Month: July 2025

Isaiah, as God’s prophet, speaks to his people in Judah and Jerusalem. They had, like their neighbors, forsaken the Lord. He had no other choice but to bring discipline upon them in hopes of restoring their relationship to Him. However, even with this predication, they failed to turn to God. When God speaks about your sin, do you turn to Him or do you seek other avenues of healing? This chapter speaks about God’s loving endurance and His hope to restore His people even while they remain in their stubbornness. How is this like us today? What does God have to do to restore us to Himself? Where is your hope? In men, possessions, or in God? 

Will you return to God and his ways or continue on in your stubbornness. The godless Balaam had an encounter with a talking donkey to bring him to his senses. Is this what God has to do with you? Where is your hope and security? 

After reading all the doom and gloom in these chapters, we come to this one where it is recorded: “Then a trustworthy king will be established; he will rule in a reliable manner, this one from David’s family. He will be sure to make just decisions and will be experienced in executing justice.” This can be none other than Christ our true King. 

Are you looking forward to Christ’s return? I am! 

One thing we can learn from scripture is that God reveals both the good and the bad. Again we recall Jeremiah’s words: the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it but God alone. However, the evidence is recorded that we might learn from history to not repeat the sins of those who went before us.

King Ahaz was a compromising king. He knew what was right but chose to ignore it and follow the ways of the nations around him. He looked with his eyes and not with his heart. His sins are recorded that we might learn the result of compromise. When we see the worldly success of others do we too desire what they have and ignore God’s truth so we can gain what will be burned up in eternity? Not only did he compromise but he ordered the high priest to also compromise and he obeyed rather than following the way of God. He did what Ahaz ordered by building a new altar fashioned like those who are ungodly. 

There are so many lessons here in these chapters but the one that stands out is the price we pay for compromise. Gal 6:7 God will not be mocked, that which a man sows, he also will reap. 

Micah, as God’s chosen prophet writes: This is what the Lord has said about the prophets who mislead my people “If someone gives them enough to eat,they offer an oracle of peace. But if someone does not give them food, they are ready to declare war on him.” What was said centuries ago is still true today. Prophets, people, kings, leaders and even us, offer these same words to gain favor among people. Listen to the politicians of today. That is one reason we need discernment! Can you tell the difference? Are you careful about the words you hear and observe their fruit? Jesus said, by their fruit you shall know them, whether true or false. The same is true for us. 

What does our fruit say about our heart? Is it true or is it false? Do you say one thing to a friend and another to an enemy? Notice, that it is the test that God shows us revealing the fickleness of the heart because as Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful and wicked; only God can know it, but He has given us the gift of discernment. May we use that gift to listen, speak and judge fairly and with justice. 

Uzziah’s son Jotham began to reign and he reigned for 16 yrs. He did what was good because his desire was to please the Lord. Even though he lived only until he turned 41, his epitaph on his grave marked him as one who pleased the Lord. What will the epitaph say about us? Will it just be the day of our birth and the day of our death? Will we live to a ripe old age or die in what some would call the day of our youth? God has determined when we shall live and when we shall die but while we walk about this earth, what will be our desire? What are you busy doing day by day? 

Take a lesson from those who have gone before us and determine as Jotham, to do what pleases the Lord whether He chooses to leave you here or call you home. 

God’s heart is revealed in this passage. He selected Israel to be His vineyard, producing grapes that would feed many. He constructed the vineyard with several protections to keep it safe from predators. He chose the best land to produce the best grapes, but the vineyard only produced sour grapes and He explains why in the words of “beware.” Beware of what? Vs20 “Beware, those who call evil good and good evil,” vs22 “Beware, those who are champions at drinking, who display great courage when mixing strong drinks.”  The consequences: vs 25 “So the Lord is furious with his people; he lifts his hand and strikes them.”

What does this mean for us? God has carefully chosen you, called you, loved you and kept you as Jude says, but instead you chose the ways of the world instead of His pure righteousness. Beware of being caught in the trap of the wild vine of the evil one who blinds the mind lest they see the glorious image of Jesus Christ. 

Which vine are you today? 

Two nations, two kings and lessons we can glean from both. One king, Azariah or Uzziah, as he is called in another book. reigned for 52 yrs. In that day and age, that was unheard of to live that long. The other king lived and reigned for 6 months and was assassinated. God blessed one and dishonored the other. What was the difference? Uzziah honored God and God blessed his reign. The other king, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam, was an evil king and God allowed circumstances to end his life.  

Yet, Uzziah, at the end of his life lost his way spiritually. Again we see the element of pride when Uzziah entered the Temple and was found there doing the work of a priest which was forbidden. Why do we see this pattern of those in old age falling victim to pride? Is this a warning to us who are part of the old and gray people group? How do we keep our minds sharp and our love for God guiding us until God calls us home? 

Since I am in that aging group, let me give you some advice. If you are aging, take this story of Uzziah and keep yourself close to God and in His Word to protect your mind and actions. Read the scriptures daily, pray for your fellow believers, your church and especially the younger generation. Remember it is the humble that God blesses, not the proud. When Uzziah was young, he was humble but when he turned old and gray, it seems that he lost his way. Be careful blessed fellow reader lest you fall into Uzziah’s trap. Or 

Have you ever met a person who is bitter over something that occurred years ago and that bitterness has festered so much that they are angry, disappointed, discontented daily. Their bitterness has led to physical challenges even to the point of illness. 

Jonah is one of those biblical characters that is challenging us to look within ourselves to see if we are harboring a spirit of bitterness. Jonah was bitter over the treatment the Ninevites had fostered upon the Israelites. He couldn’t see the truth of Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,” He just wanted God to destroy them, not save them. We act the same way when something happens and we want revenge not grace.

What Jonah did not figure into the equation is how his decision would affect other people. And so we find him leaving Israel and on a ship fast asleep thinking he had outsmarted God. But, God was determined that the Ninevites would hear the gospel and so He sent a major storm to get Jonah’s attention. It took a major storm, a fish and three days meditating on his choice. In the end, Jonah went grudgingly but the city heard and repented. Did Jonah shout Hallelujah? No, he pouted and acted like a spoiled baby. 

There are so many lessons for us to learn from Jonah but the major one is obedience is God’s way for His plans are higher than ours. We may not understand but God does. 

Amaziah’s life is an example of how one who follows God’s Word and consequently experiences His blessing can become proud when he or she forgets that his or her blessings come from God’s grace.

How true that statement is! Pride is the most grievous sin apart from the other sins recorded in the Ten Commandments. Secondly, we must keep our eyes on the Lord lest we end up like Amaziah! A repeated theme in these chapters and others is that we have the profound problem of pride and forgetfulness. We fail to remember what God has done, and for many this happens later in life. But, why? Why do we fail as we grow older? Why do we forget the blessings of the Lord? Why do we presume that God will be with us when we do not seek His will. first? 

David prayed “when I am old and gray, do not forsake me” but perhaps that should be reworded to when I am old and gray, remind me over And over what the Lord has done. Stay in the Word. Stay committed to the Lord. 

Honesty is a trait that pleases God. The people brought their offerings to help repair the temple and it was placed in the boxes outside the temple. The priests would count it after it was filled and then given to the workmen. This is said of them “Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hand they gave the money to pay to those who did the work, for they dealt faithfully.” [2 Kings 12:15] Nothing is said of the temptation as they stood by the collection boxes. The only statement is that they were honest and faithful. What does God say about me as I am given the charge to stand by and protect God’s Word? Am I honest? Am I faithful? What will history record about me? About you? 

Honesty is a trait that pleases both man and God. Be honest today in all you say and do.