Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Isaiah 8:11-22
Set – Isaiah 8; Hebrews 8
Go! – Isaiah 8-10; Hebrews 8
Isaiah 8:11-22
11 See, this is what the Eternal told me. God leaned in close—His strong hand on me—to keep me from following these people.
12 Eternal One: Don’t call for an alliance, like all the rest of this people do.
Don’t fear what they fear, or dread what they dread.
13 After all, only the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, should terrify you.
Only God is holy. Only God should leave you trembling.
14 Look what I’m going to do in Zion:
The Eternal will be for you a sacred place,
But for both houses of Israel I’ll also be a stone that blocks their way
and a rock that trips them up;
For those who live in Jerusalem, I’ll be a trap and a snare.
15 Many will stumble over them. They will trip and be broken;
they’ll succumb to capture and be grabbed up.
16 Now take care to keep this message as it is.
Seal up this teaching
and hand it over to my disciples.
17 As for me, I will wait for the Eternal, even though He feels absent, even though He has hidden His face from the family of Jacob. I will put all hope in Him. 18 You see, I and my children whom the Eternal One gave to me, we personify the promise. We are signs of what God intends and will do in Israel, what amazing things the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies has in mind, the One who is indeed present in Zion, this heaven on earth.
19 People might tell you to ask the fortune-tellers, consult the babbling astrologers, conjure the dead to tell the living what’s to come, but shouldn’t they ask their God? 20 Go to God’s teaching and His testimony to guide your thoughts and behavior! If any response disagrees with the word of God, then it’s muddling and wrong and not the least bit illuminating. 21 It leaves the people bedraggled and desperate, drifting here and there. In their hunger, the people are bound to be infuriated and curse their king and God. They’ll look up to the heavens 22 and down to the earth, yet see nothing but trouble, gloom, anguish, and darkness. They will be driven out into the darkness.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Be careful in who and what you listen to all the time. Some today will tell you the Old Testament is irrelevant. I will tell you it isn’t. You learn a great deal about Me and about yourself from reading and understanding it. Isaiah talks about his determination and about the path of those who don’t follow Me. I consistently see people running to the wrong sources today for information that will lead them the wrong way.
Isaiah described today pretty well. “People might tell you to ask the fortune-tellers, consult the babbling astrologers, conjure the dead to tell the living what’s to come, but shouldn’t they ask their God? Go to God’s teaching and His testimony to guide your thoughts and behavior! If any response disagrees with the word of God, then it’s muddling and wrong and not the least bit illuminating.”
If you will stick to My word life will turn out well for you. If you don’t you will suffer through consequences that you won’t like. You can trust My word. As creator of all things, you know My word is true. You know I will guide you correctly through life with it. I will not lead you down a path that takes you away from Me, but will draw you closer to Me each day if you let Me.
What the fortune-tellers, astrologers, and others tell you might sound appealing. They might tell you things you want to hear, but they won’t be the things you need to hear. They won’t tell you the things that will lead you to a life of righteousness. You might like what you hear, but it doesn’t help you. Just like going to the doctor, sometimes the treatment is painful, but necessary for the cure. That’s how My teaching and discipline can be. Sometimes the things you need bring some pain but it’s necessary to bring you the growth you need.
Just because you experience pain in your spiritual growth doesn’t mean I don’t love you, though. I do. If I left you to your own devices, you would wallow in your sin and never enter My eternal rest. You would find yourself left out of heaven because of your evil. My remedy sometimes hurts, but will eventually bring you to the realization that I am God and you are not. I know what is best for you each step along the way. I can free you from the chains that bind you. I alone can give you the keys to the joy you long for.
Listen to Me, trust Me, follow Me, you won’t be sorry.
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