Isaiah Chapter 40 "A Voice from the Wilderness, the Gathering." "God's Controversy with the Nations, Messiah's Anointing and Mission." This Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org Isaiah 40 starts what many scholars call, "The second book of Isaiah" which introduces the Messiah. Remember that forty in biblical numerics is "probation". There are sixty-six total books in the Bible, with thirty nine books in the Old Testament. When you come to the fortieth book of the Bible, we find the book Matthew that introduces the Messiah, the only begotten of the living God. There are sixty-six books also in the book of Isaiah, and when you come to Isaiah 40, we see the presenting of the Messiah, His Anointing and Mission. Friend, there are no oddities in God's Word, and everything within His Word is all planned by His Spirit. Isaiah 40:1 " ' Comfort ye, comfort ye My People,' saith your God." God didn't want Hezekiah running off at the mouth, but for His people of all generations to find comfort in Christ and His Word. Isaiah 40:2 "Speak ye comfortable to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." This speaking should be going on right today, for the warfare of Jerusalem is still going on. This comfort and peace shall not take place until Jesus Christ returns to set up His Millennium kingdom, at the seventh trumpet. This is in the future sense, and we will give comfort to Jerusalem when Messiah is reigning there. There will peace on the whole earth, and that is a very comforting thought. Today the whole world is trying to work out a treaty that will work to comfort Jerusalem, yet as hard as they try, true comfort shall not come as long as there is wickedness here. Yet at the return of Christ all evil shall be gone, and there will be peace on the whole earth for the thousand year Millennium. Isaiah 40:3 "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." This was not the cry of the Messiah, but of the fore-runner who in reality was John the Baptist. Each of the Gospels verify the fulfilling of this verse; Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4-6; John 1:23, as well as I Peter 1:24. Matthew 3:1 "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea," Matthew 3:2 "And saying, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." A "kingdom" is "the king and his domain". The King is Christ in the "kingdom of heaven" and during the time that Christ was on earth at his first coming, those that followed him were part of His domain. Jesus Christ will return to earth at the seventh trumpet, and thus his domain in the Millennium age will include all those living on the earth during the Millennium age. Matthew 3:3 "For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias [Isaiah in the Hebrew], saying, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, `Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.' " " The people of Jerusalem refused to accept both John and the Messiah Jesus Christ. They refused John by cutting His head off, and they refused Christ in their cries to crucify Him, when the beat and spit on Him, and hung Him on the Roman cross. On the Messiah's first coming in the flesh, they refused to accept Him as their Messiah, however at Christ's second coming, all the people on the face of the earth will see Him as the Christ and every knee will bow to Him. Isaiah 40:4 "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:" In other words, the trail shall be made easy, and it shall be God's truth that shall do that. When you know and understand God's truth written in His Word, that truth sets you free from any fear that this world can send your way. Isaiah 40:5 "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, His glory shall be seen and respected by all flesh, all people living in their flesh bodies on the face of the earth at the time of His coming. We know it shall happen because God has fore-warned that it shall come to pass. At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ at the seventh and last trumpet, all flesh shall be done away with and we then enter into our new spiritual incorruptible bodies. Those bodies shall not age for the entire thousand year period of the Millennium age. This is the mystery that Paul talked about in I Corinthians 15:50-53. I Corinthians 15:50 "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." The flesh and blood body cannot enter or exist in that time when Jesus Christ's Millennium kingdom is established on this earth. "Corruption" is the flesh body, while "incorruption" is the non-aging spiritual body that all souls will be in during that Millennium age. I Corinthians 15:51 "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed," A mystery is something that is unknown, and once it becomes known it is no longer a mystery. This mystery that was unknown to the church, to God's people concerns a moment in time when people shall not die in the flesh any more. "Sleep" In the Greek text is "Koimao" in the prime, and it is where we get the English word "comatose". In the Strong's Greek dictionary it is "to slumber, figure of speech for decease; to be dead." Paul is explaining to the Christians in Corinth that a time is coming when those living in these flesh bodies will not die, but their flesh bodies shall all be changed. Every last person (soul) of the face of this earth shall be changed from their flesh bodies into a new incorruptible body, such as that of the angels. I Corinthians 15:52 "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The "dead" are the spiritually dead still living in their flesh bodies; while the rising that shall take place is going to be their "changing" into these new spiritual bodies. This is not referring to souls lying in dead corpses out in the cemetery, for when the flesh body passes away, their soul leaves the dead flesh body and returns to the Father that gave it at conception. This is well documented in Ecclesiastes 12:7, but all souls that are living in their flesh bodies will be changed from the flesh body, which is corruptible, into their new incorruptible body, as the angels have. Friend, this new incorruptible body is what you will be living in for the next thousand years of your learning and discipline. This change shall take place as fast as you can wink your eye. The time of this event is at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, which is at the "last trump". This is following the sixth trumpet when Satan shall come to