Sunday, January 30, 2011

International Sunday School Lesson, Jesus Is the Messiah, Mark 8:27-9:1, for 2-6-11





Jesus Is the Messiah
Mark 8:27-9:1
International Sunday School Lesson
February 6, 2011


Commentary
By
Jed Greenough





Mark 8:27-9:1 
Peter’s Confession of Christ
 27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
 28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
   29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
   Peter answered, “You are the Christ”
 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
Jesus Predicts His Death
 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Mark 9
 1 And he said to them, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”






Occasionally, I will surf the Internet once I have published a lesson and see what others are teaching on the same scripture that week.  If I were to look this week I will see some will compare the parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke and some might concentrate on a verse by verse lesson where they would tell you perhaps about the geography of Caesarea Philippi proceeding on eventually to the final verse for today where you will learn just what their theory is for what Jesus meant when He said that some who were there with Him would not taste death.

As for me, what stood out is that I felt moved to discuss what I thought Jesus had been thinking about.  I considered each of the accounts of this incident and what I saw was that Jesus was thinking about His mission.

He asks His disciples, “Who do the people say I am?”  He had been traveling throughout the region teaching and healing.  The news of the miracles He performed could not be contained and the people thronged to be near Him, sometimes by the thousands.   Jesus was not making any claims to these crowds, but in hearing what He taught and seeing His power the people would naturally have been making assumptions, assumptions that began with the fact that Jesus was just not like them.  None of them and no one that they knew could do what He was doing.

Next we see Jesus ask the disciples who they say He is.  After all, they were with Him morning and night; where He went they went, what He ate they ate, and everything He taught, and every miracle He performed was seen by them.

The answer He was given was delivered by Peter, “You are the Christ.”

Those that had seen Him from a crowd perspective; perhaps only once from afar or knew of Him through rumors, made suppositions about who He was; but those that knew Him well enough to see the whole picture saw Him for what and who He really was.  Because of this Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him.

He told them this because of His mission, and that mission had a time table, God’s timetable a timetable that in no small measure was spelled out in the scriptures given in the past.  Being aware of this, Jesus wanted them to know it as well.  What He does next is to reveal to them more about what that mission would entail. The people could think He was Elijah or Jeremiah or John the Baptist but with the things He still had to do, the people couldn’t all be thinking He was the Christ.

First, He must be completely convicted in the minds of the leaders of the people as a threat to their power.  Being convicted in this manner He would be made to suffer and die but miraculously and evidently missed by Peter, He would rise to life after three days.

Peter did not know, nor could He yet conceive, what Jesus’ mission really meant.  How could He have understood that Jesus had to die?  But so that all the disciples would understand the gravity of what He was doing Jesus who was being privately rebuked by Peter turned the conversation to include all the disciples.

Can you imagine how Peter must have felt?  I think all the disciples must have appreciated the gravity of what Jesus mission was about after the words, “Get behind me Satan” were uttered!


He had their attention that’s for sure, but He knew that being men they didn’t understand and by nature had in mind the things of men, not God.  And just what were these things of God?

What Jesus would accomplish was God’s plan of salvation for those who would come to Him and follow Him.

Well, there you go; that in a nutshell is what I want you to come away with on today’s scripture.  Oh wait, should I comment on that last verse? Can I just pretend that the ISSL made a mistake by including that?  Well, I guess I could, but I won’t.  What did Jesus mean, by saying “some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power”?

Some will suggest that He was referring to the Transfiguration which would happen in six days.  Personally, I find that weak; after all I would have hoped they would still be alive after only six days and I don’t see how that could have been what He was talking about.

Taken in context, He was just talking of coming in His Father’s glory with the holy angels wasn’t He?

Then that would mean then that when He came in His Father’s glory with the angels some would still be alive at that time.  Quite simply that would mean literally that after all this time maybe He has kept some of the disciples or those in the crowd who came to faith alive.  Perhaps they have played an integral part for the church down through the millennia.  Pretty cool huh?

Could He do this?  Of course He could, but I really doubt that this is what He was saying. 

What I really think is that we have lost or rather added something in translating this because in preparing for this lesson I read the literal translation of the verse in question and it reads this way:

Mark 9:1 (Young’s Literal Translation)

And He said to them, ‘Verily I say to you, That there are certain of those standing here, who may not taste of death till they see the reign of God having come in power.’

May not taste of death, remember even Jesus didn’t know when He would come with power and glory with His Father’s angels as we read in Matthew 24:36, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father.”

Regardless of how we come down on interpreting this verse, remember some things are worth getting hung up over, this is not one of them.  What is?  The same thing He was thinking about, His mission, which He perfectly completed.








