The context for this passage can be set along the lines of geography and history. Geographically, we find Egypt to the south, Assyria to the north, and Judah in between. History tells us that Judah had previously fled from the attacking arms of Israel and Syria into the arms of Assyria – like “running from two mice to take refuge with the cat” (Oswalt). But in the context of this chapter, the cat has snacked on the two mice and it remains hungry. And there’s only 1 mouse left. So we have Assyria (the great cat) to the North, and Egypt the new cat (and the old slavemaster from the time of Joseph and Moses) to the South. Which cat will Judah take refuge in this time?
Today’s text takes us to the oracle to Cush. In this passage, the prophet turns away from the other nations that were addressed earlier. Cush turns to diplomacy in a time of crisis and yet, God says that He is working in world events. Isaiah 18:6-7 tells us the result, first in verse 6, and the other in verse 7.
Today’s study is titled, what has your attention? When you wake up in the morning what do you think of first? For me, it is often what needs to be done at work. Emails that need to be replied, meetings to attend and fires to put out. Maybe it’s your finances, your hobbies or your relationships. In the crisis that COVID-19 and other geopolitical conflicts have brought, we have more and more things and people vying for our attention. Whatever has our attention frames our days and our lives. What had Israel’s attention in a time of crisis? We will see that this was not God. The passage today will invite us to examine what we are focused on and how God might view that.
The Bible is full of lessons for God’s people on how He calls us to be, and examples of what we are not supposed to be. This section of Isaiah is particularly rich, because God addresses different nations.
This study talks about pride, and it is going to be uncomfortable for us as we consider how we have been prideful. It talks about how God hates pride, how He deals with pride, how He metes out judgement for pride. So if we walk away from tonight with anything — it’s the two lessons that we see in the headers — and these will form the scaffold for our study tonight.
To understand this set of verses, we need to read other parts of the Old Testament and understand the history and context of the passage. It will shed light on what Philistia is, and also how it was treated by the nations.
As we spend time thinking about these verses, we want to reflect not he character of God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, about what God says about what God does. What is God doing in the world and how does God work in the world? What does it mean that God speaks and acts according to His word? These are some helpful questions for us to keep in mind as we read this section of Isaiah.
Telos, is a Greek word that means “the end”. It is also a philosophical idea the refers to the final end. This final end point is what everything is heading towards, and without it, nothing makes sense.
This is an important idea in our reading and understanding of Isaiah 14. If we don’t understand where this arc is going to end, this chapter will sound strange. Thus, as we read this, we need to fit this within the larger development of world events and what God is doing through it all.
This portion of Scripture is typical of what we will see in the series “Lessons from the Nations”. The prophetic imagery is heavy and the text relies on historic context and information. As we read this section which some consider the most difficult part of Isaiah, there are treasures here to be mined. There are spiritual truths here we would be foolish not to give attention to. It is a further reminder that every part of God’s Word is true and useful (2 Tim 3:16).
There are certain types of tragedy so overwhelming that your mind shuts off. You are disconnected from your thoughts, feelings, memories or even your sense of identity. In severe cases, that’s what psychiatrists diagnose as “dissociation.” And numbness is the terrible norm simply because reality is too traumatising. While some of us might grapple with this condition, or struggle with moments of deep fatigue and disconnect from caring for a broken world, or experiencing brokenness in this world, it is thankfully not the normative experience for most of us.
Our psalm today speaks to such intense experiences, and it helpfully begins by addressing more commonplace experiences of numbness. It speaks to both categories - the intense and the inane - because it identifies that there is a common problem: We have idols. Our idols hold great power over our hearts. And there is a common solution: Sing!
This series has been titled “Psalms: Anatomy of the Soul” and this particular description of the psalms was coined by John Calvin, who said that “there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here [that is, in the psalms] represented as a mirror”.
Why do we need a mirror for our own emotions? Emotions are a tricky business. Have you ever just felt off? Or even if you know you feel a certain emotion, have you ever struggled to know how to pray about it? Strangely, even though what we feel is inside us, we may not understand it. And even when do know what we feel, we often don’t know how to pray about it.
So the psalms reveal to us our own emotions and give us the framework and vocabulary to understand, makes sense of, and express them. Psalm 88 will teach us about about despair.
How are you feeling today? In this psalm, we see a worried king David, a man gripped by uncertainty. The phrase “my heart is faint”, is a passing line, but it describes how he is feeling.
Have you ever made decisions because you were afraid of what might happen to you? As Christians we often hear the encouragement to live boldly, or to trust God instead of fearing man. Prov 29:25 tells us that “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” The right fear of God inspires confidence and worship and combats the fear of man. This study will help us in looking at the fear of man, and how to combat it.
This psalm helps us to see how we can confess our sins to God and the freedom that comes from doing that. With sin comes feelings of guilt, and that can only be addressed when we take our sins to God, confess and seek His forgiveness.
Confusion is the inability to think as clearly or quickly as you normally do. You may feel disoriented and have difficulty paying attention, remembering, and making decisions. Through Psalm 16, we see that when God’s people experience confusion amidst distress, they remember who he is to them and partake of Him who is their inheritance for present struggles and eternal satisfaction.
We begin our new study in the Psalms. The title of our series, “An Anatomy of the Soul” is derived from a quote by Calvin.
From these passages, we will see that foolishness apart from God is widespread and can only lead to great terror, fear and death. On the other hand, God makes glad the those who seek him, and promises to restore them. In Christ, God makes good on his promises to save his people that He might be their refuge and joy.
In today’s passage, Jesus begins to interact with four people and these four seem to be important only in John’s gospel! As we read it, let us consider what we can learn from these four apostles. What do their interactions with Jesus mean for me?
In the preceding studies, we learned about the Word who was God that was made flesh and dwelled among his creation. A creation that though was created through Him, denied and rejected Him and desired to live life apart from him. From His fullness, God’s people received an alternative way to righteousness: grace and truth as opposed to the law from Moses and its unachievable requirements. For an arrival as important as this, we learned of the messenger, John the Baptist whom God set apart and prepared to herald the coming of Jesus Christ who is God’s Word made flesh. Last week we focused on who John was and what his mission was. Today, we hear the content of his message.
John the Baptist is a herald and his main job is to announce the one who is coming. But who is he preparing the way for? Why is the coming one important?
As we will see through John’s message, the King is coming and John is here to announce that. The people of Israel are finally going to see the promised King and they ought to respond appropriately in worship and praise.
These first 18 verses in John 1 form John’s prologue here, John trying to provide some background information for us. In this week’s study, we will focus on the last 5 verses of this introduction and we will unpack the passage with 2 main questions: What do we know about the Word? What is flesh?
