Thur.’s Devo - Fear the Lord

Read: Isaiah 6:1-7:25; 2 Corinthians 11:16-33; Psalm 54:1-7; Proverbs 23:1-3 To give you the history of Uzziah, he was the king of Judah who started out being a good king that followed the Lord. In his latter years, he became full of pride and went into the Temple to offer incense on the altar which was a duty only the priest were to do. The high priest, with 80 of his priests tried to stop him but not before God struck him with leprosy. He spent his remaining life in a secluded house and never got to return to his kingdom or the Temple. In the year that he died, Isaiah had an encounter with God and saw him on his throne in all his glory. God gave him his commission to be his mouth to the nation of Judah for him. He was to pull their ears and shut their eyes so that they would not understand what God was about to do. He would prophesy to them until Jerusalem was empty and the people gone into exile. What a sad commission! King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel had conspired together to take Jerusalem but God told Isaiah that He would not let that happen. As a confirmation, Isaiah’s wife would have a son and they were to name him Immanuel which means “God is with us.” This was also a future promise of another son who would be born of the virgin, Mary. Instead of Syria and Israel, God was sending the Assyrian’s against them. They would come in vast hordes and shave off the people and the land. Only a few would be left and the beautiful pasture and gardens would turn to briers and thorns. In Corinthians, Paul is rebuking the people for letting the false teachers enslave them, take everything they have, take advantage of them and that control of everything, then slap them in the face. That sounds exactly what is going on in our nation as the CDC controls every aspect of our existence, and we let them. Paul tries to show them that he has earned their trust and lived his life willing to die for what he believes. His life has been the example of what he preaches. He is trying to open their eyes to see the truth. Lord, may we stop being afraid of the powers of this world and fear the powers of heaven. Lord, you are in control of all of the affairs of man and your kingdom is the Everlasting Kingdom. May the fear of the Lord fill our earth.