Monday, July 13, 2015

Mon.’s Devo - The Coming Christ

Read: 2 Chron. 27: Isaiah 9-12
Jotham became the king of Judah after Azziah died in his leprosy. Jotham prepared his ways before the Lord so God prospered him. He built many towers, and cities and fortresses and he defeated the Ammonites and they paid him tribute. He only lived to be 41. Sadly, his son, Ahaz is not going to follow in his footsteps.
Isaiah is a true mystic so he throws in little tidbits of prophecy that I’m sure made no sense to them then. In chapter nine, he prophecied the first coming of Christ. Jesus was to be the light that would come to earth and dispell the darkness of ignorance. This light would bring judgment to those who refused to accept it but salvation to those who did. Isaiah says repeatedly that “for all this (sin), his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” God is a merciful god.
God raised up adversaries, like the Assyrians, to use in punishing his people but God reminded them that they were just the axe and He was the hewer. God was, and is still the one in control - not the Assyrians, not our government or Isis. Saturday we learned that one of the ways God judges is fire. Did you notice that the day after our Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages that we had an outbreak of fires? God is in control.
Chapter 11 is all about the second coming of Christ. This time he is coming to judge the earth. The wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard lie down with the kid. I don’t understand what all this means but it says that our rest will be glorious. In verse 11 it says that for the second time, God will recover the remnant of his people from captivity and destroy his enemies.
Lord, we sing to You because You have done excellent things which will one day be known in all the earth. Great is the Holy One of Israel!

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