Read the Bible in a Year (01AUG19)

DAILY REMINDER – Today, August 1’s Bible reading is Isaiah 18-22.

NEXT DAY REMINDER – Tomorrow, August 2’s Bible reading is Isaiah 23-27. May God bless you with the reading of His WORD.

 

ISAIAH MOMENT – (01AUG19) “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian – brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom” (Isaiah 19:2). Egypt was a nation God decided to punish for their wicked ways. They loved their idols, mediums, spiritists, and witchcraft. They had their wise men, counselors, soothsayers, and advisers, but none of them could give their Pharaoh wise counsel when the Lord decided to come up against them. They should have learned a lesson from their history when God sent plagues to them and destroyed their army, but they had not taken heed to the mistakes of their ancestors. Therefore, God was going to allow them to turn against each other in a civil war and be overtaken by their enemies, so that they would humble themselves and turn to Him as the One True Only God. “The Lord will strike Egypt, and then he will bring healing. For the Egyptians will turn to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas and heal them” (Isaiah 19:22).

Jesus gave a similar warning like the one given to Egypt for the end times. He said, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7). We are seeing the fulfillment of this prophecy in real time. Nation against nation not only mean outside nations that will come against each other, but it represents those living within a nation who would fight each other as in a civil war. Just as God allowed for Egypt to experience judgment to get their attention, He is doing the same thing today, but few people realize it. In America, we are seeing so much division like we have never seen in our lifetime. We are a Divided States of America. There’s Democrats against Republicans, blacks against whites, liberals against conservatives, homosexuals against heterosexuals, false leaders against true leaders, the political correct against the non-political correct, pro-choice against pro-life, non-patriots against patriots, and the list goes on. Pharaoh’s advisers could not give him a solution to their problems because he consulted man and not God. The same is happening in America because many have made the mistake of thinking that politics is the answer for sin when God is desiring repentance and a change of heart.  “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place” (2 Chronicles 7:14-15). No one, including a president, can solve the problems of this nation. Only turning back to God is the answer for the problems that we have. Something to ponder….

  

QUESTION OF THE DAY - (01AUG19) “Then the Philistines will be thrown into panic, for they counted on the power of Ethiopia and boasted of their allies in Egypt!  They will say, ‘If this can happen to Egypt, what chance do we have? We were counting on Egypt to protect us from the king of Assyria’ ” (Isaiah 20:5-6). God told Isaiah that judgment was going to come upon Egypt and Cush. He had Isaiah to take off his sackcloth and sandals for three years to represent what was going to happen to these two nations. Assyria was a nation that showed no mercy to their captives, and they stripped them naked and took away their shoes to humiliate the nations they conquered. Historians have even written that the Assyrians were known for skinning their conquests alive. Therefore, this would send a shocking wave to their allies, for if these nations, which they relied on, could fail, then so could they.

Have you ever considered what it would be like to have our nation overthrown by a foreign power? Many of us could not imagine such a thing. We have pride in our strong military, alliances with NATO, and we have been able to the comforts of peace and prosperity in this land. There has not been a war on U.S. soil since the Civil War, and we have not had to wake up to bombs being dropped, or missiles flying overhead like other nations. For many of us, the greatest tragedy that we lived to experience in this nation on our own soil was the events that took place with 9/11. We have only God to thank for the security that He has allowed for us to enjoy. Yet, we must not be prideful to think that we can be anything without God. The Bible says, “The wicked go down to the realm of the dead, all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17). As we will discuss in further detail when we get to the book of Daniel, all great kingdoms have fallen, and we are no exception. The Lord is the One who has had a hedge of protection around America, but once that hedge is removed, this nation will experience things like it has never experienced before, but the Lord will protect those who are His. Something to ponder….

ISAIAH MOMENT – (01AUG19) “At that time the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins and to wear clothes of burlap to show your remorse. But instead, you dance and play; you slaughter cattle and kill sheep. You feast on meat and drink wine. You say, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (Isaiah 22:12-13). The Lord had given Isaiah a prophecy concerning the judgment that was going to come on Judah. They had rebelled against Him and relied on their own defenses to protect them, which God vowed to bring down to make them defenseless. Instead of them going before the Lord with hearts of humility and sorrow over the sins that they had committed, they enjoyed their parties and had their fun, for they had no fear of what the prophet had warned them of. They actually mocked the prophecy by saying that “tomorrow we die” as if it could not happen that very moment. Therefore, the Lord said that those who behaved in such manner, their sins would never be atoned for till their dying day. Because they had no regard for Him, neither would He have any regard for the ones who took up this type of defiant attitude.

Jesus gave a similar warning that it would be a disregard for the prophetic warnings given right before His return. “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.  In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 24:37-39). Jesus warned that people would be going about their everyday life, not giving any heed to the things of God, and then, just as the ark was shut, so will it be for those when He comes. You can probably imagine the people during Noah’s day was banging on the door of the ark, wanting to go inside, when the rain began to fall. Noah preach over a hundred years that it was going to rain, but they did not heed his prophetic warning. It is the same way today. God has many watchmen sounding the alarm, but people, even in the church, are deceived into thinking that nothing will overtake them and that they are living their best lives now. Unfortunately, the doors of probation will one day be closed, and those who have not fully submitted themselves to Jesus, will not receive another chance. It will be too late. Do not let anyone fool you into thinking that a person is Once Saved Always Saved. That is a lie from the enemy to have the church in a state of complacency. Jesus and later the Apostle Paul wrote, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Something to ponder….