isaiah 63

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.

Isaiah 63 is a chapter that can really catch a person off-guard if they are not paying to what Isaiah is actually saying.  This is even truer if you read a Bible with section titles.  In the ESV, the section title above Isaiah 63:1-6 is “The Lord’s Day of Vengeance.”  It is easy to open up this chapter and feel like we are going back into the chapters on the wrath of the Lord.

However, that really isn’t what is going on here.  Yes, we are talking about God’s wrath.  The image of the winepress is nearly always an image of wrath from God.  If you think about it, what happens in the wine press?  Grapes are trodden upon.  Red liquid flows freely.  This is a dramatic symbol of God’s wrath.

The question that I’m left asking, though, is to what day is this prophetic message speaking?  Certainly the prophet Isaiah is speaking it to his contemporaries.  But is Isaiah only speaking about this with reference to the judgment that will fall upon Assyria and Babylon because of the way that they treated the Hebrew people in captivity?  Or perhaps it is easy to see in this passage the final Day of Judgment when Christ comes back and judges all people.  Certainly that day can be seen through these words.

However, I think the best day to think about this passage is the day of the crucifixion of God’s Messiah.  This may even sound like a foreign idea to you.  After all, how does the death of Jesus apply to these words of judgment?  I’ll show you.  Look at what these initial words of this chapter say.  The robes of the Lord’s Messiah, whom the people don’t recognize because they have to ask who He is, run crimson.  The Lord’s Messiah even says that He has come to save.  But I think the most meaningful verses in this passage are the ones where the Lord’s Messiah says, “I have trodden this winepress alone” and “I looked, but there was nobody to help.”  These verses talk about a Day of God’s wrath where the Messiah was left alone to do the work of salvation.  What day will that be truer other than the day of the crucifixion?

That is why I chose to talk about character today.  Even on a day when the work of salvation is to be done alone, the Lord’s Messiah is there.  Even on a day when those who are being saved cannot help because of their nature, the character of Lord is to do the work before Him in righteousness.

   

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Year 6, Day 46: Isaiah 62

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.

As I looked to pick my focus for today, I had to give a bit of a chuckle.  Only someone like me can take a beautiful chapter of future promise as we have here in Isaiah 62 and turn it into a chapter in which we discuss challenge.  So before I turn the chapter on its head, let’s stop for a moment and enjoy the chapter for what it is.  Let’s hear the promise.

God will give His people a new name.  God will watch over them.  God will protect them.  The nations will see their glory.  They will be a crown in the hand of the Lord.  Foreigners will not benefit from their spoil.  Salvation will come to the people.  What a great chapter of future promise!

However, let’s make sure that we don’t stay solely in the hope of the promise.  This chapter is about a future time and a future condition.  But there is work to be done.  At the end of this chapter we have the command of the Lord.  Prepare the people.  Build up the highway.  Make the nation ready.  The future condition will come because God will bring it.  But as we look towards the future, we understand that we are to be active in preparing the world around us for that time.  We are not to sit by and passively absorb God’s blessing.  We are to actively receive God’s blessing and share with the people around us so that they are also able to receive God’s blessing.

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Year 6, Day 45: Isaiah 61

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Power

• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

Isaiah 61 opens with a statement of power.  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.”  Isaiah feels empowered to declare the Lord’s favor.  Isaiah has gotten his authority from God and now has been given the green light to declare a time of God’s favor.

Once empowered, Isaiah talks about the Lord’s anointed.  Let’s look deeply at what the Lord’s anointed is empowered to do?  The Lord’s anointed is to bring good news to the poor.  He is to bandage up the broken-hearted.  He is to proclaim liberty to the captives.  He is to open the prison doors to those who are bound.

I find this list striking.  There isn’t anything about dominating over people.  There isn’t anything about being superior.  There isn’t anything about lording it over other people.  There isn’t anything about living a life of luxury while other people are overtaxed with work.  From a human perspective, we would expect the powerful to live an easy life.

But that is not so.  The Lord’s anointed is empowered to serve.  The Lord’s anointed is empowered to heal.  The Lord’s anointed is empowered to proclaim favor to others.  That’s true power.

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Year 6, Day 44: Isaiah 60

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.

When we hit Isaiah 60, we find ourselves back into a chapter of God’s glory.  All throughout this chapter we find ourselves hearing about God’s blessing and His goodness.  We hear about gold and silver and bronze and iron and frankincense entering into the people.  We hear about God’s people drinking the milk of kings.  We hear that God will make people pass through their nation to see their greatness.  We can hear in all of this that this is a chapter about provision.

