{"id":25392,"date":"2023-02-26T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-22_1-25-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-02-20T23:37:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T06:37:33","slug":"isaiah-23_1-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-23_1-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Your Talents for God\u2019s Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 23:1-18 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 23:1-18.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 23:1-18 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0An oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Till your land as along the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He said, “No more of your reveling, O Virgin Daughter of Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Take up a harp, walk through the city, O prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At the end of seventy years, the\u00a0LORD\u00a0will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the\u00a0LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the\u00a0LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-18:\u00a0 The final oracle in Isaiah\u2019s book of burdens (Isaiah 13-23) is about the wealthy nation of Tyre.\u00a0 Isaiah calls Tyre \u201cthe marketplace of the nations\u201d (v3), as Tyre was a centre for commercial activity, located on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.\u00a0 In this oracle Isaiah also addresses Sidon (v2, 4, 12), another city along the eastern Mediterranean coast and a neighbour of Tyre.<\/p>\n

Tyre and Sidon were known for their economic prosperity.\u00a0 However, Tyre\u2019s problem, and also Sidon\u2019s too, was their pride.\u00a0 As verse 4 suggests, Tyre and Sidon acted as if they owned the sea, as if the sea belonged to them.\u00a0 Rather than seeing the talents and special features that God had given to Tyre and Sidon as talents entrusted to them by God for God\u2019s glory, Tyre and Sidon abused what they were given and plied them for selfish gain.\u00a0 It\u2019s for that reason that verses 16-17 compare Tyre to a prostitute.<\/p>\n

Isaiah says that God plans to discipline Tyre for her pride (v8-9) by causing Tyre to be forgotten for 70 years (v15).\u00a0 However, when she is restored to her place of prosperity once again, Tyre will use her profits for a different purpose, this time to give God glory (v17-18).<\/p>\n

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

1.\u00a0 God wants us to use our talents not simply for our own financial gain but for the greater glory of God.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Pride precedes a downfall, but humility comes before honour.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, thank You for the talents You have given me, which ultimately belong to You.\u00a0 I pray that I would not take them for granted or abuse them for selfish purposes.\u00a0 I pray I would use the talents You have entrusted to me to glorify You.\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 23:1-18.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\nIsaiah 23:1-18 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0An oracle concerning Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0Be ashamed, O Sidon, and you, O fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”
\n5\u00a0\u00a0When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-18:\u00a0 The final oracle in Isaiah\u2019s book of burdens (Isaiah 13-23) is about the wealthy nation of Tyre.\u00a0 Isaiah calls Tyre \u201cthe marketplace of the nations\u201d (v3), as Tyre was a centre for commercial activity, located on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.\u00a0 In this oracle Isaiah also addresses Sidon (v2, 4, 12), another city along the eastern Mediterranean coast and a neighbour of Tyre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25392","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\/25392","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=25392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25395,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25392\/revisions\/25395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}