rule the earth for the five month period as recorded in Revelation 9:5, 10. Friend, there is no rapture. If that is what you are looking for, and if you are set in your mind to be so sloppy as to believe such a fairy-tale, then you have accepted the "mark of the beast". I Corinthians 15:53 "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Those that are sealed during this generation when Satan the Antichrist shall rule, and make a stand against him, not only will we have incorruptible bodies but we will have immortality within those bodies. Those are the bodies that we shall have throughout all eternity, world without end. I Corinthians 15:54 "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory." At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ the world will become a much better place. Death and sickness and deceptions will be done away with for that Millennium age. Isaiah 40:6 "The voice said, "Cry." And he said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field." God is telling Isaiah exactly what to cry out. He is saying that all flesh is no better then the grass, it comes up when there is dew and water, and under the heat of the day it withers away. It needs a cutting from time to time, and then dies out. Flesh starts out in the dirt, then it matures as the products of the earth [food] go into it, and through the aging process it dies out and returns to the dirt that it is made of. Isaiah 40:7 "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass." In other words, it is God's plan that these processes take place, and that the flesh body die off in the course of time. And just as the grass is assured of death in due time, so also does the plan of God call for the death and decay or aging within the flesh body. Even if you live one hundred years, that time is just a vapor of breath in comparison to the eons of time of this planet earth, or the span of time for all eternity. The time that your flesh body exists in this age is but of wink of the eye on God's eternal time clock. Friend, when you end this time in the flesh, you are going back to the same place that you came from. He that descendeth, ascendeth. Everybody is going to the presence of God to be judged for what the have done in this earth age. Some of them to rewards, and some to eternal damnation. However at a certain point in time, at the last trump, all souls will be changed instantly from their flesh bodies, into that new spiritual body. Isaiah 40:8 "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." There is one thing for certain, the flesh, the grass and the flower will die and decay away, but Word of God shall stand forever. If you desire to absorb anything that is eternal and that you can take with you, it is the Word of God. Within it is wisdom and knowledge and it creates the stability that your life can stand upon. Though this earth will pass away, God's Word will go right on into the Millennium age, and past the great white throne judgment into the eternity. It shall never pass away. You will live by His Word whether you like it or not, and many will die by it, whether they like it or not. God has His laws and commandments, and when you violate the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," the law shall demand your life for that act. When you violate the health laws you suffer with poor health, which may end your life. When you participate in a filthy life style, such as sodomy, the violation of that law of God could claim your life with AIDS, or some other disease. God's Word is the most beautiful thing that you could store up in your mind for yourself in this earth age. Isaiah 40:9 "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid, say unto the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" " We can count on this verse today, for it was fulfilled in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ's birth in the manger some two thousand years ago. The purpose for the coming of the Messiah is given in Isaiah 60, which we will see later. He came to prepare the way of salvation, and He will return in our generation to bring the day of vengeance. "Behold your God!" Isaiah 40:10 "Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." The work that is before Him is to judge and teach through the Millennium age. Then at the close of the Millennium age, Satan is released for a short season to try those that fell to Satan's deceptions in the age of the flesh. They will be taught and disciplined in the Millennium age before the coming great white throne judgment. Jesus Christ is not coming the second time as a helpless baby seeking the protection from His mother, but as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, with the authority of all heaven invested within Him. John wrote of this time in Revelation 19:11 when he was brought to that day in a vision. Revelation 19:11 "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war." Revelation 19:12 "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself." Revelation 19:12 "And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God." So the identification of this person coming is known as "Faithful and True", and He is called "The Word of God". John identified this one called "the Word of God" in his gospel of John. John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:2 "The same was in the beginning with God." John 1:3 "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." Then in the fourteenth verse; John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." That Word of Isaiah, of Revelation and of the Gospel of John is Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of the Father. So Isaiah is fixing the time even in the future to our time now, when Jesus Christ shall return. That is what this fortieth chapter is all about. Isaiah 40:11 "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." Jesus Christ is gentle and He will take care of His own. Though He is gentle, He is still firm and carries that rod of iron that shall correct those that are against Him with vengeance. God will do what ever it takes to straighten you out, and if you fight against that, He will allow you to follow Satan into the fire at the end of the Millennium. Isaiah 40:12 "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" God is telling Isaiah to ask the people who amongst them can place the waters within their bounds, and cause the rivers to flow? Who can place the stars in the heaven in the