Skip to main content

Isaiah 23:17 - Tyre and Sidon as near neighbors to Israel and Judah - Day 142

Happy inauguration day (Originally from Jan '21)

As the new administration is inaugurated today, remember that God is in control.  He knows what we need to learn about ourselves and what it will take for us to learn these things.  I have been using a "suggested prayer" regarding Covid.  Part of it is that God would make it go away right now.  Well, we have been praying this for 10 months and God has wisely chosen not to comply with my demands.  I have started praying about what God wants me to learn with infection, hospitalization and death rates at new highs.  One thing is that He is in control.  He uses secondary causes (science and government) but his kingdom rules over all.

Blessings,

Jeff

My prayer time this morning started with Psalm 75:1 We give thanks, for your name is near.  As I meditated on this, the nearness of God got my attention.  There is a blessing associated with being near to God.  But there is also a duty to glorify Him.  In Isaiah's day, it was becoming more and more apparent that Israel and Judah did not fulfill duty and were going to  lose the blessing.

Then this passage came up as the topic of daily devotion.  Another oracle against neighboring cultures.  Tyre and Sidon were seaports and center of trading around the Mediterranean.  Northern neighbors of Israel.  While there is nothing inherently evil in trading, even in this ancient culture it appears that they had discovered the "sex sells".  Similar to Judah, a 70 year period of judgment is described.  And like Judah, God uses another nation for this purpose.  At the end of this period of judgment, these cultures return to the same seductive practices.

So I began to see that the "nearness" theme applies to all nations not just Israel and Judah.  While Israel and Judah were not good examples of living for God, they were still examples. The surrounding nations could have learned from them and abandoned their native idolatry.  Conquest of Canaan was all about ridding the land of idolatry.  

So then, I thought about how the church is a witness to the cultures around us.  Are we fulfilling the duty to glorify God so as to secure the blessings of having God near us?  For example, the pandemic has been a disruption to the "normal routine" of secular life.  People feel that they are not in control of their lives.  Does my life show those around me that God is in control? this is a great time to speak to our neighbors (while maintaining social distancing) about how God has come near to us in Jesus and sent the Spirit to dwell in us. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" bec...

Malachi 2:10-12 Here we go again!! Day 363

Good afternoon friends, As we draw to the end of the Old Testament, we see that Judah has rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, but they are following in the footsteps of faithless fathers and not in the footsteps of Abraham and ultimately God.  The exile was a low point, but now a new low is about to happen.  The prophetic voice has once again become warning and not encouraging. Faithful reading and preaching of the word is all that keeps us from losing our way.  May we be faithful in our generation. Blessings, Jeff I am sure I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  The section summary, chapter and verse are not in the original language.  They are all rather modern inventions to help us.  For example, the section title here is "Judah profaned the Covenant".  That is OK as far as it goes, but which Covenant?  So let's take a look. Observations Starts with 3 questions but who is asking the questions and to whom are they addre...

2 Chronicles 33:7-9 Thoughts on Davidic covenant - Day 362

Good morning faithful readers, The finish line is in sight!!!  One of the themes of scripture is that God is a covenant keeping God.  There are many between God and man. Adam, Noah, David are examples.  Covenants are more than promises.  They are made between a superior and inferior with conditions for each side and blessing and penalties based on keeping the conditions.  These are covenants of works which fallen man was unable to keep.  Thanks be to God that the Father made a covenant of grace with Christ, the second Adam, which he fully kept. Blessings, Jeff The promise in v8 was made to David when he had planned to build the temple and God promised to build him a house forever. (2 Sam 7:10).  Seems like there are only two possibilities about Manasseh's disobedience.  Either he knew of this covenant that God had made with his 13th great grandfather and chose to disregard it, or he didn't know of it and was unaware of the penalty.  Let's con...