One Year Bible - September 22

ISAIAH 39:1 - 41:16                                                                                                         
CASING THE JOINT:  The King of Babylon came ostensibly to bring a congratulatory gift to King H.   They were "casing the joint" (looking to see what was worth stealing - where the escape routes were, the best way to break in, etc.)  FLATTERY is deceitful and a trap.   It is like counterfeit money.   It looks good, but you can't spend it.   And so, King H. showed them "all that is in my house....my treasures."

PEACE AT LAST!   Peace comes about as the result of righteous judgment and then war against UN-righteousness.  Chapters 1-39 were the OT portion of Isaiah and discussed God's judgment of sin.  Chapter 40 begins the restoration process - not in the Last Days, but in the Kingdom of God (which is Bible-talk for manifest the Presence of God.)   It also foreshadows the "day of Jesus Christ" - the NT days which began with the appearance of John the Baptist, "the voice crying in the wilderness".  Restoration comes about as a result of repentance.

BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY:  In Revelation, it is revealed that Babylon is a type of the world-spirit of antichristians, led by "the kings of the earth".  Coming out of Babylon is not the same as coming out of Egypt.   It is the difference between bondage (Egypt) and captivity (Babylon).  Egypt represents being a slave to sin and is a result of being "in Adam" - having a sin nature.  Babylon represents being in exile in sin and is the result of sinning. (deeds, not nature).  We are released from Egypt by the Blood, and from Babylon by the Word of Truth.  We leave Egypt by faith, and we leave Babylon by obedience.  This is important because Isaiah is writing with the full knowledge that they are about to be dragged off to Babylon in captivity because of their sinning and idolatry.

BUT THERE IS HOPE: Being confronted by our own sinfulness and failure, our hope is that God will rescue and restore the REMNANT who cling to Him.   "Double for all her sins" - Exo and Deut show us that a thief repaid double in restitution.   The goal: is v.5 - that God's glory be revealed so everyone can see it.  "Glory" is the revelation of full potential.  (Michael Jordan is in "his full glory" on the basketball court.)   Just think what God's "full glory" looks like! All God's potential - - - we see it all the time, but just don't realize it.

"PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD":  Hindrances must be removed through REPENTANCE and SANCTIFICATION.   Part of the preparation for Jesus to come (in 4 BC and even now into our circumstances), is the declaration that the Word of God is everlasting and never changes.   It can be trusted.   Circumstances can changed quickly, but not God. Whatever God says can be absolutely relied on, despite appearances to the contrary.

HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!  He is the Great and Mighty Creator.   He did not need to consult anyone about any of it!  God alone is the Originator of knowledge and justice.  "All nations are before Him as nothing...."   Other so-called deity can't even be compared to God. (NOTE: Isaiah said God sits "upon the circle of the earth". This was Christopher Columbus' proof Scripture in a time when man believed the earth was flat.)   When we feel forsaken by God and that we will never be avenged of injustice, remember this: God will strengthen us and we shall remain in the race.  God is our inexhaustible power and strength Source. He never sleeps.  He sees it all, He knows it all, and He makes us a powerhouse when we need it.  To those who "wait on the Lord." (WAIT = firmly and aggressively anticipate God's action; intentionally wrapping ourselves into God's Presence.)

CHALLENGE TO GOD'S ENEMY: (enemy nations and their so-called gods) (V.4) God is God alone, first and last. (V. 8) Israel is His servant and under His protection. They are descendents of Abraham, God's Friend (who was called out of idolatry). God brought Abraham out of Babylon, and He will bring us out too. He has not rejected us. I may be a "worm", but God will still help me. (V. 10) shows how tenderly God reassures us. The Amplified Bible says that God "will harden you to difficulties." God will cause the nations (the devil, the flesh, the world) to be afraid of us.  Every hunger and thirst will be satisfied by God Himself.  Other "gods" are impotent, ignorant, uncaring, unfeeling.   They are "nothing".  God's power is irresistible and all opposition will fall before Him.  He has infallible foresight.  Anything else (substitutes, idols) is "all vanity" - empty, unable to satisfy, unable to do any of the things God does.

RESPONSE:   King H. did something stupid.  But God "bailed him out".  Often I have to repent and ask God to help me out of my hole. I talk too much, say things I wish I hadn't, make faces I shouldn't have, ignored little stuff that grieves the Holy Spirit.   But God continues to bail me out because I am the "Seed of Abraham, GOD'S FRIEND".

