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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Sunday, 25 June 2023:
Isaiah 51:1-3 — “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.”
God teaches us obedience through examples of faith from the past. Your faith lived out through faithful obedience should be an example for others.
Isaiah 51:4 — “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.”
If God’s people would corporately repent and renew their vows to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, there would be revival and renewal; the light would be bright, and the church would be a light among the nations.
Isaiah 51:5 – “My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples.”
Some will be saved, and some will be judged.
Isaiah 51:6 – “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”
Faith requires you to trust in what you cannot see and in what has not yet occurred (which is hope – faith projected forward, which is hope).
Isaiah 51:7, 8 — “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. For the moth will eat them up like a garment.”
To be a follower of Jesus, the law must move from being in your head to being in your heart, driving you to confidence obedience within a rebellious world. You need to be motivated by love over duty. You need to be ready to do what God wants because you want to in love, and you need to be ready to do it regardless the consequences. You must be willing to be steadfast despite the “reproach of man,” though obedience will defy social acceptability.
Isaiah 51:11 – “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.”
“As Christians, we ought never to overlook our heritage. An awareness of our Christian heritage helps us to understand our identity, and it gives us a sense of where God is leading us.
The Israelites had a rich heritage. Their nation began as a result of Abraham and Sarah’s faithfulness. The generations that followed included Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as their faithful leaders. God richly blessed His people and made them prosper. God continued to show favor on the Israelites by leading them out of Egypt into a prosperous land of their own. God established His nation through some of the most awesome miracles in history. God continued to provide strong leaders, such as Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Deborah, Samuel, David, and Solomon. He sent mighty prophets such as Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Unfortunately, in Isaiah’s day, God’s people had reached a point where they had forgotten their heritage. They lived as spiritual paupers rather than as heirs to a rich heritage and members of a royal priesthood.
Your spiritual heritage is even richer than that of Isaiah’s generation. Your spiritual ancestors include Mary the mother of Jesus, John the Baptist, the disciples, the apostle Paul, and a host of saints down through the ages. Even more important, you look to Jesus as the author and finisher of your faith (Heb. 12:2). You may have a family history of faithfulness that goes back several generations.
Do you see the full picture of God’s redemptive work? God’s plan involves you, just as it has included each Christian throughout the centuries. God wants you to participate in His continuing work to redeem a lost world. Your obedience today will provide a legacy of faithfulness to the generations that follow.” (Henry T. Blackaby)
Isaiah 51:12, 13 — “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy?”
The Christian has no business worrying about how others might judge their faith or what they might do to them.
Isaiah 51:15 – “I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name.”
God’s past acts of salvation show He will fulfill His promises.
Isaiah 51:19 – “These two things have happened to you— who will console you?— devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you?”
If you have received the gift of salvation and have received God’s word but have refused to live in grace and by God’s word, who can help you? What is left for you? You are now doubly burdened, having ignored your God. Return to Him and walk with Jesus.
Isaiah 51:20-22 – “Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. Therefore, hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine: Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause of his people: ‘Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more….’”
Repentance and revival are needed when God’s discipline and punishment dominates your life; with repentance and revival, the removal of God’s punishment is possible.
Psalm 73:25-28 — Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever…. For me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
What is your goal in life? How do you measure your success, and where do you want to be when it is all said and done?
Today Asaph says, “But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” We are in danger of stumbling too if we begin measuring success the way the world does, if earthly accomplishments and prosperity become our markers. Likewise, we risk maligning God if we start judging His love, justice, mercy, and grace from our earthly perspectives of our afflictions – “How could God let this happen?” If our life goals are prosperity-based, and if we see God as a means to our ends, we will find ourselves trapped in the spirit of the disgruntled psalmist, “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.” (Psalm 73:13) The key to life is to make your life goal the same as God’s goal for your life, and His goal for your life is Him:
- John 17:3, 15-19, 21-23 — And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent…. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth…. that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
Success is unity with Him, knowing Him more and more every day, and making Him known more and more each day, and God will use seemingly ‘good’ and ‘bad’ circumstances to accomplish that goal in your life – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:28, 29) As the latter verse states, not all things (people and circumstances) are good, but God works all things together for His good and perfect purpose, which is not just to give you a comfortable life until you die, but rather to conform you to the image of His Son, so that you would like Jesus. Our goal through good times and bad should be to rejoice knowing that God is Sovereign and is using every circumstance to grow us up in Christ, and our measure of success through it all should be that we are closer to Jesus than we have ever been before.
