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Oct 09, 2023 06:00am

The Bible Recap: Days 204-210

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(The following are reflections from the writer’s personal journey through The Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble – a Bible reading plan to read the Bible chronologically in one year. To learn more about The Bible Recap, visit thebiblerecap.com. Find more posts from this series at lifeword.org/thebiblerecap.)

Day 204: Read Isaiah Chapters 31-34

My Takeaways:

Hi friends. I did today a little different. I wrote a prayer based upon our reading today.

Lord,

Rise up!

Focus our eyes on you each day, and not other things and people we can easily put our faith into. Compel us to seek you, Lord! You are wise and will bring disaster on your enemies. You will rise up against them.

But, Lord, we ask that you will also rise up for your kids and pour your spirit out upon us and in us. Change our hearts to seek you, follow you, and walk in your ways! Be gracious to us! Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble. Instill a fear of the Lord in each one of us so that we obey you, fully and completely.

You are our Judge, our Lawgiver, and our King. Empower our will to walk by your ways! And, save us from evil and from our iniquity. Help us keep our eyes on you and create a hunger for your word so that we can stand firm in our faith when evil seems to abound. Also, Lord, help us RISE UP and trust in you, and fight for the things that matter the most in life: our faith.

Be our strength, Lord, as we seek you, and reveal more of yourself to us as we do. May our eyes see our King in His beauty through His Word each day.

In your Son’s name I pray,

Amen.

Day 205: Read Isaiah Chapters 35 & 36

My Takeaways:

Oh, we left off on a cliffhanger today, didn’t we?

I have been wanting to get back to this story all week!

But before we talk about Sennacherib, let’s talk about God’s people coming home to Zion. Oh, the scene is beautiful! These people will see the glory of our God! The blind will see, the deaf will hear, and the lame will walk. There will be streams in the desert! Only those who walk in God’s light will be there—only the remnant God has ransomed.

So, until it happens, God commissions them to strengthen their weak hands and shaking knees and to be strong! Do not give way to fear! Though they are going into exile, it’s not the end of the story. God will save them—His vengeance is coming!

And then we go back to Hezekiah. Remember him? He is one of the only godly kings in the Old Testament and his kingdom is under attack. And in our reading, we only hear from his enemy: Sennacherib. And Sennacherib says a lot. Basically, his goal is to scare the living daylights out of the people through deception and fear.

It reminds me a lot of our enemy’s tactics: deception and fear. Satan will take a shred of truth and blend it with a believable lie. If we take the bait, he has us.

Is Sennacherib telling the truth about God telling him to attack? I wonder about this. It’s a huge test of faith, isn’t it? It’s the moment Hezekiah’s loyalty to God will be tested on the biggest scale yet. Does God allow for us to be tested? Absolutely!

But, God doesn’t set us up for defeat—He sets us up to experience Him if we are willing to trust Him with our battles.

What is your God Shot today? Mine was this: God is a promise keeper. If He said it, He will do it. He will rescue His people. He will have justice. The desert is blooming. And those who fear the Lord will return to Zion. Big miracles are always on the horizon for God’s kids!

Day 206: Read Isaiah Chapters 37-39 & Psalm Chapter 76

My Takeaways:

I loved our reading today! Until it got to the end…

We have yet another enemy, Sennacherib, who besieges God’s kingdom. And, we have a king who looks to God and God alone! Hezekiah says a beautiful prayer, crying out for help!

In this prayer:

He praises God: “You are God alone of all the kingdoms of earth. You made the heavens and the earth.” I love this!
He tells God the situation and how Assyria has destroyed everyone and their gods.
Then, he appeals to God to save them and reveal Himself to all the kingdoms of the earth: “”Now, Lord, save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you Lord are God—you alone.”

And God answers! And God addresses Sennacherib himself—Wowza! The last part of it. “I will put a hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth and make you go back home.”

And God does! The angel of the Lord killed 185,000! Sennacherib went home and was killed by two of his sons. Yikes. Bad ending. What God said He would do came true.

Hezekiah experiences God! What a moment! What a rescue! What a God Shot!

And when Hezekiah gets sick, he cried out to God for healing, reminding God how he has walked faithfully all his reign. We see God’s grace when God gives him 15 more years to live. And then, we read a beautiful prayer that Hezekiah writes, one in which he admits his sin:

“Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such intense bitterness, but your love delivered me from the pit of destruction, for you have thrown all of my sins behind your back.”

(Interestingly, this was the second reference he made to his sin—his own bitterness of soul.)

And yet, something happens from this point to to the time he gets a letter from the king of Babylon…he gets prideful. Like Tara-Leigh says, “His heart isn’t in the same place it was earlier in his reign.” He shows off his entire treasury to the visiting king. That is when Isaiah tells him he has made a terrible mistake, one that will have consequences for his sons.

You guys—we don’t see Hezekiah repent here. We see him thinking: “Phew. At least it doesn’t happen to me!”

Ugh. Come on, man! Great king, great reign, great God-victory, not-so-great ending.

But we are looking at God here and how He is revealed, and God is revealed much:

It gets God’s attention when we cry out to Him amid our battles. Hezekiah wore sackcloth and cried out to God.
It gets God’s attention when we worship God before laying out our requests.
God fights for His people.
God gives grace by adding 15 tears into Hezekiah’s life.
God gives grace to Hezekiah again by not letting Babylon invade his kingdom while he is alive.

