The Sealed Book: Understanding Isaiah 29

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Quill resting on handwritten parchment beside ink and a candle

“For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries. All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.””
Isaiah 29:10-12 NLT

Reading is a fundamental, even ubiquitous, skill in Western countries. The school system soon teaches children to read, sometimes as early as their primary years. For many, like my daughter, a love of books has been with them ever since. Fellow pilgrims will be using their reading ability this morning to read this blog. But it was a tragedy to read a recent news report that primary school teachers are having to visit secondary schools here in the UK to help some children with their reading. A growing cohort of children do not seem to want to learn, and they do what they can to disrupt their own and their fellow students’ opportunities. Very few sanctions seem to work. Thankfully, our schools still seem able to turn out children with at least the ability to read.

Words communicate so much, and there are many different ways this communication can happen. We have books, journals, newspapers, letters, and so on, all printed on paper. Increasingly, the screens on our phones, tablets, or computers have become the visual medium. But in all cases, the written words form the basis for the ideas and information that need to be communicated. 

In our verses today, Isaiah sees a time coming when the ideas God is communicating cannot be read. A “spirit of deep sleep” will prevent the “prophets and visionaries” from “seeing” what He wants to communicate. As a result, the rest of Isaiah’s vision is to be “like a sealed book”. Imagine we are given a book covered in fabric or film that keeps us from opening it. We might have access to the title on the front cover, or a few words about the author on the back. But what is written inside is totally invisible and cannot be read. Isaiah wrote that some of the “prophets and visionaries” could read. Give them a book of their day, for example, a scroll or tablet, and they could read what was written on it, but the vision that Isaiah had was sealed from their gaze, and they were unable to read its contents. But then there were some who couldn’t read anything, it seems, and, sealed or not, the vision written down was invisible to them. Just a few squiggles of ink written on a parchment or scroll, incomprehensible and useless.

Jeremiah was instructed by God to write for a specific purpose: “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time. Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings” (Jeremiah 36:2-3). These were not messages to be sealed up, but warnings about what would happen to the people if they failed to obey the messages he had written. We are very grateful to Luke, who “decided to write an accurate account for you, most honourable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught” (Luke 1:3-4). Because of his diligence in documenting everything that happened in those days concerning Jesus and the Way, we have the Gospel of Luke, the Book of Acts, and probably his help in some of the Epistles. 

But the Books that really matter are referred to in Revelation 20. In verse 12 we read, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books”. Everything a person has done throughout their life will be written down, and one day the books recording it will be opened for all to see. In human terms, that would be a huge book. There used to be a television programme called “This Is Your Life”, and the presenter had a red book containing highlights, the good bits, from the person’s life, which were later played in front of an audience and the television cameras, with the help of family members or friends. But God’s book for that person will contain not only the highlights but also the lowlights. The contents will be painful to relive. Memories long forgotten will be revived. Sinful actions will be exposed. And all this will take place before a vast crowd of witnesses, “the dead, both great and small“.

Thankfully for us pilgrims, another book will be opened: the Lamb’s Book of Life, and we find that “ ... anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). In the previous verse, we find that the “lake of fire” is the second death for those who have refused to believe in Jesus. It makes me shudder to think that after someone has passed away and crossed the Great Divide, only to find themselves in the Place of the Dead, Sheol, or Hades, they will remain there until they stand before the Judge sitting on the Great White Throne, as He replays their life before countless witnesses. After this, they will be “thrown into the lake of fire“. I have sometimes reflected on the word “thrown“. Why did that have to happen? Because the “lake of fire” was a place they didn’t want to go; no amount of struggling or pleading would be allowed to prevent their incarceration in hell.

But let’s think for a moment about the Lamb’s Book of Life. This is a divine register in which the names of all who are redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ are written. It emphasises that those whose names are recorded in this book are granted eternal life and need not fear judgement. At the moment we believed in Jesus, our redemption was followed by a Heavenly pen making an entry in the Book of Life. Our names will be written there. But can they be removed? Revelation 3:5, “All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine“. The implication of this verse is that those who are not victorious are in danger of seeing God take His Heavenly eraser and remove their name. This conclusion does not sit easily with those who believe “Once Saved Always Saved”, but if someone turns their back on God and renounces their salvation and the redeeming work of Jesus, would God not have to grant them the consequences of their choice? But we blood-bought pilgrims, believers and overcomers through our faith in Jesus, have nothing to fear. Our names are indelibly written in a place that matters.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You that our favourite Book is not sealed away from our gaze and understanding. Within it we find Your gracious words of salvation and eternal life through Your Son, Jesus. Keep us close to You, we pray, this day and every day. Amen.

