2 June (Isaiah 21-30)

Isaiah 21

(v.9) Babylon is fallen reminds me of Rev 14 & 18 where God destroys the beginning of pride and sin...Babylon. Isaiah is telling of what John sees later, the Day of the LORD!


Isaiah 22

(v.4) Just like the people of Jerusalem, we Americans are content and oblivious to God's impending wrath. Ignorance does that. Like Isaiah, we need to warn the lost, and encourage the faithful to be prepared for the worst, and pray for protection.

(v.13) If we don't take God seriously, we will be caught unaware of His coming. Now, Jesus said that we won't know the day or the hour of His coming (Matt 24:36), but if we know our Bible, then we'll see that His coming is soon by the warnings and signs He told us about.

Isaiah 23

(v.9) God hates pride...that is what brought Lucifer to want to be a god, and that is what makes us try to do things our own way, instead of God's ways. Pride is the root of all sin.

Isaiah 24

This whole chapter is about surviving the Great Tribulation, but only by God's grace would anyone survive. There are different beliefs as to when the Rapture will happen, before, during or at the end of the Great Tribulation. I believe Scripture assures us that Jesus will call home His Bride BEFORE the Tribulation. That could be any time, so prepare your soul and your faith instead of food and supplies.

Isaiah 25

(v.8) When we are in heaven, God will wipe away our tears and we will experience pain and sadness no more. I believe that there may be a short time where when we are judged at the Bema Seat of Christ, we will see all the opportunities to reach out to the lost that we missed. We will be ashamed and saddened, but then Jesus will wipe away our tears, and say, Well done, good and faithful servant...enter into the joy of your LORD! Matt 25:21

Isaiah 26

(v.3) Like in Prov 3:5-6 we see that peace comes from trust in the LORD. We have peace in this life if we KNOW that He is in charge, and we know where we're going to be when it's all said and done!

Isaiah 27

(v.6) When Israel came back into the land in the 19th century and became a nation again in the middle of the 20th century, most of the land was barren desert. But God started to bless His people, and rainfall increased exponentially! Now, we see many beautiful areas of Israel, and it's one of the leading farming suppliers in the world!

Isaiah 28

(v.16) Jesus is the cornerstone...He is the foundation of all that is important!

Isaiah 29

(v.13) I teach my kids to be in fellowship with God...to seek Him and let Him work in their lives. It's no good to talk a good game but not have our hearts in it. We need to be real, and let Him work through us to love and serve others.

Isaiah 30

(v.10) I know people who don't want to think about God or the big important questions in life. Here Isaiah is showing us that people don't want to face the hard truth...they would rather live in a lie than face truth. This is sad, and we need to keep showing them God's love before it's too late.

1 June (Isaiah 15-20)

Isaiah 15

(v.2) In Hebrew culture at that time, a man displayed his maturity by letting his hair be long, and have a flowing beard. When they had a family member die, they would shave their heads and beards to let everyone know that they are in a mourning time. They would let their hair grow during the mourning time...usually for a number of months, then shave it again to let everyone know that they're done mourning.

I joke with my kids that today, when we see bald men, it doesn't mean they're mourning, unless they're mourning the loss of their hair!

Isaiah 16

(v.5) Jesus is a descendant of David, and as God told Mary when she was pregnant, that her Son would sit on the throne of David. When Jesus was on the earth, there was no throne of David, for it had been destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans. Jesus will rule and reign for 1,000 years in the new Temple, most likely sitting on the Mercy Seat that covers the Ark of the Covenant.

There will be a terrible time in the world that history has never come close to. Imagine that, with the world wars and major calamities that have happened throughout history, nothing will come close to the events describing the Great Tribulation.

Jesus will stop it, and establish peace, justice and mercy on all the people...Hallelujah!

Isaiah 17

(v.1) This is a key verse...Damascus is the oldest city to be still with the same name. With what is going on in the Middle East, we see Syria helping Iran and Israel's neighbors with arms and missles. I believe that one day soon, Damascus will be wiped out for her work against Israel, and like the Scripture says, it will be a ruinous heap. This may happen from a nuclear blast, or since there are scores of ammo storehouses, it may just be a powder keg waiting to erupt.

(v.7) When all is said and done, we all will face God. Those of us who have believed and followed Christ, will have judgement, but only to burn away our unholiness. We will be rewarded on the Bema Seat of Christ, which is like the Olympic medal stand. We may have nothing left but our faith after it goes through the fire, but our faith is what will get us through to salvation and heaven.

For those that rejected God, or didn't take Him seriously, they will face the Father in the Great White Throne of Judgement, and they will be speechless. They will have their lives displayed, and they will have nothing to show for what they did for Christ's sake. We need to keep trying to plant seeds so the Spirit can bring the lost to God.

Isaiah 18

Ethiopia has a big role to play in the end times. Many scholars believe that they currently hold the Ark of the Covenant, and it's their job to present it to Jesus when He returns.

If we look at Acts 8 we see that God has Philip go to the desert to speak to an Ethiopian man. This man is a eunuch, and has an entourage with him. The man is reading Isaiah 53 which is the best Scripture describing the Messiah other than the Gospels. He doesn't understand, though, and Philip explains to him that the Messiah had to first die for our sins, then He will come back as the King.

It is believed that this Eunuch heard what Jesus was doing in Galilee and the area, and he thought that it was time to present the Ark to God. The link below is a good read to know more of what I think is the best possibility of where the Ark is today, and what it's purpose will be in the last days.

http://www.baseinstitute.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=68

Isaiah 19

(v.6) Isaiah predicted this thousands of years before it happened...in Egypt, they erected the Aswan Dam with the idea that it would prevent the Nile from flooding the area. It accomplished that, but it also didn't allow for the salt in the water to go to the sea, and it seeped into the farmlands and ruined the crops.

This is a verse that the environmentalists and Christians can agree on!

(v.12) If we look at all other "holy" books of different faiths, we can easily see that their predictions have been false. Only the Bible has been 100% accurate so far, so why would we doubt that it won't be absolutely accurate for the end times? We have not "outgrown" the Bible, since God thought of everything before He created the universe!

Be careful of following man's wisdom or predictions...search the Scriptures yourself Acts 17:11 and know what God says...not what man says...including me!

Isaiah 20

My kids get a kick out of this chapter, for the Egyptians and Ethiopians are shamed by having to expose their buttocks! I'm kind of silly, so I act it out for them, and they laugh! It may seem silly for God to have this in His Scriptures, but it's all there for a reason. We can't escape God.