For Discussion:


1.      I cannot stress enough the fact that Jesus asks the question “Who do people say I am?” as being of vital importance.  In the Signs of the End of the Age in Matthew 24 Jesus stresses the need for even the Elect to not be deceived by false Christs.  Read MT 24:3-5, 10-11, 23-28 or just read the whole chapter!
2.      Discuss why people may have thought Jesus was Elijah.
3.      Consider how difficult it must have been for the disciples not to tell everyone at that time that Jesus was the Christ.  Compare that to how difficult it is for us to tell everyone we know now that we should!
4.      In what way, if at all, are you denying yourself to follow Him?
5.      Discuss all the alternative ideas to what you think Jesus meant in 9:1
6.      From time to time I like to encourage visitors to put this site in their favorites as it’s placement in the search engines changes from day to day and I wouldn’t want us to miss out on our gathering together.  Thanks!


(Join me next week for the International Sunday School Lesson for February 13, 2011, This Is My Beloved, on Mark 9:2-13)













Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.












Saturday, January 22, 2011

Healed by His Bruises, Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-12, International Sunday School Lesson for 1-30-11

ATTENTION:  Please note that this lesson, Healed by His Bruises on Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-12 is for the 1-30-11 ISSL.  You will find the 1-23-11 lesson, The Servant’s Mission in the World, directly beneath this message and on the right side.


Jed




Healed by His Bruises
Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-12
International Sunday School Lesson
1-30-11
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough





Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-12

 4 Surely he took up our infirmities
   and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
   smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
   and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
   and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul,
   he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
   and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
   and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
   and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
   and made intercession for the transgressors.






Sometimes there are times when I do not feel worthy to teach on certain passages of scripture—this is one of those times.

When I read today’s scripture, my mind cannot stay on these verses alone but rather it is flooded with too many thoughts, too many tie-ins with other prophecies, other scriptures, and my mind is overwhelmed.

Many hours have been spent on this lesson trying to find something coherent in this sea of thoughts that will benefit you the reader.

I know that these verses mean just as much to you, that you have read these many times.  You probably have wondered how anyone could not read these prophecies and read their fulfillment in Christ and not come to faith.

As for the Jews we know that our Christian faith began with Jews but as a whole the majority of them rejected Him.

Paul in Romans 10 and 11 quotes Isaiah, Moses, and David showing that God would call those to Him who were not His and did not seek Him.  That God gave Israel a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear.  A hardening that would last until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

The fullness of the Gentiles or the nations, this is where we Christians come in.  Christ said in Matthew 24:14 in speaking of the End of the Age, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

In my other blog I recently wrote about Paul reminding the Corinthians (in 1 Corinthians 15) about the gospel.  Reminding them because they seemed to have forgotten it,  that the work of the gospel was what they were to be about.  And not just some of them and not just a little but rather they were to give themselves fully.

I think, though I cannot prove it obviously, that this is what Christ was referring to in Revelation 2 when He said, “You have forsaken your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen!  Repent and do the things you did at first.”

Jesus, as we read today, was pierced for our transgressions and by His wounds we are healed.  Just as Paul reminded the Corinthians, all the scriptures including today’s remind us that by this we are saved and by which we should take our stand!

Below I hope you will find what I have done helpful in your appreciation of today’s scripture.  I have listed each of today’s verses in order and after each one listed at least one other verse from elsewhere in the Bible that I feel fits nicely.




Today’s verse 4 Surely he took up our infirmities
                and carried our sorrows,
               yet we considered him stricken by God,
              smitten by him, and afflicted.


Matthew 8:16-17

16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
   “He took up our infirmities
   and carried our diseases.”


1 Peter 2:24

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

________________________________________________________________________


Today’s verse 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.



Romans 4:25 

25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.


1 Corinthians 15:3 

 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

1 Peter 2:24 
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

________________________________________________________________________


Today’s verse 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.


Romans 3:9-10 

 9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written:
   “There is no one righteous, not even one;


1 Peter 2:25 

25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

________________________________________________________________________


Today’s verse 10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
   and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
   and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.



Hebrews 5:8-9 

8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

Isaiah 66:22 

 22 “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure.

________________________________________________________________________


Today’s verse 11 After the suffering of his soul,
   he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
   and he will bear their iniquities.



Romans 5:18-19 

 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

________________________________________________________________________


Today’s verse 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
   and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
   and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
   and made intercession for the transgressors.



Hebrews 9:28 

28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.


