Read Isaiah 33-34
 
Isaiah 33:14-17 The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?” 15 He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil. 16 This is the one who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him. 17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar.
 
THESE two chapters point to Israel’s literal rescue from Assyria. This promise also becomes an illustration of God saving the world from Satan’s tyranny. God uses nations to be the instrument of  his judgments. He allows Satan to test and cause turmoil to refine and strengthen us. He demonstrates through the earthly nations and the spiritual kingdoms he is Lord God Almighty, sovereign over all.
    Isaiah asked a question to open ears to God’s truth: “Who of us will be rescued from the consuming fire?” The truth is: “He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil.”
    Who will be saved? I will tell you: Those who (1) live to do God’s righteous  law (2) speak truthfully and honestly (3) are honest in all business and monetary transactions (4) reject criminal violence and (5) refuse to consider accepting evil in oneself or in others.
    The remaining Scriptures in chapters 33-34 are again a picture of God’s final judgment.
    As a result of God’s victory, Isaiah prophecies in 33:17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar. You will no longer consider people who do evil. Enemies such as Assyria and Edom, who have opposed Israel for centuries will be forever gone. A new Jerusalem will be home for all those righteous in God’s salvation. The words are very much as Revelation 21, as the LORD God declares his final, eternal home. 21 There the Lord will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.
   
Isaiah 33: 22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.
 

Isaiah 30 - 32
 
Isaiah 32:18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
 
SEE the word “my”. “My people” implies a very special truth: those who obey God belong to God. When you belong to God, something wonderful happens. You live in his peace.
    As the common pattern of Isaiah’s prophecies, these three chapters tell of God’s promises of both trouble and of peace for his people. The trouble comes to Judah because of another common among the Jews. They have deeply sinned by seeking protection from Egypt. They do not trust the LORD of Heaven’s armies to protect them from their enemies. In response, God brings great distress to his people because they are children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction. (Isaiah 30:9) The LORD also laments his children’s neglect: Isaiah 30:15 “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” They would “have none of it.” There is no peace when there is no faith in God’s power to affect all matters of our lives. How many times must we understand this lesson for our own lives? How many times will we cause God to lament our unbelief?
    But in his grace, God points forward to the day his people will live under his care. Isaiah 30:18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! The Living God assures his people that he will bring them out of conflict and into blessing.
    Yes, it’s true. Believing Jesus is your Lord and Savior doesn’t guarantee worldly peace, an abundant harvest or fresh water in your home. Many Christian people live where “One meal a day is a war.” Illnesses, job loss, and natural disasters come along in life through no one’s fault. What’s more, believing in Jesus and telling the world about him may cause conflict with other people. Many die for their faith. Homes are destroyed, and families are torn apart because some confess, “I love Jesus.”
    Where, then, is the peace and rest God promises? The essence of God’s rest is in the moral standards of his law. These “rules for life” give you the means to choose right from wrong. As you choose these ways, you are closely connected with God. His peace will be with you, even as the world rages around you and against you because you know everlasting God is your Father in heaven, his Son Jesus is your Savior and his Spirit is empowering your life each day.
    Living the law is to “Love the Lord your God.” and “Love your neighbors as yourself.” This is a life of building “peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” Trusting Jesus as Lord guarantees peace inside you.
    The images of plenty and peace in these chapters point to God’s gracious love to draw you fully into his kingdom one day.
 
May the Peace of Christ which passes all understanding be with you now and forever.   

Read Isaiah 29
 
Isaiah 29:13-15 And so the Lord says, “Since these people say they are mine, but they do not obey me, and since their worship amounts to mere words learned by rote; 14 therefore, I will take awesome vengeance on these hypocrites and make their wisest counselors as fools. 15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, ‘Who sees us? Who will know?’”
 
