Mon.'s Devo - God’s Warnings to the Nations

Read: Isaiah 19:1-21:17; Galatians 2:1-16; Psalm 59:1-17; Proverbs 23:13-14 God gave Isaiah a message concerning Egypt. Egypt will be turned over to the Assyrians and nothing them or their gods could do would stop it. It will break the spirits of the people and devastate their land. The leaders will be powerless and have no wisdom to save their nation. *** The Lord of heaven’s army will be feared by the Egyptians and five of Egypt’s cities will begin to follow the Lord and speak Hebrew. One of these cities will be Heliopolis. *** They will erect an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt which will be a sign and a witness that the Lord is worshipped there. God will heal Egypt and the Assyrians will join them in worshipping the Lord. *** Isaiah was told to walk around without his burlap and his sandals to show that Ethiopia and Egypt would be taken prisoner to Babylon. They would walk naked and barefoot to their shame. The Philistines would panic to see this thinking they are next. *** God gave a message to Babylon saying disaster was coming to them. God will give the Medes and the Elamites the okay to attack Babylon. Isaiah sees the great feast that Belshasar was at the night he saw the writing on the wall. That was the night Babylon was attacked. The Medes came underwater under the gate and were inside the castle before the watchmen saw them. Isaiah warns the watchmen of this. All of Babylon’s idols would lie broken on the ground. *** Isaiah got a message from Edom because a cry for mercy was coming from them. God says it would come but only for a short time. *** Isaiah received a word for Arabia. He warned them to flee to the desert and hide because only a remnant would survive what was coming. *** In Galatians, Paul is still telling his testimony. When Paul came out of his isolation, 14 years later he went to Jerusalem to share with them all the Spirit had taught him to see if it bore witness to them. They all agreed and didn’t even care that Titus was not circumcised. But, some spies had infiltrated that meeting to see how they could take away their freedom they had in Christ, but it didn’t work. *** The leaders of the church welcomed Paul and agreed that he had been given the calling to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. James and Peter even recognized Paul and Barnabas as their coworkers. *** Peter came to Antioch and, at first, ate with the Gentile believers, but when friends of James showed up he stopped eating with Gentiles and even insisted the Gentiles get circumcised. Paul called him out on his hypocrisy. He reminded Peter that a man is not made right by obeying the law but by having faith in Christ. No man will be made right by following the law. *** Lord, may we not be deceived into thinking our righteousness will save us. It is by grace we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ.