King James Bible Study – [Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.]
Date: Monday, July 26, 2021
Chapters: Isaiah 37-39, Psalm 76
Message: Ready to Save
Hello My Friend,
As I was reading the chapters for today my mind was honestly on something else. After I had given up my dream to have my own cakery, thinking that God did not want that for me, I had someone email me about a wedding cake. I had scheduled a cake tasting for today, but everything was against me to get the mini cupcakes done by 10 AM, including the sink that decided to plug up. The woman, who has been quite accommodating with my schedule, did not get angry, and just said to do what I needed to do and she will work with me. Well, after reading the chapters, God reminded me of why I thought that He did not want me to have my cakery. I let one bad experience intimidate me into believing that I am not talented or wise enough to do sell cakes. Well, God also reminded me that we have nothing to fear when put everything we do in the hands of our LORD.
[Matthew 11:27-30 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.]
Fear is Satan’s biggest tactic to place doubt in God’s faithful’s minds in order to get them to stop trusting God. Now, Isaiah goes into more detail about what happened when the Assyrian’s attempted to siege Judah as they did Israel. As we know, Rabshakeh showed up in Judah, along with an army, pretty much calling them fools for trusting King Hezekiah, who put his trust in God to deliver them. Hezekiah goes to God in prayer and sends for Isaiah, who then tells them that God has heard their prayers and not to be afraid of their words.
[Isaiah 37:6-10 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. 8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 9 And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.]
[Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee,] God does not deceive anyone, but He will send delusions upon those who blaspheme Him, and judgment as well. We are going to get a lot of people trying to convince us that we are fools for trusting God, but the truth is, they are the true fools because they could have been saved if they would just let go of their foolish pride, [1 John 2:16-17 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.]
You see, the Assyrian’s were not trying to capture Judah because they were stronger than them, they wanted Judah on their side to help them defeat Libnah. They thought that by intimidating the Judah into submission that they would be able to fight Libnah with them and win. After Rabshakeh returned, Sennacherib tried once again to intimidate them by sending a letter with the kings signature, but it did not work this time. Hezekiah took that letter, laid it before the altar, prayed again to God, and He delivered Judah from the hands of the Assyrian’s, and Sennacherib died himself when his own sons killed him while he was worshiping his false god.
[Isaiah 37:33-38 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. 35 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. 36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.]
[For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake,] You see, this was God’s last attempt to get Judah fully trusting and turning to Him completely, if He delivers them from the Assyrian’s then they would remove all the idols and worship only Him. Do you understand just how sinful we are? Even on a good day we manage to fail God. God does not save us for any of our own righteousness, He saves us for His own sake, [John 5:26-29 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.]
[Then the angel of the LORD went forth] That fool mocked Israel for putting their trust in God, when he put his trust in his false god and his own sons killed him. Do not let the world fool you, they know that Israel’s God is the same God of all nations that call Him LORD, and they want all that power of God on their side, even though they want nothing to do with God. And God has given all authority to Jesus to judge man, and He will execute judgment upon all who deny Him, [Revelation 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.]
We can never underestimate the power of our living God, He alone has the power to give life, death, and everything in between. It is how we choose to live our lives in between life and death that determines how our end will be, and sometimes how long until our end will be. There are so many people that preach about being obedient after you are saved because we will stand before Jesus to be judged for the things that we did. While we will be judged, I believe that we are judged well before that. If we are living a sinful unrepentant life after we are saved, then we are going to die in our sin, I have seen many people die before their time for that reason. Likewise, God can also prolong a life that is faithful and repentant of their sin. We find this when Hezekiah became deathly ill right after Sennacherib was killed.
[Isaiah 38:1-6 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, 3 And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4 Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, 5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. 6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.]
[Remember now, O LORD,] What is the first thing we do when we get sick or something weird happens? We start to question if we did something that angered God, and then we start reminding Him of all the ways that we were faithful to Him. God knows exactly what we have done for Him and forgets that, in fact, that is what we are going to be rewarded for after we are saved and stand before Jesus for that judgment, [Romans 14:10-12 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.]
[I will add unto thy days fifteen years.] The second we trust in the LORD, Jesus Christ as our Saviour He recovers our soul with more than fifteen years, it will be forever. Amen! Even Hezekiah knew that there was life beyond the grave, and the pit of hell was for those who for do not cry out to the LORD, [Psalms 76:6-11 At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. 7 Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? 8 Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still, 9 When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah. 10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. 11 Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.]
[the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.] While Jesus was meek and mild when He came here the first time, He will not be when He returns. His wrath will be upon all evil from man, to beast, to every living thing on this earth, He will only restrain His wrath toward those who remained faithful to Him while they had flesh in them, [John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.]
Now, after Isaiah came to Hezekiah with the news that God had granted his prayer and gave him an extra fifteen years to live, Hezekiah wrote, I guess it was in a journal, some amazing, and thought provoking words.
[Isaiah 38:10-11,16-17,20 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. 11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. 17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. 20 The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.]
[The LORD was ready to save me:] Jesus truly is ready to save every soul who comes to Him, and as I read this again I cannot help, but think of how He saved this wretched soul bound for hell, and how He delivered it from the pit of corruption and cast all my sins behind His back. Praise God! Believe it or not, God does not want to see anyone end up in hell. He created hell for Satan and his minions, not for man. However, that choice is up to each and every one of us, [Luke 19:9-10 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.]
Again, the choices we make in between life and death always have an impact on our lives, but what we may not realize is that they do impact others as well, maybe in our lifetime on earth, but it does affect others. Shortly after we learn of Hezekiah praising God for healing him, we learn of his decision to invite the people of Babylon into his home.
[Isaiah 39:1-3,5-6,8 At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered. 2 And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. 3 Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. 5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: 6 Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD. 8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.]
[Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken.] Unlike all the rest of the kings who revolted after getting news of judgment, Hezekiah praised God. Going against God’s Word does not change a thing, regardless of whether or not we choose to believe it to be true or not. And revolting against God is another thing that does not change a thing, the only thing it does is send people to hell in all their pride. No one has to face that dreaded judgment of eternal death, anyone who ends up in hell has only themselves to blame for that, for if they believe in God, they had to have had some knowledge of the Gospel, [Luke 21:32-36 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. 33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. 34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.]
Jesus Christ Magnified: [Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.]
Today’s Prayer: God, I know that you are the only living God and that because I put my faith and trust in Your Son, I know You are my God. You already produced one miracle by giving me eternal life, now, I am trusting in You to do more as you help me endure the afflictions in life until You bring me home. Lord, Lead me and guide in me in Your will and Your way, let me be a witness and a story for all to tell of my love for You. I love you and ask this in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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