OUR FATHER WHO GAINED SALVATION FOR US BY HIS OWN ARM Part 2

The book of Isaiah chapter 59 verse 7 says this;

Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood.

They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways.

The Lord looked and saw the activities of men were unjust and wicked. We were unrestrained and actively pursued wickedness.

In every way, we sought to cultivate evil in our midst and there was no one who could intervene and so the Lord undertook to intervene himself and to achieve salvation.

He would be dressed in garments of vengeance and zeal to bring wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes.

The Lord will come as the saviour to His people who repent as verse 20 says;

“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord.

This is when the Lord will make and eternal covenant with His people recorded in verse 21;

 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAINED SALVATION FOR US BY HIS OWN ARM Part 1

The book of Isaiah chapter 63 verses 4- 5 says This;

It was for me the day of vengeance; the year for me to redeem had come.

I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm achieved salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me.

This passage, containing the  past-tense first-person account of an unnamed redeemer, recounts the arrival of the timeframe allocated for a day of vengeance and the year for his redemption.

This person, introduced to the reader with the question, "Who is this?", highlights the mystery of who the Messiah would appear to His people as.

The redeemer would be marked by a particular experience that he would have. His endeavor of redemption would be performed alone.

The salvation He had come to provide was brought about by his own effort and he was sustained in his quest to succeed by his own wrath against evil.

The redeemer decribed here is the Lord Jesus Christ who, in His zeal, fought against the powers of darkness and brought them under subjection so as to save His people.

This passage mirrors the passage in Isaiah chapter 59 verses 16 - 17 which replicates almost exactly  thought for thought as highlighted in the excerpts;

He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.

He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.

Our passage of study in chapter 63 differs from the mirror in Isaiah chapter 59 in these fascinating ways;

- 63 is in 1st person while 59 is in 3rd 

- 63 no one gave support 59 no one to intervene

- 63 is sustained by wrath 59 by righteousness

The passage in chapter 63 is written from the point of view of the coming redeemer as He answers the question in verse 1 "Who is this..?".

The passage in chapter 59 is written from the point of view of the prophet Isaiah.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS ALL THINGS PART 2

The second part of the thought of the king of Assyria continues in Isaiah chapter 10 verse 11 which says;

shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’”

The Assyrian king (representing Lucifer), having concluded that Jerusalem and Samaria were inferior to the nations he had already conquered due to their inferior idols and spiritual practices, said to himself that he would easily be able to deal with Jerusalem even as he had dealt with Samaria.

He was confident that he would be able to handle not only Jerusalem but the spiritual entity that backed up Jerusalem. He had conquered Samaria and their spirit overlords and felt the same would be true of Jerusalem.

Lucifer had made an error in the calculus. Jerusalem was under judgement by the Lord for inquity and the pursuit of false gods but there was a remnant in Jerusalem that the God of heaven and earth was interested in and as homely and dishevelled as they looked, the power of God was soon going to be directed at the enemies of God's people and Lucifer would recieve retalliatory blasts that would shatter what was left of his kingdom.

As verse 17 says;

The Light of Israel will become a fire,  their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.

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OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS ALL THINGS PART 1

Looking even more deeply into the first part the thought of the Assyrian king captured in the book of Isaiah chapter 10 verse 10, we consider the text which says this;

As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—

Using the agency of his instruments of control over nations, the Assyrian King (who represents the prince of rebellion named Lucifer),  gained dominance over the countries of the world.

These instruments are represented by 'hand' in the passage.

By his directive, his army of strategists, tacticians, agents, double agents and infantry soldiers successfully overran kingdom after kingdom.

By his estimation, the nations he had gained control over thus far were those that had greater spiritual investment and practice than the investment and practice in Jerusalem and Samaria which were the realms that had been given to and occupied by the children of Israel.

The king of Assyria had reached this conclusion by comparing the graven images that served as idols in the territories he had conquered with those he saw in Jerusalem and Samaria and he was persuaded that he could defeat the remain territories with ease due to their inferior spiritual technology.

We shall continue the thought as it continues through to verse 11 on July 24th 2024.

shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’

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OUR FATHER HAS THE POWER TO BRING DOWN DARKNESS

The book of Obadiah verse 4 says this;

Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.

This verse identifies the mobility and the location of the king of Edom (who in this case, is standing in for Lucifer).

Having the ability to traverse through territory by soaring to great elevation and assigning to himself a dwelling place among the stars (these are metaphors of the highest ranking beings in the heavens), Lucifer, engulfed in the deception of pride, believed himself to be invincible as described in the verse preceding our verse of focus, verse 3;

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

We read here of how pride deceived Lucifer into being confident in his fortified position and strategy.

From his high vantage point in the fortress among the rocky crags, he could not see how anyone could challenge him.

Lucifer, for all his advantage and perception, did not seem to understand that the Sovereign God was higher than all and knew the inner thoughts of all beings in existence.

Obadiah verse 4 indicates that Lucifer's location will be traced and he will be brought down.

In the current milieu, the agents of darkness have entrenched themselves in the high places of the world and have set about executing a mission of domination to bring the entire globe under the direct control of the kingdom of Lucifer.

Unknown to them, it appears that like their commander, they don't know of the reach and power of the sovereign God.

They will be brought down prior to when Lucifer is brought down. Their fate of sitting in the gloom waiting for their master to be brought down into the realm of the dead is described in Isaiah chapter 14 verses 9 - 10;

The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you—all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones—all those who were kings over the nations. They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.”

Amen.

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OUR FATHER IN WHOSE ARMS I AM SECURE

From Psalm 141;

May my prayer like incense rise before Your throne

I lift my hands as a sacrifice to worship You alone (x2)

My eyes are fixed on you, Oh Sovereign Lord

Hear me when I call  

While I'm in the safety of Your arms

Never will I fall (X3)

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Psalm 141

1 I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me;  hear me when I call to you.

2 May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

3 Set a guard over my mouth, Lord;  keep watch over the door of my lips.

4 Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies.

5 Let a righteous man strike me-that is a kindness; let him rebuke me-that is oil on my head.

My head will not refuse it, for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.

6 Their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs, and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.

7 They will say, -As one plows and breaks up the earth, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave.

8 But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign Lord; in you I take refuge-do not give me over to death.

9 Keep me safe from the traps set by evildoers,  from the snares they have laid for me.

10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety.

OUR FATHER WHO WILL BRING THE OPPRESSOR TO AN END

The book of Isaiah chapter 16 verse 4 says this;

Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer.”

The oppressor will come to an end,  and destruction will cease;  the aggressor will vanish from the land.

This verse is advice to the people of God to shelter the people who will be displaced by the brutal actions of the kingdom of darkness.

As calamity falls on the people of the world, God's people will be shielded by the Lord and they will be blessed  and the expectation described here is that the people of God should use their blessings to assist the victims of the destroyer because the destroyer will suddenly be truncated and will disappear.

Amen.

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