Author: PGC Administrator

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+023

 
Chapter 23 (ESV)

¹ The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor!
From the land of Cyprus
it is revealed to them.
² Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;
the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.
³ And on many waters
your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile;
you were the merchant of the nations.
⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
the stronghold of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth,
I have neither reared young men
nor brought up young women.”
⁵ When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
⁷ Is this your exultant city
whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
to settle far away?
⁸ Who has purposed this
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
to defile the pompous pride of all glory,
to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

REFLECTION:

1. Chapters 13-23 reflect upon the foolishness of Judah depending upon alliances with the other nations rather than upon God to protect her from Assyria.
2. Can you discern, from the past ten or so chapters of Scripture you’ve read, how Judas’s example reflects what your own life is ultimately loyal to? What are you using to fill the void that only God can truly satisfy?

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

HYMN:

Spirit Of God – www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrUEWIov7uU

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+022

 
Chapter 22 (ESV)

⁸ He has taken away the covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹ and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, ¹⁰ and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹ You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

¹² In that day the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
¹³ and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”

REFLECTION:

1. Judah may have prepared its military defenses shortly before the Assyrian invasion after hearing the prophet’s warning (vv. 8b–11), but the people only made military preparations without placing their faith in God. Moreover, they adopted a ‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ attitude (vv. 12–13), and thus would inevitably bring upon themselves even greater punishment from God.
2. Isaiah was saddened by the frivolity of the people in Jerusalem. The people acted as if they did not need to repent and live according to God’s laws.
3. Sometimes we feel sad when we see people doing things they should not. What should our response be?  What does God want us to do?
4. Was there a time when you felt like crying even though everyone around you was partying? What was it and how did you respond?

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

HYMN:

Find Us Faithful – youtu.be/MKT5BCmvmq0

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+021

 
Chapter 21 (ESV)

¹ The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the wilderness,
from a terrible land.
² A stern vision is told to me;
the traitor betrays,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam;
lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
I bring to an end.
³ Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me,
like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
⁴ My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;
the twilight I longed for
has been turned for me into trembling.
⁵ They prepare the table,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink.
Arise, O princes;
oil the shield!
⁶ For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman;
let him announce what he sees.
⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him listen diligently,
very diligently.”
⁸ Then he who saw cried out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
whole nights.
⁹ And behold, here come riders,
horsemen in pairs!”
And he answered,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
and all the carved images of her gods
he has shattered to the ground.”
¹⁰ O my threshed and winnowed one,
what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, I announce to you.

REFLECTION:

1. This is a message of the destruction of Babylon. Prophet Isaiah saw the devastation of Babylon in a vision and was gripped with grief and pang.  Meanwhile, the Babylonians wined and dined, the destruction came upon them unexpectedly.   “My people who are crushed on the threshing floor”, this was referred to the Judeans who though having been under oppression from many fronts, still tried to plot schemes in allying with Babylon against Assyrians.  In fact, Babylon was doomed as well.
2. What is your “Babylon” – the arrangement to shelter you from the uncertainties of life? If you know that all your planning, and arrangements are temporal security that will be swept away, how do you feel?  What can you do to fill the insecurity that only God can fulfill?

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

HYMN:

I will Trust My Saviour Jesus – youtu.be/E5S4OPzdM-g

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+020

 
Chapter 20 (ESV)

¹ In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it— ² at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

³ Then the Lord said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, ⁴ so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. ⁵ Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. ⁶ And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”

 
REFLECTION:

1. Isaiah must have felt something of a fool in the eighth century BC, when he was told by God to wander the streets of Jerusalem stripped (to a loincloth) and barefoot for some three years. This relative of the royal family exposed himself to shame at God’s command, to serve as an object lesson.  Soon the sovereign God would execute judgment against Egypt and Cush (Ethiopia), and their people would suffer Isaiah’s fate.
2. God is unlikely to ask you or me to walk about in diapers or drag a cross. But there will be times when we feel a little embarrassed or foolish at the thought of doing something we feel convicted is God’s will.
3. At such times, what will be your response? Will you treasure your reputation, your image and acceptance of others more than pleasing God and following God’s will?

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

HYMN:

Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me – youtu.be/zundjUFazfg