birthing dry straw

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

May 2015 (8)Isaiah 33:7-12

7 Watch! Their heroes cry out from the street; those who were messengers of peace now weep bitterly. 8 Highways are deserted; the road traveller ceases. Someone breaks a treaty, he ignores witnesses; he does not hold man in high regard. 9 The land mourns; it languishes. Lebanon feels embarrassed; it withers. Sharon is like the desert, and Bashan and Carmel are shaking off their leaves. 10 “Now I will get up,” says Yahveh. “Now I will raise myself up proudly; now I will lift myself. 11 You conceive dry straw, you bring forth stubble; your breath is like a fire; it will consume you. 12 And peoples will be to burn to lime– they are thorns burned that have been cut down for the fire.

birthing dry straw

It looked like there was no hope for Jerusalem. The Assyrians were coming, and had surrounded the city. Then God got up. 185,000 dead soldiers later, the king of Assyria changed his mind. Isaiah predicted that event here. He described the Assyrian threat as a pregnant woman who gives birth to dry straw, and then sets it on fire with her fiery breath. What does Isaiah tell Jerusalem to do? Just watch. God will protect his people. Just watch.

We don’t always experience deliverance like that. But we should always be praying and watching for God to surprise us with an unqualified miraculous rescue. Because that is the kind of God he is.

LORD, we are watching, and we trust you to rescue us, no matter how dire the circumstances.

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the security of your times

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

May 2015 (7)Isaiah 33:1-6

1 Oy, destroyer, and yourself not destroyed! And treacherous one, and no one has dealt treacherously with him! When you are finishing your destroying, you will be destroyed. When you stop dealing treacherously, someone will deal treacherously with you. 2 Yahveh, be gracious to us, we wait for you. Be their arm in the mornings, indeed our salvation in a time of trouble. 3 At a disturbing noise, peoples fled; because of your exaltation, nations scattered. 4 And your spoil is gathered, like the gathering of the locust, like a swarm of locusts storming upon it. 5 Yahveh is exalted, because he dwells above; he has filled Zion with justice and righteousness, 6 and he will be the security of your times, an abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahveh is what he treasures.

the security of your times

The Assyrian armies had invaded Judah, and has set their sights on destruction of Jerusalem. God’s prophet, Isaiah, had warned his people that they were going to be judged, but he would be spared the sorrow of seeing it happen – this time. Because a king dared to fear God more than the invading swarm, the nation was spared. So, Isaiah gets to tell his people that Yahveh is going to be exalted, because what Yahveh treasures most is when his people fear him. So, Yahveh will be the security of their times.

Times have not changed. Armies still invade, destroyers still destroy, and God’s people are still put in uncontrollable situations. But God has not changed either. He still looks for a people who will fear him above all fears. He still looks for opportunities to show us security in the midst of the swarming invasion. Will we dare to be what God treasures most?

LORD, give us wisdom to respond to the threats of our times by trusting in you, and letting you be the security of our times.

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planting by every water source

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

May 2015 (6)Isaiah 32:15-20

15 (We will be desolate) until a wind is poured out on us from on high, and our wilderness will become a fruitful field, and our fruitful field is thought of as the forest. 16 Then justice will dwell in that wilderness, and righteousness will live in that fruitful field. 17 And the product of righteousness will be peace, and the product of righteousness, quietness and security forever. 18 And my people will dwell in a peaceful settlement and in a secure dwelling place and in undisturbed resting places. 19 And it will hail at the coming down of the forest, and the city will become low by humiliation. 20 You who plant by every water source, who set free the foot of the ox and the donkey, will be happy.

planting by every water source

Coffman’s take on verse 20 is as follows:

“… to us it says that, followers of the Lamb should, “preach the gospel in season and out of season”; exploit all opportunities; take every chance; do not be too particular nor too choosey as to what we shall do for the Lord. If this is what the passage means, it is the equivalent of the proverb which states that, “He that regardeth the winds shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap!” (Ecclesiastes 11:4).[1]”

We should avoid falling into the trap of confusing our giftedness with the limits of our influence. It just might be an area I might consider a weakness that the LORD may choose to bless me with a bumper crop. I saw this last year in Africa. I had prepared quite a few lectures that I presented at a conference of pastors and church leaders in DRC. But the part of my week that seemed to have made the most difference to these men was the question and answer sessions that came after each lecture. This was unscripted, and was a challenge to me. But the church leaders really appreciated the answers to their questions.

