Isaiah 31:6

Verse of the Day Devotion.  Isaiah 31:6

“Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.” – Isaiah 31:6  

Isaiah is prophesying about Judah coming under attack by Sennacherib and the Assyrian empire. And what he was telling them was that there was a faction that was seeking help from Egypt rather than seeking Jehovah their God. “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!” Isaiah 31:1. In doing this, Isaiah confronted Judah with two sins: the sin of trusting in Egypt and their military might, and the sin of not looking to the Holy One of Israel. Judah felt they had a reason to trust in chariots because they are many. And they felt they had a reason to trust in horsemen because they are very strong. But they couldn’t seem to find a reason to trust in the LORD. But next he declares God is able. “Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, and does not retract His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of the workers of iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; so the LORD will stretch out His hand, and he who helps will stumble and he who is helped will fall, and all of them will come to an end together.” Isaiah 31:2-3. He states here two things. First, that God is wise and can bring disaster on His foes, and that the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are merely creatures of flesh and not spiritual, and they will not be victorious if they rely on them.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “For thus says the LORD to me, as the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, against which a band of shepherds is called out, Will not be terrified at their voice, nor disturbed at their noise, so will the LORD of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill. Like flying birds so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it; He will pass over and rescue it.” Isaiah 31:4-5. Judah’s trust in Egypt to protect them against the Assyrian invasion was both foolish and unnecessary. God would protect them, as a lion growls over its prey when a shepherd comes to it, whether Judah trusts Him or not. And of a mother bird protecting her young. So, God will defend Jerusalem with the ferocity of a lion, and also with the tender care of a bird. The combination of the two images is powerful.

And because of the message God gave to Isaiah, we read in our focus verse this message to Judah, “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.” Isaiah 31:6. God is calling them to return to Him, to trust in Him rather than in Egypt or anything else. Because of how great God is and because of how terrible the alternatives to serving Him are, they should feel compelled to return to Him. They should repent of their idolatry, destroy their idols, repent, and give themselves to God.

And the reason is seen in the last three verses of chapter thirty-one. “For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made as a sin. And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, And a sword not of man will devour him. So, he will not escape the sword, And his young men will become forced laborers. And his rock will pass away because of panic, And his princes will be terrified at the standard, declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 31:7-9. Then Assyria will fall. And this was fulfilled exactly as prophesied. The Assyrian army devastated almost the entire land of Judah, and camped on the outskirts of Jerusalem, waiting to conquer the nation by defeating the capital city. And in 2 Kings we read of this battle. “Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. And it came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.” 2 Kings 19:35-37.  

Going through hard times is difficult. Sometimes we wonder just how we will make it through. But it is important to remember that God is the one we should go to for our help and support. Granted, friends and family will be there also, but we must rely on Him predominantly to bring us through. And many times He will use friends and family in our support and solution. But we must remember He is our primary helper. And who knows who and what He will use to provide us with victory.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Isaiah 55:11

Verse of the Day Devotion Isaiah 55:11 

“So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” –  Isaiah 55:11 

The beginning of this verse shows that what was stated previously was an example or a metaphor regarding what was coming next.  In the prior verse we see the metaphor.  “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;” Isaiah 55:10. Now, verses 10-11, where the latter is our focus verse, gives a reason why we should seek the Lord and abandon our unrighteousness, which is the absolute dependability of God’s word.  Whatever He says, will come about.  In verse ten above, God speaks of the rain and the snow that fall from the sky.  When it comes down to earth, it will do the work God called it to do.  In the ancient Near East, rain was the difference between life and death. When the rain came at the appropriate time the farmer could hope for good crops, which meant enough food for the coming year.  However, if the rain did not come, not only was the crop lost but also the seed that was planted.  And what followed was famine and starvation.  Isaiah here states that God’s word was just like the rain, and only returns when it has completed what it was sent to do.  In particular, he compares the effectiveness of both.  Now we know that the water eventually returns to the sky, but as these verses state, not until the rain and snow had accomplished the watering of the soil and the seeds. It will remain until this was accomplished. 

And God’s preexistent purpose and the certainty of its accomplishment is a central theme throughout the scriptures.  “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, my purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure;” Isaiah 46:9-10.  He knows the end of all things from the beginning of all things.  He is never surprised and everything He declares absolutely will come to pass.  And the main idea specifically meant here in this chapter is found in verse 7.  “Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7. 

Jesus said the following as recorded by John “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18.  As Christians, if we truly believe in Him and turn away from our sins, we will be pardoned.  Again, as Isaiah said, “Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7.  God loves those who have turned their hearts to Him and abandon their former sinful life.  God has spoken and His words are true.  We who truly follow God and love Him with all our hearts are assured of our pardon because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.  Whatever He has declared as our future is assured.  Therefore, be confident that this will totally come to pass. For as our focus verse states, “So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Isaiah 55:7

Verse of the Day Devotion Isaiah 55:7  

“Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.” – Isaiah 55:7

When we look at the verse just prior to our focus verse, we see Isaiah’s call to His people to become more diligent in their relationship with God.  “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.” Isaiah 55:6.  Isaiah tells us to seek God while God allows Himself to be found.  Back then at the time of the writing of the Book of Isaiah, as well as now, God can be found because He is near.  We can call out to Him and He will hear us and we can cry out to Him for mercy while repenting of our sins, and He will answer and forgive us.  For when the Messiah comes for His people, this time will be gone.

