{"id":25501,"date":"2023-03-10T22:00:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T05:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-32_1-20-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-02-27T22:19:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T05:19:49","slug":"isaiah-33_1-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-33_1-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Not by Our Merit, But by God\u2019s Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 33:1-16 \u00a0 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 33:1-16.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!\u00a0 \u00a0As usual, I recommend that you read the whole passage by yourself a couple times and see what you can extract from the passage before reading the message below.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 33:1 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 1:\u00a0 Remember that chapters 28-33 contain 5 messages of both woe and hope, all in connection with Judah, Judah\u2019s alliance with Egypt and the threat of Assyria.\u00a0 Here in this third of five messages of woe, Isaiah is likely addressing Assyria and predicting that after Assyria has destroyed other nations, Assyria itself will be destroyed.\u00a0 The reason Isaiah calls Assyria a \u201ctraitor\u201d is possibly because Assyria and Judah seemed to make peace in 2 Kings 18:13-16, only for Assyria to break that peace shortly after and invade Judah (as described in 2 Chronicles 32:1).<\/p>\n

Isaiah 33:2 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0O\u00a0LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 2:\u00a0 Perhaps in light of the havoc and destruction that Assyria will bring, Isaiah calls out to God for help.\u00a0 Whether or not you have an Assyria breathing down your back, we can pray this prayer as well to express our need for God.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 33:3-5 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At the thunder of your voice, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts men pounce on it.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 3-5:\u00a0 With \u201cjustice and righteousness\u201d (v5) \u2013 this is Isaiah\u2019s favourite pair of words.\u00a0 The only one Isaiah tends to ascribe these words to are the LORD and His Messiah.\u00a0 While God is so powerful that at the sound of His voice nations scatter (v3) and plunder is recovered (4), God does everything with justice and righteousness (v5).\u00a0 He \u201cdwells\u201d (v5) and operates on a much higher level than we do.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 33:6 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is the key to this treasure.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 6:\u00a0\u00a0If you want a sure foundation for your life and a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge, the key to all this is to fear the LORD, that is, to trust God and honour Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 33:7-16 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The highways are deserted, no travelers are on the roads. The treaty is broken, its witnesses are despised, no one is respected.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The land mourns and wastes away, Lebanon is ashamed and withers; Sharon is like the Arabah, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Now will I arise,” says the\u00a0LORD. “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw; your breath is a fire that consumes you.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The peoples will be burned as if to lime; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power!
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil–
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 7-16:\u00a0 These verses are likely describing the shame, humiliation and desolation that Judah would experience at the hands of the Assyrians.\u00a0 Once fruitful places in Judah like Lebanon, Sharon, Bashan and Carmel will turn them into a fruitless desert (v9).\u00a0 \u00a0All this is happening as God brings judgment upon Judah (v14), for only those who truly walk righteously can dwell with God on the heights (v16).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Since God reigns on high in perfect righteousness, those who want to be with him on the heights must be righteous as well.<\/strong>\u00a0 God\u2019s standard is perfect. Who then can get to where God is?\u00a0 None of us can, not by our own strength.\u00a0 That is why God would send Jesus Christ to come down to our level, to live the life only God in the flesh could live, and to die on the cross for our sins.\u00a0\u00a0When we couldn\u2019t go up to where God is by our own merit, God came down to where we are by His own mercy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, I can never go up to where You are on my own merit.\u00a0 It\u2019s only because of Your mercy that I am not destroyed by Your wrath but am rescued by Your grace.\u00a0 Thank You for being gracious to us.\u00a0 We long for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of distress.\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 33:1-16.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!\u00a0 \u00a0As usual, I recommend that you read the whole passage by yourself a couple times and see what you can extract from the passage before reading the message below.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 33:1 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.<\/p>\n

On verse 1:\u00a0 Remember that chapters 28-33 contain 5 messages of both woe and hope, all in connection with Judah, Judah\u2019s alliance with Egypt and the threat of Assyria.\u00a0 Here in this third of five messages of woe, Isaiah is likely addressing Assyria and predicting that after Assyria has destroyed other nations, Assyria itself will be destroyed.\u00a0 The reason Isaiah calls Assyria a \u201ctraitor\u201d is possibly because Assyria and Judah seemed to make peace in 2 Kings 18:13-16, only for Assyria to break that peace shortly after and invade Judah (as described in 2 Chronicles 32:1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25501","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\/25501","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=25501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25504,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25501\/revisions\/25504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}