EPHESIANS 1:1-23                                                                                                               
EPHESIANS should probably have been the first book of the Bible because it tells what God was thinking before He created the foundations of the earth.   It is all about God Himself, His Will, His Eternal Purpose and His Counsel.   JESUS IS THE CENTRAL THEME.  Jesus is shown as the Head of the Church (chap 1), the Head of the Temple (chap 2), the Head of the Family (chap 3), the Head of the Body (chap 4), the Head of the Bride (chap 5), the Head of the Army (Chap 6).   These units are all definitions of the Church for whom Jesus died, and through whom He expresses Himself.

"Spiritual blessings in heavenly places."   "Spiritual" because they come to us via the Holy Spirit: forgiveness of sins, access to the Father, purification and perfection, hope.   They are outcomes of the heavenly depths:  the Divine will of God and the Divine wealth of God.

"HEAVENLY PLACES":  This is not talking about the "by-and-by".   It is speaking of the invisible Presence of God NOW.    It is where Jesus' throne is (1:20-23), far above the second heaven where the "principality and powers" are located.  This "heavenly places" is also called the "third heaven" in 2 Cor 12:2-4, and "paradise".   The "principalities and powers" of Eph 6:12 occupy the first and second heavens.   The first heaven is the "cosmos" - the temporary order of the world, and it hates God.  Jesus has forever cleansed the 3rd heaven with His advent and ascension (Rev 12:10; Luke 10:18; John 16:11).  With Jesus Christ's victory, Satan was judged, defeated, cast down and his kingdom put into irreversible defeat (Luke 11:21-22; 1 John 3:8; John 12:31). The rending of the veil exposed Satan's original lie against God's character; it became plain to see that God had withheld nothing from man!  The war in heaven is over.  The war on earth is strictly a defensive move by Satan.   It is not that Satan is powerless; but that his assault on Jesus was a failure.  It is our assignment as believers to follow Jesus as His kingdom comes on earth (NOW, through prayer) - and "occupy til He comes". (Luke 19:13)

TO KNOW THREE THINGS:
(1) "THE HOPE OF HIS CALLING:   This is the hope of "the Life" to which God summons us, characterized by union with the Father through Jesus; and the completeness (fullness, perfection) of that Life because of faith in the revealed Truth of the Gospel.   This hope stimulates the effort to cling to God in union.

(2) "THE INHERITANCE": God inherited us, and we inherit God. We belong to one another. We obtain our inheritance in a practical way through obedience, worship, and transformation in this life.  This is also how we express belonging to God.  We lay hold of Him and He lays hold of us through our obedience, worship and transformation.

(3) "THE IMMEASURABLE POWER WORKING IN US":  Because of the bond between the Head and the Body, the bond between the Head and the Bride, between the Head and the Church, between the Vine and its Branches - we are knit together as One, in such a way that what One is, the other is also.  We know that power by personal experience because we have experienced it as it surges and rejoices into our abysmal emptiness. We have felt its force when we are weak.  We should NEVER doubt the greatness of God's power at work in us.

RESPONSE: I sure am glad I went to Bible college!  I know just enough to be glad I don't have to know it all right now in order to experience it.   We have access to so much more than we take advantage of.   God is so good.

PSALM 66:1-20                                                                                                                 
AFFLICTION: The Bible deals with the topic of affliction more than any other topic.  The purpose of affliction is to "mortify" (Col 3:5 - kill) and to "crucify" (Gal 5:24 - to impale on a cross in death) the flesh.  Affliction should cause us to die to self and live to God.   Earthly desires must be replaced with yearnings for the Kingdom of God, then you "forget what lies behind you". (Phil 3:13)   God's goal is not our happiness, but our holiness - that He might express His life in us and through us.  We forfeit our lives and receive His Life and His nature.   . V. 12 says that when we have gone through fire and through water (Num 31:23, we come out into a wealthy place of abundant, full, and overflowing satisfaction.

PROVERBS 23:25-28                                                                                                       
There is no better way to make your parents happy than to walk with the Lord and live in His Presence.   There is no quicker way to damn yourself than to fall for prostitutes or adulteresses.

RESPONSE: Like I always say, "you can come easy or you can come hard".   Once we belong to God, He has ways of getting what He wants from us - for His glory and our good, of course. And "let me tell you what He has done for my soul".   When I repent and quit "cherishing iniquity in my heart"(quit indulging it and making provision to carry it out, treating iniquity as a friend) - then God hears my prayers and shows mercy on me. "Blessed be God" - even tho it was me who repented, it was GOD Who heard me by His grace.