Isaiah’s Message on Our Call from God

God calls us and provides for us. This daily devotional looks at how disciples of Christ are called to praise God and feast on His goodness.

Nuggets

God choose mankind to be His, but we have to choose Him back.
We are to praise God for all He does.
Scriptures talk about blessings being a feast.
Our disgrace was our acceptance of sin.

Devotions in the Isaiah’s Messages from Sovereign God series

Isaiah provided the Israelites – and us – several messages from God. One was that God’s people are called. Let’s see what He calls us to do.

Let's Put It into Context

“The earth will be stripped completely bare and will be totally plundered, for the Lord has spoken this message” (Isa. 24: 3 CSB)

If Isaiah 25 is rainbows and unicorns, Isaiah 24 is stormy and real. But don’t trials feel threatening? Don’t they feel larger than life at times?

God can and does judge those who disobey Him. He is our Creator — it is His right. When we disobey His laws and commandments, He has cause.

Parker told us on whom God’s judgement falls. It falls on the arrogant, pompous, conceited, and self-reliant.

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We Are Called to Praise

“Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have accomplished wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. For you have turned the city into a pile of rocks, a fortified city, into ruins; the fortress of barbarians is no longer a city; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore, a strong people will honor you. The cities of violent nations will fear you. For you have been a stronghold for the poor person, a stronghold for the needy in his distress, a refuge from storms and a shade from heat. When the breath of the violent is like a storm against a wall, like heat in a dry land, you will subdue the uproar of barbarians. As the shade of a cloud cools the heat of the day, so he will silence the song of the violent” (Isa. 25: 1-5 CSB)

God choose mankind to be His. We have to choose Him back. If we don’t choose to be His, we aren’t His.

It is more than that, though. God is our personal God. “Lord, you are my God …” (Isa. 25: 1 CSB). He calls each of us individually.

Isaiah’s message was that we are to exalt and praise God. We are to hold God in high regard and be vocal about that regard.

We are to acknowledge and appreciate all that God is. We are to recognize His majesty and accept His gifts of grace, mercy, and love.

We are to praise God for all He does. Things don’t happen by accident. God has things all planned out — then He works the plan.

Yeah, some things aren’t going to be pretty. Storms will rage, and cities will be destroyed.

1. God is still in control.
2. Even though we get the consequences of our actions, God does not punish us as we deserve.

What Isaiah is trying to tell us here is that God is faithful regardless of our actions. He doesn’t turn His back on us when we get arrogant, pompous, conceited, and self-reliant. He is our refuge in the storms.

Sims reminded us of the promise God made to Abraham. “And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me” (Gen. 22: 18 NLT).

Resource

Put yourself in the position of those described in verse 4: the poor and the needy. Smith gave us what the words mean in Hebrew. Basically, Isaiah was talking about the infirm and the oppressed. Infirm was also described as wavering and tottering.

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I can see infirm. Sin makes us sick. “When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor — sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners’” (Mk. 2: 17 NLT).

When all the trials and temptations come, don’t we feel we are wavering and tottering? We feel like the whole earth is shifting under our feet.

We have a God who wants to be our rock and our fortress. We have a Savior who wants to restore us back to that relationship with God.

We just have to say we believe.

We Are Called to Feast Together

“On this mountain, the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine. On this mountain he will swallow up the burial shroud, the shroud over all the peoples, the sheet covering all the nations. When he has swallowed up death once and for all, the Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken” (Isa. 25: 6-8 CSB)

Scriptures talk about blessings being a feast. “She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, ‘Let all who are simple come to my house!’ To those who have no sense she says, ‘Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed’” (Prov. 9: 2-5 NIV). This passage was echoed in the parable Jesus taught about the wedding feast.

Think about it this way. God doesn’t just provide a meal of soup and salad for us. He provides the whole four-course meal. The word that pops out of Benson’s sermon is abundant.

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God doesn’t leave us to our own devices. He looks after us. He gives us abundant grace and mercy.

Boston brought up the fact that (especially in those days) feasts included entertainment. This was to have been a joyous occasion.

Resource

Did you wonder about the reference to the mountain? Jerusalem was positioned in the mountains.

Look back at verse 6. It says, “… the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast …” (Isa. 25: 6 CSB). Yes, it says all people.

All people are invited — God calls everyone. Not all will attend.

Look what those who attend get.

God swallows up death (Isa. 25: 7-8).
He wipes away our tears (Isa. 25: 8).
He removes our disgrace (Isa. 25: 8).

Oh, man. That is the gospel in a nutshell. Our salvation switched us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.

Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.

Revelation 21: 4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (ESV).

Our disgrace was our acceptance of sin. Our disobedience to God caused our disgrace.

When we admit we are separated from God, believe Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer, and confess God as Sovereign Lord, that disgrace is removed. Praise God!

Some people don’t know it, but they are starving and hungering for God. They see the fake lights of this world and are dazzled by them.

An argument for not accepting God is that He is going to limit us. But look at verse 6 again. He offers us “… a feast of choice meat, a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine” (Isa. 25: 6 CSB). Not only does God offer us a variety, but He also offers us the best of everything.

Remember, the feast is going to have entertainment. It isn’t that God doesn’t want us to have fun. He wants us to have the right fun.

Moore argued that the death described here is not spiritual death. His evidence was that we still have people who are experiencing spiritual death.

Instead, Moore contends that Jesus has victory over the sting of death. He wrote, “Hence, in order to show that Christ had made a conquest over death, we must show that He was victorious over the sting of death, and hath swallowed up sin in victory.”

Resource

I think what Moore is trying to say is that Jesus’ victory over death won’t be complete until judgment day. Until then, He has victory over the sting of death, so that we do not have to fear death.

To me, the Evangelist explained it better. It was explained that the victory over death occurs by degrees. Victory is secured by:

Christ assuming our sins.
The regeneration of those accepting the plan of Salvation to change our nature.
The changing of our views on death.
The resurrection.

Resource

I can see that. We’ve talked before about the past, present, and future aspects of things.

We were regenerated at conversion because we were changed from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
We are in the process of being regenerated as we are being sanctified.
The process won’t be complete until we are called home, either through our death or the second coming.

However we look at it, we can’t discount one thing. The victory is Jesus’.

We also can’t think everything will be taken care of in the future. We are not assured we have a tomorrow.

Making the Connections

We can put our faith and trust in God because He is dependable. Faith is the belief that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives. Trust is assurance that the promises of God are true.

God will provide what we need. “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’” (Mt. 6: 31 ESV). God’s got us.

No, we may not always get what we want, but God will give us what is best for us. We have to be faithful.

How Do We Apply This?

Let’s look at the Evangelist’s list again. Victory over death occurs by degrees and is secured by:

Christ assuming our sins.
The regeneration of those accepting the plan of Salvation to change our nature.
The changing of our views on death.
The resurrection.

That means we have to ABCD. This triggers regeneration, or the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

That means we have to ABCD. This triggers regeneration, or the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.

Giving our lives to God should change our viewpoints on death. We no longer have to fear it.

That is because Jesus was resurrected. We are also promised resurrection.

God calls us to abundance. We need to accept that abundance by living for Him.

Father God. We are humbled that You continue to provide for us. You not only provide, You give us what we need abundantly. May we always look to serving You in the ways You want. Amen.

What do you think?

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