As it should be, I think that this chapter really gets its strength in its focus upon from where the provision comes.  All of these things come from the hand of God.  The people do not provide for themselves, God provides for them.  As much as this chapter is about the provision found in restoration, we need to not lose sight of the fact that it is God’s provision.  He is the one who can satisfy all of our needs.

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Year 6, Day 43: Isaiah 59

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.

I am really struck by the end of Isaiah 59.  For the whole chapter long we hear about how God looks upon the sinfulness of humanity and is ashamed.  God sees how human beings wallow in their sinfulness.  For the whole chapter, we hear about the disapproval of God upon how human beings are living in His creation.

And then we hear this great ending to this chapter.  God takes action!  God rouses Himself and comes to the rescue of humanity.  God takes care of our problem, probably because we’ve proven ourselves completely inept to taking care of it ourselves.  In fact, we are even told that God will send us His own messenger to bring salvation!

This is a king that we should worship.  If we are going to worship anything, why wouldn’t we worship a God who is capable of saving us?  If we are going to call something King in our life, why wouldn’t we call upon a king who sees our issues and takes care of it Himself?  If we are going to submit to the authority of anyone, why wouldn’t we submit to the one who proves that even though we are not worthy He will come to us in our moment of greatest need.

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Year 6, Day 42: Isaiah 58

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.

When I read Isaiah 58, I hear the war of human ambition within us.  Are we striving for our own desires or are we seeking the heart of the Lord?  Are we concerned about getting ourselves on top or are we concerned about caring for the world around us?

This truly is the crux of this chapter as we start to bring the book of Isaiah to a close.  The opening verses challenge us against our selfishness.  We need to cry out against the ego-centrism of human nature and bear witness to the glory of God.  We need to stop putting on a show of godliness and start being godly to the core.  We need to stop fighting and quarrelling over who is the best and start focusing on the joy of being loved and being able to be in relationship with God and each other.  It is time we cast off our narcissism and embrace the divine.

If we turn from our sin, God will build us up.  If we are ambitious towards caring for the orphan and the widow God will be with us and restore us.  If our ambition is upon the holiness of the work of the Lord, we will delight in the Lord.  If our ambition is to make the glory of God shine like the sun, He will be with us and bless us.

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Year 6, Day 41: Isaiah 57

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 57 is a sad chapter in the midst of a book that ends in a largely happy tone.  The first two-thirds of the chapter talk about judgment and wrath.  God reminds the people how they have chased after other gods.  He reminds them that they have sought their own desires.  He reminds them that they have leaned upon their own strength and the strength of humanity.  The opening verses of this chapter speak of wrath and judgment.

However, that is not the end of the story.  In Isaiah 57:14 we get a change of tone.  We hear God remind the people that a time will come when the people will cry out to rebuild.  God reminds the people that He will not remember His wrath forever.  There will come a time when God revives the spirit of the people.  There will come a time when God will heal the broken.  This is largely a chapter that begins in wrath but ends in forgiveness.

Yet, the chapter doesn’t exactly end in a very pristine manner.  In spite of God’s forgiveness, not all will turn to Him.  There will be people who scorn God’s forgiveness.  In the end, God promises peace to those who will receive.  But for the wicked, there will be no peace.

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Year 6, Day 40: Isaiah 56

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.

There is really something neat about the opening of Isaiah 56.  I hope that you can feel the invitation in the words.  God tells that in His kingdom there is a different way to measure importance.

For example, take a look at Isaiah 56:3.  In this verse we can understand that the foreigner is not cast away.  In the world, if you are strange or different it is easy to feel unaccepted, rejected, and unwanted.  But in the Lord even the foreigner is not cast aside.  When we are in the Father, we are never a foreigner.  God loves us the way that we are.  Regardless of who we are or where we come from, we can know the love of our Father.

Or, we can look at the thought behind Isaiah 56:4.  In this verse we hear God talk about the eunuchs.  In the ancient world, there was nothing more tragic than being a eunuch.  A eunuch couldn’t have children.  They would never know what it was like to be a part of raising the next generation.  They wouldn’t know what it was like to have children who might ease the burden of growing old.  But in these verses we can hear that the Father is the inheritance of even the eunuch.  In the Father we get a name that will last forever, not merely a lineage that may be remembered a generation or two.

God as our Father is our greatest inheritance.  He is our greatest place of welcome.  In Him we can truly understand our meaning in life and our eternal destiny.