Luke 22:37 

37 It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”




For Discussion:


  1. Read all 4 Servant Songs in Isaiah.  42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12
  2. Read Luke 24:13-35.  Christ used these very scriptures to explain that He was the Messiah.
  3. Read verse 4 and Zechariah 12:10
  4. Read Romans 9-11
  5. “Repent and do the things you did at first.”  “Give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.”




(Join me next week for the International Sunday School Lesson for February 6, 2011, Jesus Is the Messiah, on Mark 8:27-9:1)

















Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.





Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Servant's Mission in the World, Isaiah 49:1-6, Sunday School Lesson for 1-23-11





ATTENTION:  Please note that this lesson, The Servant’s Mission in the World on Isaiah 49:1-6 is for the 1-23-11 ISSL.  You will find the 1-16-11 lesson, Reassurance for God’s People, directly beneath this message and on the right side.


Jed




The Servant’s Mission in the World
Isaiah 49:1-6
International Sunday School Lesson
January 23, 2011
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough



Isaiah 49:1-6 

The Servant of the LORD

 1 Listen to me, you islands;
   hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the LORD called me;
   from my birth he has made mention of my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
   in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
   and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
   Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
4 But I said, “I have labored to no purpose;
   I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.
Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand,
   and my reward is with my God.”
 5 And now the LORD says—
   he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
   and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD
   and my God has been my strength—
6 he says:
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
   to restore the tribes of Jacob
   and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
   that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”




Isaiah, the great prophet of Israel, has been announcing the plans for redemption that God had in store for them albeit a century and a half later but nevertheless the prophecies were for them.  This one, however, if you will note, was for everyone but them, the islands, the distant nations—for us.

As we have mentioned in our previous studies, God called Cyrus long before he was born.  He announced to all of Israel living and those that were born in intervening years his name.

Similarly, in today’s passage, we see God announcing something that should have startled Israel in Isaiah’s day because Isaiah, their prophet was telling them something that wasn’t for them but for others.

They should have been perplexed that this servant is called Israel but clearly wasn’t them and this certainly fit handily with the idea of a hidden weapon, out of sight, concealed, all the more dangerous seeming because of being unseen.

The perplexity had to continue with the seeming lack of success that the servant professes to have attained, but ah that is the beauty of prophecy isn’t it?

Even now, after all we have seen and read concerning Christ we think we understand it, but do we?

Someone like me in preparing a lesson or simply in studying will think we have the meaning nailed and pass that interpretation on, but let me warn you.  There are prophecies whose interpretations might seem harmless and there are those that are anything but.  Those that deal with future fulfillments are the ones where the danger lies strongest because those are the ones that deal with the most trying times that man will ever live through.  But there is also danger in the others that seem harmless if the meaning is taught as an absolute and one after another they create a foundation in which each teaching must be believed in order to interpret the next eventually leading right on up to those that deal with future fulfillments.

So there is my caveat for you concerning prophecy and why I stress that my understanding is not absolute and therefore should not be taken as such.  As I write concerning the prophet Daniel in my site http://www.matthew24.com/ even though Daniel was gifted with the ability to understand dreams and visions of all kinds, he still did not understand those given him concerning the one that most refer to as the antichrist nor his time.

When I look at this prophecy I feel amusement and sorrow.  God is revealing a mystery but it still would not have been understood and in my opinion that is why it is speaking to everyone but Israel, He is hidden away like a mystery.

How could they have understood the Messiah being formed in a womb, born as they were?

They would not have understood that what they, Israel, did not display—God’s splendor, this servant, called Israel, could.

How would they understand that this servant seemingly labored in vain (or would) when He came because:

John 1:10-11 

 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.


In the words of today’s passage, God said:

Isaiah 49:6 

 “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
   to restore the tribes of Jacob
   and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
   that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”



John 1:12 

12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—






For Discussion:


  1. Discuss “mouth like a sharpened sword”.  See Isa 11:4; HE 4:12; Rev 1:16, 2:12, 16; 19:15, 21.
  2. Do a concordance search on the word “mystery” and discuss as it relates to verse two.
  3. Discuss verse 4’s statement “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain.
  4. Discuss “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
  5. Compare verse 6 and Luke 2:32, Acts 13:47, Acts 26:23
  6. Do to the vagaries of search engine results from week to week, please bookmark this site.  Thanks!





(Join me next week for the International Sunday School Lesson for January 30, 2011, Healed by His Bruises, on Isaiah 53:4-6, 10-12)













Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.