order that they are in, and form the mountains and hills in the exact balance that gives them their beauty? God asked this same thing of Job 38. Job 38:4 "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Job 38:5 "Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?" Job 38:6 "Where upon are the foundations thereof fastened: or who laid the corner stone thereof; Job 38:7 "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:8 "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it," Job listened to three super-preachers give Him hog-wash for thirty-seven chapters, and then God steps in to straighten Job up, and get his mind thinking again. Man's traditions have built some of the best sermons, but many of those sermons are nothing but lies. After man has rambled for a long time, God takes over and sets the record straight. After the thirty-seven chapters of rambling, God spoke to Job and told him to stand up and act like a man. Job 38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said," Jobe 38:2 "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Job 38:3 "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me." God is asking you just as He asked Job, Why are you listening to these men with their lies of darkening counsel, and their words without knowledge? Why would you listen to the traditions of men created in the minds of men, when you can have true knowledge through His Word? Friend, it is no joke, you will be giving your answer directly to Him for your listening to those people that gave "darkeneth counsel". You have the Word and laziness is no excuse for not studying His Word. That is where the truth is, and where we are to go for knowledge, wisdom and our counsel. Isaiah 40:13 "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counseller hath taught Him? There is no man that can give counsel to our Heavenly Father. All knowledge and truth comes from the Word of God, and is directed by His Spirit. Isaiah 40:14 "With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding?" The answer is, no person gave God counsel, and no one taught Him one thing. Even when Jesus was in His youth, He did not need any instruction. Jesus was the one teaching and giving counsel to those scholars in the temple when He was age twelve. Even the wise men of the day were astounded at the knowledge of Jesus, as He taught. Who are you going to follow? God the creator of your soul, or Satan the little cherubim that God created to be He his servant? God is truth, knowledge and wisdom; while Satan is a rebel, a liar, and will deceive you to the point of taking your very soul. The choice is yours, and the only way to know which is which is to study God's Word. Isaiah 40:15 "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing." God is saying that you can take the superpowers of this earth, and all the power that they have is nothing more than a drop in a bucket. This is so true even today, as we see our national and spiritual leaders standing in their bodies of men and women, showing their minds to be that of babies. These people think they are so powerful with the might of their nations behind them, yet they are nothing but a couple of drips in a bucket to our Heavenly Father. We still have our rights and duties under our national protection and we ought to exercise those rights, but in comparison to the power of the Living God and His Word, there is no comparison, those powers are nothing. Do you think God is afraid of the nations of the earth when He considers them as nothing but two drips in a bucket? I think not. Isaiah 40:16 "And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering." In other words, you can take all the wood of the forests and beasts of the world, and it is not sufficient to be an burnt offering to God. Why? God doesn't want your burnt offerings, He wants your love. This same One that we are talking about became the One and only sacrifice and offering that is acceptable to God. That acceptable offering is the blood of Christ that was shed on the cross for all those that repent in Jesus name, and believe on Him. That offering that was made by Jesus on the cross is the only sacrifice needed for one and all times. Friend, that is the only sacrifice that is acceptable to God, and it is up to you whether you accept Jesus Christ's blood sacrifice for your sins, or go off in another direction. However for eternal life of your soul, there is only one way. God was satisfied to the point that He will forgive your miserable sins when you bring them under the blood of Christ through repentance. Then all those sins of yours are forgiven and blotted out from His sight. Isaiah 40:17 "All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity." This word for "vanity" in the Hebrew is "toho", and it means "void" and "empty". It means the same thing that happened to that first earth age when the earth "toho" became "void", and without form when God destroyed it. God is telling you that He is in control of all things. Don't become like Hezekiah and set your mind to given those things you have to your glory, and pride, but give God the praise and thanks for them. Isaiah 40:18 "To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?" God is asking you, is there any person that you can compare Me to, or is there any thing existing that you can compare Me to? There is no one or anything that you can compare to God. This hits at the problem that Satan brought into the world, even in the first earth age. We see in Ezekiel 28 that the problems came when Satan saw himself to be equal with God, and thought himself greater then God. Satan's fall was from his own pride in his beauty and wisdom that God placed within him. Ezekieh 28:14 "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire." God created Satan and placed him over His most cherished possessions. Satan was given the ability and wisdom to the very highest position in the heavenlies, even to the point that he thought he was God. Ezekiel 28:15 "Thou wast perfect in they ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." Satan is not eternal like our Heavenly Father, but Satan is a created being just like all of God's other created beings. However unlike all the other created beings, God gave Satan great beauty, wisdom and knowledge. That great perfection that God built into Satan is what caused Satan's downfall. Ezekiel 28:16 "By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire." Satan is cunning, and