OUR FATHER WHO DRAWS US TO HIMSELF AND PARDONS US FREELY

Isaiah chapter 55 verse 5 says this;

Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.”

This verse is addressed to the witness to the nations with whom the Lord has made an everlasting covenant. The Lord has appointed him to be a ruler and commander over all peoples.

The witness is told that he will draw in nations that he does not know and that foreigners will come running to him because the God of Israel will endow Him with splendor.

Verses 6 - 7 go on to say that mercy and pardon will be given freely to those who turn to the Lord and forsake their evil ways and thoughts.

Verse 8 explains why the Lord draws foreign people to Himself and pardons them;

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”

Amen.

 OUR FATHER WHO BLESSES HIS PEOPLE BY GUIDING THEM

The  Lord, while blessing His people, said this in Isaiah chapter 51 verse 4;

“Listen to me, my people;   hear me, my nation:

Instruction will go out from me;  my justice will become a light to the nations.

The Lord describes how He will give instructions to His people if they listen to him. He tells them that He will issue guidelines that will become a beacon of light to the nations.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO RESTORES TO HIS PEOPLE WHAT THEY HAVE LOST AND MORE

The exquisite Isaiah chapter 49 says this in verse 19;

“Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.

This thrilling promise by the Lord comes as part of the restoration that the Lord will do for His people in this iconic chapter.

During the intense turmoil that God's people undergo,  they say, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”

But the Lord assures them that He cannot forget them because, as He says in verse 16, He has engraved them on the palms on His hands.

He tells them that when they find themselves in ruins, the day of the Lord's favor will arrive and their fortunes will change. The people of God will go from desolation to bursting at the seams with people and from being engulfed by oppressors to their oppressors being cast far away.

The Lord will restore to His people what they have lost and more.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO SEEKS FAITHFUL PEOPLE

Ezekiel chapter 15 verse 7  ( x 14 verse 30 ) says this;

I will set my face against them. Although they have come out of the fire, the fire will yet consume them. And when I set my face against them, you will know that I am the Lord.

This verse captures the words of the Lord where He says that He will set His face against the people Jerusalem because of their unfaithfulness. This means that the Lord's favor over the people of Jerusalem would be widthdrawn and replaced by disfavour which in this case, meant that the city was going to be made desolate.

The reference to Jerusalem coming out of the fire but still being consumed by fire relates to the metaphor used by the Lord of the utility of the wood of the vine.

The Lord compares Jerusalem with vine wood which is not very usable even when intact and when the wood of the vine is partial burned, it is even less useful for any purpose.

The people of Jerusalem, because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord, are declared as useless to the purposes of God as burned vine wood and thus they are judged.

Give us grace to serve in your kingdom and fulfil our purposes, O Lord.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO BRINGS CALAMITY TO THE PROUD

Isaiah chapter 47 verse 13 says this;

All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.

This verse contains the words of the Lord directed to the kingdom of Babylon warning of a coming judgement that even their astrologers and stargazers would not be able to predict and save them from.

The Lord had been angry with His people and He gave them into the hands of the Babylonians as captives but Babylon treated the Lord's people inordinately harshly and laid upon even the elderly very heavy burdens.

The Babylon felt that their kingdom was going to last forever and thus gave no thought to the consequences of treating people aggrigeously.

The pride of Babylon, supported by the belief that they were invulnerable, invited the judgement of the Lord on them and for all their astrologers, their stargazers, their sorcerers and their magicians, no one would be able to save them from the calamity that was going to befall them.

Those who predicted the course of Babylon month by month would not be able to fortell the coming catastrophe that would destroy the kingdom of Babylon.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO FIRST JUDGES HIS OWN PEOPLE

Jude chapter 1 verse 6 says this;

And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,

Verse 7 continues  this way;

just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

These two verses are brought up as a warning to the believers in Jesus. 

At that time, the church was being infiltrated by people who were bringing in doctrines of licentiousness and outright denial of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude warns his readers that being believers would not exempt them from judgement if they succumbed to these false doctrines. 

To emphasize this, Jude references the judgement of imprisonment  that was exacted upon angels who trespassed into territories they had no authorization to be in. 

Likewise, the cities on the plains like Sodom and Gomorah crossed the boundary of immorality and thus were set up as explicit examples of judgement for their conduct of assaulting visitors to their city with impunity.

May the Lord keep us for falling for the false doctrines that take advantage of God grace to perpetuate sin and the false doctrine that denies the lordship of the Jesus Christ.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO IS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL OF CREATION

In Isaiah chapter 45 verses 6, 7 and 8, the Lord, as the sole Creator,  declares His sovereignty and lordship over all of creation.

In verse 6, the Lord states;

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

And then in verse 7, the Lord declares that it is He who sets all the conditions of light and darkness, well-being and calamity;

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Having established His authority over the created order, Isaiah chapter 45 verse 9 records this;

“Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,   those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground.

Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’?

 This verse uses the metaphor of a pot contending with the person who is making him by challenging the methods and intentions of the potter. This metaphor exposes the absurdity of those who dispute the Lord's work on them.

As our sovereign God, the purposes for which He creates us are entirely within His own perogative and as such, it is inappropriate for a created being to content with his maker over what his designation or utility is.

Amen.