The Highway for God......International Sunday School Lesson for December 5, 2010

ATTENTION:  Please note that this lesson on Isaiah 40:1-5, 25-26, 29-31 is for the 12-5-10 ISSL.  You will find the 11-28-2010 lesson, God Is All-Knowing, on the right side.

Jed

The Highway for God

International Sunday School Lesson

December 5, 2010

Commentary

By

Jed Greenough

Isaiah 40:1-5

Comfort for God’s People

 ¹ Comfort, comfort my people,
   says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
   and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
   that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
   double for all her sins.

 ³ A voice of one calling:
“In the desert prepare
   the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
   a highway for our God
⁴ Every valley shall be raised up,
   every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
   the rugged places a plain.
⁵ And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
   and all mankind together will see it.
            For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Isaiah 40:25-26

 ²⁵ “To whom will you compare me?
   Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
   Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
   and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
   not one of them is missing.

Isaiah 40:29-31

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
   and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
   and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint.

Can you imagine a place where you are standing where it is completely flat?  There are no undulations, no varying topography, everything around you is the same level and then you look to your right and there roaring out from this plain is…….!

I do not believe I can do justice even in my mind’s eye what this sight will be like one day.  I have looked at the Tetons surging above the sagebrush flats and I have been to Alaska and been in awe as Mt. McKinley dwarfed what would be some major mountains elsewhere, but these all will be tumbled down as if forced to their knees in humility in recognition of our LORD.

Many commentaries for this week’s ISSL lesson will no doubt focus on Israel’s return from captivity in Babylon but I hope many more will not forget God’s use of double fulfillment of prophecy and that truly is what is in sight here as the past has been fulfilled, but the future, well obviously, it is yet to be!

What is yet to be fulfilled for Israel is the time we read about in Zechariah:

Zechariah 14

The LORD Comes and Reigns

 ¹ A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.

 ² I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

 ³ Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. ⁴ On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. ⁵ You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

 ⁶ On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. ⁷ It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime—a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light.

 ⁸ On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter.

 ⁹ The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

 ¹⁰ The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up and remain in its place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses. ¹¹ It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.

Do you see that?  We see in Zechariah 14:10 the same thing as in verse 4 from today’s lesson, all the land around Jerusalem will be made flat, but Jerusalem will be raised up.  The day of the Lord is what is in sight here.  Finally, Jerusalem’s “hard service” will be completed “her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”

As I said many of the commentaries you so studiously read in your study preparation for Sunday will focus on the past instead of the future, they will be like parrots repeating the same thing.  And with regard to verse 2 just quoted, I will depart from what so many of them have been teaching for so long.

“Her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”  Now it is clear from the words of this verse, “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem” what city we are talking about and then we read this about Jerusalem, her “sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”  Now let’s look at Revelation 18 and the fall of Babylon, this isn’t the Babylon that invades Israel but a different future Babylon and we read in verse 6, “Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done.”  Read today’s verse 2 again, sound similar?  I am sure you know many who have taught that Rome is Babylon because of it being a city of seven hills and it fits like a neat little package into who they believe the antichrist is blah, blah, etc. etc.  But do a little research yourself and see how many hills Jerusalem has!!

Now today’s scripture contains a verse that we would be remiss if we did not explore it just a little, that being verse 3.

 ³ A voice of one calling:
“In the desert prepare
   the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
   a highway for our God.

Who can read that verse and not think of:

Malachi 3:1 

 ¹ “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.

And:

Malachi 4:5-6 

 ⁵ “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

And:

Matthew 3:3 

³ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

   “A voice of one calling in the desert,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
   make straight paths for him.’”

And:

Matthew 17:11-12 

 ¹¹ Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. ¹² But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”

Most would teach that John the Baptist fulfilled this and I agree but I don’t think based on the fact that Malachi 4 is talking about the Day of the Lord that we have seen the last of “Elijah”!

Do any doubt that Jerusalem based on all the prophecies we have such as the one we read in Zechariah 14 verse 2 above will not need comfort or that Israel has been paying a price for her sin for over 2000 years?  Or that one day the “glory of the LORD will be revealed and all mankind together will see it”?

No, one day all will know He has no equal, and those left alive in Jerusalem tired, weary and weak will according to Zechariah 12 be “so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God”!

Yes, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak”.

Zechariah 12:10-13:1 

Mourning for the One They Pierced

 ¹⁰ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on^] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. ¹¹ On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, ¹³ the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, ¹⁴ and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

 ¹ “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.

