Old Jerry

God’s servants are blind and have seen many things, but have paid no attention; their ears are open, but you do not hear. The “servant” in this passage is the Jewish people. As it goes for my spiritual blindness in the last 5 to 10 years my blindness has been getting healed. I have been able to shat the gospels are telling me better now than in the past. A blind servant will be plundered and looted and trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. Therefore they are of no use in accomplishing his master’s purpose. Sometime I think I have been effective and other times not so much so but I must keep on trying.

The meaning for God’s people to be “a light to the nations” is that we should be doing the things that make God proud of us. We should be helping other, watching our tongue, and loving those who dislike us. I think that I am doing well to represent God’s covenant in my daily life. I know I stumble once in a while especially when something gets under my skin and the things I say aren’t exactly what I should be saying or acting.

I think that these verses teach that the Messiah is going to be gentle and understanding to our situation. The things that will characterize him will be his justice and the gentle way that he will enforce the law. As for his tenderness it says that he will not break the bruised reed. I am taking that is me and he will not break me when the time comes. Since this describer my Messiah I am going to try to do everything that I can to please him.

Isaiah 40 teaches us that we should be preparing ourselves by being close to him. We should let the bible straighten our desert highway for God. We should be talking to him so that we can level the ground and the rough places in our hearts. God’s tenderness and compassion will be cultivated by the Lord if we let Him. He will watch after us and lead us to Himself. God’s glory vs. the glory of the nations is that the nations are but dust and that they can’t do anything without Him. The reason that we get so enamored by the glitter and glory of the world is because it is the here and now. We see people getting rich by suppressing others and seemingly getting away with it. The pieces that are missing are that God is the one that makes one grow and they are not looking to him for the help that they need. But if we wait for the Lord he shall strength and we shall mount up with wings like eagles; and we shall run and not be weary; then we shall walk and not faint.

The basis on which Hezekiah asked for healing is that he had walked before God in faithfulness and with whole heart and done good in His sight. I think that personal righteousness and holiness is important in getting your prayers answered is because our Father likes to help those that please Him. If we are rebelling against Him then we aren’t right with Him and He may not answer our prayers the way we want him to. We don’t have to fall away from God because He is the one that brought us to him. But He is more considerate when we are following His ways.

Hezekiah’s healing was important for his nation because he was a strong leader and he didn’t have any children to succeed him on his throne. This related to God’s promises made to David that there would be a line of David on the throne.

The first two sentences of Hezekiah’s prayer corresponds to the first sentenced of the Lord’s Prayer by acknowledging that He is the Lord of all and that He is in heaven. To acknowledge God and to know that He is watching after us is what our faith is all about. We know that God does answer prayers and He is the one that makes that happen.

I think that the significance of Hezekiah spreading out the enemy’s message before the Lord is to point out that it is the Lord’s battle and not his. He has done everything that he could and not it is time to turn it over the Lord. The underlying principle illustrated here is that we are not God and there for we should not try to play God and let the Lord take care of the problem. We can apply this principle to our own lives when we pray and lay out all of our problems before the Lord and doing our part and letting the Lord do his part. When we don’t apply this principle then we are under constant stress and things don’t turn out the way that they should.

These verses bring hope not only to the first readers because they know that their suffering will not be for not but also for us. We have the New Testament to also encourage us. The promise here is that they will be redeemed by the Lord if they will continue to follow Him. I think that Isaiah relies on heavily figurative language to communicate these promises because that is what the people understand. He wanted them to know for sure that their suffering will be rewarded later. The “highway of holiness” is going to be a place of safety. There will be no people on there that are not saved and they will not need to worry about an animal attacking them. To be redeemed and ransomed means that somebody else has paid the dept that you owe.

Ethical behavior displays love for God because it shows others that we will not take advantage of them. In our ethical behavior we show others that we love them and will not cheat them. Taking bribes destroys righteous governments because only the rich will prosper. They will be able to buy their way out of trouble.

I think that the reason that we seek help from every source except the Lord is that we think that we have to be in control. So if we see help from others we can see the results immediately. The way that this is idolatry is that we are going to someone else and not to God for help. In other words we are worshipping that other person instead of God. The remedy that Jesus taught his disciples is that we are not to be anxious in anything. We are to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things will be added to us.

