Today's passage: Isaiah 66

Helpful thoughts:

• We cannot impress God.  We are not going to wow Him with our accomplishments.  The right response before the holy, omnipotent God is a humble and contrite spirit.
• Everyone who rejects God and incurs His wrath does so by their own choice (Verse 3).
  • And yet, many of them reject God and sin against His people as if they were obeying Him (Verse 5).
• There will be resurrection for the redeemed, and it will follow the time of God's judgment.
  • Believing Jews and Gentiles from around the world will come to Israel and worship the Lord.

Questions to consider:

1. If I feel like God is lucky to have me on His team and can't wait to get my trophies and rewards in Heaven because of how awesome I've been, which kind of person am I trending toward considering verses 2-3?  Is it possible for someone to think they are a Christian but instead be a person who is doing wrong in the name of Jesus?
2. How does the culture we live in view people who are humble, contrite (expressing remorse for my guilt), and who tremble at the words of God?  How do those postures compare to the ideas of “following your heart,” “being true to yourself,” and being a “product of your environment?”
3. Does anyone ever go to Hell/endure God's wrath because they rejected God against their will (Verse 3)?  What makes a proud sinner become a humble contrite follower of Jesus (John 3:1-8)?

Today's passage: Isaiah 65

Helpful thoughts:

• Paul quotes this passage in Romans 10.
• Israel walked in continual sin while simultaneously feeling superior and more righteous than everyone else.  (Verse 5)
• God's servant is the Messiah.  (52:13)
• In the millennial kingdom, people dying at 100 years old will be considered to have died prematurely.
  • In our day, godly people and rebels die early and old alike.  In the day of the kingdom, if a sinner dies at 100, we'll know his premature death was a judgment.

Questions to consider:

1. For whose sake does God promise to save the remnant of Israel (Verse 8)?  In what way will His honor be defended and upheld?
2. What changes will there be in the millennial kingdom?  Starting in verse 20, look for the things God will bring about that will not be true until Jesus comes.
3. Will the kingdom of God be a democracy or a monarchy?  Why is a monarchy better than democracy when Jesus is king?

Today's passage: Isaiah 64

Helpful thoughts:

• By Isaiah's description, there is no one who “waits for Him” or who “joyfully works righteousness” without God first intervening in grace.
  • God is therefore glorified in creating a people for Himself and then defending them against their adversaries.
• Asking God to come down is an act of faith.  If a person has not received God's gift of salvation, the last thing they should desire is to see the coming of the holy and just God.
• Righteous acts done for selfish gain (Manipulating God) are as filthy rags.  A person who is trying to do enough good deeds to earn entry into God's family without the grace of God purchased entirely through the blood of Jesus is actively sinning.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it impossible to earn salvation?  What does the word “salvation” mean?  What chance do any of us have of being “good enough” to go to heaven?
2. Why is it a sin to try to get into heaven or to earn God's favor in some different way than He has designed?  In what way could good works be helpful toward other people yet sinful before God?
3. Are you ready for God to rend the heavens and come down?  Do you know how a person is saved?  Have you been saved?

Today's passage: Isaiah 63

Helpful thoughts:

• Revelation 19:11-21
• The Messiah is just in His wrath and mighty to save.
• Isaiah knows that any good that came to Israel came because of God's gracious choice and so, he asks for God's action again.  This chapter sounds much like John's final request in Revelation 22:20, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Questions to consider:

1. Who was/is worthy to both execute justice and provide righteousness to the redeemed (Verse 5)?
2. What was the result of God's apparent lack of applied grace (Verse 17)?  What challenging questions could this cause us to ask?  If left to ourselves, what would we choose?  What is required for us to desire to follow and fear God?
3. Why is it only right for God's name to be glorified when we consider the good that comes to mankind, to ourselves, to the church?  What are the reasons you have to praise and glorify the Lord?

Today's passage: Isaiah 62

Helpful thoughts:

• When God initiates the kingdom in Zion, the prophets will only need to prophecy praises to the Lord.
• Israel (And all of us) have earned the names Desolate and Forsaken…yet God has chosen to delight in her and cause her to become a beautiful crown.  What grace!
• There will come a day when Jerusalem will never see defeat again.  God has promised it.

Questions to consider:

1. Who is Zion's righteousness?  Therefore, who is Zion's glory?
2. What are the names that were given to the people of God in this chapter?  What do they teach us about God?  What do they teach us about the basis of our relationship with Him?
3. What it is like (Or what would it be like) for a young man to purely delight in his new bride?  What emotions and excitement does he feel?  How do those joys and passions translate to a people being excited for the land of Israel and for God to be excited for His people?  How could that joy translate to our love for the church and our eagerness for Christ's return?

Today's passage: Isaiah 61

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus read this passage and claimed to be it's fulfillment, the Messiah, in the synagogue in Luke 4:16-21.
• Jesus is the preacher of this message and He is the payment for it's purchase.  The covenant being purchased with His own blood.
• The marriage imagery is repeated in Ephesians 5:22-33.

Questions to consider:

1. The Lord's love of justice (Verse 8) is the reason Jesus had to suffer on the cross and die.  Why was Christ's death necessary?  What did it accomplish?  If sin was ever paid for twice would that be justice?
2. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn.” (See Matthew 5:2-12)  What are God's people mourning?  Is it political issues or is it their sin?  What did Jesus die to redeem, a government or people who were slaves to sin?  How can this right understanding of Isaiah 61 help us when we think about the government in this country today so that we don't make the same mistake the Pharisees did during Jesus' earthly ministry?  What is our greatest need?  What is your neighbor's greatest need?
3. How will righteousness come to the earth?  Will our efforts bring about perfection on this earth?  Who will cause righteousness to grow? (Verse 11)

Today's passage: Isaiah 60

Helpful thoughts:

• These promises are made to Israel for the millennial kingdom, and then for eternity future (Verses 12-22).
• The walls of Jerusalem will be rebuilt, giving a symbol of safety, but the gates will never need to be shut because the nations will come in and out of the city in peace.  The walls will be called, “Salvation” and the gates will be called, “Praise.”  It will be the Lord's doing.  Israel will be saved by her Messiah and Lord.
• Israel's goal and mission has always been to bring glory to God.  Their salvation is the work of His hand, that He may be glorified.

Questions to consider:

1. What aspects of the future kingdom did you learn about in this chapter?  What kinds of things should we expect to see?  What can we look forward to?
2. Was there ever a time when Israel's walls and gates were upheld or useful outside of God's provision?  When has God not been their (and our) savior and redeemer?  When these wonderful days come, who will have changed, God or people?
3. How does verse 21 compare to Ephesians 2:8-10?  When we understand where our salvation and our sanctification come from, where will we want to direct our praise?  Who deserves the glory?

Today's passage: Isaiah 59

Helpful thoughts:

• The Israelites are being rebuked for wanting to receive “positive” responses and judgments without truly pursuing justice.  They were fine with decisions as long as it went the way they wanted…even if what they wanted was unjust.
  • They were praying to God and expecting Him to act according to their crooked standards while rejecting His lordship.
• When unjust man strives for resolution in his own efforts and values, man will only find more injustice, more darkness, more gloom.
• Justice and righteousness would not come from mankind, so God brought it to us Himself, through the Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Questions to consider:

1. What is happening in the heart of people when God is the one at fault and we are the ones who determine how things should go?  Does God err?  Does He act unjustly?  Can anyone truly find fault in Him?
2. Whose ways gets the world into the messes we find ourselves dealing with?  Whose ways are going to resolve these problems?  Whose ways are going to make them worse?  Whose ways are you trusting in?
3. God the Son put on this armor (Verse 17) to fend off unrighteousness and to bring salvation.  How does the Apostle Paul call us to do the same (Ephesians 6:10-20)?

Today's passage: Isaiah 58

Helpful thoughts:

• Verse 2 is written to show the perspective of Israel.  As far as they could tell, they were doing everything right and pursuing God, when they weren't.  Then they blamed God for not acting in accordance with their desires.
• God desires repentance and righteous obedience, not empty man-centered and designed religious exercise.
• Truly delighting in the Lord is a fruit of honoring His commands and His day, which produces more obedience and more joy.

Questions to consider:

1. Is it possible to go to church, to speak in a very Christian-like way, to be very spiritual and to NOT be truly following Christ or under His lordship?  How does this happen?  How would a person have to view religion in order for this to be a possibility?
2. When can we know that repentance has genuinely occurred?  Is it evidenced through religious observances, words or through a change in our actions?  How does God describe repentance and godliness in this chapter?
3. What are your favorite things to do on the Lord's Day?  How will our pleasures and delights change (Our objects of affection) the more we honor the Lord on His day?

Today's passage: Isaiah 57

Helpful thoughts:

• God rebukes Israel for their sinful sexual appetite and the slaughter of their children (Verse 5).
  • Israel did those things in the name of idolatry.
  • Modern western civilization does it in the name of humanism (Today's form of idolatry).
    • Looking at the numbers I found, if people identifying as “Evangelical Protestants” would stop getting abortions, about 3,500 lives would be saved every year in our state alone.
• We sin when we fear/reverence someone or something else over God.
• It is right for all of God's people to have a contrite and lowly spirit.  We are saved by grace.  Revival comes from Him.  Israel will be blessed because God has willed it, not because they want it or because they want Him…they don't.

Questions to consider:

1. What is life after physical death compared to in verses 1-2?
2. How will the world, and even some who identify as part of the church continue to respond to God and His truth (Verse 4)?  How can this give us temptation to fear?  Who must we fear and why?
3. How does the truth of the Gospel produce a proper humility in us?  How does that humility and our healthy fear of God change the way we interact with the calamity of this world?