For Discussion:

1. We can all be Elijah’s, we can all be a voice calling to “prepare the way for the LORD” and is in fact what we are to be doing through the work of the gospel.  (See http://workofthegospel.blogspot.com/ )
2. If today’s scripture is directed to Israel, discuss ways that you think it may also apply to Christians.
3. Discuss verse 3/Elijah/John the Baptist
4. Discuss verses 4 and 5, especially the fact that all mankind together will see the glory of the LORD revealed.
5. Find scripture that show Him giving power and strength to those in need.
6. Hebrews 12:1-3

(Please join me next week for commentary on the International Sunday School Lesson for December 12^th, 2010, I Am Your God, Isaiah 41:8-10, 17-20)

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

God Is All-Knowing........International Sunday School Lesson for November 28, 2010

ATTENTION!! As usual I am ahead of the game, please be aware that this is my commentary for the International Sunday School Lesson for November 28th and you will find November 21st below this one or on the right hand side.

Have a great Thanksgiving! 

Blessings!

Jed

God Is All-Knowing……..International Sunday School Lesson for

 November 28, 2010

 By

 Jed Greenough

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-16, 23-24

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

¹ You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

I will bet there are some of you out there today that really don’t like this psalm.  There’s just something that gets in your craw when you read things like, “Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.” Or, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Ah, foreknowledge and predestination, these are the things from which entire denominations spring!

I don’t want to get into any debates such as these create but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to get a little controversial but first let’s go back to the International Sunday School Lesson for November 21, 2010 where I closed with this question concerning Israel, “If they did not have faith…..why did He choose them?”

During the last couple weeks of the International Sunday School lessons we read Psalm 90 and Psalm 91.  In Psalm 90 we read the prayer of Moses concerning his people who over the course of 40 years were dying in the desert rather than the Promised Land and we contrasted that with last week’s Psalm 91 where the people in sight in this psalm were dwelling in His midst.

And now today’s psalm which says, to put it succinctly, God knows everything.

I am very comfortable with this aspect of God; however I know that many people are not.   They do not like to think that He knows who will be saved or not or who will succeed and who will fail.

Which finally leads me back to that question concerning Israel, why did He choose them?

He knew that when they were free of Egypt that they would almost immediately grumble that they would have been better off there.

He knew that they would turn to idol worship even as He was giving Moses the commandments that contain prohibitions against it.

He knew despite all the victories He gave them over nations there would be doubt about victory over others.

He knew that before His temple was built that it would not always stand.

He knew that this people would crucify His son.

I could surmise things that may or may not be true with why they were chosen but I do know this, there is no doubt that they were and still are chosen and that He knew every choice they would and will make.

What does God know about you?

I certainly have been asking a lot of questions lately and I hope these questions cause you to pause and ponder.  I think this pondering is helpful, I think that it brings maturity to our faith even though some things like God’s foreknowledge as it says in verse 6 from today, “is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”  We just can’t wrap our brains around it if you will, but that is okay because if we trust Him “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.  For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.”  Romans 8:28-30

If, as I said, there are some out there who don’t like today’s psalm, I am as certain as certain can be that you don’t like Romans 8:28-30 either!

Consider:

1 Corinthians 2:14

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

Are you struggling with accepting some of the aspects of your faith and is that troubling you?

In order to truly come to Him and accept the things that come from Him you must quit this struggle.  Pray to Him the words of verses 23 and 24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Those things in your faith that you are anxious about, that you struggle with, perhaps due to pride that you have been unwilling to leave behind, you need to surrender to Him in order to believe and accept all the scriptures and not just those that suit you.  You must accept that no one can come to Him on their own power, or by their own spirit or on their own two feet but only on their knees.

If you cannot accept this, He knew you wouldn’t and if you do surrender, He always knew you would!

For Discussion:

1. Consider Verses 2 and 4 and Romans 8:26-27 with regard to our thoughts.
2. Gather interpretations of verse 5 from the members of the class.
3. With regard to verse 15, how is the womb like the depths of the earth?
4. There are no doubt wide and varying interpretations concerning God’s foreknowledge and predestination within your class.  These matters should not be avoided but should be handled with discernment.
5. Some would question God’s word when scripture such as todays are read.  Be prepared to defend His word.
6. Consider that verses 23- 24 are easy to say and read but to pray this in earnest one should be prepared for what God will do!  Discussion of this fact may reveal to the class what they truly have buried in their hearts!

(Next week’s International Sunday School Lesson for December 5, 2010 will be The Highway for God looking at Isaiah 40:1-5, 25-26, 29-31)

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