Fri.’s Devo - God Is With Us

Read: Isaiah 6:1-7:25; 2 Corinthians 11:16-33; Psalm 54:1-7; Proverbs 23:1-3 Uzziah had been a good king in a wicked nation. When he died Isaiah had an encounter with the Lord where he saw the Lord in his holiness on his throne. It totally undid him as he realized how unholy he was. He also realized how sinful his people were. God asked who would go back to the people with his message and Isaiah volunteered. God said that they would hear but not understand, see it but not learn from it, harden their hearts plug their ears and shut their eyes. They wouldn’t turn to the Lord for healing. Even the remnant will be burned but God would leave a holy seed, a stump. God told Isaiah to take his son, Shear-jashub which means “a remnant shall return” and go out and meet the new King Ahaz. Ahaz was worrying about the imminent attack of Assyria and Remalia. They were planning to displace him with Tabeal which means “good for nothing.” God’s message was that the invasion would never happen. Neither of them were strong enough to defend themselves and neither was Israel. Israel would fall in 65 years. Unless Judah’s faith was firm, it would not stand either. Later, God sent Isaiah to Ahaz to tell him to ask God for a sign so he could prove himself to Ahaz and make his faith stronger. Ahaz blew him off saying he wouldn’t test the Lord. Isaiah was irritated that he wouldn’t do what God had told him to do by asking for a sign so he told him he would give him one anyway. The sign was that the virgin would have a child and he would be called Emanuel which means “God is with us.” By the time the child was old enough to choose right from wrong, he would be eating yogurt and honey. And, before the child was old, the lands of the two kings that he feared so much would both be deserted. We know that this was a Messianic prophecy that had to do with Mary having Jesus but it also had to do with Judah right then. A virgin means a young girl and Isaiah had married a young girl who became pregnant and they had a son. The yogurt and honey referred to Syria and Remalia. In his lifetime, they would be deserted. After that, God was bringing destruction to Israel and Judah like they had never seen before. It would come through the Assyrians. There would be very little left in the land but the ones left would have milk, yogurt and honey. The land would become deserted and overgrown with thorns. In Corinthians, Paul is justifying himself. He is angry with the people because they followed men who put them in bondage, devoured them, took from them. and exalted themselves at the believer’s expense. This sounds like what our government is doing to us. Paul then went on a rampage talking about his sufferings that he had endured. He is making the point that it is wrong to take slavery sitting down. They should be standing up for themselves to these so called leaders and not be so afraid to suffer a little for their rights. This is where we are in our nation. We are so afraid to lose our jobs, be persecuted, thrown in prison, be killed or have our families threatened so we lie down, let them stick us with who knows what so we can have a moment of freedom. But then we find that that freedom we sought was very short lived and wasn’t really freedom… just more control. Let us remember that “We overcome by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony and that WE LOVE NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO DEATH.” We were born to die. Our hope is not in this world, but in the world to come. We live our lives to give the next generation a better one. Lord, may we have great courage to fight the satanic forces that would enslave us with fear and cause us to bow. We will not bow to anyone but You. May Your name be glorified on the earth.