Understanding God’s Voice: Lessons from Isaiah

Posted on by Adrian Clark

““Who does the Lord think we are?” they ask. “Why does he speak to us like this? Are we little children, just recently weaned? He tells us everything over and over— one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!” So now God will have to speak to his people through foreign oppressors who speak a strange language! God has told his people, “Here is a place of rest; let the weary rest here. This is a place of quiet rest.” But they would not listen.”
Isaiah 28:9-12 NLT

The drunken Israelites did not receive Isaiah’s correction well at all. Their lifestyles had no place for God, and they responded badly, mocking Isaiah’s message like children ridiculing their peers. We can almost hear the rhyming mimicry as it fell from their drunken lips. Such childishness from so-called religious leaders beggars belief. They don’t take Isaiah’s godly message seriously. After all, they thought, why would they want to be lectured by someone still committed to proclaiming God’s message? But as they will find out, the Lord will throw these words back into their faces.

Have we ever tried to communicate Scripture with someone who perhaps knows a little about the Bible but who responds to our comments with ridicule? I had such a conversation recently with a man whose knowledge of the Bible was actually quite impressive, but he has rejected just about everything it says. His scorn of God’s Word started in Genesis 1, but he quickly became bored with the conversation and couldn’t get away quickly enough. The problem was that he had developed a worldview not aligned with God’s view, and in his current thinking, he rejected anything that conflicted with his own thoughts. This left him in a fragile state, without any foundational truth to base his life on, and it will one day crash down like a house of cards before the gaze of the One sitting in judgment. He didn’t lapse into mockery, but I have met some people who do. 

There is a question for the religious leaders in Samaria that would be interesting to hear answered. Perhaps it could be phrased something like, “How did you get to a state where you rejected God and everything to do with Him, even though you had the Scriptures to refer to?” This question is even more significant for anyone who has lived since Jesus came into this world. But answers will, I fear, be few in number because before Jesus there is no answer. Just a growing awareness that they have got things so wrong. I suspect there will be efforts to cast the blame on someone else, including the age-old response, “The devil made me do it”, or they would blame their parents, or their environment. In Hebrews 10:26-27 we read, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”. My friend knows the truth, but rather than letting it set him free, he has responded with a stubborn rejection of anything to do with God.

The Israelites had reached a stage where they blocked their ears to God’s messages. Perhaps they had become like the children in their response to Isaiah, holding their hands over their ears and shouting out silly noises to stop the message reaching their souls. There was such a time earlier in Israel’s history that we can read about in 1 Samuel 3:1, “Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon”. Had God stopped speaking? Not at all, but the people had become deaf to His voice and had stopped listening.

Isaiah 28:11 declares another way God will speak to His people. If they had become deaf to His voice, then perhaps they would listen to another in a language of judgment, with punishment administered by “foreign oppressors”. These were the Assyrians who spoke a language that was foreign to the Israelites, and what was to happen was recorded in 2 Kings 17:5-6, “Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and for three years he besieged the city of Samaria. Finally, in the ninth year of King Hoshea’s reign, Samaria fell, and the people of Israel were exiled to Assyria. They were settled in colonies in Halah, along the banks of the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes“. Did the Israelites then hear God’s “voice” as they reflected on their lives in exile? Some did, and we read about them in other accounts in Ezra and Nehemiah. But many didn’t, and those who escaped the Assyrian swords and became exiled were absorbed into the communities in which they found themselves. God’s purposes will always be fulfilled, and He purified His people.

We pilgrims ignore the Word of God at our peril. We know the words that Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Unlike my friend who has rejected God’s Word, we embrace it and we are like the Psalmist who wrote, “Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord” (Psalm 119:1). In this Psalm we can also read, “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions“. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me”. And so we pilgrims pursue the Word of Truth, Jesus Himself, without ceasing. Day by day we read what God is saying to us. And we pray without ceasing, because that is what He expects of His children. Yes, there will be times when we err from the Path of Life, taking time out and resting away from God. But He is gracious and kind. 1 John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness”. There is always a way back to God’s loving arms. 

Dear Heavenly Father. When we are weary on our journey to Glory, we can rest awhile, soaking up sustenance from Your Word and Your Spirit. You have provided us with all that we need for life, and today we ask again for a refilling of Your Spirit to help our beacons of light to keep shining for all to see. We love You, Lord, and will continue to love You even until our days end in this world. There is no other place we would rather be than in Your loving arms with You in Heaven. Amen.

God’s Judgment: Lessons from Samaria’s Fall

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“What sorrow awaits the proud city of Samaria— the glorious crown of the drunks of Israel. It sits at the head of a fertile valley, but its glorious beauty will fade like a flower. It is the pride of a people brought down by wine. For the Lord will send a mighty army against it. Like a mighty hailstorm and a torrential rain, they will burst upon it like a surging flood and smash it to the ground.”
Isaiah 28:1-2 NLT

We leave the “Isaiah Apocalypse” and move on to Isaiah’s oracle concerning Samaria, which was the principal city of Israel in those days, the Northern Kingdom. Samaria was once a beautiful, sophisticated city overlooking a fruitful, productive valley. Isaiah describes it as the crown or pride of Israel’s drunkards. The leaders of Israel were apparently known for their drunkenness, and in their alcohol-induced fog, they failed to lead Israel in God’s ways. Thus, Isaiah declares that the beauty of Samaria and its valley is fading as quickly as the beauty of a wreath of flowers fades. The wreath does not last long, and neither will once-lovely Samaria.

