Chapters 57 - 60
From the New-Living Translation
CHAPTER 57
1 The righteous pass away, the godly often die before their time.
And no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to
understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. 2
For the godly who die will rest in peace.
Here is a truth that is not a contradiction of the Bible,
just a truth as part of the whole of the Bible and the whole of
human life. Sometimes it is not the will of the Father that every
Christian lives to ripe old age. There are generalities in the
Bible, as the 3 score and 10 (70 years of age spoken about by
David in the Psalms) and by reason of strength even more, is a
generality for the span of human age. Some live to VERY OLD age -
into their late 80s or even 90s, a few to 100 and fewer yet to
over 100. How long we live is the bottom line as they say, to
what the Eternal God determines. The main thing for the child of
God is to live each day we are given as His servant, doing His
will, being more like Christ, helping and serving others in the
best way we can and with the means that the Lord has given us. To
those who are given more then more is expected. From the time you
are called to serve God, it is the QUALITY not the quantity that
counts. My friend and co-worker in the Lord, Jesse, did not live
but to be 46 years old, but in the years she was given to serve
the Lord after being called and chosen, she left a service to you
all with her website, which is on this website. There is QUALITY
in her work. For those of us who will live to see the coming of
the end of this age, the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord,
there will be MUCH sorrow and pain and hardship and death (as
never in human history). It will not be a pleasant sight or
experience to endure through. Those of us who die in the Lord
BEFORE that time of the end, will be spared and protected from
the evil to come. These verses here tell us that at times there
is peace and rest in death.
Idolatrous Worship Condemned
3 But you - come here, you witches' children, you offspring of
adulterers and prostitutes! 4 Whom do you mock, making faces and
sticking out your tongues? You children of sinners and liars! 5
You worship your idols with great passion beneath every green
tree. You slaughter your children as human sacrifices down in the
valleys, under overhanging rocks. 6 Your gods are the smooth
stones in the valleys. You worship them with drink offerings and
grain offerings. They, not I, are your inheritance. Does all this
make me happy? 7 You have committed adultery on the mountaintops
by worshipping idols there, and so you have been unfaithful to
me. 8 Behind closed doors, you have set up your idols and worship
them instead of me. This is adultery, for you are loving these
idols instead of loving me. You have climbed right into bed with
these detestable gods. 9 You have given olive oil and perfume to
Molech as your gift. You have travelled far, even into the world
of the dead, to find new gods to love. 10 You grew weary in your
search, but you never gave up. You strengthened yourself and went
on. 11 Why were you more afraid of them than of me? How is it
that you don't even remember me or think about me? Is it because
I have not corrected you that you have no fear of me?
This is the overall state of our peoples Israel and Judah,
the Western world in the main. We are more and more
materialistic, pleasure seeking, sports crazy, entertainment
crazy. We sacrifice our children to the sound and sight of the
TV, the Computer, the wild Music, the drinking Parties of High
Schools and Universities, the secularism and evolution of our
Education. We travel far today to export or import the evil and
sin of our de-moralized ways. We grow weary with this fad and so
look for another fad. We go into the world of the occult and the
star-gazers, the wizards and witches. We are ever, more and more,
NOT even thinking about the creator of this universe. God asks
the question that is it because we have not YET been CORRECTED by
the Lord that we have gone far from Him and His way of life. Yes,
it probably is. It is the nature of Israelites to FORGET our God
when things increase for us in a materialistic way. But this will
not go on forever. God will CORRECT!!
12 Now I will expose your so-called good deeds that you consider
so righteous. None of them will benefit or save you. 13 Let's see
if your idols can do anything for you when you cry to them for
help. They are so helpless that a breath of wind can knock them
down! But whoever trusts in me will possess the land and inherit
my holy mountain.
THE DAY OF RECKONING IS COMING. All that we have will not
save us. Even what some consider to be our righteous deeds, will
not count for anything. God says He will put our thoughts to the
test! Our thoughts of our gods that we have created in our minds
(power, might of physical arms, modern space age technology in
our machines of war etc.) will not save us when the time comes
for The Almighty to PUNISH AND CORRECT us!! We shall be like a
piece of paper in the wind - blown away, weak and helpless. But
those who will turn and trust the Lord, have living FAITH in Him,
REPENT and accept Jesus as PERSONAL Savior, shall in the end,
possess the land of promise and all the earth, nay even the whole
universe, and the very family of God.
14 I will say, "Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones
so my people can return from captivity."
Yes, as we have seen throughout the book of Isaiah, Israel
and Judah are in a state of CAPTIVITY, scattered in many nations
of the world, when Jesus returns in power and glory. The way will
be open for them to return to the land of promise, they shall
come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the
south, they shall come with WEEPING and in DEEP REPENTANCE. They
shall then KNOW that God LIVES and that He has NOT forsaken His
chosen people. They shall at last be a people that shines forth
the righteous and holy ways of God to the rest of the world as it
marches into that 1,000 years of the Kingdom of God on earth
under Jesus Christ.
