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Isaiah 46-49

Isaiah
46:1-47:15  –  ‘I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me… I am bringing My righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed’ (46:9,13). God does not keep His distance from us. He comes near to us – ‘The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the Word of faith which we preach). God does not delay His salvation. He comes to us with His promise: ‘If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved’ (Romans 10:8-9). Jesus is the Word of God. He is our Saviour. He is our Lord (John 1:1,14; 20:28,31). Let us worship Jesus. He is ‘the Holy One of Israel’. He is ‘our Redeemer’. ‘The Lord Almighty is His Name’ (47:4). ‘O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord’ (Church Hymnary, 191).
48:1-22  –  ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go’ (17). God knows what is best for us. He helps us to say, ‘As for God, His way is perfect’ (Job 23:10; 2 Samuel 22:31).How does God help us to see that His way is best? He invites us to consider His love. We are to think about all that He has done for us – ‘the mercies of God’. He calls us to dedicate our lives to Him – ‘present your bodies, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God’. Dedicating our lives to the Lord – This is ‘our ‘spiritual worship’. We are not to live for this world – ‘Do not be conformed to this world’. We are to live for the Lord – ‘be transformed by the renewal of your mind’. ‘God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect’. Learn this for yourself. Dedicate your life to Him (Romans 12:1-2).
49:1-26  –  ‘I, the Lord, am your Saviour, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob’. We are not to keep this to ourselves. God wants ‘all mankind’ to ‘know’ (26). ‘Jesus, the Name to sinners dear, the Name to sinners given, it scatters all their guilty fear, it turns their hell to heaven’ – This is not something to keep to ourselves. We must make Christ known to others – ‘Oh, that the world might taste and see the riches of His grace! The arms of love that compass me, would all mankind embrace. His only righteousness I show, His saving truth proclaim: ‘tis all my business here below to cry: “Behold the Lamb!”. Happy, if with my latest breath I may but gasp His Name: preach Him to all, and cry in death: “Behold, behold the Lamb!”’ (Mission Praise, 385). ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News’ (Mark 16:15).
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