8.4 Isaiah 46-48

Isaiah 46-48.

Transcript

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Hello, friends and neighbors. Welcome to the Sunny Side of Life Bible in a year experience. Join me each day as I read the Bible from start to finish. I'm reading from the Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation, published by Tyndale House Publishers. I pray this daily reading will bless you as much as it does me. So let's get started. August 4th, Isaiah chapters forty six through forty eight. Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon, bow as they are lowered to the ground. They are being hauled away on ox carts. The poor beasts stagger under the weight. Both the idols and their owners are bowed down. The gods cannot protect the people, and the people cannot protect the gods. They go off into captivity together. Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel. I have cared for you since you were born, yes, I carried you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime, until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal? Some people pour out their silver and gold and hire a craftsman to make a god from it. Then they bow down and worship it. They carry it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there. It can't even move. And when someone prays to it, there is no answer. It can't rescue anyone from trouble. Do not forget this. Keep it in mind. Remember this, you guilty ones. Remember the things I have done in the past, for I alone am God. I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. I will call a swift bird of prey from the east, a leader from a distant land to come and do my bidding. I have said what I would do, and I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn people who are so far from doing right, for I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now. I am ready to save Jerusalem and show my glory to Israel. Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust, for your days of sitting on a throne have ended. O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be a lovely princess, tender and delicate. Take heavy millstones and grind flour, remove your veil and strip off your robe. Expose yourself to public view. You will be naked and burdened with shame. I will take vengeance against you without pity. Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Heaven's armies, is the holy one of Israel. O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence. Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms. For I was angry with my chosen people and punished them by letting them fall into your hands. But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy. You oppressed even the elderly. You said, I will reign forever as queen of the world. You did not reflect on your actions or think about their consequences. Listen to this, you pleasure loving kingdom, living at ease and feeling secure. You say I am the only one, and there is no other. I will never be a widow or lose my children. Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment. Widowhood and the loss of your children. Yes, these calamities will come upon you despite all your witchcraft and magic. You felt secure in your wickedness. No one sees me, you said, but your wisdom and knowledge have led you astray. And you said, I am the only one, and there is no other. So disaster will overtake you, and you won't be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won't be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you are not prepared. Now use your magical charms, use the spells you have worked at all these years. Maybe they will do you some good. Maybe they can make someone afraid of you. All the advice you receive has made you tired. Where are all your astrologers, those stargazers who make predictions each month? Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds. But they are like straw burning in a fire, they cannot save themselves from the flame. You will get no help from them at all. Their hearth is no place to sit for warmth, and all your friends, those with whom you've done business since childhood, will go their own ways, turning a deaf ear to your cries. Listen to me, O family of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Judah. Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and call on the God of Israel. You don't keep your promises, even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on the God of Israel, whose name is the Lord of Heaven's armies. Long ago I told you what was going to happen, then suddenly I took action, and all my predictions came true. For I know how stubborn and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron, your heads are as hard as bronze. That is why I told you what would happen. I told you beforehand what I was going to do. Then you could never say my idols did it. My wooden image and metal god commanded it to happen. You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it. Now I will tell you new things, secrets you have not heard. They are brand new, not things from the past, so you cannot say we knew that all the time. Yes, I will tell you of things that are entirely new, things you have never heard of before. For I know so well what traitors you are. You have been rebels from birth. Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out. I have refined you, but not as silver is refined, rather I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. I will rescue you for my sake, yes, for my own sake. I will not let my reputation be tarnished, and I will not share my glory with idols. Listen to me, O family of Jacob, Israel, my chosen one. I alone am God, the first and the last. It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand that spread out the heavens above. When I call out the stars, they all appear in order. Have any of your idols ever told you this? Come, all of you and listen. The Lord has chosen Cyrus as his ally. He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylon and to destroy the Babylonian armies. I have said it, I am calling Cyrus, I will send him on this errand and will help him succeed. Come closer and listen to this. From the beginning I have told you plainly what would happen. And now the sovereign Lord and his spirit have sent me with this message. This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer, the holy one of Israel. I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you, and leads you along the paths you should follow. Oh, that you had listened to my commands, then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river, and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sands along the seashore, too many to count. There would have been no need for your destruction, or for cutting off your family name. Yet even now, be free from your captivity, leave Babylon and the Babylonians. Sing out this message, shout it to the ends of the earth. The Lord has redeemed his servants, the people of Israel. They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert. He divided the rock, and water gushed out for them to drink. But there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord. That's it for today, friends. Feel free to read ahead on your own. Before I go, let's share the Lord's Prayer together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, power, glory forever.