TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
Isaiah 43:14-45:10
Ephesians 3:1-21
Psalm 68:1-18
Proverbs 24:1-2
Isaiah 43:14-15 — Notice the titles for the LORD. Who is this that is addressing us? The LORD, Our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the Creator of Israel, Our King! Sometimes we forget Who we serve.
Isaiah 43:22 — Have we ever grown weary of our LORD, Redeemer, Creator, and King? Have we gone without calling on the LORD, have we wearied Him with our iniquities (Isaiah 43:24)?
Isaiah 43:25-26 —
The 1 John 1:9 of the Old Testament! We can have our sins blotted out! Notice the play on words:
- If you remember me – I won’t remember thy sins!
- Instead, we forget God and He remembers our sins!
Isaiah 44:2 — “Jeshurun” – this is the only mention of this name other than in Deuteronomy. Ellicott believes it’s a tender nickname:
“Jeshurun is a diminutive—a term of endearment: either ‘the child of the upright’, or ‘the beloved Israel'”. He suggested that “the letters of the diminutive of Israel, if slightly abbreviated, would make ‘Jeshurun'”
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/deuteronomy/32.htm
Isaiah 44:3 — While the verse comes from Isaiah 55:1-2, the chorus comes from Isaiah 44:3 – “Ho! Every One That Is Thirsty“.
Isaiah 44:19 — Jacob (Genesis 35:2) knew God’s commands 400 years before Moses had them carved into stone (Exodus 20:3). Eight hundred years after Moses, God is having to point out to His people the stupidity of idol worship. That which isn’t burned as fuel is worshiped as a god? Really?
Isaiah 44:25 — Speaking of foolish:
Andrew Grove was one of the founders of Intel, which profoundly shaped the semiconductor industry. He was Time Magazine‘s Man of The Year in 1997. Yet in 1992 he made a prediction that looks amazingly shortsighted in retrospect.
A New York Times article described Grove as standing diametrically opposed to the position taken by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) that smartphones, then imagined as “personal communicators,” might develop into a huge business.
Grove disagreed. The idea of a communicating device that people carried around with them is “a pipe dream driven by greed,” he said.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/26/3-horrendously-bad-stock-market-predictions-from-o.aspx
Isaiah 44:28 — Cyrus? No, we’re not teaching the Donald Trump Prophecy! The more exciting prophecy is that Cyrus was called out by name 150 years before he was born over 2,000 kilometers away. We read the fulfillment of this prophecy in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23. It is rumored that Daniel was the one who showed Cyrus the prophecies. By the way, liberals see this verse as proof that Isaiah was written after Cyrus was king! From Josephus:
This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies. For this Prophet said, that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision: “My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be King over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple.” This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished. Accordingly when Cyrus read this, and admired the divine power, an earnest desire and an ambition seized upon him, to fulfil what was so written. So he called for the most eminent Jews that were in Babylon, and said to them, that “He gave them leave to go back to their own countrey, and to rebuild their city Jerusalem, (3) and the temple of God; for that he would be their assistant; and that he would write to the rulers and governours that were in the neighbourhood of their countrey of Judea, that they should contribute to them gold and silver, for the building of the temple; and besides that, beasts for their sacrifices.”
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-11.html
Ephesians 3:6 — Paul has been hinting at the mystery (Ephesians 3:3, Ephesians 3:4) that the Gentiles would be part of the same body as God’s chosen people, the sons of Jacob! And not only that, but God called Paul “less than the least of all saints” to preach this mystery (Ephesians 3:8)!
Ephesians 3:13 — Notice Paul’s attitude. He does not chide the Ephesians (see Galatians 3:1); he is praying for them to continue to be:
- strengthened (Ephesians 3:16)
- indwelt (Ephesians 3:17)
- rooted (Ephesians 3:17)
- grounded (Ephesians 3:17)
- comprehending (Ephesians 3:18)
- knowing (Ephesians 3:19)
- filled (Ephesians 3:19)
Psalm 68:9 — I was at the 2017 Presidential Inauguration, and Franklin Graham said that rain was a sign of God’s blessing.
Psalm 68:18 — Tomorrow, we’ll read about this verse in Ephesians 4:8!
Proverbs 24:1 — A message to Asaph in Psalm 73! We’ll read about him in a few days.
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
