2 Chronicles 27; Isaiah 9-12

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Chron%2027;%20Isaiah%209-12&version=ESV

In today's readings we come to some of the most cited verses in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 9 and chapter 11. Both of these chapters prophesy of the messiah to come.

I had trouble deciding on which one to focus on as they are such marvelous passages of Scripture. But I decided on Isaiah chapter 11.

Isaiah chapter 11 begins with the prophesy that the messiah will come from the stump of Jesse. Scripture has already spoken of this in 2 Samuel 7:8-17, also known as the Davidic Covenant.

Then read how Isaiah describes the messiah.

"And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins."

(Isaiah 11:2-5)

The Holy Spirit rests upon the messiah. The Holy Spirit, a Spirit of counsel, of knowledge, and fear of the Lord. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, his delight shall be fear in the Lord. How great that is.

As we grow in God's grace, we too should delight in the fear of the Lord. The latter verses of this section speak of equitable judgment for all. People today want to accept Jesus as a God of love and forgiveness, but not one of judgment and righteousness. When we do that, we are accepting only half of the Gospel, which is not the true Gospel. In order for God to be true to His character, of being holy, and just, and loving, he must punish sin. Thanks be to God that Jesus took the punishment for our sin. When we place our faith in Christ and His work on the Cross, God freely bestows on us His love and Grace. That is the Gospel.

I am reading a book called What is the Gospel by 9 Marks ministries. The author phrases the Gospel in 4 essentials, although more to the Gospel than this exist, but these are crucial in any Gospel presentation.

1. God - He created us and thus has authority over us
2. Man - we have rebelled against God and tried to usurp His authority
3. Christ - through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, God has provided a way for us to be reconciled to him
4. Response - we must respond by repentance from sin and faith towards Christ if we are to be recipients of God's salvific grace for us

There are other components of the Gospel. Like His Second Coming to inaugurate His Kingdom on the earth.

Verses 6- 9 describe how pleasant an peaceful and tranquil this kingdom will be. I have always loved the picture of verse 8:

"The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den."

When Christ comes, all things will be subject to Him. Even the order of nature will become peaceful. How great that will be.

I feel this is one area of the Gospel we sometimes neglect. We focus on the forgiveness of sin, and living a Christ-like life here and now, but we don't focus too much on His Second Coming.

I think that is a mistake. Now I am not saying we need to all bring out charts of prophecy and try to predict when He will come again. Jesus said the only one who knows is the Father in Heaven. (See Mark 13:32)

But what I am saying is that we should live a life in expectation of His Second Coming. We should not hold on to this life too tightly.

The Apostle John in 1 John 2:28 - 3:3 explains this well:

"And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure."

Placing our hope in Jesus and His Second Coming purifies us as Jesus, himself is pure. I remember when I first read that several years back.

I think that fact that we will be like Him when He comes is lost on a lot of us. It is OK to enjoy this life, however, Christ wants us to do so in a way that is pleasing to Him. But when our desires to please ourself are contrary with the Word of God, then we need to reassess our desires.

We need to ask ourselves each and every day: are our thoughts and hopes of Him purifying ourselves? Or are our thoughts and hopes exalting us and others at the expense of Christ?

Living in a way in which we constantly strive to live after, for, and like Christ is not easy. No one said being a Christian ever was. But the end result is worth it.

As Jesus said,

"And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

Luke 9:23-24

Soli Deo Gloria.

Today's post was submitted by Russ Shellhamer.