The Lord’s judgment was about to fall upon Samaria, and there was an army waiting in the wings, able and willing to be the executors of God’s punishment for Israel’s wickedness. This mighty army was described as being like “a mighty hailstorm and a torrential rain“, and Isaiah’s graphical eloquence described its demise – it would be “smash[ed] to the ground“. The Assyrian army brought death and destruction, and through them the remainder of the inhabitants of Israel were exiled in 722 BC. That God would use a foreign and evil army to do His bidding seemed inexplicable to His people, but the Assyrians would suffer their own judgment in the not too distant future. 

Does God bring judgment on evil nations today? There is no consensus about this, but some believers think God still punishes nations for great evil. They believe societies face a national breakdown when they reject basic moral laws. They view major crises, such as the fall of corrupt regimes or severe national disasters, as warnings or God’s discipline. So in this context, where is the Third Reich today? Or the Soviet Union, for that matter. There are also other more recent local world events such as the fall of Assad’s Syria. And the world news this morning records the death of the Bosnian Serb commander who was nicknamed the “Butcher of Bosnia”. What will he say when he stands before God, I wonder? But do these events point to God’s hand in judging evil nations and people? Other believers say God does not judge nations in a direct, supernatural way right now. They believe God’s final judgment will happen at the end of time, not through specific earthly disasters today, and so they view modern wars, poverty, and political collapse as the results of human free will and a broken and evil world rather than direct divine punishment. But regardless of how we view world events today, God will indeed judge the peoples one day. 

I had a conversation yesterday with a man who is very pro-Palestine and anti-Israel, and he used quite violent language to vent his feelings of hatred and frustration against Israel, its leaders, and the Israeli army. But I advised caution in his views because Israel is still God’s chosen people. The covenant that God made with them is still valid. He said to Abraham, “I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you” (Genesis 17:7). The key word in this verses is “everlasting”, that is, it will last forever. The next verse in Genesis 17 warns all those who say Israel is wrong about the land it has and needs. “And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God”. Derek Prince calculated that in 1948, the Jews only received 10% of the land that God promised to Abraham. But I did explain to the man I spoke with yesterday that Israel and its people will still face judgment. In Romans 2:9 we read, “There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile”. Sadly, in my conversation yesterday, I found that the man was an atheist, with no time for any talk about God, and he walked away, frustrated and a bit angry, because someone didn’t agree with his point of view.

What I have written today is all very well, but how does it affect us pilgrims today? We need to work backwards from the last verse of Revelation 20, where we read, “And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire“. The Great White Throne passage is frightening reading, especially for those who do evil and have rejected God in their lives. But having said that, we must not be afraid of the final Day of the Lord because God has provided a remedy for our sins. People ensure their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life by placing their faith in Jesus Christ and accepting His gift of salvation. Jesus came to this world with one specific mission, which we can read at the end of the Zaccheus account: “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). To Nicodemus, Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17). Peter said in his Day of Pentecost sermon, “ … Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38), and Paul wrote, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved” (Romans 10:9-10). By embracing these verses and all they mean (that’s the significant part), we will be assured of two things: our salvation and eternal life with God, and the entry of our name into the Lamb’s Book of Life. We pilgrims have nothing to fear from the Great White Throne, but we know many who do, and for their sake we must be always looking for an opportunity to share our testimonies about God’s saving grace.

Dear Wonderful and Amazing Lord Jesus. It is only through You that we can hear the words of eternal life, and I pray today for a fresh infilling of Your Spirit to empower and resource us for the day ahead. Please write our names in Your Book in indelible ink so that we can be assured of our salvation when You return to this world. In Your precious name. Amen.

End Times: Isaiah 26 and Revelation Insights

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“But those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy! For your life-giving light will fall like dew on your people in the place of the dead! Go home, my people, and lock your doors! Hide yourselves for a little while until the Lord’s anger has passed. Look! The Lord is coming from heaven to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will no longer hide those who have been killed. They will be brought out for all to see.”
Isaiah 26:19-21 NLT

We come to the final verses of the twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Isaiah, the prophet. He wrote that a time is coming when Israel will be restored. In the end times, after the Lord has secured His victory, He will raise His people, those who have already died, back to life. They will rejoice in their Lord because death is not the end of the story for the people of God. But verses 20 and 21 instruct the people of God to lock themselves away and hide while the Lord comes to “punish the people of the earth for their sins”, and this is going to happen in public. God’s people were not to be the intended focus of God’s punishment; that was being reserved in all its terrible force for sinners, the unrepentant people throughout history who have denied God and His ways.  

