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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin
Daughter Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, queen city of the
Babylonians. No more will you be called tender or delicate. Take millstones and
grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade
through the streams. Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I
will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
Our Redeemer—the Lord Almighty is
his name—is the Holy One of Israel.
“Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen
city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms. I was
angry with My people and desecrated My inheritance; I gave them into your hand,
and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. You
said, ‘I am forever—the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or
reflect on what might happen.”
“Now then, listen, you lover of
pleasure, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is
none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’ Both
of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and
widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many
sorceries and all your potent spells. You have trusted in your wickedness and
have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say
to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’ Disaster will come upon you,
and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that
you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will
suddenly come upon you.”
“Keep on, then, with your magic
spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood.
Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror. All the counsel you
have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those
stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is
coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They
cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals
for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by. That is all they are to you—these you
have dealt with and labored with since childhood. All of them go on in their
error; there is not one that can save you.”
Isaiah
47
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you
ever been around anyone who was so full of pride that they always looked down
on everyone else as being lesser than they were?
No matter
how well someone is doing they will always come up with something to either
downplay another’s achievement or bring up something they have done or are
doing that is better. These people are not satisfied with believing that
someone else might be better than they are. Rather, they arrogantly see
themselves as always superior and more significant. Humility is not in their
behavioral repertoire.
With
this, it’s little wonder that the scriptures cry out against a prideful heart
and the haughty attitude it gives birth to. Look at this series of excerpts
from the word of God against a conceited approach toward life and others:
In his pride the wicked
man does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. Psalm 10:4
“I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and
discretion. To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil
behavior and perverse speech.” Proverbs 8:12-13
When pride comes, then
comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2
Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor. Proverbs
29:23
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If
anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in
the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires
pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs
16:18
It’s this last verse from Proverbs
that we maybe hear used most often and as we will see in our scripture passage
from the 47th chapter of Isaiah, God’s word comes to life in the way of His
consternation against the Babylonians who abused the blessing of power and
authority given them by God by adopting wicked, sinful ways. Those sinful ways
included relying on magic spells and sorceries instead of God. Their evil,
puffed-up actions would be their downfall as the Lord would bring them into
disgrace. Look again at these verses:
“Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon; sit on the ground
without a throne, queen city of the Babylonians. No more will you be called tender
or delicate. Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your
skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams. Your nakedness will be
exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.”
Our Redeemer—the Lord Almighty is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.
“Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no
more will you be called queen of kingdoms. I was angry with My people and
desecrated My inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no
mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. You said, ‘I am forever—the
eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might
happen.”
“Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure, lounging in your security and
saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a
widow or suffer the loss of children.’ Both of these will overtake you in a
moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon
you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent
spells. You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your
wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is
none besides me.’ Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to
conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a
ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.”
“Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which
you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will
cause terror. All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your
astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month,
let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the
fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the
flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by. That is
all they are to you—these you have dealt with and labored with since childhood.
All of them go on in their error; there is not one that can save you.” Isaiah 47
The Babylonians had been on the top
of the mountain. They were able to become the mightiest empire in existence,
all because of God who had enlisted them to carry out His judgment on Judah and
Jerusalem. But they did not receive this gift from God in humility and their
definitely did not worship and praise Him for all He had done for them. Instead,
they worshipped themselves and touted themselves as the ones who would rule and
reign forever. Further, they abused His people during the time of oppression,
placing a heavy yoke upon them.
They would soon realize that God
was in control and the One who brought nations to their knees as easily as He
brought them to power.
Regarded as the queen of the
kingdoms, the mighty Babylonian empire who once sat high on a throne would be
brought into the dust, humiliated and brought to shame by the Lord God Almighty,
the One they disrespected and disregarded. In the vengeance of His wrath and
judgment, no one would be spared and there would be no one who could save
Babylon from the disaster and calamity the Lord was bringing, especially the astrologers
and star gazers who the Babylonians relied on to advise them. These false
messengers did not represent God and so their advice was unfounded and useless.
They would be just as easily consumed by the fire of God’s consequences as the
rest of Babylon who placed their faith in all the wrong places.
Friends, we need to learn from this
account of the fall of Babylon. We may never ascend to the kind of power that
this mighty empire had but rule, reign, and might are not the main things the
Lord wants us to take away from this message today. Rather, we are being warned
that pridefully placing our faith in ourselves or anything else outside of God
is asking for trouble. Arrogance and haughtiness will only lead to the Lord’s
anger and the associated discipline and punishment doled out in response to our
sinful wickedness.
Choose pride, lift yourself up as
if you are greater than anything else, including God, and you can expect a
fall. This is the warning the Lord sends to us loud and clear today.
Do yourself a favor and opt for humility
instead. You’ll be much better off, trust me.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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