LORD, give us the wisdom to plant your gospel by every water source, to use every means possible to share your kingdom with others.

[1] Coffman, James Burton. “Commentary on Isaiah 32:1”. “Coffman Commentaries on the Old and New Testament”. “http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/view.cgi?bk=22&ch=32”. Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.

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get up and go to work

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

May 2015 (5)Isaiah 32:9-14

9 You ladies at ease, get up; hear my voice! Carefree daughters, listen to what I say! 10 In a year’s days you will tremble, carefree ones, because the wine crop will come to an end; harvest will not come. 11 Tremble, you at ease ones; tremble, carefree ones; strip, and strip yourself, and prepare for work. 12 lamenting over fields, over delightful fields, over a fruitful vine, 13 over the soil of my people. It is reduced to thorn and brier — indeed over all houses of joy in a once jubilant city. 14 Because the palace will be forsaken, the city crowd deserted; the watchtower hill will become a cave for ages, the joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks.

get up and go to work

Isaiah is talking to the lazy men of Jerusalem – the once jubilant city. He calls them ladies of ease because they have enjoyed the fruit of other’s people’s labour, not having had to work in the fields themselves. The commands are in the masculine gender. He tells these lazy men to get up and dress themselves for work because the lazy days will soon be over. God’s judgment is coming, and no one will rest.

Many today are assuming that God’s grace through Christ means that we no longer need to heed such warnings. But God is still a God of holiness, and if our generation refuses to heed his call, we too can be reduced to thorn and brier. The prophet calls us to get up and go to work. Our society needs to proclaim the gospel, care about its poor and needy, and bring justice to those who are wronged. A God who cares is watching.

LORD, give us the wisdom to get up from our comfortable couches and go to work, showing your mercy and justice, before you are forced to put an end to the harvest.

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betrayed by false leaders

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

May 2015 (4)Isaiah 32:1-8

1 Watch, a king is going to rule righteously, and princes will rule administering justice. 2 And each one will be like a hiding place from a strong wind and a covering from a rainstorm, like streams of water in a dry region, like a large rock shading a weary land. 3 And those who see will not be blinded and those who hear will listen with their ears. 4 And their hearts will understand what they know and their tongue which formerly stuttered will be in a hurry to speak clearly. 5 A fool will no longer be called noble, and a scoundrel will not be considered prominent. 6 Because a fool speaks foolishness, and his heart commits sin: to practice atheism and to speak wrong things about Yahveh, to leave hungry people with an empty throat, and he deprives thirsty people of drink. 7 And a scoundrel, his weapons are evil; he plans evil strategies to ruin a poor person with words of deception even when the needy speak of their plight honestly. 8 But a true nobleman plans noble things, and he stands for noble ideals.

betrayed by false leaders

Isaiah describes the transformation that will happen when the Messiah rules. The leadership will undergo a transformation, all false leaders being discovered and removed. The false leaders currently plaguing the society he calls fools, scoundrels and atheists. They are characterised by deficiency in three areas:

  • Their spiritual life is bankrupt. They are either formal or practical atheists. When they are not trying to live without God, they are condemning him and things others have done in his name.
  • Their compassion is a sham. The poor and needy are only seen as people to exploit.
  • Their sense of justice only applies to themselves. They cannot see beyond their own desires and goals for advancement. They do not see themselves as a refuge for others.

God actively seeks to remove such leaders, because they betray their positions and their people.

LORD, make us leaders who lead nobly. Make us people of integrity, whose relationship with you is real, whose concern about others is genuine, and who protect the needy, and do not exploit them.

