{"id":25307,"date":"2023-02-20T22:00:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T05:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-16_1-14-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-02-14T00:26:37","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T07:26:37","slug":"isaiah-17_1-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-17_1-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You a Crisis-Driven Believer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 17:1-11 \u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 17:1-11.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 17:1-11 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0An oracle concerning Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the grain with his arm– as when a man gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the\u00a0LORD, the God of Israel.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines,
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s next oracle is for the nation of Aram (represented by its capital city Damascus).\u00a0 But as we can see starting from verse 3, really this is a message not only for Aram but also for Israel (aka \u201cEphraim\u201d (v3), \u201cJacob\u201d (v4)).\u00a0 That is because Aram and Israel were working together as an alliance against Assyria and were putting pressure on Judah to join their alliance.\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s message is that the glory and power of Israel and Aram will be taken away (v3-4), just like when grain is harvested (v5).\u00a0 Playing still with the image of a harvest, Isaiah says that all the hard work that Aram and Israel put into planning their strategy and defense will come to nothing, just like a farmer who works so hard to plant and grow crops but is not able to harvest them (v9-11).\u00a0 That is because Israel and Aram had forgotten about God and stopped trusting in Him (v9).<\/p>\n

But there is still a sliver of hope, Isaiah says.\u00a0 For after Israel and Aram\u2019s glory and power are taken away like a harvest, there will still be something small left over, a that remnant will look to the LORD again instead turning to their idols (v5-8).<\/p>\n

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

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t place your trust in alliances and people as much as you place your hope in the LORD.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Are you a crisis-driven believer, someone who turns to God only when you have a problem?\u00a0 Don\u2019t be a crisis-driven believer who only runs to God when they have no other choice.\u00a0 People who only look to God in a crisis will never grow.\u00a0 Instead, look to God every day and in every season.<\/strong><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even when God takes something away, in His mercy God often leaves a reason for hope.<\/p>\n

Father, I say today that my hope is not so much in the people I ally myself with or in my own plans or circumstances.\u00a0 My hope is in You.\u00a0 Without You I got nothing.\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 17:1-11.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\nIsaiah 17:1-11 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0An oracle concerning Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0“In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s next oracle is for the nation of Aram (represented by its capital city Damascus).\u00a0 But as we can see starting from verse 3, really this is a message not only for Aram but also for Israel (aka \u201cEphraim\u201d (v3), \u201cJacob\u201d (v4)).\u00a0 That is because Aram and Israel were working together as an alliance against Assyria and were putting pressure on Judah to join their alliance.\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s message is that the glory and power of Israel and Aram will be taken away (v3-4), just like when grain is harvested (v5).\u00a0 Playing still with the image of a harvest, Isaiah says that all the hard work that Aram and Israel put into planning their strategy and defense will come to nothing, just like a farmer who works so hard to plant and grow crops but is not able to harvest them (v9-11).\u00a0 That is because Israel and Aram had forgotten about God and stopped trusting in Him (v9).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25307","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\/25307","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=25307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25310,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25307\/revisions\/25310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}