God Forgives the Repentant
15 The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the Holy One,
says this: "I live in that high and holy place with those whose
spirits are contrite and humble. I refresh the humble and give
new courage to those with repentant hearts. 16 For I will not
fight against you forever; I will not always show my anger. If I
did, all people would pass away - all the souls I have made."
Truly, if God kept His anger and showed no mercy, not one
person would be left alive on this earth.
17 "I was angry and punished these greedy people. I withdrew
myself from them, but they went right on sinning. 18 have seen
what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them and
comfort those who mourn. 19 Then words of praise will be on their
lips. May they have peace, both near and far, for I will heal
them all," says the LORD. "But those who still reject me are like
the restless sea. It is never still but continually churns up
mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace for the wicked," says my God.
God in some ways has corrected us, He has allowed
destructions of various types to come on our towns and cities,
but such did not in any deep way, bring us back to serving the
Lord in spirit and in truth. He will punish in a final anger as
never before, yet He will also comfort them and not keep His
anger forever. God will HEAL us from our sins, although some of
us continually put out mire and dirt of sin, for them there will
be no peace, they will perish in death during the time of the
last days of this age.
True and False Worship
CHAPTER 58
58 Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Tell my people Israel
of their sins! 2 Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple
every day and seem delighted to hear my laws. You would almost
think this was a righteous nation that would never abandon its
God. They love to make a show of coming to me and asking me to
take action on their behalf. 3 "We have fasted before you!" they
say. "Why aren't you impressed? We have done much penance, and
you don't even notice it!"
Oh yes, we can claim the name of being "Christian" nations,
of having an outward show of Christianity. Some sections of our
people say they go to church, want God to be a part of their
lives, desire to say we should obey the laws of God. The
"Christian" authors out there that write book after book, and
sell and sell, is large indeed. True, in some ways we have a
"righteous" exterior of Godly religion. We go through the motions
of being a righteous people, and then we wonder why God allows
sorrow to come our way.
I will tell you why! It's because you are living for yourselves
even while you are fasting. You keep right on oppressing your
workers. 4 What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and
quarrelling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere
with me. 5 You humble yourselves by going through the motions of
penance, bowing your heads like a blade of grass in the wind. You
dress in sackcloth and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what
you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the LORD?
6 "No, the kind of fasting I want calls you to free those who are
wrongly imprisoned and to stop oppressing those who work for you.
Treat them fairly and give them what they earn. 7 I want you to
share your food with the hungry and to welcome poor wanderers
into your homes. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not
hide from relatives who need your help." 8 If you do these things,
your salvation will come like the dawn. Yes, your healing will
come quickly. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory
of the LORD will protect you from behind. 9 Then when you call,
the LORD will answer, "Yes, I am here," he will quickly reply.
Stop oppressing the helpless and stop making false accusations
and spreading vicious rumors! 10 Feed the hungry and help those
in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and
the darkness around you will be as bright as day. 11 The LORD
will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry
and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered
garden, like an ever-flowing spring. 12 Your children will
rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known
as the people who rebuild their walls and cities.
True repentance, true attitude of mind, true work of
spirituality, is serving others, giving to others as you can. Our
wealth in the Western world is so HUGE, it is mind-bending, and
we should be doing EVEN MORE than what many of us are doing to
serve the needy of our lands and of the rest of the nations that
are not in any way blessed as we are in physical wealth. If we
would stop just having an outward form of religion then God would
be on our side and would fight and protect us. We would then be
the light of the world that the Holy One originally chose us for
as we find in Deuteronomy chapter 4.
13 "Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't pursue your own interests on
that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as
the LORD'S holy day. Honor the LORD in everything you do, and
don't follow your own desires or talk idly. If you do this, 14
the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and
give you your full share of the inheritance I promised to Jacob,
your ancestor. I, the LORD, have spoken!"
Notice, the Lord picks a commandment that most would call
the very least commandment. He picks a law to do with the hours
in a week. There is a TIME, a number of hours in a seven day
period that God says are SPECIAL to Him! The human mind tends to
have trouble with this law of the Lord. We may say to ourselves,
"What's the big deal over certain 'hours' of the week?" It really
matters not how we may think on this; God has hours that are
special to Him, and He has told us to honor Him by honoring those
hours. Those hours do point to creation. Creation is the GREAT
PROOF that God DOES EXIST! We can be mystified by many things
concerning God: How can He not have a beginning?: Where did He
come from?; all this is beyond the human mind, but how can we not
still believe He does exist when we set our minds on CREATION?
