July 23: Isaiah 31-34

July 23, Isaiah 31-34

Isaiah 31 God, through Isaiah, is calling His people to stop trusting in man and to turn to God. Especially for them to stop thinking that Egypt will help them. Because Egypt has lots of men and horses and military strength, it is nothing in comparison to the power of God. The Egyptians are man and not God. God’s people need to look to the Holy One, God. A call to repentance is at hand - they have rejected God and they need to come back to Him.

Isaiah 32 A King - Jesus - will reign in righteousness. He is the promised Messiah. God will deliver His people. We are getting pointed to a Davidic King, and that is Jesus Christ. People will see and hear the truth when God reveals Jesus.

Then we read about another call to repentance, with a focus on some women who have become complacent and spiritually blind. They are to come around and back to God as well. 

Tying these together, Isaiah is showing that the Messiah will bring what they (and we) want - to be secured in God and have rest. 

Isaiah 33 Isaiah is showing the Israelites that they will be protected from the Assyrian attacks and that God will eventually destroy Assyria. What a beautiful prayer, 

“O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.

    Be our arm every morning,

    our salvation in the time of trouble.”

This is just practical and everyday prayer for us to. We learn also that the godly will prevail, not just in 8th Century b.c., but for today. 

Who can prevail and stay the course? “He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil…” This is a picture of the godly. God is the Judge and lawgiver of all things, so we are to strive to be godly! At the end of the chapter we read that without Yahweh - they are lost. Same goes for us…

Isaiah 34 is an End Times Judgment chapter. Chapter 35 (tomorrow) is how God vindicates His people, but 34 is about global judgement. God will someday say that He has had enough and His anger will burn against the nations for refusing to obey Him and rejecting Him. The day of the Lord’s vengeance is coming (and pry not too far off if you ask me). We, like the generation that Isaiah was warning, must not desire the sinful things but the godly things.

To sum it all up: 

• Feel free to pray this often and daily! 
• “O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.

    Be our arm every morning,

    our salvation in the time of trouble.”

• To be godly, we must walk in God, speak truth, hate falseness, protect our minds from sin and do not desire evil.