THE LORD SPEAKS (PART 5)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“See, it stands written before Me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps—both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,” says the Lord. “Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied Me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.”

Isaiah 65:6-7

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How does the Lord respond when we disrespect Him and willingly choose sin over righteousness? Does He just stand by and allow things to naturally play out in accordance with the world’s ways and outcomes?

The Lord answers these questions with authoritative clarity as He speaks to us through today’s scripture passage and this fifth devotion in a seventeen devotion series, The Lord Speaks, drawn from the final two chapters of Isaiah.

Let’s look again at today’s verses:

“See, it stands written before Me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps—both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,” says the Lord. “Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied Me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.” Isaiah 65:6-7

Before we dive into these words, we need to set the stage for what the Lord is saying. Go back to the earlier verses in Chapter 65 and you will find the Lord drawing up a list of indictments against His people which included:

- Stubbornly disobeying His commands.

-  Walking in their own ways and the ways of the world.

- Chasing after their own imaginations and desires.

- Provoking the Lord to His face.

- Participating in false worship practices.

- Acting self righteous.

It was quite a list of charges against the Israelites, a people who were supposed to be faithful to the One who made them His own. But instead of being compliant, submissive, and respectful, the people of Israel chose to be non-conformists who wanted to do their own thing and follow their will.

That obviously wasn’t going to sit well with their Lord, their Maker and Master. For as we see in our verses for today, the Lord was not going to stand by silent and idly watch mere human beings disregard Him. Rather, He would pay them back in full for not just their sins but the sins of their ancestors as well. The Lord said He was a jealous God and would not stand for His people putting any other gods before Him (Exodus 20) and He meant it as His people were soon to find out.

Think about that for a moment. Would you want to put yourself in a position where the Lord was fed up and ready to punish you, not only for all the sins you have committed but for the sins of all your relatives, past and present? The consequences would add up quick, right?

Only a fool today, knowing the way the Lord reacted to the Israelites and their sinfulness, would opt to repeat the same behavior detailed in Isaiah 65.

And yet, look at our world today. There are a lot of fools out there. A lot of them.

Sadly, if they don’t repent and turn from their wickedness, their fate will be the same as God’s people in the Old Testament, suffering the consequences of His judgment as He pays them back in full.

Friends, are we listening today?

For the Lord is speaking out loud and clear with the following message:

“I will not keep silent. I will pay back in full. Any of My people who willingly choose sin will suffer My consequences.”

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

THE LORD SPEAKS (PART 4)

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

(a people) who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.

Isaiah 65:5

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The last few days I have been reading about this debate that has been raging within social circles.

The discussion has surrounded the recent discovery that an organization in the United States may have sold body parts of fetuses that were aborted and whether or not this was wrong. The battle lines here have been typically drawn in the same place as the dispute on abortion itself. It seems everyone has an opinion one way or another as to whether it’s right or not.

Into this debate has come the story of an American who traveled abroad to hunt and kill a lion for sport. The act wasn’t illegal but the story broke globally and again, there’s been a lot of talk as to whether it should have happened or not with animal rights activists speaking against and those who favor the sport of hunting having no issue with it.

How do these fit together?

It comes down to the sanctity and sacredness of life itself.

Those who are pro-life and against abortion have come out to say there is more of an outcry against killing a lion than the act of destroying unborn human lives which happens far more frequently. They can’t fathom how the life of an animal would be or could be considered more important than the legal sanctioning of murdering developing babies.

Of course, at the heart of this is the matter of morality and when it comes to that subject, here’s the problem.  It seems everyone has their own idea of what it is and it isn’t something that is static but constantly evolving within the world view of people. Go back in time and you’ll find that what was once considered wrong is considered right today. Perhaps we’re even moving to a place where anything goes and there will be nothing seen as wrong anymore. I believe that day is coming and when it does, look for Jesus to return shortly thereafter as we know He will come back to pass judgment on the people of earth before He destroys it and starts over again with a new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:1-4).

Simply put, the Lord is not going to stand by and allow humanity to produce its own definitions of right and wrong. He has set the standards for righteousness in His holy word and those standards are never going to change or go away. So what happens when His people choose to do their own thing and disregard Him?

The answer is at the center of today’s scripture verse as we look at the 4th devotion in the series, The Lord Speaks. Look at these words here:

(a people) who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.  Isaiah 65:5

Note here that the Israelites have become righteous unto themselves. They were too sacred for anyone to tell them what to do. They had it all figured out and had no need for the Lord’s direction or guidance. Or so they thought.

As we see in this verse, this attitude didn’t sit well with the Lord for the actions of His people stoked a fire of anger within Him that never extinguished during the day. That was not going to lead to a positive outcome for the Israelites and indeed, God’s judgment fell on them in a big way as they were exiled from their homeland and sent into captivity in Babylon for seventy long years.