The obvious connection of our verses today is with Revelation 20, where we read about the “Great White Throne”. John wrote, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12-15). The previous chapter in Revelation details the final battle between the world armies, their corrupt system, and their opposition to God. But Revelation 21 paints a different picture, of God making all things new, with God dwelling on the New Earth with His people.

I have assumed that “God’s people” include all those who have believed in God through Jesus, those we call Christians. Pilgrims such as ourselves. However, a school of thought holds that this was a prophecy concerning the Israelites and their local situation in the Middle East at that time. This may well be the case, but through Jesus we know we will escape the judgment to come, whether or not we were included in Isaiah’s writings. Jesus said, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17-18). Those around us, the sinners that Isaiah wrote about, are already walking around in judgment. They are effectively out on bail, awaiting their trial date, when they will be called to account for their sins. We don’t know when this will be, but the day will come.  

It will be a terrible time when God brings punishment for the world’s sinners, but we pilgrims pray for these people. We also pray for ourselves that we will stand firm and resolute in our journey to Glory, never looking back. We pray for our governments, our communities, and our friends and families, that they will transition from those to be judged to joining God’s people through His saving grace. We pilgrims have every confidence in our God that He will judge the world with righteousness, and our verses seem to indicate that He will indeed pass us by as the final End Time scenario unfolds. Paul wrote, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). No matter what is to come, we know that God will fulfil the promises He made through Jesus.

Dear Father God. A sobering end to Isaiah 26, but one that bolsters the hope that we have in You. You have graciously saved us from the destruction to come, and we are so deeply grateful. Every day we offer up to You our thankful prayers of worship, but also our petitions for our families and our governments. We understand that You are delaying the final terrible day so that every last person in Your plan for mankind will be saved. Please lead us to those who need a touch from You, bringing peace and joy back into a life of misery. Only You have the words of eternal life. Thank You, Lord. Amen.

Isaiah’s Warning: Tyre’s Pride and Its Consequences

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Jeweled crown on stone pedestal with wooden scepter in ruined stone building

“This message came to me concerning Tyre: Wail, you trading ships of Tarshish, for the harbour and houses of Tyre are gone! The rumours you heard in Cyprus are all true. Who has brought this disaster on Tyre, that great creator of kingdoms? Her traders were all princes, her merchants were nobles. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has done it to destroy your pride and bring low all earth’s nobility. Come, people of Tarshish, sweep over the land like the flooding Nile, for Tyre is defenceless.”
Isaiah 23:1, 8-10 NLT

Isaiah 23 is an oracle against Tyre, the great Phoenician trading city. Tyre was the wealthiest commercial city of the ancient world and was built partly on an offshore island, making it almost impregnable. It was famous for shipping, trade, cedar wood, purple dye, and international commerce, and was closely linked with Israel during the reigns of David and Solomon (1 Kings 5). It later became proud, wealthy and spiritually corrupt. It is believed that Isaiah wrote this prophecy about 700 BC, and it was fulfilled during several sieges, the first when Shalmaneser V and Sargon II pressured Tyre in the 8th century BC. Then Nebuchadnezzar came along and besieged Tyre for thirteen years (586–573 BC), as we can read in Ezekiel 26, but it was Alexander the Great who finally conquered the island city in 332 BC by building a causeway to it. But why did such a magnificent city, the focus of Isaiah’s oracle, fall? Today, the ancient city of Tyre lies in ruins in Sour, Lebanon, about 83 kilometres south of Beirut. It is still accessible by the causeway built by Alexander.

The downfall of Tyre was due to God’s judgment for its pride, a theme common to these early chapters of Isaiah. There is something about the sin of pride that God detests, and we can see His judgment in Isaiah 23:9, “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has done it to destroy your pride and bring low all earth’s nobility”. In its pride, Tyre believed that wealth guaranteed security, influence guaranteed permanence, and success guaranteed significance, but the Lord declared otherwise. In Proverbs 16:5, we read, “The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished”. Further down the page, we read the proverb, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. Better to live humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud” (Proverbs 16:18-19). James quotes another proverb in James 4:6, “And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’”. 

In Luke 18, we read the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus addressed this parable to “some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else” (Luke 18:9). Who were these people? The description fits the Pharisees very well and the parable commences, “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector” (Luke 18:10). We can read the arrogance in the Pharisee’s prayer, as he thanked God that he was not like other people, especially the tax collector who was praying “at a distance” and not even daring to lift his eyes to Heaven. But Jesus concluded His parable with, “I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). 

In Matthew 23:12, Jesus said, “But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted”, and this principle is clearly demonstrated by the life of Belshazzar, which we can read about in Daniel 5. We all know the story, I’m sure, of when King Belshazzar was giving a great feast for 1000 of his nobles, and to accommodate the wine, he used the gold and silver goblets that had been taken from the Temple in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. But then we read, “Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote,” (Daniel 5:5). With his knees knocking together in fear, the king called for his motley crew of astrologers to interpret what the writing said. They failed, and eventually, at his mother’s prompting, the king called for Daniel, who began by reminding Belshazzar of what happened to his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 5:20, “But when his heart and mind were puffed up with arrogance, he was brought down from his royal throne and stripped of his glory”. Then Daniel delivered the coup de grace, with “You are his successor, O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself. For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honoured the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!” (Daniel 5:22-23). It didn’t end well for Belshazzar, as the story ends in Daniel 5:30, “That very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed”. 

