But in Love You Have Delivered My Life

Hello again!

This is what God gave me today in his word:

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. (Isaiah 38:1-5)

Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. (Isaiah 38:17)

Have you ever felt like you were dead in the sickness of sin? Well, guess what… God sees your tears too! He hears your prayers too! (have cast all my sins behind your back) believe it or not it is for our good… Look what Paul has to say about it:

²⁰ The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21) (See Romans 6:1-4!)

We can be on the point of death when God saves us… Why is that? How is it that drowning in our own sin can be good for us (aside from grace increasing)? Well there is always this to consider:

⁷ or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

OK sure, I understand all that now. But whats your point? … My point is this:

“Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

My point is that God hears our prayers and answers them. Though not always the way we might want him to… In short; because Jesus died and rose again for us our prayers are heard and answered! Back then they had a limited ability to meet with God… Only the high priest could go to the “most holy place”… Whereas now we can all meet with God!

You are loved!

Joshua Cleveland

 

Who Among the gods Can Save You?

Hello again!

This is what God gave me today in his word:

Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’” But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” (Isaiah 36:20-21)

When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’” (Isaiah 37:5-7)

Just to give you a quick bit of background information:

The king of Assyria has sent one if his servants to conquer Jerusalem. So the current king; Hezekiah, goes to Isaiah to ask him what God has to say… Now then:

Devil: Hey there Bob. Look over your shoulder, see that guy? He was no match for me even though he worshiped Buda, what makes you think your different? What makes you think that you can stand against me and win? … The truth of the matter is that we can’t stand against the Devil. The truth of the matter is that the only way we can stand against the Devil is if we aren’t the one standing… By that I mean that we can only stand against the Devil if it’s not us but Jesus standing against him.

One of the things you’ll see is that the people on the wall remained silent when “the servant” taunted them. Do you think that has any significance for us? I think so; after all, we have no power over Satan, and therefore we should just remain silent when the Devil talks to us right? Wrong:

⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Look at this as well:

² And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2)

Even the Lord rebukes Satan in his own name! Why? Because we can’t say anything that can stop the Devil, but God can. Back In Isaiah again we see Isaiah talking to the King and the High Priests telling them that the Lord will make a way. It’s the same now! … Though not always through a Prophet God will make his way known.

Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me.

When God is reviled, he will “stand up for himself”:

⁹ When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. ¹⁰ The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God. (1 Chronicles 13:9-10)

In short; we can trust our God because he is the one and only true God. We don’t need to fear the Devil because we have God living in us!

You are loved!

Joshua Cleveland