Saturday, January 8, 2011

Reassurance for God's People....Isaiah 48:14-19, 21-22; Sunday School Lesson for 1-16-11



ATTENTION:  Please note that this lesson, Reassurance for God’s People on Isaiah 48:14-19, 21-22 is for the 1-16-11 ISSL.  You will find the 1-9-11 lesson, Turn to Me and Be Saved, directly beneath this message and on the right side.


Jed





Reassurance for God’s People
Isaiah 48:14-19, 21-22
International Sunday School Lesson
1-16-11
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough




Isaiah 48:14-19 

 14 “Come together, all of you, and listen:
   Which of the idols has foretold these things?
The LORD’s chosen ally
   will carry out his purpose against Babylon;
   his arm will be against the Babylonians.
15 I, even I, have spoken;
   yes, I have called him.
I will bring him,
   and he will succeed in his mission.
 16 “Come near me and listen to this:
   “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;
   at the time it happens, I am there.”
   And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me,
   with his Spirit.
 17 This is what the LORD says—
   your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God,
   who teaches you what is best for you,
   who directs you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands,
   your peace would have been like a river,
   your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants would have been like the sand,
   your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be cut off
   nor destroyed from before me.”

Isaiah 48:21-22 

21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
   he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
   and water gushed out.
 22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”






If you are not a first time student of the International Sunday School Lessons or Uniform Series, I am sure by now that you are seeing that God must have felt that if He didn’t keep stressing the same thing, Israel would keep missing the point.

Okay, I will just cut to the chase, I personally think, speaking of missing, that the committee for the ISSL really missed the point of this particular scripture when they entitled it “Reassurance for God’s people”.  Yes, God is saying that His plan to free them using Cyrus will happen and it will be successful, but go back and look at the passage because there isn’t much reassurance here for Israel.

God says, “Listen” I am the one that told you about this Cyrus fella, not some idol you have to carry around.

But then in verse 16, Isaiah announces himself by saying, “And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me, with His Spirit.”

And what Isaiah has to pass on are not reassurances but rather “if onlys”.  If only Israel had listened to what God taught, if only they had paid attention.  Then they would have had peace and righteousness and their children would have been blessed as a result.

God provides just as He provided water for them even as they rebelled in their wanderings in the desert but there was no peace for the wicked.

Go back and read the entire chapter of Isaiah 48 and you will see the chastisement even more clearly as opposed to reassurance as a theme.

For us as Christians, though, I think there can be reassurance.  We can see through our studies over the last several weeks that God keeps His word.

We know that if He says a failure to follow what He says is good for us will result in punishment then that is exactly what will happen and the opposite is true as well.

We have reassurance that God can look through the centuries and pronounce that one man yet to be born that won’t even acknowledge Him, will be used by Him for His purposes, in this case Cyrus’ defeating the Babylonians to free the captive Israelites.

We can have reassurance that all of what Isaiah said through God’s gift of His spirit is also true and of course this extends to the rest of scripture as well.

We can have reassurance that if what God taught and directed Israel was good for them then what He would teach us is good for us as well.

And we can be assured that by paying attention to this we will enjoy the peace and righteousness both for ourselves and our children that Israel could have had.

But, just like Israel, if we are stubborn and fail to follow what He teaches and directs or fail to observe Israel’s example then we will not have reassurance of peace but assurance that our wickedness will result in the opposite.

And what is the opposite of peace?

As I am writing this what will not leave my mind is that part of 1 Corinthians 14:33 that says “For God is not a God of disorder but peace…”

So to me the opposite of peace with God is disorder or as Young’s Literal Translation puts it “tumult”.

We can be reassured that if we follow what He directs we will have peace.



For Discussion:


  1. Discuss verse 17 with regard to how we tend to be critical of Israel and their failures to follow what God directed was best for them but yet how are we any different?
  2. Consider how peace can be like a river as mentioned in verse 18.
  3. Consider how righteousness can be like the waves of the sea as mentioned also in verse 18.
  4. Discuss how God provided for the Israelites even as they rebelled (verse 21) and compare that with what they could have had.
  5. Discuss that there is no peace for the wicked.
  6. Pray for Israel.




(Join me next week for the International Sunday School Lesson for January 23, 2011, The Servant’s Mission in the World, on Isaiah 49:1-6)
















Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Turn to Me and Be Saved......Isaiah 45:18-24a, Sunday School Lesson for 1-9-11





ATTENTION:  Please note that this lesson, Turn to Me and Be Saved on Isaiah 45:18-24a is for the 01-09-11 ISSL.  You will find the 01-02-11 lesson, I Am Your Redeemer, directly beneath this message and on the right side.


