Something that strikes me over and over as I read the gospel accounts of Jesus' death is how completely in control He is. Nothing that happens takes Him by surprise. Everything took place exactly as it was supposed to at the exact time it was supposed to - down to men carrying jars of water at the right place at the right time. He laid down His life on His own accord in order to save us.
I'm going to quote a few portions from my Life Application Study Bible on our Isaiah passage....
(59:1-14) Sin offends our holy God and separates us from him. Because God is holy, he cannot ignore, excuse, or tolerate sin as though it didn't matter. Sin cuts people off from him, forming a wall to isolate God from the people he loves. No wonder this long list of wretched sins makes God angry and forces him to look the other way. People who did with their life of sin unforgiving separate themselves eternally from God. God wants them to live with him forever, but he cannot take them into his holy presence unless their sin is removed.
Jesus is the only One who can rescue His people from sin.
(59:21) When the Holy Spirit dwells within his people, they change. Their former desires no longer entice them; now their chief aim is to please God. We who are Christians today are the heirs of this prophecy; we are able to respond to God's will and distinguish between good and evil because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
(60:1ff) As we read these promises, we long for their fulfillment. But we must patiently wait for God's timing. He is in control of history, and he weaves together all our lives into his plan.
(61:1,2) Jesus quoted these words in Luke 4:18-19. As he read to the people in the synagogue, he stopped in the middle of 61:2 after the words, "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Rolling up the scroll, he said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). The next phrase in 61:2, "and the day of vengeance of our God," will come true when Jesus returns to earth again. We are now under God's favor; his wrath is yet to come.
61:6 Under the old covenant, God ordained the priests of Israel to stand between him and his people. They brought God's word to the people and the people's needs and sins to God. Under the new covenant, all believers are priests of the Lord (1 Peters 2:5), reading God's Word and seeking to understand it, confessing their sins directly to God, and ministering to others.
How often I take my Bible (all the many versions that I have lying around the house!) for granted. So thankful for this blog and the accountability factor that has assisted me in reading and studying God's precious Word.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Isaiah 62-64, Mark 14:27-53
2 comments:
This stood out for me:
we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind;
we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
We have a really dark living room. Our open concept main floor does give off some light from the kitchen and the dining room but we don't use the living room very often (probably because it is so dark!). This evening, Conrad was helping our son with his lines for an upcoming play and the darkness made it nearly impossible for Conrad to read the correct words. It was also hard for him to correct our son when he was saying his lines because it was too dark to see if what our son was saying was accurate. Just like we need to add light to our living room we, as Christians, need to add "light" to our lives through Christ by growing in a relationship with Him. It is only when we can see clearly that we can know what we are supposed to do and say and also how to help others to know and do what is in the 'script' (the bible).
Also, it was interesting for me to read:
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
HE SOUGHT....not he was persuaded, not he was bribed, not he was forced....Judas sought an opportunity to betray Jesus. I still struggle to wrap my head around the betrayal of Jesus by someone he was so close to. It boggles my mind.
Good point Pamela. For some reason I always took Judas Iscariot's betrayal to Jesus from the perspective that he was bribed.....
As I was reading in Mark, I was wondering what the disciples were thinking when Jesus took the bread and said this is my body and that the wine was His blood. Did they really know what Jesus meant? They didn't question Him. Were they too embarrassed to ask?
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