Good morning Believers in the finished work of Christ.
We give glory to God for the gift of another new day, we thank God for the privilege of life and for His unending mercy and grace upon us always. Praise God!
Isaiah Chapter 43 continued…
Today, we want to look into two controversial verses in Isaiah Chapter 43 as shown below:
Isaiah 43:3-4
[3]For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
[4]Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.
If we don’t study Isaiah’s vocabularies properly, we will misinterpret the Scriptures.
I have repeatedly taught this on this platform that anywhere we read from the Bible that God does evil, we must not be carried away in error but to properly study the context of the writer and interpret the portion with the spiritual eyes of the New Covenant realities. The Holy Spirit does the interpretation.
From the quoted verses above, Isaiah apparently paints a picture of a God who does evil by killing some people in order to save some.
Let me quickly clarify that God has only one nature – it is to do good. He saves always.
The real killer is the devil, who had been leveraging on people’s acts of ignorance, stubbornness and disobedience against God.
Let’s read what Jesus Himself says concerning this…
John 8:44
[44]Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
We need to pay attention to the phrase “a murderer from the beginning,” – referring to Genesis.
It means all the killings that have been recorded so far in the Scriptures was orchestrated by the devil, but he likes using men as vessels and also deceive them to believe it’s God who did it.
Unfortunately, because of the limitation in understanding of the old Testament writers in putting down what they saw, they mistakenly attributed most killings to God.
In fact, the devil was not prominent in the Old Testament. It was after Jesus Christ had resurrected that he was fully exposed.
Even the killing of Jesus Christ was orchestrated by the devil using men, Isaiah also painted it to be God. Let’s read…
Isaiah 53:10
[10]Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Let’s quickly correct that statement using John’s Gospel.
John 3:16-17
[16]For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[17]For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Let’s also read from the writer of Hebrew.
Hebrews 9:28
[28]So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
So, God simply offered Him up as a payment for sin and was then killed by the devil using his agents.
Why would God allow this to happen?
Because that’s the requirement…
A soul that sins must die (Ezek 18:20). Also, without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin (Hebrew9:22). But God loves us so much that He does not want us to die (spiritual death). Therefore, He came to our rescue and paid the price that we couldn’t pay by ourselves.
That’s why He keeps sounding the alarm through His Word to warn us about the need to receive this gift of Salvation.
And also the writers of the Old Testament used various figurative expressions and even political settings to describe how God had decided to save His people and how those who have disobeyed Him perished.
That’s exactly what happened in Isaiah 43:3-4
When the enemy was coming to attack the Jews, God protected them and they couldn’t attack, but rather went straight to Eqypt, Cush and Seba to carry out their exploits.
The reason the enemy(Persia through the successors of Cyrus, preciselly a man called Cambyses), succeeded in attacking Egypt, Cush and Seba in honour of his father, was because they too rebelled against God and were purely idol worshippers.
Eventually, when they received the message of Salvation and believed God, they too were saved.
That’s what Isaiah was talking about in Isaiah 29:24 TPT
Those who are in spiritual error will come to understanding, and those who are always complaining will be glad to accept instruction.”
The whole book of Isaiah is simply anchored on prophecies about Salvation and judgement.
To be continued…
Our Prayers for everyone on this platform reading this message:
👉No one on this platform will perish, in Jesus name.
👉The grace of God that brings Salvation to mankind will continue to speak for you all, in Jesus name.
👉Continue to enjoy the blessings and authority you have in Christ Jesus.
Bible readings for today: Reflection time on all the Chapters you have read so far from the past six days and covering of missed Chapters.
I call you blessed now and always.
Thursday May 21, 2020 (DDMI)
