(Dear Lord Jesus, guide me and give me insight as I read and study Your word, and let it be the meditation of my heart...)
(Isaiah 17:1-14)
1 The pronouncement concerning Damascus:
“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
2 The cities of Aroer are abandoned;
They will be for herds to lie down in,
And there will be no one to frighten them.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of armies.
4 Now on that day the glory of Jacob will fade,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5 It will be like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 On that day man will look to his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
8 And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even the Asherim and incense altars.
9 On that day their strong cities will be like abandoned places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.
11 On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will flee
On a day of illness and incurable pain.
12 Oh, the uproar of many peoples
Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13 The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.
14 At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning they are gone.
This will be the fate of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.
TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:
“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
2 The cities of Aroer are abandoned;
They will be for herds to lie down in,
And there will be no one to frighten them.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of armies.
4 Now on that day the glory of Jacob will fade,
And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5 It will be like the reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 On that day man will look to his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
8 And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even the Asherim and incense altars.
9 On that day their strong cities will be like abandoned places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
And have not remembered the rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.
11 On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will flee
On a day of illness and incurable pain.
12 Oh, the uproar of many peoples
Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13 The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.
14 At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning they are gone.
This will be the fate of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.
TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:
God made covenants with Israel which will be fulfilled WHEN they as a nation trust and believe in Him. They rejected the Lord and sent Him to the cross the first time He came in flesh, but during the Tribulation they as a nation will realize that Jesus was and is their Messiah. When He comes again, Jesus will be their salvation and refuge! He will sit on the throne of David, establish the Millennial kingdom and fulfill all of Israel's covenants.
The God of Israel is not just for Israel. God chose Israel to be the missionaries of the world, to be a demonstration of God's power and love, but they have turned their backs on Him. Yet the Abrahamic covenant ends with God promising that through their seed all nations will be blessed. This part of the covenant, this prophecy, has already come to be. Anyone who trusts and believes in Jesus will be saved, and as we continually seek His refuge, we will be blessed.
No comments:
Post a Comment