Day 207: Read Isaiah Chapters 40-43

My Takeaways:

You guys, today’s reading gave me all the good feels!

It was all about GOD today— I loved all of the God Shots! Some of my favorite verses were also in today’s reading!

Here’s my God Shots:

God pardons His kids’ sins!!
He will reveal His glory for all of humanity to see.
His word remains forever!
He comes with strength and power with His rule.
He will pay back His enemies and reward those who love Him.
He protects His flocks and gathers His lambs in His arms and carries them in the fold of His garment. He leads those who are nursing. (Doesn’t this show the tender loving care He has for all His kids, in all their stages of life—physically and spiritually?!)
He is enthroned above the circle of the earth!
He calls the stars by number and by name—He doesn’t overlook one!
He is the everlasting God—the Creator of the whole earth!
He never becomes faint or weary—He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless.
He renews the strength of those trust in Him—they will soar on wings like eagles and run but won’t be weary! They will walk and not faint.
He is the Lord—the first and the last: “I am he” He declares!
He calls us to do not be afraid, for He is with us! That He will help us and strengthen us with His right hand!
He promises us that He will not abandon us!
He creates streams and highways in the deserts so they all may see and know that the Holy One of Israel has done it!
He calls us for His righteous purpose and holds us by our hand—He watches over us and uses as as a light to all the nations so that the blind may see and prisoners may be freed from their dungeons.
He is a warrior and stirs up zeal like a soldier! He shouts, He roars aloud, and He prevails over His enemies! Hallelujah!

Oh my, friends! This is praise worthy! This is what we can use to worship Him each and every day—pick a title and praise Him for it! He will fulfill it for His kids! Oh, praise Him who is above the earth’s circle!

Day 208: Read Isaiah Chapters 44-48

My Takeaways:

“I am he; I am the first, I am also the last.”

You know what stood out to me in today’s reading more than anything?

God told us who He is.

He said…

I am your maker, who formed you from the womb.
I will pour water in the their dry land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants and my blessing for your offspring.
I formed you, you are my servant; you will never be forgotten by me. I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
I made the earth and created humans on it. It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded everything in them.
I am the Lord and there is no other. I am the Lord, who speaks righteously.
There is no other God but me, a righteous God and Savior, there is no one expect for me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other.
Truth has gone out from my mouth, a word will not be revoked. Every knee will bow to me and every tonight will swear allegiance. It will be said about me, “Righteousness and strength are found only in the Lord.”
I have refined you in the furnace of affliction.

And one of my favorites:

I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you and I will carry you: I will bear and I will rescue you.

And this too:

”Remember this and be brave, take it to heart you transgressors! Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, there is no other; I am God and no one is like me. I declare the end from the beginning and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place and I will do all of my will.”

No matter what, God is sovereign.

I feel like Israel’s history could be summed up in this passage from Isaiah 48:

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who leads you the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness line the waves of the sea…”

You know what brings peace? Obedience. That’s something our world wants very much. Following God and obeying Him gives us peace like a river. Oh, I want that!

Oh friends, when we struggle knowing ourselves, our purpose, what’s going on in our lives, may we rely upon who God is and His promises.

Day 209: Read 2 Kings Chapter 19 & Psalm Chapters 46, 80, & 135

My Takeaways:

Amid all these readings, I am drawn to Psalm 46. I wanted to focus on that for my God Shot but rewrote it a bit. It’s about Jerusalem and God’s people, but I took some liberty, rewriting it from a believer’s POV, specifically women (since “she” is used to describe Jerusalem.)

“God is her refuge and her strength—He is her helper in times of trouble. She will not be afraid, even when all else around her seems to be crumbling away. God is within her—she will not fail! God will help her at just the right time! Though all else around her gives way gives way to strife and disarray, God reminds her that He is in control. And He is with His daughter. He reminds her of His powerful and awesome works, so when He calls her to be still amid the chaos and to keep her eyes upon Him, she trusts Him. She believes her Father is who He says He is.

So, she will stand firm and rise up against any challenge in her way because she knows who goes with her, the Lord of Armies. Her stronghold for life.”

Day 210: Read Isaiah Chapters 49-53

My Takeaways:

There was so much going on in today’s reading! We had much revealed about God and much revealed about His suffering servant, Jesus! I decided to land on some of the beautiful promises God made in these chapters. Today’s reading had much of God talking to His people, the people of Zion. So, I used His words and directed them to all of us believers.

Child,

I called you before you were born. I am your strength. And you will be a light to the nations. I have chosen you.

I will answer you in a time of favor. I will help you in the day of salvation. If you put your hope in me, you will not be put to shame. I will contend with the one who contends with you. I will wake you each morning and awaken your ear to listen like those being instructed. I will help you…in truth, I will help you! Come out of the darkness and walk in my light—trust in my name and lean upon me! Pursue righteousness and seek me! Look to my strength. The earth will wear out like a garment but my salvation and righteousness will last forever.

I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand. I will not forget you. Look, I have you inscribed on the palm of my hands.