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Year 6, Day 39: Isaiah 55

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.

As we draw closer to the end of Isaiah, we also draw closer to the concept of grace.  Yesterday we spoke much about forgiveness.  Grace comes after forgiveness.  Grace comes when we find ourselves under the care of God that we do not deserve.  In a word, grace comes when we find ourselves benefitting from the Lord’s provision when we should be writhing under His wrath.

God’s provision is the real-time fruit of His grace.  Look at the words that Isaiah gives the Hebrew people.  He bids them to come and buy without price from Him a food that truly satisfies instead of buying the fruit of the world which leaves one still wanting more.  He wants to provide a teaching for them that lasts.  He wants to provide an everlasting covenant.

However, I love that God’s provision doesn’t stop with the Hebrew people.  God’s provision for one group leads to further provision for a second group.  God tells the Hebrew people that they will call a nation that they don’t know because God has glorified them.  I can’t hear these words and not think of how God makes it possible for Gentiles to come to Him.  As God provides an everlasting covenant through the Hebrew people, He is actually giving provision to the whole world as well.  All we need to do is be willing to receive that provision.

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Year 6, Day 38: Isaiah 54

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.”

This is a wonderful chapter about the cycle of God’s relationship with humanity.  Of course, we know that God creates us.  God desires relationship with us.  Yet, we sin.  We push God away.  We live rebelliously against His ways.  So we bring judgment and condemnation upon us.  But this cycle doesn’t end with wrath.  It ends with forgiveness and a promise of peace.  It ends with a promise of security.  It ends with a promise of God caring for us and our future.

In fact, we hear within this chapter this promise in two different ways.  Of course we hear Isaiah speaking to the present reality of the people around Him.  But we hear about it as Isaiah remembers back to the story of Noah.  In the days of Noah, God brought about judgment.  But then He promised to never do it again.

It should bring us comfort to hear about God’s grace applied to people in our past.  After all, if God can bring judgment but revert to a time of grace after Noah and then bring judgment again in the time of Isaiah but once more revert to a time of grace, then God can do that with us, too.  Yes, we do bring judgment upon ourselves.  But God can get us through the judgment and into a place of grace.

By the way, these aren’t the only such times in history.  Remember Moses in the wilderness?  God judged that generation, yet brought their children into the Promised Land.  Furthermore, every story in the book of Judges is this principle at work.  After David is king, the Hebrew people slide into sinful behavior.  Yet every so often we get a king who repents and we see God forgive and restore the nation of Judah.  The reality is that God is a God of restoration and forgiveness much more than He is a God of wrath and judgment.

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Year 6, Day 37: Isaiah 53

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.

Isaiah 53 is a great lens to look at the idea of character.  This is one of the most famous passages about the person of Jesus Christ.  If we look deeply, we can find a rich source of text about the true character of God.

What I love about these kinds of texts is the sharp contrast to the natural human character.  What do humans do when they have all the power or all the knowledge?  They usually look to dominate the scene and set themselves up as king, leader, or ruler.  They usually seek to take all the advantage for themselves and life a life of luxury.

But what does God do?  What does the servant of God do?  The servant of God looks to the character of God and imitates God’s character.  He is wise.  He is willing to be bruised and beaten for the sake of others.  When the world around him is dry – that is, faithless – he shows true character and does not conform to the low standards around him.  He accepts being despised by those who are not him.  He does not retaliate or even speak against those who would attack him.

This is the character of God and the character of godly people.  God has all of the power, yet He doesn’t feel the need to flaunt it.  God looks for the benefit of others.  God’s character is sacrificial.  It is the character to which we should aspire.

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Year 6, Day 36: Isaiah 52

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.

In the middle of Isaiah 52 – right at the end of the prose section – we learn about the point of redemption.  When you hear the word redemption, what do you think about?  Do you think about your own salvation?  Do you think about how you can live forever?  Do you think about how life will be once we are free from sin?

Of course you do.  So do I, just to be transparent.  But that isn’t actually the main point.  It’ll be great to be forgiven, released from my sinful nature, and allowed to live with God forever.  But as great as it is, it’s just not the main point.  I want it to be, but it isn’t.

The point of redemption is the glory of the Lord.  The point of redemption is the praise of the God who redeems us.  The point of redemption is a demonstration of God’s greatness.  The point of redemption is a display of what true grace looks like in a God that can truly deliver it.  That is the point of redemption.

