Today’s passage: Isaiah 24

Helpful thoughts:

• This chapter depicts the time of final judgment against sin of all on the earth AND in the heavens (Fallen angels – The hosts of heaven, verse 21) and the subsequent reign of the King of Kings!
• This time of judgment will elicit praise and worship from some and cries of anguish from others.  These responses coming from the few that remain alive.
  • Those who will be praising God will come from the nations, east to west.  This may have been taken in stark contrast to the people of Judah in Isaiah’s day who simply refused to repent and turn to God.  This explains Isaiah’s response, “But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me!”
• Verses 21-22 are a brief description of what we learn from Revelation 20.

Questions to consider:

1. Why might it seem harsh or unfitting for God’s worshipers to rejoice during the final judgment of the world?  Why would it seem appropriate?
2. What kind of effect should this prophecy have on a people who were seeking to find hope and security in the nations and peoples that God was going to destroy?  How should Judah have responded to this prophecy?
3. How should we respond?  Why can we rejoice and give praise to the LORD of hosts in the midst of this world?  How can we look forward and say with the Apostle John, “Come Lord Jesus!”? (Revelation 22:20)

Today’s passage: Isaiah 23

Helpful thoughts:

• This chapter completes a series of ten consecutive chapters of oracles from nations in the east (Babylon) to the west (Tyre).
• The consistent threads can be found in verse 9.
  • God is the LORD of hosts.  He will never know defeat.
  • Man will be judged for his pride.  Pride comes before the fall. (Proverbs 16:18)
• Israel and Judah had been told to be holy, set apart unto God, among these nations.  Instead they had come to rely upon them for their safety, worship their gods, and were living with the same pride.
  • God gave Isaiah these oracles not to warn all the surrounding nations, but to remind Judah of who they were and who He is.
• The mention of Tyre prostituting herself again in verse 17 is actually a reference to a song or story from those days that evidently would have been known.  The story is of an aging prostitute who has been forgotten and then has to go out to the streets to sing suggestive songs to try to lure in new “customers”.  Sad…
  • Tyre will likewise have to try to lure customers back to her shores to get back in business after the seventy years are over.

Questions to consider:

1. What did financial wealth and the feeling of security it brought do for the people of Tyre?  How might it have brought about their sinful pride?
2. Why would everyone else be weeping over the fall of Tyre?  Was it the people they loved our something else?  What did they all lose when this financial hub fell apart?  Why would this then be compared to prostitution?
3. In what ways could the wealth of our nation be seen as a hindrance to our spiritual growth?  In what ways has our wealth been a blessing?  Is it the money that makes things bad or good, or the condition of our hearts when we possess it and use it?

Today’s passage: Isaiah 22

Helpful thoughts:

• “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” has been used often to justify living in the moment…sort of a “You only live once” kind of statement.  However, in this context, it is used to describe an open act of rebellion and indifference to God.  The people chose, even in their last days before judgment, to refuse repentance.
• The rebuke of Shebna (Vs. 15-25) serves as an individual example of what Judah, as a nation, was living like as a whole.
  •  Shebna was serving over the household of David, and was preparing to make a monument to himself while the household he was overseeing was about to be destroyed.
• God gave Judah several reasons and prophecies to encourage them to trust in Him and not their human alliances or power to save them.  They chose to ignore them.

Questions to consider:

1. Why does the life philosophy of living in the moment and considering death as the end ring hollow for the Christian?  How should the reality of eternal life affect how you think about today?
2. What is the motivation of a leader if his desire is to build a monument to himself?  How is leadership far different than awards and praise?

Today’s passage: Isaiah 21

Helpful thoughts:

• The “Wilderness of the Sea” was a name for a region in the Babylonian empire.
• Judah, before being defeated by Babylon, had been an ally with the nation.  This is why there would be weeping and anguish as it is depicted in verses 3 and 4.
  • Therefore, verses 1-10 are very similar in meaning to the previous chapter.  Neither Egypt or Babylon were the answer for Judah.  They needed to trust in God, not foreign nations.
• Verses 11-12 picture the people of Edom (Along the trade routes between warring nations) asking when the time of turmoil will end, yet with no answer.
• Verses 13-17 prophesy a southern campaign of Dedanites versus the people of Kedar (Descendants of Ishmael).  The people of the Arabian peninsula are to be prepared to care for those who are being pushed further south.
  • The contents of verses 11-17 should be considered separate prophecies from verses 1-10

Questions to consider:

1. What would the intended audience of these messages (The people of Judah) be reminded of after hearing/reading these prophecies?  Who is over Babylon?  Does God even consider the less powerful, more historically obscure desert nations?
2. What do we learn about God when we consider his attention to and knowledge of all these people groups and events and times and how each nation affects all the others (Past, present and future)?
3. What other things are going to take place in the future because the “LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken”?  What can we look forward to with all confidence and eager expectation?

