Our passage in Isaiah 9 is likely the most well-known of all the passages in Isaiah. It is a beautiful messianic prophecy that was partially fulfilled at the birth of Christ, and will be ultimately fulfilled at the Second Coming. How amazing that will be - when the government will be on His shoulder, and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and the increase of His government and of peace will be never ending, and His throne will be established forever! What a glorious day (and eternity) that will be!
The sovereignty of God is also clearly on display here. God uses human evil for His own just purposes, He can use sin for judgment and His own glory - as He did with Assyria who was a mere tool in the hand of God. And yet, God always preserves His remnant people.
Our Isaiah passage reminded me of the phrase "You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choice". Rejecting God, rejecting Jesus, comes at a price, and it will be paid.
Ultimate rejection of Jesus, or persistently attributing to Satan what is accomplished by the power of God is the unforgivable sin. It is the hardening of your own heart past the point of no return. But we don't know when this point arrives and should never give up on someone - only God knows the heart.
A perfect example of this is Jesus' own family. They thought He was crazy at this point, but we know that later on several of His family members later do come to faith in Him. We must continue to pray faithfully for our friends and family who seem so far from God.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Isaiah 11-13, Mark 4:1-20
2 comments:
I wonder what it would have been like to receive the message that "unto to us a child is born..." Did Isaiah wonder if it meant a literal child or just a metaphor? Did he believe that a child would become the Saviour of a fallen and dark world?
Mark says that Jesus' family thought he was "out of his mind"...did this include Mary? Did she, after giving birth as a virgin, question Jesus' mission in life or doubt his ministry. What would it have been like to be Jesus' brother? Can you imagine? Living in the shadow of perfection and never being able to live up to Jesus. Did Mary and Joseph show favouritism? Did they contribute to the tension that no doubtably came?
In the Isaiah passage, the part that stood out to me was in regards to the message sent to Israel. They were too arrogant and proud to care about it. They dismissed the message in believing that they could handle whatever came there way. If their buildings and trees were taken down, they could rebuild bigger buildings and plant finer trees.
I ask that I can leave my arrogance and pride behind me as I continue to grow in my faith in our Mighty Counselor!
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