1 – Isaiah 19:23-25 (ESV) ²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. ²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵ whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

RAF: One cannot help but be struck by the scope of this prophecy. One we would love to see come to pass. To imagine that those very nations which were first among Israel’s oppressors, Egypt and Assyria would one day be converted. This must have rung in the ears of Isaiah’s hearers as nigh unto impossible. First, it speaks of God’s dealing with the nations positively and outside of Israel’s covenant relationship to God. Israel is still spoken of here as God’s “inheritance.” It retains its unique status. But that status was never meant to be thought of as so exclusive, that God had no love, no compassion, no plan for those outside the covenant He had made with the Jews. Egypt here is called “my people.” And Assyria is called “the work of my hands.” This speaks very pointedly to us as Christians in terms of our evangelism. To not allow ourselves to assume God is not at work in the world to bring men to Himself. We should evangelize with the greatest hope that God is indeed at work – bringing those to Himself we would never imagine. Our labors are not hit-or-miss. He is working outside of our narrow scope. And note that the idea here is not that Egypt and Assyria remain idolaters or have some other way to God. The idea here is that they will come to worship the true and living God rightly (see vs. 21), and that it will be in concert with God’s covenant people.

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1 – Psalm 101:1 (ESV)

¹ I will sing of steadfast love and justice;

to you, O Lord, I will make music.

RAF: It is good to remember that one necessary aspect of worship is our singing “to” God. This is how David begins his thought here. I will sing of steadfast love and justice; TO YOU, O Lord. I wonder if our worship might not grow to be much more vibrant and heartfelt if we worshiped in this way. If we sang as though we were directly before Him, and singing our songs to Him. If we were asked to sing before the President of our nation, what preparation would go before. We wouldn’t be haphazard or half-hearted. We would rise to the occasion. So it ought to be with our worship. Let us approach worship, even as we approach our Lord Himself. And let us sing TO Him.

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1 – Psalm 78:18-20 (ESV)

¹⁸ They tested God in their heart

by demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ He struck the rock so that water gushed out

and streams overflowed.

Can he also give bread

or provide meat for his people?”

RAF: Heavenly Father, this is so much how I am. No matter how often or how wondrously you prove yourself to me, at the next crisis, it is as though you have done nothing in the past. It is as though you are constantly having to prove yourself to me. Please forgive my hardness and unfaithfulness. Make my mind recall your past graces, and let me stand secure in your love that I do not repeatedly put you to the test. Let my heart be free of its sinful doubting – and truly trust you. Make my only “demand” – that I might know you more.

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1 – Psalm 63:3 (ESV) ³ Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

RAF: Heavenly Father, look and see the times this has ceased to be the case for me – and forgive. The truth of it remains ever true – to truly be loved by the Living God as His very own – what can compare? And still my peace is so easily broken at times. My faith shaken, my joy fleeting and my security seemingly threatened. I often live as though I am not the object of your great love – when all of life (if examined rightly) screams out the very opposite. How dull, and hard and cold my heart can become. At times, in an instant. One moment, rejoicing in your Word, worship and the fellowship of your people, and the next, agitated over trifles. As though your love ought not to intoxicate my being. As if it ought not color every thing I see, filter everything I hear, inform everything I say and bring within the reality of your love – everything I feel. To respond to life as though you are not both Lord over it, and my dearest, Heavenly Father in it. Forgive. And by your Spirit, tune my own heart to yours. Let not a single note of your love for your own fail to stike the accordant string in my own soul. Cause the drenching downpour of your lovingkindess to met by a rising fountain from out of my innermost being. Let me know your love more – but I beg you, give the capacity to love you rightly in return.

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1 – Job 11:1 (ESV) Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

RAF: Zophar’s first answer: The truth is, you haven’t suffered nearly what you deserve. Repent.

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1 – Esther 4:12-14 (ESV) ¹² And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. ¹³ Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴ For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

RAF: Note Mordecai’s careful balance here between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.

a. If Esther does not act, she will suffer consequences.

b. God has other means for deliverance, but she is square in the middle of this – and she needs to act according to her responsibility. Yes, God has other means, but she is His means now.

c. She is to seize the time as ordained by God.

God’s sovereignty is never an excuse for inaction.

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1 – Nehemiah 7:1-2 (ESV) Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, ² I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.

RAF: Those who do not fear God, certainly will not fear man. Thus trustworthiness is tied to the fear of God. If they are not honest and reliable because they understand the relationship of such things to their God, then there is nothing to prevent them from being unreliable at all. Fear of the Law sure won’t do it. And as our society demonstrates day after day, the further men move away from any sense of personal responsibility before God, the more violent, dishonest and anti-social their behavior becomes. This is not about living in some cowering fear that doubts God’s love and goodness. It is knowing that God is righteous, that He cannot tolerate sin and must judge it – no matter how deeply He loves anyone. And that to be living in sin will ultimately bring us before the judgment bar of God, irrespective of our sins being found out by men in this life.

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1 – Ezra 3:6 (ESV) ⁶ From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.

RAF: In days of restoration, as these were for the exiles, priorities are sometimes more clearly defined. While there had been no work on restoring the Temple proper yet, the altar was restored first and rightly so. When we have gone through seasons of estrangment from God, perhaps the distance that has followed a fall into sin, we know where to go first – to the cross. We go to God’s altar. Where the one true Lamb that was offered for sin was slain. We go back there and renew ourselves in the knowledge of what our sin deserved, how the Father sent His Son to take our punishment in our place, and how He is the only sin offering we can bring. And isn’t He our fellowship offering too? And our thank offering? Everything is restored to focus on this one place – Christ Jesus, and His death for us.

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1 – 2 Chronicles 32:18-19 (ESV) ¹⁸ And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city. ¹⁹ And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.

RAF: The Devil knows our language. He knows how to communicate to us in ways we will hear clearly – and always with the aim of undermining our trust in God. He knows how to play on our fears to make us think God is somehow not able to keep us, not willing to keep us, or corrupt in some way. These are Satan’s devices, and he uses them skillfully. But our ears must be tuned to God’s voice. To remember Who and What He is. To stand firm in the knowledge of God’s perfections, promises and the holy character of His person. Then, we can stand strong. Only then.

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