Monday – April 1, 2024, Adar Bet 22, 5784
Greetings dear ones and welcome back to this wonderful Bible Study of the Bible Book of Isaiah. Please take a moment and share this teaching as widely as possible to expand our reach with the Truth. Thank you for sharing. The featured picture today is to remind us to pray for all people, for all seven spheres of influence (mountains of culture), especially those in authority.
1 Timothy 2:1-3 (NIV)
1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–
2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior,
What about this day in history? I remember this day as a child and playing jokes/pranks on people and having them played on me. Thought I would give you a little history.
April Fools’ Day, also called All Fools’ Day, in most countries the first day of April. It received its name from the custom of playing practical jokes on this day—for example, telling friends that their shoelaces are untied or sending them on so-called fools’ errands. Although the day has been observed for centuries, its true origins are unknown and effectively unknowable. It resembles festivals such as the Hilaria of ancient Rome, held on March 25, and the Holi celebration in India, which ends on March 31.
Some have proposed that the modern custom originated in France, officially with the Edict of Roussillon (promulgated in August 1564), in which Charles IX decreed that the new year would no longer begin on Easter, as had been common throughout Christendom, but rather on January 1. Because Easter was a lunar and therefore moveable date, those who clung to the old ways were the “April Fools.” Others have suggested that the timing of the day may be related to the vernal equinox (March 21), a time when people are fooled by sudden changes in the weather.
Now, let’s turn our attention to our primary Bible text in the book of Isaiah continuing to read out loud. Yes, out loud, you know why.
Isaiah 52:4-7 (NIV)
4 For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “At first my people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them.
5 “And now what do I have here?” declares the LORD. “For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock,” declares the LORD. “And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.”
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
The Lord is good dear ones, way over the top good, never the author of stealing, killing, or destroying in our lives. In our text the Lord is lamenting that His people always seem to be in bondage. He says, first you went down to Egypt, lately the Assyrians oppressed and took them into bondage and now they are taken away to Babylon. It seems that many of us have thought it was the will of God for His people to go into Egypt in the time of Joseph. Perhaps the problem isn’t that they went but they stayed. Now I know the Lord Himself told Abram of this.
Genesis 15:13 (NIV)
13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
No where does He say this was His will. Just because something happens doesn’t mean it is the will of God. They should have left when the famine passed. Whose idea was it to bring Jacob/Israel and the remainder of the Jews into Egypt?
Genesis 45:7-11 (KJV)
7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not:
10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:
11 And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.
It was Joseph’s idea and it appears from verse eleven that the original intention was that they would ride out the famine in Egypt and then return home, but they stayed. Have any of us had an assignment for a season and stayed out of the will of God.
When Joseph passed and the Pharoah that knew Joseph passed, they started into the path of slavery.
Exodus 1:8-11 (KJV)
8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Lord willing, I will pick up right here tomorrow. Remember the Lord loves you; we love you, and God is always good and cannot lie, ever.
By: Dr. David R. Wood, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
2 Chronicles 20:20 b (KJV)
20 … Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (KJV)
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
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