THE DAY OF THE WEEK THAT LEADS US BACK TO CREATION WOULD KEEP US
FOCUSSED ON THE TRUE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE. THAT DAY THAT IS
SPECIAL TO THE LORD IS THE 7TH DAY SABBATH. In this prophecy of
the end-time, we are called to REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY IN OUR
WORK AND EVEN OUR WORDS. WE ARE PROMISED THAT IN SO DOING WE
SHALL BE GIVEN HONOR. WE HONOR HIM AND HE HONORS US BY KEEPING
THE SABBATH DAY HOLY.
Warnings against Sin
CHAPTER 59
1 Listen! The LORD is not too weak to save you, and he is not
becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call. 2 But there is a
problem - your sins have cut you off from God. Because of your
sin, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.
There is a KEY to having God hear you! It has to do with
SIN! It is sin that cuts you off from the Eternal One. When the
Lord reveals to you what sin is, you have a greater
accountability. Our nations have KNOWN what sin is! We were
founded on the Bible, and the Bible has revealed to us what is
sin. We once could say with assurance this was sin or that was
sin, but now that we have turned our back of the Bible we no
longer can determine sin. Hence we now call good evil and evil we
call good. We once KNEW that practicing homosexuality and
lesbianism was SIN, but now we legalize same sex marriages! We
could KNOW when life begins by letting the Bible reveal it to us,
but we now KILL tens of thousands of un-born children every year!
We have in our actions turned God away from us, and we wonder why
we have such sorrow and pain and suffering. The bottom line is we
have it because of SIN!
3 Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are
filthy with sin. Your mouth is full of lies, and your lips are
tainted with corruption.
Pretty plain words from God as to some of our sins!
4 No one cares about being fair and honest. Their lawsuits are
based on lies. They spend their time plotting evil deeds and then
doing them. 5 They spend their time and energy spinning evil
plans that end up in deadly actions. 6 They cheat and shortchange
everyone. Nothing they do is productive; all their activity is
filled with sin. Violence is their trademark. 7 Their feet run to
do evil, and they rush to commit murder. They think only about
sinning. Wherever they go, misery and destruction follow them. 8
They do not know what true peace is or what it means to be just
and good. They continually do wrong, and those who follow them
cannot experience a moment's peace.
Not a lot of clarity is needed by me here for you to
understand many of our nation's sins, and what the Holy One is
telling us.
9 It is because of all this evil that deliverance is far from us.
That is why God doesn't punish those who injure us. No wonder we
are in darkness when we expected light. No wonder we are walking
in the gloom. 10 No wonder we grope like blind people and stumble
along. Even at brightest noontime, we fall down as though it were
dark. No wonder we are like corpses when compared to vigorous
young men! 11 We growl like hungry bears; we moan like mournful
doves. We look for justice, but it is nowhere to be found. We
look to be rescued, but it is far away from us. 12 For our sins
are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what
sinners we are 13 We know that we have rebelled against the LORD.
We have turned our backs on God. We know how unfair and
oppressive we have been, carefully planning our deceitful lies.
14 Our courts oppose people who are righteous, and justice is
nowhere to be found. Truth falls dead in the streets, and
fairness has been outlawed. 15 Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who
tries to live a godly life is soon attacked.
More plain truth words from our God. He here really lays
down our sins in no uncertain terms. Our lands are full of all
these sins.
The LORD looked and was displeased to find that there was no
justice. 16 He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help
the oppressed. So he himself stepped in to save them with his
mighty power and justice. 17 He put on righteousness as his body
armor and placed the helmet of salvation on his head. He clothed
himself with the robes of vengeance and godly fury. 18 He will
repay his enemies for their evil deeds. His fury will fall on his
foes in distant lands. 19 Then at last they will respect and
glorify the name of the LORD throughout the world. For he will
come like a flood tide driven by the breath of the LORD. 20 "The
Redeemer will come to Jerusalem," says the LORD, "to buy back
those in Israel who have turned from their sins. 21 And this
is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit will not
leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They
will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your
children's children forever. I the LORD, have spoken!"
Those who will TURN from their sins, God will honor by
giving them His Spirit, and they and their children will serve
the Eternal forever. The day of reckoning is coming. Those who
will not repent of sin will be dealt with in no uncertain way.
The Lord will not shut His eyes from the evil and sin of the
world. A day of JUDGMENT will come, for now the Lord is patient,
giving time to see if the people of Israel and other nations will
HUMBLY REPENT! Those that will, will be blessed, those that do
not, will see destruction come upon them.