We should note that God is not opposed to success, but He is opposed to pride and self-sufficiency. Pride slowly engulfs us with attitudes such as “I built this”, or “I earned this”, things that can develop into the person thinking that they don’t need God at all. The inhabitants of Tyre eventually considered their city a monument to human achievement, which made it the focus of divine humbling. People throughout history, and even today, have found that God often removes the things they trust in, often bringing them down to earth with quite a bump. 

Pride is quite a common attribute among people in our societies today. In a culture focused on achievement, God has been forgotten, and people have generally become puffed up with pride and arrogance. Perhaps a person happened to meet a film star or another prominent person and bragged about it, full of pride. Perhaps a person achieved a degree at University and put their success down to their hard work. But God’s gift of intelligence never figures in their boasting. Even we pilgrims can fall into the trap of bragging about our prowess in our gardens or kitchens, our jobs or qualifications, our abilities in fishing or on the golf course, or even our ability to write blogs and books. We constantly need to humble ourselves before God, pointing to Him as the Author and Finisher of our faith, and the One who has given us so many good gifts. So perhaps a little self-examination is appropriate today, as we thank God for His grace and favour, giving Him all the praise and all the glory.

Dear Father God. Our success in life is all down to You and Your grace working out in our lives. There is nothing we can claim to be able to do or achieve without You being there behind it. Thank You. Amen.

Understanding the Fear of God in Today’s World

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble. He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah, he will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem, he will be a trap and a snare. Many will stumble and fall, never to rise again. They will be snared and captured.”

Isaiah 8:13-15 NLT

Of all the things we fear, and there could be many, the most important is God Himself. But if we pause for a moment in our busy lives, what do we fear the most? This will differ between people depending on their age, circumstances and even family connections. An older person may fear the onset of dementia or some illness that mainly comes later in life. Perhaps they are afraid that their eyesight will fail to the point that they are unable to drive anymore. A younger person might fear losing their job or being evicted from their tenancy. A child might fear being bullied at school. In a war zone, there will be a fear of death or destruction. At any point in life, fears can emerge seemingly out of nowhere, bringing consequences that are debilitating and difficult to handle. But whatever our circumstances, Isaiah wrote that only God should be feared.

Jesus said, “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear” (Luke 12:4-5). And that’s the thing. Any fears that a human being may face are ultimately temporal except for the fear of what might happen to them after they cross the Great Divide. And yet, that is one fear that people generally don’t seem to have. Speak to someone about life after death, and they generally don’t seem to care that much. Yes, people are sometimes afraid of dying, even Christians, but replies are often flippant and dismissive, like the man I met who said, “I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t want to be involved”. 

What does it mean to fear God? Instead of being terrified, the Bible defines this fear as deep respect and awe. Think of it like standing at the edge of a giant ocean. You respect its power, but you also trust that it is beautiful and real. Proverbs 9:10: “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment”. If people had a clear idea deep within their souls that their choices in life would define how they spend eternity, then perhaps some of the daft things that they do wouldn’t happen. But then, human nature being what it is, there is always the temptation to rationalise the potential outcome. For someone speeding on the motorway, there is always the thought that they will never be caught. A burglar or shoplifter might feel that they will never be found out. But with God, He sees all and keeps a record of every thought and deed a person commits. Revelation 20:12, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books”. 

But those who have the proper deep respect and awe of God will know the consequences of their behaviour, and this will, as the writer of the Proverbs put it, lead to wise choices being made. 

The people in Judah were afraid of what was happening, as an invading army ravaged their countryside and people. They failed to realise that it was the Lord who was bringing about the destruction that they were starting to see. Isaiah could see that it was the Lord who should be feared, not the Assyrians, and if the people in Judah had realised that as well, perhaps the death and destruction about to happen would be averted. 

Do we have a modern parallel to the happenings in Judah? We probably do, because the judgment in Judah didn’t happen overnight. It took a generation or two, or even more, before what the people feared would become reality. It is the same today. Bad, Godless laws being applied in our legislatures will not be judged immediately because God is patient and He gives people time to repent. But does His lack of action over, for example, the horrors of abortion, mean that he approves of such heinous acts? Of course not! This generation may have escaped the consequences, as may the next, but there will come a time of reckoning, even if only before the Great White Throne.

But we pilgrims are a God-fearing people. We have the benefit of knowing right from wrong from God’s perspective. He leads and guides us through His Spirit. Jesus said in John 16:13: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future”.  Our lives in this world differ from those of most people around us. But we have a message of hope that will change people’s perspectives. We know that regardless of what happens in this world, there is a world to come that needs to be planned for. And so we must diligently let those heading for a lost eternity know the consequences of their choices. 

