Day 199 – Isaiah 23-27

Talking Points

• The world appreciates success, wealth, and power. But, the truth is your status on Earth doesn’t amount to anything. God can bring down the proud, and He can exalt the humble.
• Reading these warnings should put a sense of urgency in us. If we really believed in God’s coming judgment, we would not be able to stay silent.
• Do we ever grieve over what sin has done to the earth? God says the earth is polluted by those who live on it, because we have sinned against God by rejecting His Word (24:5).
• Isaiah 25:8-9 is a passage very closely related to Revelation 21. Both paint the picture of a great day of worship as we meet our Savior Jesus. “This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation” (25:9). It’s coming!
• Something to consider is that God’s judgments teach us righteousness. When everything goes as we want it, no matter our choices, we don’t learn righteousness. But, when God disciplines us and we see the consequences of sin, we are taught to resist temptation.

Thoughts

What would you give to have true peace? What if you could go to bed at night, knowing that you are right with the LORD and right with men? Do you experience peace in your heart, no matter the circumstance?

God says there is a recipe for peace. “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because He trusts in You” (26:3). The word for steadfast means “stayed, fixed, leaning on.” It means that, when our minds are anchored to God, come what may, God will give us the gift of perfect peace — peace multiplied. Our minds are stayed on Him when they are filled with His Word, because our trust in Him grows as our knowledge of Him grows.

“Trust in the LORD forever, For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.”
– Isaiah 26:2

Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase,
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand,
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love,
We may trust Him fully all for us to do,
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.