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 48
1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness. 2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name. 3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. 4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; 5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. 6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. 7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. 8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.
Israel had the audacity to claim Jehovah God as theirs, yet many of them practiced the rituals of idolatry in their homes. They had left the singleness of God's authority and Lordship.
God had told them that He was a "jealous God," and would not share His glory with any other (Exodus 20:4-6). And God had told them that the iniquity of idolatry would engulf their children.
Friends, when we trust in God, we must trust God as He is revealed in His Word. We cannot change no alter the revelation of God. Neither can we mix idolatry with the worship of God. This defiles our worship, ruins our witness, and corrupts our children. We must surrender to God as He IS and not try to define Him as we want Him to be.
God promises here that what He is saying is NEW, in that He prophetically announces that Israel will be taken captive by the Babylonians. God gave that prophecy 100 years before it happened.
This seems to give some people leeway in pronouncing that God is giving NEW prophecy even today. Some people proclaim that God is giving NEW prophecy about "feeling" His presence, and they are "slain" on the floor of the sanctuary by some preacher who claims to have more of the presence of God than other people.
But God has said that when He came in Jesus Christ, and the resultant testimony was written of Him being God in the flesh, then all prophetic announcements of any NEW revelation was ADDING to God's Word!
The God of the universe is revealed in the Bible. The Bible is the "revelation of Jesus Christ." There is NO OTHER name under heaven whereby we MUST be saved (Acts 4:12).
The plan of God's salvation for mankind is clearly given in His revelation of Himself. And God's plan for our relationship with Him is also clearly defined in His revelation of Himself - the BIBLE!
Therefore, any NEW prophetical announcements today are HERESY and reflect the mixing of idolatry with the claim of God to be the ONLY LIVING GOD.
People today are just as much a "transgressor from the womb" as the people of Isaiah's day. They will claim Jesus Christ as the Sole means of salvation, but will then try to define Him in their own terms rather than studying the Bible and surrendering to His own Self-revelation.
9 For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. 10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
But, even today, God is deferring His anger in order that those who genuinely surrender to Him are not "cut off." God is "longsuffering," and patiently works through His people in order to show the True and LIVING God.
For those who genuinely trust in God as revealed in the Bible, He says, "...I have chosen thee IN the furnace of affliction." (verse 10).
God "refines" us like the silversmith purifies silver. The object of heating the silver is to bring out the PURITY of the metal. God allows believers today to be tried in "the furnace of affliction" in order to show HIS PURITY. The object of the difficulties of life should be for our benefit and His Glory.
12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. 13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. 14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. 16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
God, Who has created the universe, has also called His faithful to give "witness" to Him. They are called to HEAR what God says, and SPEAK what God says to others.
For the purpose of proving that we must have a pure and singular relationship with God, He will allow the king of Babylon to defeat Israel and take them captive.
But this same God who "refines" us through adversity and affliction, will SAVE. He will DELIVER. The Babylonians will be defeated by God's messenger, and the Israelites will be released to return home. It will be God's "arm" which will bring destruction to the Babylonians (verse 14), even though the king of Babylon will be "prosperous" in his defeat of Israel (verse 15).
17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. 18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: 19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me. 20 Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob. 21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out. 22 There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.
God laments the fact that Israel's witness has not been PURE! (verse 18).
God has said that He Alone is the "LORD" (Creator), the "REDEEMER" (Saviour), and the "HOLY ONE of Israel" (the God Who chose them).
And God says that if their witness had been PURE, they would have profited (verse 1). Now, I don't see how ANYONE can interpret that in a physical sense. I've heard this passage of Scripture used to say that if we are faithful to God alone that we will be "profitable" in the world.
Well, the Only One Who was EVER truly PURE in His relationship with God was Jesus Christ. And my friends, He was NOT rich. Neither did He "profit" with a long life. He was CRUCIFIED.
The "profit" God is speaking about in this passage of Scripture is the profit HE receives from our pure witness!
God truly TEACHES us to PROFIT (verse 17). He teaches us to profit HIM by giving pure witness to His majesty, glory, grace and mercy.
And, by the way, when we give a PURE witness of God, He gives more "seed!" (verse 19) The genuine witness of God produces more witnesses!
When God delivers Israel from the Babylonian captivity, they will go home "singing!" (verse 20) They will go praising God in simplicity and purity. They will praise God for His redemption from slavery. They will credit HIM ALONE for that salvation.
It was God Who provided salvation from thirst in the desert for Israel (verse 21). And now God will provide salvation from the thirst of worldliness!
But see what God says in the conclusion to this chapter. For those who determine in their heart to NOT surrender to God, there is NO PEACE! They neither have peace in this world, nor the world to come. For ETERNITY, those who refuse God, will be subject to continual affliction of ungodliness without the benefit of contact with God!
To proclaim God in TRUTH and PURITY certainly means affliction in this world. But the END RESULT is eternal glory with God in heaven and PEACE!
I'd rather have a little affliction now, and peace for eternity than to have a little peace with the world now and eternal affliction of total ungodliness!
PLEASE CONTINUE IN BIBLE STUDY WITH US TOMORROW.