AWAKE, ARISE, AND TRIUMPH
Tuesday – September 27, 2022, Tishrei 2, 5783
A BARGAIN WITH DEATH
Greetings precious friends, partners, and children of God the Father. And, welcome back to this Bible Study of the Book of Isaiah. This Book is very instructive in righteousness and prophetic concerning the coming Messiah and the end of days. Please take a moment and share this teaching as widely as possible by every means available to you. Thank you for sharing, you have a very important role in this Ministry along with our partners. The beautiful picture today was taken a few years ago along the Belgrade Stream in Mount Vernon Maine.
Recently over a breakfast taco and conversation with a friend a quote attributed to H.B. Clendenin came up which really struck me. He reportedly said; “We preach what revival brings, rather than preaching what brings revival”. This struck me very much as a truth. We talk about salvations, healings, and deliverances but not the path that brings these things. It is as if we imagine going from here to there with no intervening steps. Einstein is credited with saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. In order for things to change in my life or yours, I must change, you must change. First, we must change in our thoughts, then our words, and then our actions. All the time perfecting faith in God, perfecting love (agape), and knowing the perfect will of God. As I taught about yesterday, our thoughts and ways must be His and not our own, those of the world system. It is out of our heart that revival will spring in the Church and then an awakening in the wider community. Let us once again meditate some of the Words of Jesus.
Matthew 12:35 (KJV)
35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
Mark 11:22-23 (KJV)
22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
John 14:12 (KJV)
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Do we believe any of this? When will we believe and do? Perhaps one dared to say, “oh yeah, I believe it”. Another might ask if this is something you know about or something you believe. If we believed, were fully persuaded, we would be doing it. Now, let’s turn our attention to our primary Bible text continuing to read out loud.
Isaiah 28:15-18 (TLB)
15 You have struck a bargain with Death, you say, and sold yourselves to the devil in exchange for his protection against the Assyrians. “They can never touch us,” you say, “for we are under the care of one who will deceive and fool them.”
16 But the Lord God says, “See, I am placing a Foundation Stone in Zion—a firm, tested, precious Cornerstone that is safe to build on. He who believes need never run away again.
17 I will take the line and plummet of justice to check the foundation wall you built; it looks so fine, but it is so weak a storm of hail will knock it down! The enemy will come like a flood and sweep it away, and you will be drowned.
18 I will cancel your agreement of compromise with Death and the devil, so when the terrible enemy floods in, you will be trampled into the ground.
As you know Israel (like many among us) goes in and out of sin and thus in and out of the curse. At the moment in our text, they are bargaining with flesh for deliverance and their God is nowhere in sight. The Devil is very skilled at deception, we must at all times be sober and vigilant constantly thinking the thoughts of God and speaking His Words. God says they made a “bargain with Death”, another translation a “Covenant with Death”. Death of course is the Devil himself. Let’s once again look at a passage in Jeremiah that lays out the consequences of relying primarily on flesh or God. There will always be things for us to do in the natural but our primary reliance, faith, is in God.
Jeremiah 17:5-8 (KJV)
5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Lord willing, I will pick up right here tomorrow.
2 Chronicles 20:20 b (KJV)
20 … Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye pros
Receive the blessing in Jesus name!
Numbers 6:24-26 (MSG)
24 GOD bless you and keep you,
25 GOD smile on you and gift you,
26 GOD look you full in the face and make you prosper.
By: Dr. David R. Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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