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a non-human sword

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

May 2015 (3)Isaiah 31:5-9

5 Like he does the flying birds, so Yahveh of armies will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will pass over and rescue it. 6 Turn back to him from whom the sons of Israel have made deep rebellion. 7 Because on that day, each of you will reject his silver idols and his gold idols which your hands have made sinfully for yourselves. 8 And Assyria will fall by a non-human sword, and a non-human sword will devour him; and he will flee from that sword, and his young men will be enslaved. 9 And his rock will pass over because of terror, and his officers will be terrified of a flag,” – a declaration of Yahveh, who has a fire in Zion and has a furnace in Jerusalem.

a non-human sword

Isaiah encourages his people to trust in Yahveh of armies, but tells them that this time their protection is not going to come from an army. It will be a non-human sword that causes this Assyrian menace to fall. Some of the armies God controls are angelic armies. He lacks no resource when it comes to protecting his people.

LORD, thank you for your love and protection. Thank you for all the ways you take care of those who trust in you.

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crowd confidence

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

May 2015 (2)Isaiah 31:1-4

1 Oy! Those who go down Egypt way for help! They count on horses and trust in chariots because there are so many, and in horsemen because they are very numerous, but they do not put confidence in the holy one of Israel, and they do not consult Yahveh. 2 And yes, he is has deep understanding, and he brings disaster, and he does not forget his words, and he will rise against an evildoer’s house of and against workers of iniquity’s assistance. 3 But these human Egyptians are not God, and their horses’ flesh is not spirit. So Yahveh stretches out his hand, and a helper will stumble, and one being helped will fall, and all of them together will come to a complete end. 4 Because Yahveh said this to me: “Just like when a lion roars and a young lion over its prey even when a full complement of shepherds is called out to fight him, it is not terrified by their shouts, and it does not respond to their noise, so Yahveh of armies will come down to fight upon Mount Zion and upon its hill.”

crowd confidence

There is safety in numbers, except when there is not. This is the fact that Isaiah is pointing out to his people. The inhabitants of Judah are fully convinced that they should align themselves politically with their ancient enemy, Egypt. The reason: the Egyptians have a great cavalry with so many chariots and horses. Isaiah says no. He says that confidence in numbers is stupid. Those horses are just flesh, and the coming invader can only be stopped by spirit. When you have a large crowd collecting itself against a divine force, they are all going to come to an end together. It’s like when a large group of shepherds come together and shout at a hungry lion. No matter how many shepherds there are, their shouts are not going to deter the lion. We need to remember that the next time we are tempted to hold a view just because it is the majority view. We need to stop and think about our own crowd confidence.

Looking at it a different way, we should not be too troubled when the majority turns against us. They will, if we dare to stand up for truth and righteousness in a world which values the lie and unrighteousness. Sometimes it will seem like the whole world is amassing itself against us. We should make sure we are speaking God’s truth, and if so, hold our ground, regardless of the number of shepherd shouts.

LORD, we want to put our confidence in you and your word, not in the crowd.

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his voice and his arm

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

May 2015 (1)Isaiah 30:29-33

29 There will be a song for you as at night when a holy festival is kept, and a gladness of heart like one who goes with the flute, to go to the mountain of Yahveh, to the rock of Israel. 30 And Yahveh will cause the majesty of his voice to be heard, and he will cause the lowering of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, a cloudburst and a rainstorm and a storm of hail. 31 Indeed, Assyria will be shattered by the voice of Yahveh; he strikes with the rod. 32 And every strike of foundation staff that Yahveh lays will be on it with drums and lyres, and he will fight against it with battles, showing off his strength. 33 Because Topheth was already prepared yesterday; indeed, it is made ready for the king. He makes its pile of wood deep and wide; he stockpiles fire and wood. The breath of Yahveh burns on it like a stream of sulfur.

his voice and his arm

Topheth was a place where sacrifices were made, and became a symbol for the ultimate destruction of God’s enemies. David Guzik writes, “The Valley of Hinnom served as Jerusalem’s garbage dump, and the combination of disgusting rubbish and smouldering fires made it a picture of hell. The Hebrew word for hell (gehenna) comes from the word for the Valley of Hinnom. Therefore, God says He has a special place in hell for the Assyrian king!”[1] That king did not have to wait until the universal judgment to experience that hell. He lost 185,000 of his men in one night, fled back home, and was assassinated by his own sons as he worshipped in the temple of his god, Nisroch.

