{"id":25085,"date":"2023-02-01T22:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T05:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-2_1-5-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-01-26T00:25:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T07:25:30","slug":"isaiah-2_6-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-2_6-22\/","title":{"rendered":"What Pressure Reveals About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 2:6-22 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 2:6-22.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 2:6-22 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So\u00a0man will be brought low and mankind humbled<\/u>— do not forgive them.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from dread of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and the splendor of his majesty!
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The eyes of\u00a0the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low<\/u>;\u00a0the\u00a0LORD\u00a0alone will be exalted in that day<\/strong>.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty has a day in store for\u00a0all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled)<\/u>,
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan,
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0for all the towering mountains and all the high hills,
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0for every lofty tower and every fortified wall,
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0for every trading ship and every stately vessel.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled;\u00a0the\u00a0LORD\u00a0alone will be exalted in that day<\/u>,
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and the idols will totally disappear.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to\u00a0shake the earth<\/u><\/strong>.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to\u00a0shake the earth<\/u><\/strong>.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 6-22:\u00a0 When my sister and I were much younger, we would take a bunch of our favourite stuffed animals, put them on a large blanket, and with a hand on each corner of the blanket, we would shake the blanket up and down.\u00a0 The animals would bounce high in the air before coming down either back onto the blanket or onto the ground.\u00a0 We would keep shaking that blanket until only one animal was left on the blanket, and that surviving animal we called the winner of our \u201canimal battle royal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Why do I mention this?\u00a0 It\u2019s because here in Isaiah 2:6-22, Isaiah envisions God shaking the earth (v19, 21) in such a way that all the things that the people of Judah put their trust in \u2013 their superstitions (v6), their alliances with other nations (\u201cclasp hands with pagans\u201d \u2013 v6), their money (v7), their military might (v7), their idols (v8) \u2013 would be tossed and shown to be not worthy of their trust.<\/p>\n

Ultimately all of these things in which the people of Judah trusted were different versions of the same sin: trusting in themselves rather than trusting in the Lord.\u00a0 So Isaiah writes that God will shake the people of Judah to show that in the end themselves that the people of Judah should trust in, but in God.<\/p>\n

That is why we see a couple key phrases recurring (almost word for word, with only slight variations) in Isaiah 2:6-22:
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the arrogance of man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low (v9, 11, 12, 17)
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the Lord alone will be exalted in the end (v11, 17)<\/p>\n

By the way, why would Isaiah say about his own people of Judah \u201cdo not forgive them\u201d (v9)? \u00a0Remember that God\u2019s forgiveness is not a right we are entitled to.\u00a0 It\u2019s an undeserved gift of God\u2019s mercy.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Here Isaiah expresses his frustration at his own people of Judah and bringing into focus how serious and unacceptable are the sins his people have committed.<\/p>\n

Also, when Isaiah refers to \u201cin that day\u201d (v20), what day is Isaiah referring to?\u00a0 Some scholars think that this passage is describing the day that Jerusalem and Judah would fall to the Babylonians in 586 B.C.\u00a0 However, these same words will apply even more when Jesus Christ returns, for at that time those who refused to place their trust in Him will meet their final end.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from all this?<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In pressure situations when our circumstances are shaken, we discover what we are really made of,\u00a0<\/strong>what things we really trust in, and how much or how little those things we trust in can help us.\u00a0 So when your circumstances go through a shaking, remember that God has a purpose in it: to show you that it\u2019s in God alone that we are to place our trust and hope.<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God opposes the proud and arrogant<\/strong>, those who place their hope in themselves.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God alone is the only one who is truly worthy of our hope and trust.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>He alone will be exalted in the end.<\/p>\n

Lord, when all the shaking is done, You alone will be exalted.\u00a0 You alone are worthy of my trust and hope.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 2:6-22.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 2:6-22 (NIV)
\n6\u00a0\u00a0You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans.
\n7\u00a0\u00a0Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.
\n8\u00a0\u00a0Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.
\n9\u00a0\u00a0So\u00a0man will be brought low and mankind humbled– do not forgive them.<\/p>\n

On verses 6-22:\u00a0 When my sister and I were much younger, we would take a bunch of our favourite stuffed animals, put them on a large blanket, and with a hand on each corner of the blanket, we would shake the blanket up and down.\u00a0 The animals would bounce high in the air before coming down either back onto the blanket or onto the ground.\u00a0 We would keep shaking that blanket until only one animal was left on the blanket, and that surviving animal we called the winner of our \u201canimal battle royal\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25085","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\/25085","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=25085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25088,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25085\/revisions\/25088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}