If Moses’ success depended on his life-long endeavor of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, his whole life would have been viewed a complete failure since Moses was not permitted to cross the Jordan River due to his sin at Meribah (Numbers 20); but God’s goal for Moses was something much greater than achieving a temporal outcome – it was bringing Moses to Himself. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) In fact, Moses did make it to the Promised Land, but in a far more glorious way than he could have ever imagined – “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” (Matthew 17:1-3)
How much different would your life be if sought the Lord as one searches for a great treasure?
- Matthew 6:21 — For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
- Matthew 13:44 — “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
- Hebrews 11:24-26 — By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
- Ephesians 3:8 — To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
With the goal of increasingly knowing Him and making Him known each day, endeavor for your last day on earth to be your best day on earth.
Proverbs 25:1 — These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied.
Most of the Proverbs deal with how to treat other people because life is all about relationships, and or mission on earth is about relationships. Christians must strive to be better people in order to bring glory to God, but our message is not to proclaim goodness but rather Jesus, the only truly Good one, the one on whose grace we depend and seek to emulate.
Proverbs 25:2 – It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.
The government-run education system in our country is based upon the assumption that one can acquire knowledge and wisdom without God as part of the equation, and today, the “enlightened” class more and more reject God, pursuing more and more knowledge for their own glory. However, God in His glory withholds truth for the His followers, truth that can only be obtained through the Spirit. Man’s ‘knowledge’ is foolishness in God’s eyes.
Proverbs 25:4 — Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel.
Does your holiness render you usable by God for special assignments?
Proverbs 25:7, 8 – What your eyes have seen do not hastily bring into court, for what will you do in the end, when your neighbor puts you to shame?
Human discernment is always deceiving because we cannot see the whole picture that only God sees, hence the reason we should not judge others because we do not know what God knows about them and about the situation at hand. 1 Corinthian 4:5 says, “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
Proverbs 25:9 – Argue your case with your neighbor himself, and do not reveal another’s secret.
God gives very specific instructions for conflict resolution that is often ignored by Christians who should be experts on conflict resolution because we have been given by God the ministry of reconciliation. In this verse, God tells us to first seek to handle matters with others 1-on-1 and privately, not sharing the issues with others. Is that what you do?
Proverbs 25:14 — Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.
Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep, even as a casual gesture, such as saying to someone you bump into who you haven’t seen in a long time, “Let’s keep in touch.”
Proverbs 25:15 – With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.
Patience is very powerful. Instant gains are usually quickly lost. Things that matter take time. Patience is the first virtue mentioned in the Great Love Verse, 1 Cor 13:4 – “Love is patient and kind….”
Proverbs 25:16 – If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.
Too much of a good thing can make it a bad thing for you.
Proverbs 25:21, 22 – If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.
God wants you to treat those who offend you with nothing but kindness. This is hard to do, particularly when you are caught off guard by bad behavior. Often our first response is to push back against offenders. Often our first, unguarded response reveals what is really in our hearts. Pay attention to your first responses, and pray for a genuinely loving heart that automatically loves the sinner who hurts us.
Compare Proverbs 25:21-22 to Psalm 11:6. Reading the whole Bible gives you a much fuller understanding and appreciation of God’s word. The Bible reiterates key points — God calls us to return good for evil. God can deal with the sins of others far better than we can.
- Psalm 11:6 — Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
Proverbs 25:26 — Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.
How much pollution do you want in your drinking water? How much sin does God want in your life?
Proverbs 25:26 – Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.
Don’t let the wicked influence your behavior. Prepare yourself to meet the wicked today by reading God’s word, praying for strength in obedience, and resolving in your heart not to sin at the moment of decision.
Proverbs 25:27, 28 – It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
Do not let your selfish desires and pride get the best of you today. Apply self-control which is given to you by the Spirit (not your own will power). When tempted, turn to the Spirit for strength. Today, you will be tempted to follow your urges and passions rather than the Spirit. Prepare yourself for the challenge and set your mind before the challenge. Be a selfless servant of Jesus today.
Proverbs 25:28 — A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
A lack of self-control leaves you defenseless.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 25 June 2023: Today, focus on knowing God more fully and making Him know as your life’s goals, and do everything else in a way that supports your ultimate goal – “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 