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July 23rd
The bible reading today is in Isaiah chapters 31-34.
Isaiah tells Judah that God will give them victory over the Assyrians. The victory would not come from their cunning, their skills, their sharpened swords, or their hired mercenaries. God would save them. “He would do all that was necessary to save them”.
I can't help but remember conversations that I had with Bev during high school and college about eternal life. I knew that I needed forgiveness of my sins, which were many. Bev said that forgiveness comes with eternal life. So I immediately began to try to quit sinning, at least trying to be a better person. Hopefully, that would somehow gain points with God so that He would give me His eternal life. But over and over I failed to sustain a good life. I just kept on sinning and feeling so guilty.
Then one day I read a gospel tract that Bev and her mom gave me in my freshman year of college. The author, through bible verses, explained that sinners could never earn eternal life by trying to be good, better, and best. He explained that eternal life was a gift from God that His son Jesus bought for me with His sacrificial death on the cross. The author explained further, that Jesus did all that was necessary for me to receive eternal life, even to the sorrow in my heart for my sinning and even the desire to believe and follow Him.
Isaiah said to Judah...”You can't save yourself. You must totally and only depend on God for your salvation. God used Isaiah to bring the truth to Judah. He used my girlfriend (later my wife) Beverly to bring it to me. Thanks, Jesus...Thanks, Miss Ann.
Isaiah included in his message to Judah that besides the blessing of salvation from the approaching armies of Assyria, God would also give them the blessing of a coming righteous king. Some believe that King was Josiah. I tend to lean toward Hezekiah the righteous. But I wouldn't lose fellowship over it.
What I really lean toward is that this part of Isaiah ‘s message related to a greater blessing for Judah and Israel. The coming of The Righteous One, the Prophesied Messiah, King of kings, The babe in a manger Jesus.
Let us listen to today’s text and the description of the coming Messiah King. “Behold, “a king will reign in righteousness”, and His princes “will rule in justice”. And will be like a “hiding place” from the wind, a “shelter” from the storm, like “streams of water in a dry place”, like the “shade of a great rock” in a weary land.”
