Fri.’s Devo - God’s Judgment

Read: Isaiah 3:1-5:30; 2 Corinthians 11:1-15; Psalm 53:1-6; Proverbs 22:28-29 When God shakes the earth, no one wants to be in charge because no one has solutions. Everyone blames and oppresses one another and there is no respect for elders or honorable people. No one is ashamed of their sins or takes responsibility to understand that they brought this upon themselves. God has Isaiah interject hope for the godly. He tells them that everything will go well for them. They will enjoy a reward instead of judgment. The leaders will mislead the ungodly and send them down a destructive path. God will sit on his throne of judgement and declare judgment on the earth. He will judge the elders and the rulers first because they were the ones in charge. Israel had become prideful and prosperous but they had forgotten their God. They will lose everything and sit in shame and humiliation. Men will be so scarce there won’t be enough to go around. But, the godly who depend upon the Lord and never gave in to idols or sin will be written down. God will wash them of the filth of the nation and sin. God will be their refuge and their covering. Israel was the Lord’s vineyard. He gave her a land in Canaan and built a Temple for her to worship in. Then he waited for a harvest of her grapes but instead her grapes were bitter because of her wanton heart. What will the Lord do? He will cut down that vineyard and let the animals trample it. Where grapes were suppose to grow, he will let bribers and thorns grow. He will not water it. This is what happened to Judah and Israel. God sent the people into exile except for a few who were left to care for the land. The land grew thorns and briers and waited until the 70 years of judgment were over. The people were taken to Egypt, Babylon and thoughout the earth where they were humbled and expected to repent. Some repented and others just took their sins with them and continued them in a foreign land. In Corinthians, Paul addressed the apostasy of the ‘super apostles’ who had sprung up in their church. They did great miracles and spoke elegant words but they deceived the people and preached a different Jesus than the real Jesus Christ. They lured the people from the truth so Paul was trying to steer them back around to the truth. His goal was to present them as a “pure bride” to Christ. Paul wondered if he did wrong by using the contributions of other churches to come to them without cost and freely preach to them. Maybe if he had charged they would have realized he had something of worth to teach them. Paul described these deceptive false prophets as angels of light, like Satan. They looked like righteousness but they were deceiving everyone instead. They were really wolves in sheep’s clothing. Lord, help us to have great discernment in the days to come. Help us to keep our eyes on you and on things of heaven, not of this earth. May our nation seek righteousness and truth. May we endure till the end and not get weary in well doing.