it is through his cunning and deceitfulness that he operates. That is how he tricks others into accepting his ways. That is his method of operation. Ezekiel 28:17 "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee." Even with Satan's great wisdom and beauty, you just can't compare him with the great beauty of God. There is nothing that compares ot our Heavenly Father. Our human minds simply cannot start to understand God's infinite wisdom, power, and love. This is the way it should be and why He is our Father. Isaiah 40:19 "The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over the gold, and casteth silver chains." This verse goes into what people do to create their own images of what they think God should be like. The workman builds the image, while the goldsmith overlays that image with gold. Then along comes the silversmith and makes that idol bright and shiny with his silver chains to deck it out. Today mankind looks back to the ancient time and finds no comparison to between those idols and what he is using for idols today. However today it can be worse. Even in the church systems of today there exists those idols that traditions that have taken their place over God, and they are not even aware of it. They make an entire religion out of one certain fad, or idea, and call it a denomination. They have taken their eyes off the whole Word of God, and focused only on what they have determined in their own minds that they want to accept. Then they build their beliefs around those images that they call God, and expect God to bless them for the traditions that they have created for themselves. The workmen building the images for their worship in ancient times is no different than the denominations of today that build their images using only the parts of God's Word, and throwing out what they chose to refuse. Then they over-lay those images or traditions with the gold and beauty of their church houses and their trinkets. Systematically they come before these self-created images in worship. Sure they take a verse from the Scripture that best fits their created image, and they sing their songs loudly to their traditions. Are you starting to get what this verse is all about? Christians shoud be accepting all of God's Word, and not the church systems that are worshipped today. Isaiah 40:20 "He that is so impoverished that he hath no obligation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved." This is saying that even a person that is so poor that he cannot go out to buy his or her idol or image, goes out to find a tree that will not rot to build his own image. He looks for the hardest tree that he can find to form that idol for himself. Then he looks for someone to carve a face to that hunk of hard wood, and fasten a base to it so that it won't fall over when he is bowing down to worship that piece of wood. However, in the end the only thing that idol is good for is fire wood. That idol has no power, nor can it even stand on its own carved out feet, had not the whittler placed the base on it. This is exactly what false religions are and the power that they can give: they give absolutely nothing! This goes for the traditions that men have created and every part of their worship that goes against the instructions given in the Word of God. Their fall is caused by their ignorance in God's Word because those people never get around to studying our Father's Word to see what makes Him happy. Just going to church on Sunday and Wednesday isn't enough. What happens when you go to church? What is taught there? Is all of God's Word taught there, chapter by chapter and verse by verse for understanding, or is it a time of story-telling and worthless chatter. Are you listening to some wind-bag dumping his pride all over you, or are you taught the Word of God with understanding, taking the thought back to the way it was written in the Hebrew and Greek. An evangelist can be one versed, but it takes much more than that to be a true teacher and preacher of God's Word. Isaiah 40:21 "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? There are four questions in this verse, and pay attention to each. If you are being taught the truth from God's Word then the understanding is known to you because you have heard. If the Word is taught as it should be then you have been instructed how it was in the beginning and during that first earth age, as well as the destruction that came over the earth when God destroyed it. You know that it was made perfect, and it became void [toho], and the Spirit of God moved to bring it back to where it would be inhabitable. You would understand that what is happening in this earth age is caused by what happened in the first earth age, and that some were chosen in that first earth age to be of service to God in this age of the flesh man. God is telling you to study His Word for understanding, and reading it is not necessarily studying it. Studying it is to go back to the original languages to understand the many meanings of all the Scripture that God has placed within His Word. If you haven't studied in this manner, then the answer is no. God's Word is not fragmented, but is complete and covers from the first of creation in that first earth age when all souls were created, to distant eternity, beyond the Millennium age, and the time of the great white throne judgment. God intends for you to understand it all. When you do not know all of His Word, then you tend to do many foolish things in your worship. Isaiah 40:22 "It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:" The "circle of the earth" is the "circuit, or vault" which is the "compass lines" that are drawn around the earth. It is from these imaginary lines that we navigate, and set the boundaries, even stake out the property lots that that we build our homes on. People are the inhabitants of the earth, and God is saying that each of us is as grasshoppers to him. This is to let you know that God is control of everything that happens in the heavens as well as on their earth. God made it, He placed the stars and planets in the heavens, and he controls the paths that they will take. Isaiah 40:23 "That bringeth the princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." In other words, God has a divine plan and man is not going to interfere with that plan. It doesn't matter what our government does to interfere with that plan, God's plan will happen just as it is written in His Word. Empires are