Now in our focus verse, the writer says that one of the things that a wicked person must do when drawing near to God is to forsake their evil ways, their evil thoughts, and their evil plans. The verb “forsake” is traditionally translated as a continuation of God’s invitation expressed in a mildly commanding wish or desire, in this case, let the wicked forsake his way. The act of forsaking past ways and thoughts involves the rejection of these behaviors and a decisive break from past beliefs, assumptions, priorities, and plans. Of course it is not always easy to separate instantly from past friends, past ways of doing things, or a past philosophy of life. The second verb encourages the audience to “turn” to God after they have turned away from their past wicked life. This requires a transformation of the mind and heart by the Spirit of God. The plans of God may require his people to give up their dreams, change jobs, and move to live in another place, but the person who truly turns to God wants to serve him and eagerly desires to follow his direction. This request to return to the Lord is a spiritual change of the will and a person’s thinking. This is a turning to follow God. 

And the results of this forsaking of an old evil way of thinking and accepting a new godly perspective is that God will have compassion and will freely pardon those who respond. Although it is clear that God will have mercy on those who repent, it would be wrong to draw the conclusion that repentance is required before God can show mercy on anyone. That would almost suggest that certain works of faith automatically produce or earn for the believer a gracious divine response. Yet, many passages speak of God’s love and compassion for sinful people, so it is clear that various aspects of God’s mercy happen both before and after repentance, though no human acts can earn God’s grace. As an example, “I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’ To a nation which did not call on My name.  I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way, which is not good, following their own thoughts,” Isaiah 65:1-2.  

God is calling us to come to Him, seek Him while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near.  We have time now, therefore we should go to Him in humility and ask forgiveness and turn from those ways that are against the calling of Christ in our lives.  We must go to Him and if there is anything we do or think that is not pleasing to God, we must forsake those ways and fall in line with what God desires of us.  And what is the outcome of truly doing this, returning to the Lord and His ways? He shall have abundant mercy on us and will pardon us.  God is ready with compassion and abundant pardon in His hands that a way has been found and that those who will turn around from their rebellion, confess their sin, and accept the sin offering of the Servant may have something infinitely better than restoration in Judah, which is restoration to God. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Lamentations 3:40

Verse of the Day Devotion:  Lamentations 3:40   

“Let us test and examine our ways and return to the LORD!” – Lamentations 3:40

Let us start this with the verse just before our focus verse in order to understand what is being said.  “Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?” Lamentations 3:39.  What he is saying is, if a man sins why should He gripe and complain about what happens to him.  The writer of Proverbs put it this way.  “When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.” Proverbs 19:3. The writer is basically saying that when a man gives into the sinful ways and desires of his heart, it causes him to go astray from the ways God has called him to go.  And when things do not go well for him, he places all the blame upon God and not on the one who actually caused this to happen, himself.  Thus, the writer of Lamentations is saying, why should someone complain about what God allows to happen because of their sins?  I like the way Theologian Adam Clarke put it.  “He who has his life still lent to him has small cause of complaint. How great soever his affliction may be, he is still alive; therefore, he may seek and find mercy unto eternal life. Of this, death would deprive him; therefore let not a living man complain.” 

So, going back to verse 39, why should a man complain about the outcome of his own behavior?  At least he is still alive and can make adjustments in his ways.  And if he still lives, what should he do rather than sit around and complain?   The answer lies in our focus verse.  “Let us test and examine our ways and return to the LORD! “ Lamentations 3:40.  This is a more reasonable and profitable thing to do rather than complaining to and about God.  We should look within ourselves and see whether our ways have been good or bad.  Do we have things we do which are not good?  Do we think badly about others who may be more happy and  content than we are?  When we look inside, do we see areas which we know God is not happy with? 

The main idea here is that God is calling us to look inside ourselves and look deep within and see if there is anything we need to ask forgiveness for and repent of.  And ask God to help us see these things.  David called out to God and asked Him to assist in seeing what was in his heart.  “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!”  Psalm 139:23-24. 

This should be our desire as we walk on the earth in the Lord.  We should want to see any wrong thing we do or desire and work toward wiping them out.  We should, with the Lord’s help, examine our heart and our ways, looking deep into what drives us  and what our focus is on.  And we should pray that God will take these desires away and lead us back to Him. 