Dear Heavenly Father. The time is short, and we have so much to do and people to tell. Please lead us to the right people who need to hear the Good News about Jesus and salvation. Amen.

Isaiah’s Vision: The Power of Forgiveness and Transformation

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.””
Isaiah 6:5-7 NLT

The vision of God in the Temple was a life-changing experience for Isaiah, and the first thing he encountered was his sin. His vision of the Lord included seraphim, six-winged beings who were constantly calling out to each other, “… Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3), and the sound and presence of their voices “shook the Temple to its foundations”. A scary experience, but instead of a terror response in fear and trembling, Isaiah becomes very aware of his sin. In the presence of our holy God, everyone, sooner or later, will be confronted by their sin. But Isaiah also became aware of his “filthy lips”, a condition that also impacted all the people he lived with. As we considered yesterday, it is through a person’s lips that come the thoughts and desires of their hearts, and in his innermost being, Isaiah became aware that he was corrupted by sin, and the fruit of that came from his sinful lips. Rightly, without a remedy, he concluded that he was “doomed”. 

But burning coals as a remedy? The temple would have had a fire burning on the altar, as we know from Leviticus 6:13, from the instructions given to Aaron, “Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out”. Was the coal a real ember from the fire or was it a spiritual experience? In this context, I think the coal was taken from the Heavenly altar, which represents the place of sacrifice, atonement, and the presence of God. The book of Revelation contains several references to an altar in Heaven, such as Revelation 8:3, 5, “Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. … Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake”. The altar in the Temple, complete with its fire, was no more than an earthly copy, a “type” of what was in Heaven. 

The act of touching Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal was life-changing because it cleansed him from his guilt and sin. His guilt was removed, and his sins were forgiven. But were Isaiah’s lips permanently damaged by the contact with the coal? We don’t know, but we do know that this was the point when he was ordained to a prophetic ministry to his people.

We pilgrims of the New Covenant are in a different season than that of Isaiah’s, nearly three thousand years ago. No Temple, no animal sacrifices, and a society that was very different to ours. But there are similarities: people then and today are burdened by their guilt and sin. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). He also said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus’ mission was clear, and He constantly reached out in compassion to those who were sinners. We think of Zacchaeus, or the woman caught in adultery and others. He told the parable of the lost sheep, and we read in Luke 15:4, “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?” In the parable of the Lost Son, we read that the Father constantly looked out for the return of the prodigal, and when he saw that he was coming, He ran to meet and greet him, something even more significant when we realise that running was considered undignified in those days. God will go to extraordinary lengths to ease the transition from guilt and sin to forgiveness and spiritual cleansing. 

The people around us are burdened by their guilt and sin, and we pilgrims know the remedy. Our encounters with the risen Jesus changed us from the inside, and we are now able to stand in God’s presence, with our guilt removed and our sins forgiven.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Jesus, without whom we would still be lost in our sins. Thank You for Your love and grace. Amen.

Examining Hedonism in Isaiah 5: The Perils of Excessive Drinking

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Four empty wine bottles standing on stone steps along a cobblestone street at dusk

“What sorrow for those who get up early in the morning looking for a drink of alcohol and spend long evenings drinking wine to make themselves flaming drunk. They furnish wine and lovely music at their grand parties— lyre and harp, tambourine and flute— but they never think about the Lord or notice what he is doing. So my people will go into exile far away because they do not know me. Those who are great and honoured will starve, and the common people will die of thirst. The grave is licking its lips in anticipation, opening its mouth wide. The great and the lowly and all the drunken mob will be swallowed up.”
Isaiah 5:11-14 NLT

“Flaming drunk”? Surely a strange adjective to find describing inebriation from the New Living Translation. The words are more genteel in the NIV with “inflamed with wine” or “… Who stay up late in the night till wine inflames them!” from the Amplified. But the versions all agree, describing an occasion marked with debauchery and partying, with probably more going on than can be found in these verses today. In the ancient world, only the wealthy could afford to spend all day, every day, from early in the morning until late at night, getting drunk. These people turned pleasure and drinking into a full-time pursuit. Drunkenness and debauchery were the reasons why these wealthy people got out of bed in the morning. The constant drunkenness brought with it nightly rounds of being “inflamed,” likely indicating participation in sexual immorality.

We notice that the Bible does not condemn the drinking of alcohol, and table wine was a part of Jewish life, with their wines having a lower alcoholic content than would be expected today. In an age with uncertain water purity, wine was sometimes considered a safer option. But drunkenness was frowned upon. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, wrote, “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,” (Ephesians 5:18). There are other Bible verses, notably Proverbs 31:4-7, “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, to guzzle wine. Rulers should not crave alcohol. For if they drink, they may forget the law and not give justice to the oppressed. Alcohol is for the dying, and wine for those in bitter distress. Let them drink to forget their poverty and remember their troubles no more”. In these verses, we find that those in leadership should show restraint when alcohol is around, because the effect of the drug on a person’s thinking could lead to situations where an injustice could occur. But it is interesting to note that alcohol was suggested as an analgesic for those in distress as a form of end-of-life care, or a remedy for mental health issues. 

