Day 199 (Isaiah 23-27) - Year 4
08:02 Share

Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Tomorrow marks Day 200 in our reading plan. Can you believe it? And today we wrapped up the 15 chapters that cover the judgment of the whole world. The last batch of judgment for foreign nations begins with Tyre and Sidon, two Phoenician cities that specialize in international trade. They're the cities of shipping magnates and they've got ports of trade built up all around the region.

Business is good, so they're wealthy, influential, popular, and most of all, prideful. Their line of work really means they need things to go well with the water, so they worship a god named Yam. Not the god of sweet potato fries, but the god of the sea. Their pride is a call for judgment on them, so Yahweh sets out to show his power over their Yam god.

The ports they trade with mourn over their downfall and wonder who could have pulled off an upset like this over such great cities. But as bad as things were, Yahweh took it really easy on them, actually. Tyre is destroyed but eventually restored. The closing sentences on chapter 23 can be really challenging to interpret, but it seems like the hearts of Tyre don't actually turn to God, but that he still uses their business savvy to bless his people.

We wrap up the judgment of individual nations, but we do not get a breather. On the contrary, chapter 24 goes all in with the judgment of the whole earth. It covers a range of time from destruction to restoration. It's a dark passage, but even it is not without hope. And as people who trust God's goodness and sovereignty, texts like this, when we view them rightly, can have the effect of sobering us without frightening us.

Yahweh can be trusted with these things. He has a perfect track record. Isaiah talks about the coming day of cosmic judgment and no one will be exempt. Power and money can't protect anyone from it. So what happened to prompt all this? God says that the whole earth has broken a covenant with him. But what covenant does the whole earth have with God? We talk a lot about the covenant he has with his people, but that's a totally different thing than a covenant with all people.

The only covenant that encompasses all people is in Genesis 9, 8-16, where he promised that he wouldn't destroy the earth with a flood again. And that section immediately follows a section about how they're to honor life or God will require a reckoning. And because mankind has broken this law, they are under the curse of the covenant. This is heavy stuff, and it's real. It's easy to think of this as just poetic imagery. It's not. This will happen.

And this cosmic judgment will be like an undoing of creation, just like the flood was. It won't be a flood, of course, because he promised he wouldn't do that again. Instead, the picture we have here sounds more like an earthquake and a fire. When will all this happen? Verse 21 says it will take place on the coming day of the Lord, whenever that is. So where's the hope, Tara Lee?

First of all, I'm recording this podcast right now on the very same earth that was destroyed in the flood. It's still here, so God clearly didn't give up on it. And second of all, that's how we get to that awesome new heaven and new earth that Scripture talks about, Earth 3.0. We'll read more about that as we continue through Scripture, but for now, just know that the destruction scenes are not the end.

Even this weighty passage still includes reminders about God's people singing praises to him, and it continues with lots of other beautiful things that will happen as a result of all this. In fact, let's talk about those. First of all, God puts death to death, so that's awesome. And there will be no more tears. Count me in. And he'll throw a big feast on the holy hill of Mount Zion. I never miss a party.

Then, everyone in Judah will sing a song of praise, which is recorded in chapter 26. My favorite line in the song is 26.3. It says, You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

If you want to get to that perfect peace, you have to come at it backwards from the end of the verse. The thing that keeps us in perfect peace is fixing our mind on God. And the thing that helps us fix our mind on God is trusting in him and delighting in him. So the more we trust and delight in him, the more we'll fix our mind on him. And peace will be the byproduct of that pursuit. And guess what? The only way to trust and delight in him is to know him more and more, which is exactly what you're doing here in the word every day.

In getting to know God, your peace increases as a byproduct. And the beautiful picture of God's enemies being defeated and his wrath being done away with forever is only interrupted by one peculiar little section at the beginning of chapter 27.

It says God will punish Leviathan and slay a sea serpent. A lot of times when we're reading prophetic imagery, especially apocalyptic prophetic imagery, we will be dealing with metaphors. So this is probably not a reference to the actual Loch Ness Monster or his cousin. And I'm sorry if that's disappointing to any of you.

most likely it's a reference to any of the number of chaotic forms God's enemies take on. More specifically, the great serpent, the Satan, or as we call him, Satan.

So in the great day of the Lord, this broken earth will be recreated new. The enemy of our souls will be defeated, and we will live and feast on earth with God in the hills of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, where the humidity is very low. That sounds pretty amazing. I can't wait to taste the pita bread. My God shot was in 2612. It says, "'O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works.'"

We see this theme repeated in the New Testament a few times as well. First, Jesus speaks it on the cross just before he dies when he says, "...it is finished." He has done all our works for us. That's in John 19. God the Son has fulfilled all the Father's requirements to cover our sin debt. And as if that weren't enough, he doesn't stop there. God the Spirit is equipping and enabling us to fulfill God's specific plans for us in our lives.

Philippians 1.6 says, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. He initiated it. He's sustaining it and he will fulfill it. And Philippians 2.13 says, It is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. God is at work in you. He's creating both the desire in you and the actions through you that please him.

I'll admit, it's humbling that I don't get to take credit for any good fruit my life bears, but it sure does make me grateful for the way he continues to work in and through me. Isaiah nailed it. You have indeed done for us all our works. He does the doing, and he's where the joy is.

Where do you recap? Where do you get your daily dose of joy? Show us a picture of yourself listening, or just show us the spot where you spend time with God. We'd love to see it. Does your dog join you? Your baby? Your coffee? Your front porch? Or do you recap in your cube at work, or at the gym, or while wearing your sheet mask at night? Snap a picture, post it to your socials, and tag us. We're at The Bible Recap everywhere.

The Bible Recap is brought to you by DGroup, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week.