Jed



Turn to Me and Be Saved
Isaiah 45:18-24a
International Sunday School Lesson
January 9, 2011
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough




Isaiah 45:18-24a

18 For this is what the LORD says--
He who created the heavens,
He is God;
He who fashioned and made the earth,
He founded it;
He did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited--
He says:
"I am the LORD,
and there is no other. 
19 I have not spoken in secret,
from somewhere in a land of 
darkness;
I have not said to Jacob's 
descendants,
'Seek me in vain.'
I, the LORD, speak the truth;
I declare what is right.

20 "Gather together and come;
assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
who pray to gods that cannot save.
21 Declare what is to be, present it--
let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the LORD?
And there is no God apart from me, 
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none but me.

22 "Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no
other.
23 By Myself I have sworn, 
my mouth has uttered in all 
integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
24 They will say of me, 'In the LORD
alone 
are righteousness and strength.'"





Every time that I set out to write one of these lessons I pray to God that He use me to speak to you the message that He would most have me share.

I am sure that this message could be similar to some others you will encounter, but not most.  I am just as  sure that others that are preparing lessons will also be similarly praying to God concerning their message.

Done in this fashion, none are really better than the other they just show the multiple layers that make up our great and only God and His word.

God knows the ability of each that is preparing lessons concerning His word as well as those that will read them.

For me God seems to speak to my spirit that the pressing issue in this New Year and for this lesson is the emphasis that His people and those that would be His need to take action, they need to do as the title of this lesson reads, turn to Him and be saved.

Today’s lesson begins with an entreaty that God, He who created the heavens, is not doing things in secret.  We read in Romans 1:18-20

Romans 1:18-20 

God’s Wrath Against Mankind

 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Nor has God been secretive with regard to His purposes for Israel, having spelled it out through those that He chose to reveal it, men such as Moses or prophets such as Isaiah in today’s lesson.

Isaiah’s message that we have been studying these last few weeks has been concerning   redemption plans for God’s servant Israel, 150 years into their future.  And although this message may have given some hope to those that were alive at the time or in the intervening years, it seems to have been a message whose revelation was more for those that see its fulfillment in hindsight.

We have not done much more than allude to Cyrus who was a major part of this plan of freeing the Israelites from Babylon and allowing them to return to Jerusalem.  But the strength and power of this fulfillment has surely been a great source of inspiration for countless numbers who in reading it grew in their faith in the Lord.

Most of us will never know of the stories of witnesses of our faith who have led people to this passage.  People who actually fit the description of verse 20.


 20 “Gather together and come;
   assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
   who pray to gods that cannot save.



What a powerful example today’s passage as well as the preceding International Sunday School Lessons can be for those that have dealt with this subject.  Non-believers can see something in these scriptures, scriptures which by themselves they would not give much weight and add to it the historians’ books that they do give so much credence to.

The idol worshiper who has turned to his homemade god in times of doubt and despair can be read this prophecy concerning the conqueror Cyrus. He can prove by world history that Cyrus literally existed and see this prophecy dated long before Cyrus’ birth, combine it with today’s passage concerning God not speaking in secret and begin his faith.  That is literally what God is telling us in this passage. 

Fugitives from the nations from verse 20 who are ignorantly praying to made up gods that are not answering them and cannot save them…God is giving them a very clear message.  To paraphrase He is saying in verses 21-23 “talk about it amongst yourselves, here is a clear example, I foretold this long ago, from the distant past, this prophecy concerning Israel and Cyrus, whose right hand I took hold of.  And one day you and everyone else will have to give account of yourself to me.  Learn now that there is no God apart from me.  Turn to me now and be saved.”

As Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 55 people need to seek the Lord while He can be found, calling on Him while He is near.  Again, we read in the last two verses from today, that in the end, every knee will bend and every tongue confess and acknowledge that He is God, will they be rejoicing when they say it?




For Discussion:


  1. To me the statement in verse 18 that God did not create the earth to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited could be easily overlooked.  Rather than just taking that at face value what do you think it means?
  2. God operates in absolute light, not as it says in verse 19 “in a land of darkness.”  Discuss ways where words are spoken in darkness.
  3. Prepare a list of clearly seen fulfilled prophecies to help you readily witness to the unsaved.
  4. The ignorant turned to idols they have created.  Idols can be created from many things literally and figuratively.  Discuss the idols that people turn to.
  5. All the ends of the earth are instructed to turn to Him in order to be saved, consider Romans 10:14  “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
  6. Invite a friend to Sunday School.
          

(Join me next week for the International Sunday School Lesson for January 16, 2011, Reassurance for God’s People, on Isaiah 48:14-19, 21-22)









Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.