“WORSHIP” has come to define a very narrow part of the church. Worship service, worship music, worship time, etc. point to an organized form of coming before God. This is good and right, but there is more to worshiping God. God’s Word here should cause us to pause and consider carefully “worship” from our Lord’s point-of-view.
    God takes worship very seriously. It is the essence of the first and second commandments. In Genesis 2, Adam was to obey the covenants of blessing and law. To obey – to do – God’s Word is worship.  
    Genesis 4 is God’s first specific requirement of our worship as he speaks to Cain. Cain’s dispute with God makes it clear that worship is for God’s pleasure, and we will have a full relationship with him in true worship.
    Throughout Scripture, God commands we approach him with a sense of awe, knowing he is truly our LORD unto our eternal lives. Our hearts must be committed to sacrifice, and our souls submissive to honor him. True worship toward the Holy God begins in the deep recesses of the heart, mind and soul to love the Lord our God. This love must lead to an expression of sorrow for our sins, joy for God’s forgiveness, praise to God’s majesty, gratitude for the LORD’s call to life and love for the God who first loved us.
    Worship is also the daily expression of trusting God in each aspect of your life. Worship is actively seeking God’s direction for our decisions. Ii is knowing, obeying and joining God in his will. Worship is entering into a time and place alone and with others to open your mind to receive God’s Word. Worshiping God means you listen to the spoken and written Word, so you can obey his precious teachings and correctly live into his vital commands.
    Yes, worship is your consistent relationship with God. Worship is an ongoing experience of loving God.
 
Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  
 

 

Read Isaiah 28
 
THIS chapter has several images of God’s judgment and salvation. Here are some:

1. Isaiah 28:5 In that day the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people. His church will worship God and worship him only.
   
2. 28:7 And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer… when seeing visions…when rendering decisions. Both the people and their leaders had traded God’s justice to prefer wasteful living and distorted minds.
3. 28:10 For it is: “Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there.” 11 Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people, 12 to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest;” and, “This is the place of repose”- but they would not listen. Israel sees God’s law as a burden. So the LORD will send nations to conquer his people. God had promised rest, but they disobeyed his commands.
4. 28:16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. 17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line. This is another promise of Jesus. He is the cornerstone of a new covenant of grace which becomes real in the church: Ephesians 2:20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
5. 28:22 Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land. 23 Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. Very plainly, the prophet preaches.

The chapter closes with the image of a farmer working through the seasons to plow, plant and harvest. This is the LORD’s pattern. He has formed the earth, created mankind and will harvest his own into eternal life. You can be sure this is true.
 
Isaiah 28:29 All this also comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.
 
 

Read Isaiah 24-27

Isaiah 24:1 See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants.
 
THIS verse is the thesis sentence of these four chapters. Remember Isaiah can be described as an outline of the entire Bible. In these early chapters we have already seen the problem of sin destroying God’s people; we have read of the Messiah to be born; now we read of the end of time on earth. This is also recorded elsewhere in Scripture, including Revelation.
    We can see these events as occurring in one particular terrible last time known as the Tribulation. And we can see that mankind’s disobedience and God’s judgment is tribulation until Christ Jesus returns. We do know that all the judgments recorded in Isaiah 24-27 have occurred to Israel, Judah and the nations. Trouble is unceasing because mankind is unbelieving. Nations have been scattered. Land is laid waste. Most people live in some form of oppression. Sin’s cost is beyond measure.
    That is why we must keep focused on our Savior. As God works in all things for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28), we must focus our lives on loving God first and foremost. That’s why this is the greatest commandment. To navigate this life requires a true destination. You must know heaven is your home to come as you live amid so many things to distract, attack and even harm you.
    Our time here is very brief. Let’s be faithful to attend to what matters to God because you matter to him.
 
Revelation 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Read Isaiah 20 - 24
 
Isaiah 24:23 The moon will be embarrassed, the sun ashamed; for the LORD Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously.
 
AS you read these chapters, you probably shuddered at the severity of God’s judgment. I want you to think about this as you consider people you know who do not know Jesus as Lord.
    The devastation described here is little contrasted to the eternal destruction of Hell. In Hell there is no release from agony—forever. Think of the worst pain you’ve experienced. Magnify it a great deal. Then think of living in this torment forever. Go ahead. Shudder.
    Why focus on this torment? We do so to more deeply rejoice in the wonder of our salvation. Knowing evil’s deep pain should encourage us to tell the gospel’s good news as often as we can. Do not rationalize being quiet of sin, judgment, salvation and heaven by thinking, “Hell is not so bad.” But it is so bad. It’s horrible torment beyond understanding. Souls will be separated from the Glory of God forever. That means lost souls will never experience is magnificent love, joy, peace and fellowship. The glory described in this passage is beyond all natural light. God’s Glory stretches throughout creation’s diversity and intricacy. Nature is his canvas, revealing God’s mighty power to create, destroy, redeem and nurture.
    Are you saved from Hell? Are your friends and family? Neighbors? If you answered, “No.” or “I don’t know.” seek God’s salvation. Then be the light of God’s glory in their lives. You can’t control their response to the Light of the Gospel. But you can determine your words to warn of judgment and to promise God’s forgiveness.
 
Luke 16:23-24 “In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’”