There is much to learn and much to write about from these five chapters of Isaiah. If you have the time it would be good to read Isaiah with a good commentary next to you. It will help with the history and the symbolism that will then help with gaining even deeper blessings. But for the purposes of this blog and to strive for brevity I will share just a couple of thoughts I had as I read.
First of all did you notice all the rich prophecies pointing to Jesus, 6:14; 9:6, 7; 11:1-5 just to name a few.
I really love what I see as the faith of Ahaz in chapter seven. In 7:10 & 11 The Lord tells Ahaz to ask for a sign. Ahaz refuses to ask for one. At first I thought, “well he’s in trouble now, but then just one verse after his refusal he tells us of the sign of Jesus. So I went back and read from the beginning of chapter seven again down through verse 16, and I saw it…
In Isaiah 7:4, 5, 7 God makes a promise to Ahaz,
“Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands…Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah has planned evil against you…It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.”
This is why Ahaz didn’t need a sign, God had already made a promise and Ahaz trusted God at His word. Just a quick question I put before myself maybe you could ask the same, “In God’s words there are so many promises, do I trust those or do I still ask God to sometimes “prove” Himself?”
In 8:19 there is the question is asked,
“Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?”
And I wrote in my Bible, “Wouldn’t this include people praying to the saints?” –Just a thought…
I love the promise/prophecy of the Gospel expansion in 9:1-7! And I prayed for the United States and for the DC/Baltimore Suburbs that it would be true for us that “There will be no end to the increase of His government of the peace.” Jesus keep this promise in our land too! No end to the increase!
10:1, 2 is an indictment to the greed of history…including today!
I am fascinated by the concept of remnant and so I really appreciated 10:20-22. One of the descriptors of remnant here are people that “truly rely on the Lord.” And there is also this warning, “For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, ONLY a remnant within them will return.” Here it is clear it doesn’t matter what group is associated with the truth or the Biblically stated people with the remnant truth, some of those folk still won’t be remnant. We must rely upon the Lord truly!
There is more remnant info in chapter 11, some fascinating stuff.
But I will end my comments for now and encourage all of us to “TRULY rely on the Lord” this day and every day from this point forward.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Matthew 3 & 4