Thurs.’s Devo - Yesterday, Today and Forever

Read: Isaiah 22:1-24:23; Galatians 2:17-3:9; Psalm 60:1-12; Proverbs 23:15-16 Prophecy in the Bible always speaks of the time of the present but it speaks again and again later in the future generations also. In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign in Judah, Sennacherib came to attack. Hezekiah had a wall built around the water supply that flowed outside of his city. The second wall kept the enemy from being able to have access to water. Hezekiah was able to settle with Sennecherib without a fight though it cost them dearly. But, later during the reign of Zedekiah, the Babylonians came and many of Judah died in the siege through famine and disease. The rest of the chapter has to do with this attack. They were being punished because they hadn’t repented when Sennacherib came. They never asked the Lord for help when God asked them to repent and mourn for their sins. Instead they had partied and feasted. Shebna was Hezekiah’s treasurer and governor of the palace. He was about to lose his job and be exiled. Eliakim would be put in his place. He will be a father to the people and be given the key to the house of David. When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them. God would bring honor to his family. God gave a word to Tyre, the trading hub of the world. God was going to destroy it. It will lie in ruins for 70 years then be rebuilt. It will return to its sins but in the end her profits will be given to the Lord and he will use its wealth to provide good food and fine clothing for the Lord’s priests which are the faithful ones. Chapters 24-27 are one long prophecy but we are only reading chapter 24 today. The first 12 verses tell of the calamity of the Jews. The whole earth suffers for the sins of God’s people. So true! We are the ones that determine the way the world goes. This is the saddest picture of what happens with the Church is not walking in righteousness and truth. Verses 17-23 are the judgements on the enemies of the Church. The gods of the nations and the proud rulers of the nations will be rounded up and put in prison and finally punished. In Galatians, Paul is rebuking them for thinking that going back to trying to fulfill the law would make them righteous. He died to following the law to live a life through the spirit of God which was his new covenant. Trying to be perfect puts all the attention on ourselves but living in the Spirit puts all the attention on the Spirit. That is our goal. We did, he lives in us. He gets the glory.