In one fell swoop, the sound of the LORD’s voice and the lowering of his arm gained victory for the Israelites. This does not always happen. Sometimes the enemy wins. But even when the enem.y seems to be winning in our lives, we can have a song in the night. Because judgment day is coming, and no enemy will be able to resist that.

LORD, we will sing even in the darkest of nights, because your voice will be heard, and your arm will lower to destroy all your enemies

[1] Guzik, David. “Commentary on Isaiah 30:1”. “David Guzik Commentaries on the Bible”. http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/guz/view.cgi?bk=22&ch=30. 1997-2003.

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winnowing out worthlessness

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

April 2015 (30)Isaiah 30:23-28

23 And he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and full. On that day, your cattle will graze in a wide pasture. 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that are tilling the ground will eat silage, feed that has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork. 25 And there will be streams on every high mountain and elevated hill, watercourses of water, on a day of great slaughter, when towers fall. 26 And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on that day when Yahveh binds up the breakage of his people, and he heals the wound of his blow. 27 See! The name of Yahveh comes from afar, his anger burns and heaviness of cloud. His lips shout full indignation, and his tongue like a devouring fire. 28 And his breath like an overflowing river; it reaches up to the neck to shake nations, winnowing out worthlessness; and a bridle that turns them away is attached to peoples’ jaws.

winnowing out worthlessness

Isaiah first talks about the blessings of that await Judah if that nation will only reject the lure of Assyria’s paganism and return to a covenant relationship with him. Then, when God comes in judgment, Judah will enjoy the fullness of abundant crops and herds. He makes a point of saying that the animals will eat feed that has been winnowed, not just any old grass that happens to be growing.

Next, Isaiah describes the judgment itself. The short view is Yahveh’s judgment and overthrow of Assyria. So, Isaiah says that God is going to winnow out worthlessness. He is going to take away that chaff and restore purity and value to his people.

The long view that Isaiah describes is the coming judgment which Christ will bring with him when he returns. God’s people will know the joy of his fullness and pleasure. They will know the joy of a pure faith, where all the false allegiances and worthless thinking is winnowed out. That is why even though the Lord’s coming will be a terrible time of judgment and destruction, we still welcome it.

Come, Lord Jesus.

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from riches to rags

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

April 2015 (29)Isaiah 30:19-22

19 Because a people will live in Zion; in Jerusalem, you will not keep on weeping. Surely he will be gracious to you; when he hears the sound of your cry, he will answer you. 20 And the master might give you distress for bread and oppression for water, but your teachers will not hide themselves any longer. And your eyes will be seeing your teachers. 21 And your ears will hear a word from behind you, saying, “here is the way; walk in it,” when you go to your right and when you go to your left. 22 And you will scrape off the plating from your silver idols and the covering from your gold image. You will throw them away like a menstrual rag, saying to them, “Get out!”

from riches to rags

Isaiah speaks to a people who had overdosed on their own wealth. They had become so corrupted by the pagan nations around them that they prided themselves on the silver and gold plating on all the idols they had in their homes. But Isaiah could see into the not-too-distant future when those signs of affluence would be viewed differently. The pagan nations that they had sought to be like would become their masters. Suddenly, the Israelites will remember that their parents and grandparents always had a sure ethical word from the LORD, and they will want that more than those stupid idols. So, even while in exile and under pagan domination, the Torah teachers will come back. Those idols which had been signs of wealth will be then seen as signs of foreign domination. The Israelites will take those idols and scrape off the gold and silver plating, throwing the wooden idols away like a woman does a used menstrual rag.

Isaiah’s message for us today is to look around us and see what is valued in the societies in which we live. Some of those symbols of wealth and luxury are designed to keep us under Satan’s domination. When we finally realize that God’s word is what really matters, we will have the courage to throw those stupid things away.

LORD, give us an eye and an ear for the things that really matter in life. Give us the wisdom to rid ourselves of the symbols of satanic domination.

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