Thursday – February 29, 2024, Adar Aleph 20, 5784
Greetings dear and precious saints of God my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, and welcome back to this life changing study of the Bible book of Isaiah. Please take a moment and share this teaching as widely as possible by every means available to you. Thank you so much for sharing. The featured picture today is of Donna and me at Church.
This is a Leap Year, hence a 29th day in a month that usually has 28 days. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and History.com these leap years occur every four years. Reportedly the Egyptians were the first to recognize the need for a leap year. Next the need was recognized in Europe and by Julius Caesar so their calendar was adjusted to a twelve-month calendar of 365 days with a leap day every four years and this was called the Julian calendar. The real year is actually 365.242 days therefore with the Julian calendar, which was introduced in 46 B.C. there was an 11-minute surplus causing the calendar to be off course by one day every 128 years.
To fix this Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 introduced the Gregorian calendar (the one we use today). In this model a day was added every four years except for years evenly divisible by 100 but not by 400. Although this calendar is not perfect it will not need to be adjusted for some 10,000 years. Ordinarily on the Gregorian calendar the day of the week advances by one day for a given date each year except in the leap year it advances by two days. For example, Christmas fell on Tuesday in 2001, Wednesday in 2002, and Thursday in 2003 but leapt over Friday falling on Saturday in 2004. Now we all know a little more about leap year.
Now, let’s turn our attention to our primary Bible text in the wonderful Book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 51:16-19 (NIV)
16 I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand– I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.'”
17 Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.
18 Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her; of all the sons she reared there was none to take her by the hand.
19 These double calamities have come upon you– who can comfort you?– ruin and destruction, famine and sword– who can console you?
I am picking up with verse seventeen today, let’s look at it in the Message Bible.
Isaiah 51:17 (MSG)
17 So wake up! Rub the sleep from your eyes! Up on your feet, Jerusalem! You’ve drunk the cup GOD handed you, the strong drink of his anger. You drank it down to the last drop, staggered and collapsed, dead-drunk.
If you have been saved very long and read much of the Bible you know that the Israelites turned to other gods over and over going into bondage time and again. The Lord will stretch His mercy, His pity to its legal limits but then He has to allow judgment. He is a God of justice. He shows no partiality for that would be injustice.
Psalm 89:14 (AMP)
14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and loving-kindness and truth go before Your face.
It is interesting that when people sin and they are experiencing the judgment associated with that sin, lifestyle, they frequently run from God, not to God. Perhaps you have noticed this in others, perhaps in your own life. It angers God when we are disobedient just as you may be angered by your natural children. Dear ones let’s determine to seek after Him, His ways with all of our hearts and obtain the victory He ordained us to enjoy.
Matthew 22:36-40 (KJV)
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Do you suppose Jesus is right? If we don’t do this, forget the rest. Remember, the word “love” here is agapē/agapaō). If you don’t know the significance of that get my book on Amazon.com/books titled Awake, Arise, and Triumph – Be Love.
Lord willing, I will pick up right here next week, next month. Remember, we love you and there is nothing you can do about it.
Authored 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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