Future Glory for Jerusalem
CHAPTER 60
1 Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light shine for all the nations to
see! For the glory of the LORD is shining upon you. 2 Darkness as
black as night will cover all the nations of the earth, but the
glory of the LORD will shine over you. 3 All nations will come to
your light. Mighty kings will come to see your radiance. 4 Look
and see, for everyone is coming home! Your sons are coming from
distant lands; your little daughters will be carried home. 5 Your
eyes will shine, and your hearts will thrill with joy, for
merchants from around the world will come to you. They will bring
you the wealth of many lands. 6 Vast caravans of camels will
converge on you, the camels of Midian and Ephah. From Sheba they
will bring gold and incense for the worship of the LORD. 7 The
flocks of Kedar will be given to you, and the rams of Nebaioth
will be brought for my altars. In that day I will make my Temple
glorious.
This cannot be said about the Jews in the land of Palestine
today. It is a promise of the beginning of the age to come. The
age when Jesus will return to bring out the children of Israel
from the lands of their enemies.
8 And what do I see flying like clouds to Israel, like doves to
their nests? 9 They are the ships of Tarshish, reserved to bring
the people of Israel home. They will bring their wealth with
them, and it will bring great honor to the LORD your God, the
Holy One of Israel, for he will fill you with splendor. 10
Foreigners will come to rebuild your cities. Kings and rulers
will send you aid. For though I have destroyed you in my anger, I
will have mercy on you through my grace. 11 Your gates will stay
open around the clock to receive the wealth of many lands. The
kings of the world will be led as captives in a victory
procession. 12 For the nations that refuse to be your allies will
be destroyed. 13 The glory of Lebanon will be yours - the forests
of cypress, fir, and pine - to beautify my sanctuary. My Temple
will be glorious!
Once more, this CANNOT be said to have taken place. It
cannot refer to the Jews coming back to the land of promise in
the last 100 years or so. It is referring to the time at the
beginning of the 1,000 year age when the people of Israel and
Judah are restored to Jerusalem and the promised land. It is the
time when any nation NOT honoring the people of Israel shall have
destruction upon them. It will be the time of the construction of
the NEW TEMPLE of God in Jerusalem - the Temple of Ezekiel
chapters 40 to 48.
14 The children of your tormentors will come and bow before you.
Those who despised you will kiss your feet. They will call you
the City of the LORD, and Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Again, this has NEVER yet been fulfilled, it will be when
the new age comes and Jesus is King in Jerusalem.
15 Though you were once despised and hated and rebuffed by all,
you will be beautiful forever. You will be a joy to all
generations, for I will make you so. 16 Powerful kings and mighty
nations will bring the best of their goods to satisfy your every
need. You will know at last that I, the LORD, am your Savior and
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel. 17 I will exchange your
bronze for gold, your iron for silver, your wood for bronze, and
your stones for iron. Peace and righteousness will be your
leaders! 18 Violence will disappear from your land; the
desolation and destruction of war will end. Salvation will
surround you like city walls, and praise will be on the lips of
all who enter there.
And again, the words are plain, in no way can this prophecy
be said to have already taken place. Violence has NOT disappeared
from Jerusalem or the promised land. War has not ended for the
peoples of Israel and Judah. Many are still loosing their lives
in wars. Salvation cannot be said to be like towering city walls.
Nations of the world are not bringing the best of their goods to
Jerusalem. Many in Israel do NOT KNOW that God is the Lord and
Savior, most of Israel and Judah are blinded to salvation through
the Mighty One of Israel. This prophecy is for the age to come.
19 No longer will you need the sun or moon to give you light, for
the LORD your God will be your everlasting light, and he will be
your glory. 20 The sun will never set; the moon will not go down.
For the LORD will be your everlasting light. Your days of
mourning will come to an end. 21 "All your people will be
righteous. They will possess their land forever, for I will plant
them there with my own hands in order to bring myself glory. 22
The smallest family will multiply into a large clan. The tiniest
group will become a mighty nation. I, the LORD, will bring it all
to pass at the right time."
It is CLEARLY speaking about a NEW AGE! It is NOT for this
age that all this prophecy concerns. It is concerning the NEW AGE
TO COME. Beyond all the sorrow, pain, destruction, death, there
will come THE DELIVER - Jesus the Christ, who will come to set up
the Kingdom of God on earth, who will come to RESTORE Israel and
Judah, to bring them back from the lands of their enemies, to
establish them in the Promised Land, to build them again, to pour
out His Spirit on them, to bless them, to finally make them into
the LIGHT of the world for all other nations to model themselves
after.
What wonderful words of prophecy are contained in the book
of Isaiah. Some concerning the Messiah that DID ALREADY COME in
the form of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to be the Savior of all
people, and some concerning the Jesus Christ who WILL COME as
KING and LORD, to reign over the nations for 1,000 glorious
years.
So COME Lord Jesus, come!
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