Today’s passage: Isaiah 20

Helpful thoughts:

• Historical background: At this time, the Philistines, Egyptians and Judah were all under the thumb (To different extents) of Assyria.  The city of Ashdod (A Philistine city) had just been taken after a “rebellious” act and Egypt, whom the Philistines had aligned themselves with, was next, along with Cush.
  • Isaiah is telling the people of Judah not to make the same mistake.  Egypt couldn’t help the Philistines and they wouldn’t be able to help Judah either.
• In wearing sackcloth prior to God’s instructions, Isaiah evidenced he was already in a state of mourning.
• Isaiah was to share this prophecy through nakedness (The state of those who were to be taken captive for the purpose of humiliation) for three years.
  • Isaiah did not have to remain naked for three years straight, 24/7…
  • There would have been times, places, people that were to receive this sign and prophecy over a three year period.
  • Just because God gave Isaiah this highly unusual task, does not mean that it should be normalized or expected from people today.  It was a humiliation, it still is a humiliation.
    • That was the point.  As the people of Egypt and Cush will be led away in nakedness, so will the people of Judah (Isaiah being the example) if they should seek protection from Egypt.

Questions to consider:

1. What is God telling the people of Judah through this prophecy?  Who were they to trust in?
2. In what way would the sign of nakedness even the playing field as far as viewing the different peoples as superior or inferior?  Were the Egyptians superior to Judah?  Were the Assyrians even superior?  What did they all have in common?  Were any of them on a level where they could compete with the LORD of hosts?
3. Jesus promised that Christians would have tribulation and persecution in this world. (John 16:33, John 15:20)  So, to say that if we trust God nothing bad like losing a battle or being taken captive will ever happen to us would be a wrong application.  But, what does Romans 8:31-39 teach us?

Today’s passage: Isaiah 19:16-25

Helpful thoughts:

• None of the events of Isaiah 19:16-25 have yet taken place.  This is still to come.
• When you are in opposition to the LORD of hosts, it is a good thing to be brought to humility and submission through fear.  It is right to know you cannot defeat or escape Him.  It is good to repent of your rebellion.
  • Healthy appropriate fear turns into worship…and joy.
• God will one day be worshiped by the nations in peace.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it dangerous to try to “soften” God in the hopes that He will be more desirable to unbelievers?  If we try to redesign God in order to make unbelievers (Or believers) like Him better, what god are we giving them?  — (As if one would say, “Why repent if we can change what God is like?  Why should we change if we can just change God?”)
2. One way we can perhaps inadvertently misrepresent God is to say, “He loves you just the way you are” or “He’s crazy about you!”  While Romans 5:8 does say that God loved us “while we were yet sinners” (Praise God!), how do these potentially romantically oriented phrases diminish God, the problem of sin, the immense sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the true definition of love?
3. Did Jesus die so that God could get to know me better and hang out with me, or did Jesus die to pay the penalty for my rebellion against the holy, all-powerful, all-loving God?  Which one of those options makes God look like a normal person and which one makes God look like…God?  How would my pride blind me into preferring the “Crazy about you” god?  How would an accurate view of God make me love Him more?

Today’s’ passage: Isaiah 19:1-15

Helpful thoughts:

• God does not ride on swift clouds…that’s figurative terminology.  But, it does point out that The LORD of hosts is no territorial, national god like the Egyptians worship.  God is the only true God and creator of the world.
• Four different dynasties struggled against each other for control in Egypt until an Ethiopian king took control before 700 B.C.  This was God’s doing!
• With a political vacuum and the loss of the fruitfulness of the Nile, Egypt is brought to its knees.
  • Judah would certainly be foolish to try and align herself with Egypt for protection if God was about to bring this civil war and economic hardship about.

Questions to consider:

1. If Egypt could be brought low by God’s divine will, why were they also prosperous at other times?  Who must ultimately be in control?
2. Then, when Israel and Judah had relied on Egypt for strength and support in the past, whose strength were they ultimately benefiting from?  BUT, whose strength did they THINK they were relying on? (Which nation? What gods?)
3. Why is it foolish to put our trust in chariots (Or money, or people’s opinions, etc.) when we are tempted to be anxious?  (Psalm 20:7, Psalm 56:1-4)

Today’s passage: Isaiah 18

Helpful thoughts:

• The land of Cush would be the area in Africa south of Egypt (Think Sudan and Ethiopia approximately).
• Judah is reminded, the people of Africa are included in the promise of Isaiah 2:1-4.
• God’s dealing with Israel and Judah (Including the time of Isaiah’s ministry) had impact and consequences on the surrounding nations as well.
  • God was/is fully sovereign and aware of all the inner workings and consequences for all the people of the earth, not just Israel and not just the church.

Questions to consider:

1. Is God over just Christians?  Are people in the church under God’s sovereignty and people outside the church totally independent and on their own?
2. Why is it foolish for a person to decide they do not have any interest in learning about or obeying God?  Is God something you just choose to worship or not to worship?  Is God an option on a buffet line of lifestyle choices?
3. How can verses like Revelation 7:9-10 encourage you to have a proper view of God and a right understand of our mission to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20)?