In our reading today, we have the beginning of a new subsection (Is. 13-23) in the Book of Isaiah. In these chapters, we read of a series of prophetic oracles given by God to Isaiah regarding the future of several foreign nations. One of the key truths that we learn through these oracles is that the […]
Living the Kingdom on Earth
In Isaiah 2:22, we read these words of the prophet: “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” This divine exhortation is what Ahaz and Pekah, the kings of Judah and Israel, failed to do as they sought to fight off the threat of Assyria. We […]
In Isaiah 7, we are introduced to more of the historical details regarding the context that Isaiah was called to minister in the name of the LORD. It is the last years of the northern kingdom of Israel’s existence (735 B.C.). The small nations of Israel and Aram are feeling the threat of invasion from […]
The key event that formed and shaped the identity of Israel as a people was God’s deliverance of them from Egyptian slavery in the great Exodus (Ex. 1-15). They commemorated this founding act in the annual celebration of the Passover Festival. Another key event in the formation of Israel as a nation was the giving […]
Isaiah began his ministry at a crucial time in the history of Israel and Judah. By 735 BC, the Assyrians had risen as a world power and were the first Empire to systematize terror. The Assyrians Are Coming! Jonathan Cahn in “The Harbinger” calls them the first terrorists of the world. They levelled cities to […]
In the next 2 months, I will be reading and blogging through the Book of Isaiah. I am encouraging you to read with me through Isaiah, covering 9 chapters a week. I will blog 3 times each week (M-W-F), covering 3 chapters of Isaiah at a time. My goal is for us to discern, in […]
Our natural life here on earth ends in our funeral. As the Scripture declares: What man can live and not see death, or save himself from the power of the grave (Psalm 89:48)”? None. But the Good News of Jesus Christ proclaims that the final chapter in the story of our lives is not death but […]
Revelation 11 closes the first half of the Book of Revelation. In this chapter, we are given assurance that there will be a faithful gospel witness throughout the present age (Rev. 11:1-3). Endless speculation, and I believe fruitless speculation, has gone into the identity of the 2 witnesses in Revelation 11:3. We need to remember […]
The reading today begins with Jesus opening the first 6 seals of the scroll that was handed to him by his Heavenly Father (Rev. 5:7). The Lord Jesus was the only One worthy to open the scroll because of his life , death and resurrection (Rev. 5:8-14). He is both the Lamb of God and […]
The Bible is God’s story of how He lovingly, wisely and patiently redeems and restores a wayward creation back to Himself. It is, therefore, not surprising that in the last book of God’s story that the central character of this Redemption Drama takes front and center stage. We would avoid so many interpretive dead-ends to […]