Thurs.’s Devo - Through Christ We can do All Things

Read: Isaiah 8:1-9:21; 2 Co. 12:1-10; Ps. 55:1-23; Pr. 23:4-5 After Isaiah prophesied that a virgin would have a child, his own wife got pregnant. I wonder if he thought this was the fulfillment of the prophesy since “virgin” in their day could also mean “a young woman”. We see how obedient Isaiah is when he names him the name God says instead of Emanuel. He calls him Maher-Shalai-Hash-Baz. I would have put my foot down on that one but Isaiah and his wife didn’t. (Surely they shortened it to Maher.) It means “quickly the spoil” or “hasting the prey”. Isaiah explained that Syria and all his army are coming to them and will sweep over the land. They needed to bind together and pray to the Lord who would deliver them. Isaiah goes back and forth from the near future to the far future when Emanuel will come. They need to repent and turn to Emanuel to see salvation for themselves against the coming armies just like we need to come to Emanuel so that we can win our battles against sin and the world. This Emanuel is also called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Notice how many times it says, “but his hand is stretched out still.” What a picture of the mercy of God in the midst of great war and judgment. To God, mercy triumphs over judgment every time. Paul was intelligent, well studied and very capable in his own self to teach but he realized that God’s strength was made perfect in his weaknesses. God’s grace was sufficient and Paul would rather have the glory of Christ than the praises of man for what Paul could do. He realized that when he felt the weakest, God was the strongest through him. Lord, be our strength and sufficiency.