The fifth and final song comes in Isaiah 61:1-11. The good news comes. The Servant is anointed to bring the messianic jubilee, where the people will be restored to the land after exile. There is no introduction by God. The servant says, ‘here I am.’ Lots of review and progression from the previous Songs.
Look at all the verbs involved in what the Servant has done and is going to do- preach, bind, proclaim, release, proclaim (again), comfort, provide, bestow, rebuild, restore, and renew.
Isaiah’s tree imagery pops out in v. 3- ‘oaks of righteousness.’
Jesus broke the silence and the mystery of who the Servant was in Luke 4 when he preaches his first sermon. He purposely turns to Isaiah 61 and reads a portion of that Song. He purposely stopped short at the section about vengeance because that day has not come yet. His time on earth at that time was for revelation about Father and reconciliation of humanity.
Then ironically, right after this first sermon and the unveiling of his Messiahship, the crowd wants to take him out and push him off a cliff. Now that is a flashy kick-off to a preaching tour. Kind of makes me not feel so bad. Folks didn’t want to kill me after my first sermon.
Everything explodes with Jesus! He is the Servant. He is the mystery man. Everything stated in the five Servant Songs is true and is fulfilled. A new definition of freedom- not just socio/economic, but physical and spiritual as well.
I hope you have enjoyed this brief tour into this special literary aspect of Isaiah. It is so cool to find this stuff and see how the Holy Spirit wove it into the Word.
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” Prov. 25:2
A great article on how the infamous and highly popular Charlie Brown Christmas Special almost never aired and wasn’t going to be run ever again.
Few headlines about network television make me giddy. Fewer still make me hopeful that all is good in the world. But back in August of 2010, I read the following headline from the media pages with great excitement: “Charlie Brown Is Here to Stay: ABC Picks Up ‘Peanuts’ Specials Through 2015.” The first of these to be made, the famous Christmas special, was an instant classic when it was created by Charles Schulz on a shoestring budget back in 1965, and thanks to some smart television executives, it will be around for at least another five years for all of us to see and enjoy.
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What we think and believe about ourselves has tremendous impact on soooo much of our lives. What I allow to wander through my cranial cavity can determine much more than I realize. The health of my body, soul, and spirit has much to do with what I think and believe.
In yesterday’s sermon at Castle Rock Bible Church, we looked at a hunchback woman who had been so for 18 years. Think about it, much of her daily view was the ground. Jesus in his compassionate state said, “this woman, our sister, a relative in the promise of Abraham, one of our family, needs to be free from this oppression.” He even pinpointed the reason for the influence. Satan and his wily kingdom had set up camp in her body causing tremendous damage. In his empathetic state, Jesus sidestepped the built-up rules of Sabbath to provide relief to this woman. In the process, revealed the hearts of the crowd into two definite camps.
One of the many points in discussing her ailment was that in our western world, the general mindset is that our bodies are our bodies and sickness or disease or difficulty is strictly the result of poor diet, lack of excercise, hereditary, or pumping our bodies with toxins. Western thinking precludes any demonic spiritual influence on our body, soul, and spirit. Not so in the eastern world, of which Jesus is a part. They have no problem understanding how the spiritual world has a significant impact on the physical world.
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Wow we are now 82% of the way through the entire Bible. Admirable of you to stick with it so faithfully. Good work.
If ‘promise’ is a key word for the entire Old Testament, ‘fulfillment’ is a key word for the New Testament. We read promise after promise by Father towards his people and the world. Promises to Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, and others. Those promises are all fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the key figure in the New Testament.
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Posted in B90X
Tagged Acts, Bible, Epistles, Father, Hebrews, Jesus, John, John the Baptist, Luke, Mark, Matthew, NewTestament, Paul, Revelation
Good morning Saints, Jesus bless you today~
I have something to admit, I got behind just a bit and am having to catch up. It is not too hard to catch back up, but it did a number on my spirit not reading daily as I had done for the 45 days straight prior to yesterday. When one is in a habit, it just feels different when that habit is not maintained. My spirit felt just a bit drier not flowing with what it had received before. The Word of God is so important to our souls and spirits, eh friends?