Yes, I’ll love being redeemed and I can’t wait to experience life as God truly intended it to be.  But God deserves the credit.  He deserves the praise.  He gets the focus.  I benefit, but may god get all the glory.  May it be about Him, not me.

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Year 6, Day 35: Isaiah 51

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.

I think that Isaiah 51 contains one of my favorite pieces of advice: “Look to the rock from which you were hewn.”  Of course, in the context of the verses it is easy to think about Abraham.  God called Abraham because of his faithfulness.  Clearly we can see ourselves as being hewn out of the same faithfulness that God saw in Abraham.

However, I don’t actually think that’s the deepest part of what God is saying through Isaiah.  Who gave Abraham the opportunity to receive faith in the first place?  Could it be that Abraham isn’t the focus of this question by God through Isaiah?

I believe that God is actually the rock out of which we are hewn.  It is God that gave Abraham the opportunity to receive faith.  Abraham was himself hewn from God, so can we be hewn from God as well!

So when we come back to the idea of discipleship, this idea is very neatly summed up in the idea of Father.  God created us.  He gifts us with many abilities and opportunities.  He is ultimately the rock out which each of us and our faith is hewn.

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Year 6, Day 34: Isaiah 50

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.

The middle of this chapter in Isaiah spoke to me.  The Lord has given to Isaiah a tongue of those who are taught.  It was the Lord who gave Isaiah the ability!  Morning by morning God awakens Isaiah.  It is the Lord who brings us into life and each morning it is Him who gives us a new day.  Where is it that Isaiah gets His approval?  He gets it from the Lord.

However, it is neat to read the verses that follow these, too.  When someone seeks to strike Isaiah, he gives them his back to beat.  He offers his cheeks to those who would pull out his beard.  Because he is humble in the presence of the Lord, Isaiah is able to be humble in the presence of those who oppose him.  Because Isaiah’s approval comes from God, Isaiah doesn’t need to worry about whether people like him or hate him.

Because Isaiah’s approval comes from God, he doesn’t need to worry about being put to shame or being disgraced.  Because his approval comes from the Lord, what worry does Isaiah have about experience disgrace?  Who will accuse him of guilt if God Himself approves of Isaiah?

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Year 6, Day 33: Isaiah 49

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.

There is a really neat dynamic occurring in Isaiah 49.  God reveals his plan for Israel.  We’ve come through God’s realistic look at humanity.  We’ve read through the judgment.  We’ve heard the promise of redemption.  Now we get to glimpse what that redemption looks like.  That redemption comes in the form of Israel.

What can we say about this Israel that God has called?  God has formed him.  God has given Him a mouth like a sharp sword.  God has promised that in him He would be glorified.  But in all of this equipping there is a calling.  God has equipped this Israel to bring the redeemed of the world back home.  God has called this Israel to be the conduit through whom God’s message is proclaimed to the nations.

Of course, we can make a case for this Israel to be Cyrus, who lets the Hebrew people come back to the Promised Land.  We could make a case for this Israel to be the remnant that comes back and is given another chance to proclaim God’s message to the world.  Regardless of the interpretation, we definitely get a sense that this Israel is called to do the work of God by bringing His message to the world.  In that sense, we are all Israel.

Of course, I think there is a greater interpretation than all of this.  I believe that Jesus is the greatest interpretation of this passage.  After all, has anyone had a mouth whose words cut through life with truth more than we saw in Christ?  Has anyone done a greater job in redeeming the lost and bringing them to their true home?  Has anyone opened up the message of God’s grace to the world more than Jesus?

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Year 6, Day 32: Isaiah 48

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.

There are two places in this chapter of Isaiah that indicate a need for obedience.  The first is in the opening verses.  We are called by God.  He has even called us by name.  We’ve learned His name, too, although we profane it.  We claim to know Him, too, although our lips don’t always mean it as very important.  We say we walk with God, but we don’t always spend time actually walking in truth or righteousness.

The reality is that we fool ourselves an awful lot of the time.  We say one thing and do another.  We talk a great game but live up to a far less standard than we say.  Our problem is obedience.  We say we are focused on God, but when we get it wrong it’s because we are spending more time being obedient to our fleshly desires rather than being obedient to the God who created us.

God gives us the answer in the last portion of the passage.  He is the one who teaches us.  He is the one who can lead us through the desert in life and keep us from thirsting.  He leads us where we should go.  He is the one whose message we should proclaim.

Do you hear what God is saying here?  God is saying that He is the one in charge.  We should be obedient to Him.  The way to life is not in seeking our own desires but in submitting to Him.

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