The reason that God longs to show us grace is because he is merciful. That shows that God has a character of wanting us to be with him. Our disobedience is preventing his grace. I think that I have heard the kind of guidance because I do things that honor God and I know if I had to do it on my own I just wouldn’t do it. The thing that is necessary to hear God’s voice is to be right with him and read his word daily.

Yes, I have seen religious persons go through all the religious motions but you can tell that heart is far from God. You see that when you see what they are doing or the way that they talk. We can detect this in ourselves if we do the same thing. The remedy is to correct what you are doing. You can tell if our practice of religion is merely following “rule taught by men” by looking in the bible to see if it is a correct practice. The problem with ruled-based faith is that you do the things required but never think about it. Love-based faith is always seeing if the other person is effected by what you are doing.

The reason that we humans are able to justify and deceive ourselves is that we want something so bad that we are able to justify it. This is the reason that we hold onto lies that guide our lives because it feels good so we want to continue to do it. The reason that we stumble over Christ is because we know that what we are doing isn’t what Christ wants us to be doing. We have in inter Spirit that tells us right from wrong and we don’t want to listen to it. We can help people come to the truth by telling then what they are doing wrong in love and remind them of our Savior. God will be roused to do His deed and to use the aliens to do his work.

The New Testament event that corresponds with Isaiah prophesies of gather all his people at the sound of a great trumpet call is when Jesus returns.

Yes, this passage does teach a body resurrection. It says that we will dwell in the dust and then we will be wakened and we will be singing for joy. The resurrection will take place when Jesus returns.

Perfect peace is keeping our mind on the Lord. The thing that happens when we get distracted from trusting the Lord is that we start to worry about everything. We have taken over our lives and we don’t know what to do with it. The Lord is called the “Rock eternal” because He is always there. He knows what we need when we need it.

The promise that “he will swallow up death forever” provides comfort to us when we grieve the death of loved ones because we know that we will be seeing them later. We know that we are going to change from this temporary body that gets sick and dies to an everlasting body which nothing can hurt it.

The “feast of rich food for all peoples” is a symbol that represents the coming of the great thing that is coming if we stay in God’s hands. It promises that in the Last Days that everything is going to be the way that God wanted them to be in the beginning.

The reason for the devastation of the earth is because we have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. This prophecy is important to forming faithful disciples who “fear the Lord” so that we will not conform to the ways of this world. The way that this glitter and glory of man contradict this kind of prophecy is telling us that if we don’t let this world influence us we will be saved.

Judah is faulted for making necessary military preparations in the face of the Assyrian armies because they hadn’t turned to the Lord. They were doing it on their own and not consulting the one that built and loved the city. The sin of Shebna seem too been that he carved out a tomb for himself. I have been guilty of being selfish instead of doing my duty to Christ.

God commanded Isaiah to go naked for three years so show the people around him that the Lord was going to lead Egypt away captive naked. This is one time that Judah did act in the right direction and did not make an alliance with Egypt. Now whether or not I have obeyed God is a question I would also have to ask myself. That would have been a tough thing to do. I just hope that I would have the faith to do so.

The attitude of heart in the ruler is described as on that he thought that he was a god. That thought that they were better than God. I don’t think there is a scriptural reference that this refers to Satan. I have tried to exalt my opinion and will over God’s will and word. Especially when I speak of things that I am sure is in the bible because I interpreted it that way. There have been times that I have not done what God willed me to do. I don’t see that this is any different that the ruler that Isaiah is talking about. The best way to humble oneself before the Lord is to do the things that He wills us to do.

The meaning of “the nations” rallying to the Messiah when he appears is that everybody will be included not just the elect. The “nations” is everybody. The others that will be “gathered” are the remnant of the people that remain his people. This prophecy relates to Jesus’ and Paul’s teaching about the Rapture when the end times come. We will all be lifted up to join him.

The kind of peace that is described is on that everybody and animal will all get along. There will be no more fighting and everything will be tranquil. What a blessing that will be. There will be this peace because they will know the Lord. The knowledge of the Lord means that we will understand our position in eternity and will have the knowledge to exercise that understanding. This knowledge will be spread even to animal kingdom.