Daily Archives: August 5, 2019

Daily Bible Study

August 6, 2019 Bible Study — Serving God Means Humbly Admitting Our Sin

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am going to be on vacation through August 10th.  I have prepared my daily Bible Studies for each day throughout that time in advance since I will have limited access to the Internet during this time.  The timing on when I publish these blogs may be erratic during this time.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 64-66.

When I read today’s passage I was struck by comparisons to society today.  We are all sinners who continually sin (I want to note that there is an important distinction between “continually” and “continuously”).  We try to cover our sins with righteous actions which do less to cover our sins than a dirty loincloth.  Yet we spend our time calling out others for their sins.  As a result, we suffer and our land heads toward desolation.  For all of that, we rarely call out to God and plead for His mercy.  Why not? Because we know what He will demand of us and we are unwilling to do it.  

For all of that, God will save a small number, a remnant who will be called by His name.  God will create a new heaven and a new earth where His servants will live in peace.  Isaiah even tells us how to know who will be saved.  Only those with a humble and contrite heart will be saved.  Not long ago I came across a quote from Augustine of Hippo which carries much the same message.

“Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon. But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.”

We need to focus on correcting the sin in our own lives more than the sins committed by others.  Of course, one needs to remember that Isaiah tells us this as part of his prophecy calling people out for their sins.  So it does not mean that we never confront others about the sins which they commit.  It just means that we must do so while humbly admitting that we also are sinners. 

Daily Bible Study

August 5, 2019 Bible Study — The Year Of God’s Favor and The Day Of His Vengeance Are One and the Same

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am going to be on vacation through August 10th.  I have prepared my daily Bible Studies for each day throughout that time in advance since I will have limited access to the Internet during this time.  The timing on when I publish these blogs may be erratic during this time.  As I feared might happen, I was unable to get this published as soon as I would have liked.  My apologies to anyone whose Bible study schedule was disrupted.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 60-63.

When I was growing up, from time to time my Dad would say that many of the Old Testament prophecies referred to more than one future event.  That has always stuck with me and influenced my understanding of these prophecies because I believe that he was correct.  For example the description in today’s passage about the ways in which the people of Israel will return to Jerusalem reminds me of modern Israel.  The way in which Isaiah describes the Jewish people returning from all over the world,  followed by his description of the economic success of the restored nation, strikes me as being fulfilled by the establishment of the modern state of Israel.  But then Isaiah goes on to speak of them living in the land in peace and the parallels fall apart.

Then I get to the end of today’s passage where Isaiah refers to God bemoaning how the people of Israel betrayed Him time and again.  This made me think of something one of my brothers says about Israel: since they returned from the Babylonian Exile the descendants of Jacob have never been sovereign over the Land of Israel for more than 100 consecutive years at a time.  This leads me to believe that these prophecies of their return have been fulfilled more than once.  Each time, the final fulfillment has been delayed because they have, like every other people, turned away from God to sin.  However, the day will come when God’s people will not turn away from Him and He will finally bring them peace.

Today’s passage also contains the passage which Jesus used to announce the beginning of His ministry.   Jesus declared that the Spirit of God was on Him to declare good news that the time of the Lord’s favor had come.  Jesus stopped reading there, but the passage continued one more key line: the time of God’s favor was also the time of His vengeance.  The Good News which Jesus gave us includes both God’s favor on the faithful and His vengeance against the wicked.  

And speaking of God’s vengeance, Isaiah 63 verses 3 and following inspired the song “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory”.  That writer of that song saw fulfillment of God trampling His foes in the horrors of the Civil War.  I believe that there use of those themes was more apt than the writer realized.  Certainly, the Civil war can be aptly viewed as God trampling His foes and avenging the oppressed.  The writer in my view inaccurately believed the Union Army to be doing the trampling for God, when in fact the Union Army was as much the subject of God’s trampling as the Confederate Army.   The blood, death, and suffering of the Civil War was God’s punishment upon the people of the Untied States for allowing the injustice and oppression of the institution of slavery to go on as long as it did.  This passage and that song remind us that while there is great joy when God takes His vengeance, it is also a time of great suffering.  Let us pray that the day of God’s vengeance is delayed and that those whose actions bring it ever closer will repent and turn to God before that day arrives.