created and they fall apart according to God's plan. That plan is His divine purpose. Isaiah 40:24 "Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and He shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble." Isaiah 40:25 "To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One." God is asking you in these verses, Who compares to Me, and of course the answer is no one. Many times traditions are created because of man's limited knowledge to something that is unknown to him, so man goes about to create the image of what he desires it to be. These sets of traditions are what causes denominations and they are followed strictly because those men and women in charge have accepted those traditions or images as being of God. It doesn't matter to them whether or not it did come from God, for those images are what hold each of the denominations together. The mind-set of all the denominations leaders are the same and it doesn't matter to either of them what the other does, as long as each is allowed to worship his own created images. Each church of a denomination is controlled by its quarterly pamphlets, the sealed instruction to the pastors as to what shall be taught on each particular Sunday. This in itself is not bad, unless what is taught goes against God's Word. God is telling us here that when those teachings or traditions make void the Word of God, they become as stubble and upon God's return they will all be blown away as if they had never existed. At the end of this earth age, if those teachings and traditions divert the attentions of the believers away from the events and sign that God has given to us as a warning, then all those puting their faith in those traditions will be deceived by Satan, the Antichrist. Isaiah 40:26 "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold Who hath created these things, That bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth." God is telling you to go out in the night and look up at the stars of the heaven. God is telling you that He created each and every one of those heavenly bodies, and He knows them all by name. There is not one that is missing that He has intended to be there. Just as God knows the name and location of every star in the heavens, He also know all the souls of men and women on earth, and what is in their heart. God knows you personally, what you are thinking, and the intent of every act that you commit. When you sin, He know why you sin, and the weakness that man has in the flesh, and that is why He has also made a way of forgiveness for those sins that you do sin. That was the purpose of Jesus Christ coming to earth and shedding His blood on the cross. God created you for one purpose, and that is for His pleasure. Revelation 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." The next time you become filled with pride and glory within yourself, stop and look at the stars. You were created for the same purpose as they were and that is to give God the glory and honor and power and pleasure. Have you given God any pleasure lately, or even thought about him? What ever problems that come your way you have brought it on yourself. Isaiah 40:27 "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, 'My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?" Friend, you don't hide anything from God, and God's judgment is absolutely fair according to His absolute plan from beginning to end. The key to understanding how to be blessed by God, is to understand His Plan. Without that plan you are headed for trouble in life, and the blessings of God will be withheld. This is not talking about salvation, but the blessings that you can receive by doing things God's way. Isaiah 40:28 "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding." God is reminding you again that He never gets tired and to busy for you. When you call upon Him, He is there to listen to you and answer your request for help. He hears you when you tell him that you love Him, and thank Him for the things that you have received. Anytime you look up to Him, He has the time to listen to those little problems in your life, and even help you through those times when before the problems even are seen by you. He just sort of kicks those stones out of your path before you reach them. Isaiah 40:29 "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength." God will take care of the weak. You can take a child that is afraid of His own shadow, and feed them the Word of God, and you will see a change in that child's life. Our Heavenly Father never grows weary of helping one that has the courage to ask for His help. Isaiah 40:30 "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:" Even a young person in the best of their health will get tired and weary at times. The human body can only endure for a certain period of time, but not God. Remember the question for this chapter, is who do you compare God to? No man in the flesh can compare in any way to God. Isaiah 40:31 "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." "Renew" means that they shall be charged in their strength. When you see the servants of God, you will see a bunch of CAN DO type people. That is why when you see those that wallow in their own self-pity and feel sorry for themselves continually, just don't give that pity to them. There is no need for that self-pity when God has promised to give us everything we need just for the asking. Those so hung up with self-pity need a jolt to wake them up and refocus their minds back on our Heavenly Father. The time came for Job, after he had laid in self-pity listening to those false preachers rambling on about nothing, and God told Job to get to his feet, gird himself up like a man, and give Me answer. When Job got to his feet, and straightened out his thinking, God blessed him with far more then he had before this time of testing. We will all have our bad days, but in God's strength we can be recharged. If you have the faith in Jesus Christ, you know that you have the victory over Satan and anything that the world can throw your way. If you have faith, you know that God will take care of you through anything that seems insurmountable at the time. God has complete control over your enemies, and he know the intent of their thoughts and minds before they even have the chance to act upon them. God will take care of you, if you have the faith to love and trust Him with your whole life.
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