Fast forward to the New Testament and you may recall the many battles Jesus had with the Jewish religious authorities of the day, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Do you remember what was at the heart of the conflict?

I can tell you it was the self righteousness of the two religious groups and the hypocrisy with which they conducted their lives. They would rail against the Jews for not being as sacred and blameless as they were but behind closed doors, the Pharisees and Sadducees were no less sinners than everyone else. They put on a good show in public but Jesus could see right through their façade and would have none of it.

The Lord despises self righteousness. There is no arguing this.

And yet, as we look at our world today, have we turned right around and repeated the mistakes of the past. Instead of turning to the Lord for our bearings as to what is right and wrong, we are making things up as we go along. We are creating our own righteousness which means we are deciding what is right in our own eyes and behaving accordingly. The ways of the world have become more sacred than the ways of the Lord and I have to believe we are once again fanning the flames of His ire as He looks down upon what we are doing.

Friends, it’s time we wake up and instead of debating the matters of right and wrong, turning to the Lord for the definitive answers. He is the only true source of what is right and righteous. As long as we follow His will and ways, we will never go wrong and ensure we are living in His favor.

The Lord is speaking loudly to us today and telling us to never establish our own righteousness. It’s time we turn our full attention to Him and listen.

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

THE LORD SPEAKS (PART 3)

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

(a people) who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of impure meat.

Isaiah 65:4

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today we look at the third devotion of a seventeen devotional series titled, The Lord Speaks, as we conclude the study of the Book of Isaiah. Thus far, we have heard the Lord saying this:

“I am forever revealing Myself to everyone, making Myself known and offering eternal life to anyone who would call on My name.”

and

“I despise obstinate people who choose to walk in sin and chase after their will and desires, those who have no problem with provoking Me with their disrespect and disregard.”

So the Lord is always revealing Himself to others but there are those who choose to not receive Him and live in sin, a choice that shows nothing but disrespect and disregard, a choice that provokes the Lord to anger.

Today, we find the Lord continuing to speak about those who choose to live apart from Him and through the practices of the Old Testament Israelites, we find a truth revealed that applied then and now to all non-believers. Before we get to that truth that the Lord is telling us today, let’s look again at verse 4 of Isaiah 65:

(a people) who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of impure meat. Isaiah 65:4

The people the Lord is referring to here is, of course, none other than the Israelites, the alleged people of God who were supposed to be giving Him their fullest dedication and devotion, just as He gave them.

But note the problem here. The people were choosing to hang out with the dead instead of the only One, the Lord, who could truly give them life.

You see, the Israelites were spending their nights in secret vigil among the graves, a popular pagan practice known as necromancy. Those who participated in such a ritual hoped to gain some kind of future vision of things to come by summoning the spirits of the dead for guidance and direction. The entire matter was completely prohibited by the Lord and those who would spend time at the graves were considered to be committing unclean acts, unclean being a code word for sinful.

Further, the Israelites were also eating the flesh of pigs, another act of uncleanliness, and in cooking these prohibited meats were also defiling their pots which would end up filled with the broth of the impure meat. It’s not that pigs were the only food the Israelites had to eat. They had plenty of foods to choose from that would have been allowable by the Lord but instead of choosing to be obedient to His commands, they instead chose to sin against Him and dine on illicit meats. Their actions remind us of the couple who brought sin and disobedience into the world in the first place, as Adam and Eve opted to eat fruit forbidden by the Lord and mankind has paid the penalty for their insubordination ever since.

Caught consulting the dead instead of trusting a Lord who was very much alive.

Eating foods that the Lord had strictly banned.

Both were signs that the people of Israel had decided to do whatever they wanted to do, no matter what the Lord has said. The ways of the world had become more attractive to them than the ways of the Lord.

And sadly, just as we saw in yesterday’s devotion, I’m afraid that people today are a lot like the Old Testament Israelites in the way they’re living. For people are still seeking their guidance and direction from all the wrong places, not even seeing the Lord as an option, and they still consistently choose to do what they want to do instead of being obedient to God’s wishes.  

So what’s the message here for today? What is the Lord trying to say to us?

I believe we need to go back to the first item of issue in today’s scripture and then dig just a little deeper within.

For the Israelites, in making it a bigger priority to seek the dead than the Lord who was living, showed us that when we walk apart from the Lord, we are choosing to live nearer to death than life. In other words, walking the path of sinful wickedness that leads to destruction means more than walking the path of righteousness through the Lord, the only path that leads to life, now and forever.

In these words from Isaiah, the Lord is asking us the following question and asking us to evaluate the way we are living:

Are the ways of the world of greater importance to you than My ways?

Pick carefully because you cannot be in the middle. You can’t toe the line between the world and the Lord.

For the Lord, who gives us His fullest devotion, will accept nothing short of our fullest dedication in return. It’s time we all started doing just that or else.

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