Only God Knows the Future
/in GAMEtime Sharing /by meilingHi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Isaiah 41:21-42:9. Let’s go!
Isaiah 41:21-29 (NIV)
21 “Present your case,” says the LORD. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.
22 “Bring in [your idols] to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come,
23 tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.
On verses 21-29: Here Isaiah shares another way that the idols of the nations cannot compare to the LORD: the idols of the nations are useless in helping their worshipers discern the future (v21-23). Thus these idols are “detestable” (v24), false (v29), and reduce those who worship them to “less than nothing” (v24), leaving their worshippers with “no one among them to give counsel” (v28).
以東受審象徵列國的荒涼
/in 每日親近神, 每日親近神-2023 /by meiling以賽亞書34:8 因耶和華有報仇之日,為錫安的爭辯有報應之年。
閱讀經文:以賽亞書 34:1-17
1列國啊,要近前來聽!眾民哪,要側耳而聽!地和其上所充滿的,世界和其中一切所出的,都應當聽! 2 因為耶和華向萬國發憤恨,向他們的全軍發烈怒,將他們滅盡,交出他們受殺戮。 3 被殺的必然拋棄,屍首臭氣上騰,諸山被他們的血溶化。 4 天上的萬象都要消沒,天被捲起好像書卷;其上的萬象要殘敗,像葡萄樹的葉子殘敗,又像無花果樹的葉子殘敗一樣。 5 「因為我的刀在天上已經喝足,這刀必臨到以東和我所咒詛的民,要施行審判。 6 耶和華的刀滿了血,用脂油和羊羔、公山羊的血,並公綿羊腰子的脂油滋潤的,因為耶和華在波斯拉有獻祭的事,在以東地大行殺戮。 7 野牛、牛犢和公牛要一同下來,他們的地喝醉了血,他們的塵土因脂油肥潤。」
本段屬卅四章,先知提到神對列國的審判,這是因為列國的罪不容於耶和華神。而先知敘述中的審判是以以東這個國家做為列國的代表,因為以色列乃是神所特別揀選的民族,是背負宣揚神屬靈救恩大使命的。但是,以東這個原本是屬同根生之邦,卻肆無忌憚地破壞攻擊他們的手足以色列,因而惹動了耶和華神的震怒。所以,神定意要報復以東。
就在先知宣佈了神的報復決心之後,緊接著先知便描述了神如何報復以東。這一波審判包括四個方面,在希伯來文中,第2, 5, 6下, 8等節開頭都以「因為」一詞作開頭,並且以相仿的結構表達神的宣告──「有忿恨」(v.2)、「有刀」(v.5)、「有祭」(v.6下)、「有日子」(v.8):