THROUGH THE BIBLE IN THREE YEARS
This program of daily devotions is designed to take you through the Bible in three years. It is our desire to help you gain a better general understanding of God's Word.
Please understand that in a study this brief, we will be concerned with only the major emphases and context of the Scriptures.
Each day a devotion for one or two chapters is posted, beginning with chapter one of Genesis and going through chapter twenty-two of Revelation. You are free to print each page as it appears. If you miss a day, you may contact us and request that devotion. Please send your request, along with $.50 (p&handling) for each page to:
Bruce McGee,Pastor
205 Adams
Columbia, LA 71418
We have a great friend in Gary Godard. He has set up an archive page. To view ALL the prior devotions by Scripture, just clik
Bro. Bruce's commentaries for
the books of Genesis through 2Kings are
now available in hard copy for $7.50. Just mail your request for
COMMENTARY ON (BOOK NAME) to the address above.
Isaiah
CHAPTER 40
1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
It is fitting that the last 27 chapters of Isaiah begin with "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." These chapters are the vision of Isaiah from God which reach far, far beyond his day. They are words from God about:
1) restoring the land after captivity (Chapters 40-48),
2) the coming of Messiah (Chapters 49-57),
3) and, the one thousand year reign of Christ upon this earth (Chapters 49-57).
Though Judah and Jerusalem were under tremendous strain, and would be carried into captivity for her sins, Isaiah says "..her warfare IS accomplished..." When God says something IS done, you can count on it BEING done!
Though the nation had sinned greatly, God had invoked pardon. He had punished the nation for the sins, and would bring the promised remnant to accomplish His plan.
Friends, the church is not perfect today; and neither are the individual members. But God has invoked pardon, and God has chastised and instructed His church, and God has accomplished her warfare Himself! It IS done!
God HAS taken the weak things of the world and made the strong things to look foolish! God HAS confounded the wise with the simple things of His people through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 1:27).
Judgment HAS begun with God's people (1Peter 4:17), and God knows how to preserve His people until the second coming of Messiah Jesus (2Peter 2:9).
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah is speaking as a man who is a lone voice that "crieth in the wilderness" of sinfulness. It is the cry of God speaking through a willing witness.
God promises that the world will hear the witness of the coming of Messiah until He DOES come and establish righteousness in the world (Malachi 3:1). The "voice" of that witness is characterized here as a solitary voice calling out loudly, proclaiming boldly the coming of GOD HIMSELF (verse 3). That voice today is the faithful of God's people who give testimony to the fact that one day Jesus will come again and make the ways of man "straight."
God Himself will be revealed in His glory (verse 5), and men will look upon Him. It IS accomplished, we are only waiting for the fulfillment of that promise!
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: 7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
The voice of God speaks to the faithful of His people and tells them to "CRY OUT!" When we ask what shall we say, God answers: "Tell all people they are weak like the grass of the field. They all have temporary physical lives. They all wither and die. The reason they wither and die is because God's breath of judgment is upon people who are sinners and are less than they were created to be. BUT God and His Word are ETERNAL!"
God wants us to know our frailty which is due to our sinfulness. But God also wants us to know His plan of DELIVERANCE by His GRACE. God and His Word are ETERNAL.
"For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God." (Psalm 78:5-8)
9 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! 10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. 11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
God wants His people to proclaim loudly and boldly that He IS coming! And His "reward is with Him."
God has a reward, or wages for every soul! His reward for the wicked is eternal hell. His reward for the repentant sinner is eternal glory.
One day, and I think soon, God will "gather the lambs." He wil gather His repentant, faithful people and lead them gently with His grace to their eternal reward.
12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? 13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counseller hath taught him? 14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
God has shown "His work" (verse 10) to all men. He has "measured the waters" of the earth "in the hollow of His hand." Did you know that scientifically there is so much water on the earth that only a miracle of God keeps us from being flooded? (See Psalm 136:6 and 2Peter 3:5)
The atheist has to have a very strong-willed belief. He/she must believe that nothing plus nothing equals something. Friends, the universe didn't come about by some majical explosion. This world didn't evolve from cosmic matter bursting with happenstance! I'd sooner believe the watch on my arm suddenly evolved from the minerals in the rocks! There IS a logical explanation for creation! GOD DID IT!
And God didn't need our wise counsel when He created the heavens and the earth either! My friend, Pastor Bill Robertson, just made a statement last night that evokes thought: "Have you ever considered that nothing ever occured to God?" God ALREADY KNOWS EVERYTHING!
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. 16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. 17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
Stop and think about this also: There is NOTHING in this earth or universe sufficient to offer God for our sins! It all BELONGS to Him already!
There is only ONE thing to offer God for our sins. And that is a sincere apology from the bottom of our hearts, trusting that Christ has already paid the price for the ransom of our souls.
18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? 19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. 20 He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. 21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: 23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
Mankind has been trying to create gods since the beginning of time. They have carved idols and called them god. They have painted images and called them god. They have imagined a god and defined him in their own terms.
But God IS! And He is without any imagination of man. God reveals all we need to know about Him right here in the Bible.
And God reveals that He is CREATOR and ETERNAL JUDGE of all mankind!
Why not just take God as He IS?!?
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. 25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
No vain imagination of man which limits and defines God will endure. "..they shall NOT be planted...their stock shall NOT take root..."
How can the created imagine or create the Creator (verse 25)?
Just LOOK! Look at the heavens above (verse 26) and see that God IS!
27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? 28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
People try to imagine a god which cannot see all their sins. But God sees and knows EVERYTHING! There is NOTHING hidden from Him!
God is OMNISCIENT - He knows EVERYTHING!
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Now. Surely after this revelation of God has been proclaimed by the "voice that crieth in the wilderness," man will feel weak and shall realize his sinfulness and the need of a Saviour.
So God offers through the same "voice" a realization of salvation. He desires to make the weak strong.
And God will give strength so that people can soar, run and diligently walk. What is the condition upon which He will give that strength? That they "wait upon the LORD."
Friend, that little term "wait" means to look anxiously for Him to come; and while looking SERVE! Just as a waitress anxiously seeks to please her customer, the soul of man should be anxiously striving to please his Creator and Judge!
If we will commit to Christ and SERVE Him, we will find GREAT STRENGTH!
PLEASE CONTINUE IN BIBLE STUDY WITH US TOMORROW.