Archive for month: February, 2023

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Isaiah 9:8-10:4.

As usual, I highly recommend that you read the whole passage on your own a few times first.  Then take a look at my sharing below.  Let’s go!

Isaiah 9:8-21 (NIV)
8  The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel.
9  All the people will know it– Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria– who say with pride and arrogance of heart,
10  “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”
11  But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on.

On verses 9:8 to 10:4:  In response to Israel’s sin and their unwillingness to repent, God will:
–        allow Israel’s enemies to attack and defeat Israel (v11-12)
–        cut off Israel’s elders and prophets (v14-15)
–        remove God’s protecting grace from Israel and instead release God’s wrath, giving rise to chaos and unrest in Israel (v19-20)

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Isaiah 8:1-22.

As usual, I highly recommend that you read the whole passage on your own a few times first.  Then take a look at my sharing below.  Let’s go!

Isaiah 8:1-4 (NIV)
1  The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
2  And I will call in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.”
3  Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
4  Before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

On verses 1-4:  God had impressed upon Isaiah these words “Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz”, which means “quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil”.  God then gets Isaiah to write these words down on a large scroll in the presence of two hostile witnesses (v1-2) who were close associates of King Ahaz of Judah: Uriah the priest (a “sketchy” priest in that when Ahaz wanted to build an altar just like the one the Arameans used to worship idols, he got Uriah to make the sketch (2 Kings 16:10)) and Zechariah, who was most likely King Ahaz’s father-in-law (2 Kings 18:2).

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Isaiah 6:1-13.

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. — Isaiah 6:1

One summer during my teen years, the King Tut exhibit came to a city only five hours’ drive away from our farming community, and a group of us took the challenge of trying to get in to view it. Since the exhibit was highly advertised, it drew people from hundreds of miles around. We left home in the middle of the night to make the journey, arriving early in the morning. Even so, we waited in an extremely slow line for many, many hours before entering the front doors of the museum.

Once we were inside, we were quite thrilled at what we saw! The magnificence of those displays was beyond anything my little country girl’s heart could imagine. There was more gold in one place than I will probably ever see again in my lifetime. King Tutankhamen’s burial mask was shaped of smooth gold, and painted with the youthful, elegant features we have come to associate with these rulers of long ago. Aside from the sheer value of the gold, there was the priceless significance of these centuries-old treasures. My opportunity to view this amazing collection was certainly the chance of a lifetime.