12/12/12. Isaiah 29:1-24. ONCE MORE THE HUMBLE WILL REJOICE- my devotional

Key Verse: 29:19                                                                                                                                             Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF

“Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”

     Dear Lord. I praise for sending Jesus into this world as a tiny baby in a manger to share in our humanity and saving us from our sins and bringing us into the kingdom of God. Lord, I pray that the glory of God, revealed in the baby in the manger, may be revealed to our hearts. Help all of my kids to behold Jesus with the eyes of their hearts. Thank you for helping me to be trained to give chemo drugs. I pray that I could provide professional nursing care and comfort and hope to people with cancer. Lord, thank you for the Kishwaukee Barbershop Chorus and opening so many opportunities to sing in the community. May the joy of Christmas come to many nursing home residents’ hearts. Please grant me one word of God in my heart through this passage. I pray in Jesus’ heart. Amen!

Part 1. Nothing But Words Sealed in a Scroll (1-16).

     God pronounced woe on Jerusalem, the city of David. Verses 1-16, “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.”

The Lord would besiege the city and bring them low with nobody to save them. But God would also rescue them. Their suffering caused by their enemies would be like a dream. He promised salvation, but the people’s eyes and minds were sealed. They were ignorant of the Lord and his work among them.

This is like being blind to the grace of God. There are times in our lives that we are assaulted on all sides by our own sins, the devil’s temptations and lies and oppressive forces in this world. We despair because of our sins and weaknesses. We think that that suffering will never end and sometimes the cry of our heart is only a mumble from out of the dust.  But this is not our situation all the time. God does come and intervene so that all of those things seem like a dream to us. He has done that for me recently. My voice was a mumble because of the suffering incurred by despair, sorrow and even depression and the isolation from my wife and kids. There was no way to overcome. But God made a way where there was no way. Through the Family Life; Weekend To Remember my heart was changed. Julie’s and my relationship was changed. I entered into a new relationship with my kids. It is a complete breakthrough brought to me by the power of the Gospel. All the past suffering seems like a past dream. It is the grace of God on my life and my family’s life.

But I can not live in blindness to the grace of God on my life. I need to be fully aware of what God is doing and I pray that my heart may be filled with a heart full of praise and thanksgiving.

Thought they received the grace of God, they were blind to it and their hearts were far from the Lord. Verses 13-17 read, “ 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”? His word did not open their eyes to his eternal glory. To them, his word was but rules taught by people. When they failed to repent before God, they remained in sin and darkness.

I pray that my worship can be sincere worship, not just a parroting of words and actions that have no heart.

Part 2: The Humble Will Rejoice in the Lord (17-24).

Verses 17-24, “ 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.”

God has power to heal the deaf and blind. He can make the proud heart humble again. When God’s people turn to him and repent, he blesses abundantly. He restores our spiritual sight so that we may rejoice. Only humble people can rejoice in the Lord. When God’s people again read and obey God’s word, justice and mercy will be restored. When God’s name is honored and his people rejoice, the people of the world will come to God.

This is my hope for all peoples’ of the world.

-That nations will be turned into a fertile field.  

^–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.

 …No longer will people 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,

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.”   

Lord, your Kingdom Come!

Prayer: Lord, give me a humble and repentant heart so that I may rejoice in you.

One Word: The humble will rejoice