No one has answered the CRBC trivia question from a few days ago- “What three words we focused on in Luke 6 that propelled us to do Mashal March last year?”
Because we are flying through some short books here, you will be receiving a short note on each of them rather than a humongous, long one. Let’s see how it goes~ 
Wisdom literature does not operate like the commands of the law or the plot of narrative. It is not set forth as “Thus says the Lord” as in the prophets, nor is it even like the exhortation of the New Testament letter.
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Good morning everyone.
In finishing up 2 Kings today, we just blew through roughly 400 years in
On their way to Babylon as the City of Jerusalem falls
both the Kings books. That was a lot of names, dates, mothers, “doing evil in the eyes of the Lord”‘s, setting up and tearing down Asherah poles. Yet through it all, there were glimpses of hope in kings, people, and the presence of God. Joshiah is a bright spot in the road. While some kings reigned for a few months or a year, Josiah had the longest at 69 years. Way to go Joe! He is a great example for us to look to as a radical for the Lord.
2 Kings 14:25 Did you see the prophet Jonah made an appearance? This is the same one who heads to Nineveh to preach repentance and has a book named after himself.
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Posted in B90X
Tagged Ahab, Assyrians, B90X, Babylon, Elijah, Elisha, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Jerusalem, Jezebel, Jonah, Josiah, Kings, Luke
Good morning~
I will have to admit, it takes a high degree of fortitude to keep up with this pace of reading. And boy is it worth it! Great stuff today.
Key dates to jolt your memory:
971 BC The anointing of Solomon
931 BC The division of the United Monarchy into North (Israel) and South (Judah)
722 BC The fall of Samaria, the capital of Israel (invader: Assyria)
612 BC The fall of Nineveh (the Assyrian capital)
605 BC The battle of Carchemish
605, 597, 586 BC The three attacks on Jerusalem and the fall (invader: Babylon)
I have attached several charts today from a book I own, John H. Walton, Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament (1994, Grand Rapids: Zondervan). One is a map of the kingdom at its zenith, another at the split, one is all about family and ancestry of David, another the history of the United Monarchy, and a cool one, a list of the deities of the ANE we read about.
Elijah calling down fire upon the altar on Mt Carmel and the prophets of Ba'al.
Posted in B90X
Tagged B90X, Elijah, Elisha, healing, Israel, Jerusalem, Judah, Luke, Nineveh, Samaria, Solomon, worship
Saints, Friends, Countrymen~
As the end of the Torah rolled around a bit of sadness overcame me. The end of a forty year era was done. The end of Moses ministry to the people was done. The end of his event-filled 120 years was complete. There has been, nor ever will be a man like Moses. One can see now why is so revered in the Jewish Faith. “Moses and the Prophets,” they say. He embodied many attributes of Father. He was patient with the people, though at times wondered why he had to lead this group of rebellious and stiff-necked people. He interceded on their behalf for Father not to wipe them off the face of the earth. Moses stayed faithful to the wandering Hebrews, he never quit or left them on the side of the road. Yet in the end, even Father’s most favored man on the planet at the time had to deal with the result of his decisions and disobedience. Moses was not allowed to enter the place he vowed to lead the people towards. His forty years of education and training– lead to forty years of training with Father– which lead to his forty years of service– ending with looking at the place of promise.
Did any of you stop to ponder the choices for why which tribes were chosen to be on Mt. Gerazim and Mt. Ebal during the recitation of the blessings and curses? The two tribes from which the two positive spies surfaced, the priests, “Praise,” the youngest son from whom the first king came, the favored one of Jacob, and the laboring servant were all on the Mt. of Blessing. There are many reasons why the others on the Mt. of Curses side. See if you can come up with more than what I have listed.
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