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.
HERE
Bro. Bruce's commentaries for the books of
Genesis through Ecclesiastes are
now available in hard copy for only $7.50, including shipping and handling. Requests for a book, or multiple books may be mailed with the appropriate fees to the address below.
Bruce McGee,Pastor
205 Adams
Columbia, LA 71418
Isaiah
CHAPTER 58
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
The complaint God has is that the people are seeking Him by convenience and not out of genuine, heart-felt worship. They "do their own thing," so-to-speak, and then come to God for help.
We should serve the Lord in sincerity and not simple religiosity. Neither should we seek God only when we NEED something.
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
The people complain that they have fasted, but God doesn't pay attention to their sacrifice.
But God responds that their fasting is simple ritualistic behavior, and used for bragging purposes. Then they go right back to doing the same old things.
Religious acts are very hollow when they are not accompanied with daily living for God!
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
The people's FOCUS in their religiosity is on the wrong object. They fast and sacrifice for physical reasons. But God desires the focus to be on spiritual purposes.
Fasting for personal gratification or glorification holds no meaning for God. It is only when fasting moves us to comply with His directions that it takes on meaning.
Jesus said we should not let other people know when we are fasting. This will put our focus on God's objectives and not our personal desires.
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
When our sacrifices for God (like fasting) are to "delight thyself in the LORD;" (verse 14), then God responds with more grace.
God's desire is to bless His servants. His instructions are to NOT seek our own pleasures on His holy days (verse 13).
There are many Christians today who attend church only because of ritualistic reasons. During the Sunday School or Worship Hour, they are thinking of what they will do that afternoon. This gives no meaning to worship.
One preacher I know said, "By the time the worship hour reaches 11:50AM, most of the congregation is thinking about how they are going to get a parking place at the local restaraunt! God cannot speak spiritually to a person who is only concerned for his stomach!"
When we attend Sunday School and Worship Services with the intention to learn and use what we learn in our daily lives, then God can speak to our hearts.
CHAPTER 59
1 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
God WANTS to save people from the lostness of sin.
"BUT," God says, "your iniquities have separated between you and your God....." (verse 2).
The only sin God cannot forgive the sin for which a sinner refuses to ASK God's forgiveness. God cannot save a lost person from sin if the lost person will not ASK. And God cannot save a saved person from sins or difficulties if the person doesn't ask in genuine heart-felt adoration.
As God has said in the previous chapter, He WANTS to pour out blessings. But we SEPARATE ourselves from Him by inattentiveness and laxness in our worship and service. Those are SINS!
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make hast to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
The sin of LAXNESS leaves "BLOOD" on the hands of the sinner!
To attend church, and not follow it with daily living for God is to make a "crooked path." (See verse 8)
These actions, on the part of saved people, allow justice to be perverted (verse 9). These actions are "...lying against the LORD.." (verse 13).
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
One cannot stress enough the importance of the church of Christ living in obedience to Him in all areas of their lives. When the people of God fail to stand for the principles and truths in the Bible, then "..judgment is turned away backward..." and "...equity cannot enter." (verse 14)
16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
Since God saw that there was "..NO MAN.." to live correctly, He Himself puts on His garments of holiness and comes to provide salvation and help. He came in the Person of Jesus Christ to provide salvation to all who will repent and surrender to Him. He shall also come again one day to exercise vengeance upon those who have refused Him (verses 17-19).
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
The "Redeemer" (Jesus) came to the physical Zion and presented the truth of repentance to the people. He was refused, rejected, mocked, scorned and put to death. But He rose from the grave on the third day, and is STILL the REDEEMER to all who will come to Him by turning from "transgression" through repentance and surrender to Him.
The "Redeemer" is still coming to the spiritual Zion even today. Zion, in the Old Testament is symbolic of the "heart" of man. Christ is still coming to the hearts of repentant sinners who are willing to commit their lives to Him.
God makes a covenant with all those who surrender to Christ. His covenant is to give them Christ's "SPIRIT" and help them to live according to His will.
Have you surrendered to Christ in repentance and asked Him to enter your heart with His Spirit?
If you have, then call upon Him daily and ask Him to help you live according to His will. Then you will become part of the BACKBONE of the nation!
Please continue in Bible study with us tomorrow.
"Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." (Matthew 6:16-18)
God WANTS to save saved people from difficulties.
God CAN save lost people from hell.
God CAN save saved people from difficulties.
"Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." (Ezekiel 3:17-19)
When saved people do not speak out against injustice, nor plead for moral conscience to be used in the nation, it is SIN! (see verse 4)
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2Chronicles 7:14)
It is God's PEOPLE who are the backbone of truth, equity and justice in any society! Spiritual sins of laxness, inattentiveness, and disobedience to God's truths are COSTLY!! They are costly to God's people and to the nation!