Thoughts From The Bible Adam Zander

The 24th message from the book of Isaiah, “The peace of God.”

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (4) Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:" (Isaiah 26:3-4)

This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible about peace. God wants you to have peace in your heart and mind. It is a theme repeated over and over in the Bible. It is clearly very important.

I believe one reason is that it is easy to lose your peace. Life is full of stress and problems. Just driving in traffic can cause you to lose your peace, let alone family, health, and financial problems!

I have taught and preached about having peace many times. I am sure you have heard many messages on the subject. However, it is a topic that needs to be repeated often.

Isaiah 26:3 shows us how we can keep the peace of God in our hearts. Let’s look at this today.

There are three main points in this verse about peace. We will look at them in the reverse order that they appear in the verse.

The 23rd message from the book of Isaiah, “Praising God for his blessings.”

"O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth." (Isaiah 25:1)

Isaiah chapter 25 is divided into three sections. Each of these sections praises God for something. We will look at each of these three sections and find out how much God has and will bless his children.

Prophetically, this passage is about the future judgment of God and the Lord’s millennium reign.

We will not receive our full inheritance and rule with Christ until he comes back. However, we can apply many of the blessings and truths to the church now.

Isaiah chapter 25 is an encouraging passage about praising the Lord.

We can praise him for:

His protection and righteous judgments
His blessings and benefits
Salvation

The 22nd message from the book of Isaiah, “Glorifying the Lord in the fires.”

Isaiah 24:14-15 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. (15) Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

Here in Isaiah 24, we have a picture of glorifying the Lord through the fires of this life. A good illustration of this is the three Hebrew men in Daniel chapter 3.

In Daniel chapter three, we have one of the most exciting stories in all the Bible and it is a peculiar one. What makes this story different, is that these three Hebrew men were not delivered from their enemies at the beginning. God allowed them to go through the fire, walked with them in the fire, and then delivered them out of the fire.

Even in the middle of the fires of life, we can sing praises to our God!

The 21st message from the book of Isaiah “Christ our King, Saviour.”

Isa 22:20-25 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: 21 And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. 24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. 25 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

Today we will look at this passage as a type of Christ. It is clear it is a prophetic passage about the Lord Jesus Christ ruling and reigning, as well as paying for our sins.

It is interesting to note how many of these points match the four gospels. Matthew shows Jesus as king, Mark as a servant, Luke as a man, and John as God in the flesh.

This passage in Isaiah is not a perfect type of the four “faces” or sides of the character of Jesus, but it does show some of them to a certain extent.

As a King of kings he did not come to his throne by birth, he earned the right by being the conquerer of all foes. And the last and greatest foe (enemy) was death.

As a Servant, he came to bear our sins upon the cross.

As a Man, he came to be the last Adam and the first of a new race.

As God, he showed that his power is greater than sin, death, Hell, or Satan.

The nineteenth message from the book of Isaiah, “Egypt, A picture of the world coming to Christ.”

This chapter is a great picture of the Gentiles and the Jews becoming the body of Christ, the church.

Egypt in the Bible is a type of the world. In this chapter, we can find an illustration of how all are made one in Christ. We see the Gentiles (Egypt and Assyria) and the Jews becoming the children of God.

The eighteenth message from the book of Isaiah “The Lord is not worried.”

In this short chapter we have a vivid picture. Ethiopia and Egypt are advancing in battle against Assyria (verse 1-3). This was probably when Shabatok the Ethiopian was King of Egypt.

In verse four the world looks and hears all that is happening. But then look at verse 4, the Lord is taking a rest. He is not concerned about this at all! The Lord gives them a victory against Assyria and then in verse eight they (the Ethiopians and Egyptians) give a gift to the Lord.

Today we will look at how the Lord is calm and not worried, even though the world looks on with concern and wonder.

I would like to contrast the excitement and agitation of the world, with the calm, restful, patience of the Lord.