This can be a difficult endeavor.  We may not want to know where our hearts are, what we desire in our lives, and where our thoughts lead us.  However, God wants us to do this and more, for He wants a great and loving relationship with us.  He has amazing grace for us and will forgive us when we repent of these things and give our all to Him.  So, take some time to make the same requests David made.  “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23-24.  In doing this, we will test and examine our ways, and by making the necessary changes, we can return to the Lord and have a much more wonderful relationship with God than we ever had.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries. 

John 21:22

(Editor’s note: Christiaan here, realistically William will be in the hospital until the weekend, I’m covering until then, and I’ll probably spend the rest of the week somewhere in this chapter, I hope you enjoy the Gospel of John as much as I do!)

Verse of the Day Devotion: John 21:22 (NLT)

Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” – John 21:22 (NLT)

This is one of the few times where Jesus had a sharp reply to one of his disciples. Normally Jesus would respond like this to someone who was disingenuously trying to trap him, or in the case of something that was objectively evil. (You can read about one of those times where Jesus had a flash of anger. I wrote about it earlier in the year on May 29th and you can read about it here.) So, let’s get a little bit of context. Jesus has been resurrected, he had appeared to the disciples who keep not recognizing him, he had just had a private conversation with Peter, and then eaten with the disciples. Peter and Jesus go for a walk and John begins to follow them.

Peter, who had just been reconciled as a disciple (it’s kind of a convoluted series of events and the basis for my next two verse of the days) and been given a commission of his own, hears John following him and according to verse 20 turns around and sees John, he then asks jesus, “What about him, Lord?” to which Jesus replies with our focus verse, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You follow me.”

“What about him, Lord?

Whataboutism, is beyond crippling to our daily lives. I remember when my mom used to discipline my sister and I, whenever I got in trouble, I would seem to point out the fact that either it wasn’t my fault because someone did something that I was only responding to and my response was thus justified… OR, I would ask to make sure that the other party (often times my sister) was punished appropriately. It was mildly infuriating, but as my mom would always wisely respond to my protests, “You’re responsible for your actions. It doesn’t matter what anyone else does, or how wrong, they were. By responding in that way, you’re guilty of doing wrong in the same way.”

Now that I’m older, I appreciate that advice, and it’s guided me through multiple interactions that could have gone worse if I didn’t remember that. I think the world would be a more peaceful place especially in the year 2020 with all the self justified rioting, looting, and wanton destruction of property due do to injustices, both actual and perceived if everyone’s mom’s had been like mine in this and many other respects. “Group X did bad thing, therefore I’m ok to do this other, potentially worse thing!” or “Yes, I did X action, but that was only to bring light to Y injustice” based on this verse how can we assume Jesus would respond? I would argue he would say, “What is that to you? Follow me.”

Outside of a justice/punishment perspective, “What about him, Lord?” is crippling to our walk with God. Whether it be the envies or lusts of the things of others, “We’re both Christians, how come she has that good job and that nice car?” or “Wait, I’m a Christian, and my life is complete crap, yet this guy is perhaps the worst of all sinners I know, and him life couldn’t be better.” But it doesn’t stop there. In Peter’s case, his potential envy wasn’t over material or other things, it was of something good, mayhaps even Godly. I mean, I’ve had to focus on this, and remember this lesson.

I mean look at it. Peter is walking with the resurrected messiah, he had spent his life waiting for. He had just had a private meal with him, was reconciled with God himself in a really special way. And then PERSONALLY given a commission and his calling in life. And what’s his first response after this. “What about John, Lord?” I mean, if I had been Jesus, I feel like I would have wanted to grab Peter by the shoulders and be like, “Dude, listen.” *snap snap* “Focus. Look at me. Look at me. What did we just talk about? You. Follow me.”

It should be noted that while Jesus’s words’ and tone based on the tenses of the greek is sharp, Jesus isn’t belittling or elevating one disciple over another, but instead telling Peter to not worry about what John’s calling is, because John’s calling is not Peter’s calling. And Peter’s calling isn’t my calling. God’s timing isn’t my timing. It took John until he was in his 90’s before he finished the work God had prepared for him; Peter had 66 years, and Jesus only 33 – Jesus was much more efficient.

I mean, in my own life, I was 35 before I got my first full time vocational ministry job. I had been called and prophecies had been given since before I was a year old. I had dutifully served and volunteered in church most of my life, went to school, got my masters, and did nothing with it because I was at a secular job. I remember confiding in one of my groups, that I was really struggling with the fact that kids I had discipled had gotten full time jobs as pastors without near the training, or experience I had. I was again reminded of this verse by a friend of mine. Little did I know at the time, however, that God was preparing me. At my current job, I’ve pulled on past experiences in every job I’ve held. I see now how God is using everything for his glory. BUT, if I had let my whataboutisms fester, and I had become bitter, angry with God, or worse with his people. I may not have been ready for the opportunity I had been given.

Anyway. When you’re walking with Jesus, may you not stop, turn around, and focus on others. May you not let what God is doing in others’ lives affect you. May you not justify your actions by others. May you choose to not ask “What about them, Lord?” and most importantly, may you follow him.