Hope - Isaiah

Hello Class.

Question of the day:  If you could move anywhere in the world where would you move and why? 

Today we are working on Isaiah 29.

READ Isaiah 29.

Woe to David’s City

29 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,
    the city where David settled!
Add year to year
    and let your cycle of festivals go on.
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel;
    she will mourn and lament,
    she will be to me like an altar hearth.
3 I will encamp against you on all sides;
    I will encircle you with towers
    and set up my siege works against you.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
    your speech will mumble out of the dust.
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;
    out of the dust your speech will whisper.

5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
    the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,
6     the Lord Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
    with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
    that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
    with a vision in the night—
8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating,
    but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,
    but awakens faint and thirsty still.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
    that fight against Mount Zion.

9 Be stunned and amazed,
    blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
    stagger, but not from beer.
10 The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:
    He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
    he has covered your heads (the seers).

11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” 12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

13 The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people
    with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
    the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
15 Woe to those who go to great depths
    to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
    “Who sees us? Who will know?”
16 You turn things upside down,
    as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
    “You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
    “You know nothing”?

17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
    and the fertile field seem like a forest?
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
    and out of gloom and darkness
    the eyes of the blind will see.
19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord;
    the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 The ruthless will vanish,
    the mockers will disappear,
    and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
    who ensnare the defender in court
    and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

22 Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:

“No longer will Jacob be ashamed;
    no longer will their faces grow pale.
23 When they see among them their children,
    the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
    they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
    and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;
    those who complain will accept instruction.”

I struggle with this chapter.  It is filled with warnings and my struggle is with the current application of these warnings for us today.  What is it warning against.  It is so easy for us to take these warnings and insert our own agenda, and experience and see the warning as for those who do not see things like us.  I want us to be careful.  This is a warning for God's people.  This is a warning for us. 

Starting in verse 7 it speaks of what will harm us. 

Then there is this section of like a dream where you drink but wake thirsty. ...

What does this mean?

It is speaking about getting water to drink but because it is a  dream it isn't real.  Desiring, and dreaming is no substitute for the real thing.  

What do we desire and even need but too often we just dream of it or find a fake substitute, yet it isn't real? 

When I think about my life, I have been asking myself, how much of what I yearn for, seek after is just a fruitless dream or is it God given needs, that he will fill with real water.  Am I seeking after things that never satisfy?  

Verse 13:  This section is incredibly challenging.  

1. People come near to me with their mouth but not their heart...

Wow.  Once again we hear that God certainly doesn't care about our words, but our hearts.  A changed heart is everything.  

We often make promises, declarations of love, but when we don't back it up with heart it means nothing.  

I also can't help but believe our words can have impact in changing our hearts.  So it isn't that words aren't important.  So what does it look like to have a heart for God?  How do we make sure that is happening.  

I heard something this past week from an ex Christian, or former evangelical drummer, he was being critical of the passion concert in Atlanta, but then he talked about how Christians millions go to church each week, "worship" God, study His word and then drive home in our nice cars as we drive pass the poor and the hungry.  I can't get that out of my mind.  It is one thing to think about us coming here on Sabbath morning, it is another thing to think about all the millions of Christians who go each week and who all don't stop to help those in need.  Not only people on Sabbath or Sunday but everyday of the week.  

2. We worship Him with human rules... 

Surely not us! 

LOL!

How do we make sure we are on the right side? How do we make sure we aren't on any side... Just surrendered to God! 

I recently had a conversation with a friend who didn't want to watch something because she didn't want to be persuaded to believe something that was false.  I agree with being careful, but also how do we make sure we are also not stuck in our own false human understanding, rules etc? 

Oh Lord, give us wisdom and may our hearts be yours.