But the problem is that the wealthy people of Jerusalem and Judah made pleasure a way of life. They lived to feel good, which is the definition of hedonism. Because of this, they stopped recognising God for His power or what He had provided for them. They served only themselves. Does any of this sound familiar in societies on twenty-first-century Planet Earth? The way of life in Judah was less demanding than it is today. But in my lifetime, I have met people in high-powered jobs, with consequent generous monetary rewards, but with the cost of experiencing high stress levels that have impacted their mental health. Where have these people turned? To the consumption of alcohol, attempting to drown the pain of having to carry on with long, stressful working hours. But even less demanding jobs still have an element of stress, as any bus driver will testify. 

But living life God’s way avoids such debilitating problems, and rather than apply a “sticking plaster” of alcohol, masking the symptoms of stress and anxiety, it is far better to deal with the root causes, turning to God in the process. About the rich people with all their partying, Isaiah pointed out, “they never think about the Lord or notice what he is doing”. This is a poignant moment in Judah’s history because God made a covenant with these people, yet they turned their backs on Him to pursue hedonistic lifestyles. As Isaiah had previously written, Isaiah 5:11 starts with the word “Woe”. What does that mean? Well, one day will come the time when the partygoers will have to face the consequences of their actions. Verse 13 describes their fate: “So my people will go into exile far away because they do not know me. Those who are great and honoured will starve, and the common people will die of thirst”. 

If the people of Judah had repented of their sins and turned to the Lord, then I’m sure that the judgment of exile would have been averted. Their punishment would have been replaced by blessings once more. In our societies today, God is still being spurned and ignored by most. But judgment in their lifetimes is being held back by God’s grace, giving everyone time to repent. Such grace is available right up to a person’s dying moments, but, sadly, after this, God’s grace is no longer available. All that remains is the terrible time before the Great White Throne. 

So we pilgrims reach out to those around us with our testimonies at the ready. God wants everyone to be saved, and He is graciously giving everyone the opportunity to reach out to Jesus who died in their place for their sins. 

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You that we can access the wine of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and through You, we will live in Your Kingdom forever. Amen.

Isaiah’s Vision: Hope and Judgment in Jerusalem

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“But in that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of all who survive in Israel. All who remain in Zion will be a holy people— those who survive the destruction of Jerusalem and are recorded among the living. The Lord will wash the filth from beautiful Zion and cleanse Jerusalem of its bloodstains with the hot breath of fiery judgment. Then the Lord will provide shade for Mount Zion and all who assemble there. He will provide a canopy of cloud during the day and smoke and flaming fire at night, covering the glorious land. It will be a shelter from daytime heat and a hiding place from storms and rain.”
Isaiah 4:2-6 NLT

In his vision, Isaiah could see the day when the Lord would have dealt with the “filth” in Jerusalem by applying “the hot breath of [His] fiery judgement”. He could see a beautiful and glorious city with the survivors, a holy people, washed and cleansed. And the Lord will protect Mount Zion, where Jerusalem was located, with something reminiscent of the flight of the Israelite slaves from Egypt – “a canopy of cloud during the day and smoke and flaming fire at night”.

But what was the “branch of the Lord” that Isaiah could see? Some scholars believe this is a pointer to the coming Messiah, Jesus Himself, the divine descendant of David. There is also mention of the branch in Zechariah 3:8, “Listen to me, O Jeshua the high priest, and all you other priests. You are symbols of things to come. Soon I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.” But is this a prophecy foretelling the First or Second coming of Jesus? Perhaps there is more evidence for the Second, because we have read Revelation and the chapter about the new Jerusalem. However, the picture of a redeemed and holy people, a remnant who have survived the destruction of Jerusalem is an encouragement that God will always bring new shoots of growth as he fulfils His promises to His people. Judgment will ultimately come at the End of the Age, and the “filth [of] beautiful Zion” will be washed away. In the parable of the Wheat and Tares we read, “Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn” (Matthew 13:30). Jesus’ parable describes how good and bad people will co-exist until the “harvest”, which is the End of the Age, the day of Judgment. Isaiah also referred to “the fruit of the land”, perhaps an indication of blessing and peace being restored after devastation and judgment. 

Isaiah could see a remnant of God’s people surviving the destruction of Jerusalem. But what about those, the larger group, who will not survive? They are those whom Isaiah spoke out against in the previous chapters. Amongst them were people who “made alliances with pagans”, who practised sorcery, who were involved in idolatry, and who rebelled against God. God views sin very seriously and sooner or later has to deal with it. Judgment is real and will ultimately cleanse His people, but in each generation, a small group of His covenant people remains. Today we are the people, people of the New Covenant, who Peter wrote about in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light”. 

