{"id":24948,"date":"2023-01-27T22:00:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T05:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ruth-4_13-22-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-01-17T14:26:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T21:26:53","slug":"isaiah-1_1-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-1_1-9\/","title":{"rendered":"The One Who Beat the Bully"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 1:1-9\u00a0 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

there are at least\u00a0four reasons why the book of Isaiah is special and worth studying<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1. There is probably no book in the Bible that gives a more complete view of who God is than Isaiah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Isaiah is like a mini-Bible in itself, covering the entire Biblical story.<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Isaiah gives us some of the most important prophecies about the Messiah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

4. You could use to the book of Isaiah to explain the entire gospel message about Jesus Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to get to know God, Jesus or the Bible better, Isaiah is an excellent and important book to study.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 1:1-9.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 1:1 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 1: \u00a0Isaiah\u2019s ministry as a prophet spanned the reign of 4 kings of Judah: Uzziah (790-739 BC), Jotham (750-732 BC), Ahaz (735-715 BC) and Hezekiah (715-686\u00a0<\/a>BC).\u00a0 If King Uzziah died in 739 B.C. and Isaiah lived to report the defeat and death of Assyria\u2019s king Sennacherib in 681 B.C., that means Isaiah\u2019s ministry lasted at least 58 years.<\/p>\n

Isaiah\u2019s light didn\u2019t burn bright for a moment only to flame out after a few years.\u00a0 Isaiah served God with great longevity.\u00a0 I pray that, like Isaiah, you and I would serve God with longevity as well.\u00a0\u00a0May we not burn bright for God for a season, only to flame out and disappear.\u00a0 Rather, for as many as years God gives us on this earth, may we live out our calling to worship Jesus, to grow more like Him, to serve Him, to lead out others to Him, and to love the church family He gave us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 1:2-4 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the\u00a0LORD\u00a0has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the\u00a0LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 2-4:\u00a0 Here God calls heaven and earth to witness how the nation of Israel, whom He calls His children, have rebelled against Him.\u00a0 In verse 3 God laments about how broken is His relationship with His people (\u201cThe ox knows his master, the donkey his owner\u2019s manager, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand\u201d \u2013 v3).\u00a0 In verse 4 God expresses His complete dismay at how the children He loves have turned their backs on Him and given themselves over to sin and corruption.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 God sees us as His children whom He loves.\u00a0 As wayward and rebellious as we can be, because of love God can\u2019t easily let go of us and say \u201cTo hell with them.\u201d\u00a0 Thus\u00a0our sin causes a tremendous emotional struggle for God, angering and breaking His heart.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 1:5-9 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness– only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Unless the\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-9:\u00a0 Here Isaiah pictures the nation of Judah as unhealthy, sick and beaten up from head to toe because of their sin (v6).\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s what sin does to us \u2013 to us as individuals and to us collectively.\u00a0 Sin causes us to become unhealthy, sick and beaten up in all sorts of ways.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201c\u2026Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.\u201d (v5)\u00a0\u00a0Sin is something that poisons our minds and hearts<\/strong>, causing us to think, want and move in ways that are opposite to the direction God wants us to go in.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYour country is left desolate\u201d (v7) \u2013 \u201cDesolate\u201d means empty of inhabitants.\u00a0\u00a0Sin empties us of life, spiritually and emotionally.<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYour cities burned with fire\u201d (v7) \u2013\u00a0Sin destroys the communities and relationships we try to build.<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYour fields are stripped by foreigners right before you\u201d (v7) \u2013 Fields represented wealth in Isaiah\u2019s time.\u00a0\u00a0Sin strips us of our resources.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>When sin is in control of our lives, we end up giving our money, our bodies and our time to things that do not help us but only hurt us, to things that should never have had access to us in the first place.\u00a0 So we see in just verses 5-7 alone how sin affects us spiritually, emotionally, relationally and financially.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Daughter of Zion [that\u2019s another word for Jerusalem] is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege.\u201d (v8) In other words,\u00a0sin reduces us to a shell of ourselves<\/strong>\u00a0(\u201ca shelter in a vineyard, a hut in a field\u201d), such that we\u2019re no longer truly living but merely existing.\u00a0\u00a0Sin causes us to stress, fear, panic, worry and bite at one another<\/strong>\u00a0like \u201ca city under siege\u201d (v8) such that it\u2019s just a matter of time before it depletes us of all our resources and strength.<\/p>\n

Most of all sin brings God\u2019s judgment.<\/strong>\u00a0God is a holy God.\u00a0 Nothing with sin can stand in His presence.\u00a0 God\u2019s natural, instinctive, inevitable response to sin is to cast it out of His presence and destroy it.\u00a0 That\u2019s why verse 9 says, \u201cUnless the\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, if it were not for God\u2019s mercy, God\u2019s judgment against our sin would have completely destroyed us, just like it did the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.<\/p>\n

Those are the problems sin brings, unless something is done about our sin problem.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder Isaiah writes in verse 5: \u201cWhy should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion?\u201d<\/p>\n

What can we do about our sin problem?\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 No matter how hard we try, we can never completely get rid of our sin.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God sent Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0When we were lost to sin, Jesus came and lived a life without sin, a life that only God in the flesh could live.<\/strong>\u00a0 In doing so he fulfilled all of God\u2019s righteous requirements for us.\u00a0 And then Jesus did the unthinkable: Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.\u00a0 Since sin separates us from God,\u00a0Jesus allowed himself to be separated from God through his death on a cross.\u00a0 In doing so, Jesus paid the penalty that we were supposed to pay.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we trust not in what we do but in what Jesus has done for us, God credits Jesus\u2019 righteousness to us and declares us blameless and acceptable in His sight.\u00a0When sin, like a bully, was beating us up, Jesus came and defeated sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s because of Jesus that now we can stand in God\u2019s presence, forgiven of our sins, and reconciled to God as His children again.<\/p>\n

God, thank You that despite all my rebellion and waywardness, You have yet to give up on me.\u00a0 I agree with You that sin destroys me emotionally, spiritually, relationally, in every way.\u00a0 Thank You that when I was lost in my sin condition, You sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for me so that through Jesus my sins could be forgiven, I am a new creation and I am restored in relationship to You.\u00a0 Thank You Jesus for overpowering all my sin!\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

If you want to get to know God, Jesus or the Bible better, Isaiah is an excellent and important book to study.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 1:1-9.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 1:1 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.<\/p>\n

On verse 1: \u00a0Isaiah\u2019s ministry as a prophet spanned the reign of 4 kings of Judah: Uzziah (790-739 BC), Jotham (750-732 BC), Ahaz (735-715 BC) and Hezekiah (715-686\u00a0BC).\u00a0 If King Uzziah died in 739 B.C. and Isaiah lived to report the defeat and death of Assyria\u2019s king Sennacherib in 681 B.C., that means Isaiah\u2019s ministry lasted at least 58 years.<\/p>\n

Isaiah\u2019s light didn\u2019t burn bright for a moment only to flame out after a few years.\u00a0 Isaiah served God with great longevity.\u00a0 I pray that, like Isaiah, you and I would serve God with longevity as well.\u00a0\u00a0May we not burn bright for God for a season, only to flame out and disappear.\u00a0 Rather, for as many as years God gives us on this earth, may we live out our calling to worship Jesus, to grow more like Him, to serve Him, to lead out others to Him, and to love the church family He gave us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24951,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24948\/revisions\/24951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}