We notice that Isaiah’s vision did not indicate when the judgment would occur. It was a warning to all those who engaged in sinful behaviour, and many, then as now, refuse to believe that God’s judgment would actually take place. People today live their lives without considering that there will come a time when they will be held to account for their sins. That judgment will occur is without any doubt, because, otherwise, why was it necessary for Jesus to come to this world? He came to provide a remedy for sin so that all who believe in Him will not have to face the terror of judgment. I recently met a man who shared a concern that he needed to move out of London for his retirement, but was at a loss about where to move to. I asked him if he had a faith, and he talked about his Roman Catholic upbringing, but admitted that he rarely gave God any thoughts anymore. I gently reminded him of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”, after which I talked about sin and the need for salvation in Jesus, as otherwise the only alternative was that he would “perish“. He went away thoughtful, and I pray that the Holy Spirit directs his house move to a place where he will find a Christian community.

Do we pilgrims know someone who needs to hear the same message? After all, there are plenty of opportunities because Jesus said, “ ... The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2). So perhaps we need to brush up on our testimonies and have them ready for the next person we happen to meet.

Dear Father God. Please lead us to the people You want us to share Your wonderful message of hope with. We thank You for Jesus and all He did for us in Jerusalem, two thousand years ago. Amen.

Judging The World

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter instead of taking it to other believers! Don’t you realise that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves? Don’t you realise that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life. If you have legal disputes about such matters, why go to outside judges who are not respected by the church? I am saying this to shame you. Isn’t there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these issues? But instead, one believer sues another—right in front of unbelievers!”
1 Corinthians 6:1-6 NLT

Paul made the astonishing statement that one day “believers will judge the world”. And he went on to make another astonishing statement, that believers “will judge angels”. Where did Paul get all this from? I don’t believe for a moment that he made this up, because he must have had a revelation from the Holy Spirit when he wrote it, but Scriptures to confirm this are not exactly plentiful in the Bible. The commentaries point to Revelation 2:26, “To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations”, quoting the words of Jesus to the church in Thyatira. We also read in Revelation other indications that believers will rule and reign with Jesus. In Revelation 20:4-6, John wrote, “I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years“. Earlier in Revelation we also read, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). In Matthew 19:28 we read, “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel“. I believe Paul had a glimpse through the Holy Spirit of a time to come when believers today will be in a position to judge unbelievers, but how that will be isn’t very clear. Perhaps the reference to judging angels applies to the time when the devil and the fallen angels are judged and then cast into hell (see 2 Peter 2:4).

We mustn’t forget, however, that today, in the here and now, we pilgrims are in a position to judge the world. Although Jesus said, “do not judge lest you be judged”, we have to be aware of God’s position on sin and evil. If God has said something is sinful, then we too must agree, and this effectively means that we have to make a judgment about another person’s behaviour, or a situation that has arisen in our society, or even about a law that our secular lawmakers have passed. Such a judgment has to be made in accordance with God’s absolute truth, not the relative truth that the world adopts. Take abortion, for example. Our lawmakers have passed a law legalising the abortion of babies still in their mother’s womb, even though God’s truth is that a new life starts at the point of conception (see Psalm 139). So we believers judge that the very act of abortion is wrong and sinful, because we have God’s authority from His Word to say so. In a similar, less dramatic way, if we see someone “shoplifting”, that is stealing goods from a shop or somewhere, then we have the right to judge this act because the Bible is clear about the fact that theft is a sin. However, Jesus was clear that those who observe such a thing happening must be careful about casting judgement because He said, “For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2). We must also be careful that we don’t judge someone based on what they look like. For example, if a person looks a bit shifty or is dressed in a way that offends us, then we mustn’t cast judgment on them purely because of their appearance. In John 7:24, Jesus said, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly”. A quote from “Gotquestions.org”, “Christians are often accused of ‘judging’ or intolerance when they speak out against sin. But opposing sin is not wrong. Holding aloft the standard of righteousness naturally defines unrighteousness and draws the slings and arrows of those who choose sin over godliness”. John the Baptist got his head chopped off because he called out Herodias for her adulterous relationship with Herod. He may have been silenced, but Herodias and Herod’s sins were clearly written in God’s books; Revelation 20:12, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books”. 

If we pilgrims find ourselves in a situation where we are judging, then we must be careful about what we judge and how we go about it. Jesus said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5). We need discernment and courage as we interface with a sinful world. We need to pray, and pray again, to properly receive God’s truth and His recommended course of action, because without it, we might end up in a difficult situation that impacts us directly. We may one day find ourselves in a place where we are judging the world, but today, this is not something we need to concern ourselves about, because perhaps the only person that we should be judging is ourselves.

Dear Heavenly Father. You are Truth, the whole Truth, and everything about You is true. We pray for discernment and a reigned-in tongue, so that we will not speak out of turn, or in error, in judgment in any situation in which we find ourselves. Please lead and guide us, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.