Monday, December 14, 2015

2015DBRP_349 Nah1-2 Is53b Rev6


I was struck by how personal Micah’s last chapter is! He was pouring out his heart. And like the verse in Isaiah 50 that I highlighted, Micah said something that might be a commentary on that:

7As for me, I look to the LORD for help.

I wait confidently for God to save me,

and my God will certainly hear me.

8Do not gloat over me, my enemies!

For though I fall, I will rise again.

Though I sit in darkness,

the LORD will be my light.

9I will be patient as the LORD punishes me,

for I have sinned against him.

But after that, he will take up my case

and give me justice for all I have suffered from my enemies.

Now we turn to Nahum, about whom nothing is really known, except for what we can glean from his book. His name means ‘compassion’, ‘consolation’, or ‘comfort’.

Nahum mentioned the fall of the Egyptian city of Thebes (3:8), so we know he wrote after that event, which took place in 663 B.C. The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal conquered it. Nahum predicted the fall of the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, which happened in 612 B.C., so he must have written this book between 663 and 612 B.C. Nineveh fell to a combined force of Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians.[3]

This book is a vivid prediction of the approaching downfall of Nineveh, the city that Jonah preached against 150 years earlier. Assyria was an extremely violent and cruel oppressor. Nahum’s opening words set the theme:

The lord is a jealous God,

filled with vengeance and rage.

But other than being jealous, avenging, and a just judge, God is also shown as being slow to anger, good, a refuge in times of trouble, and caring for those who trust in him.

https://www.bible.com/bible/116/nam.1.nlt

 


 

I like the contrast in Isaiah 53, which we will read for the second time today. We read in verse 8:

8Unjustly condemned,

he was led away.b

No one cared that he died without descendants,

that his life was cut short in midstream.c

But just two verses later, we read:

10But it was the LORD’s good plan to crush him

and cause him grief.

Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,

he will have many descendants.

He will enjoy a long life,

and the LORD’s good plan will prosper in his hands.

So we have ‘died’, verse 9, ‘buried like a criminal’, and ‘no descendants’ in 8, and ‘long life’ and ‘many descendants’ in verse 10. Looking back at Jesus, this makes perfect sense. In a similar way, mysteries in Revelation will one day be perfectly clear.

The topic for chapter 53 starts in 52:13, where we will begin our reading today.

13See, my servant will prosper;

he will be highly exalted.

14But many were amazed when they saw him.d

His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human,

and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.

15And he will startlee many nations.

Kings will stand speechless in his presence.

For they will see what they had not been told;

they will understand what they had not heard about.

Translation note:

5But he was pierced for our rebellion,

crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

[His back was lacerated//He was whipped] so we could be healed.

https://www.bible.com/bible/116/isa.53.nlt

 


 

In Revelation 5 we heard that only One was worthy to take the scroll that was in God’s hand. The scroll had seven seals, and it is the first of three big series of seven. Christ is introduced as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But when John sees him, he appears as a lamb that has been slain. (Remember Isaiah, Micah, and John the Baptist!) The Lamb had seven horns. Horns are used in Scripture to portray kingly power to rule, so with 7, he is the perfect and divine King. And the Lamb had 7 eyes, which again, we are told, stand for the sevenfold Spirit of God. Through the Holy Spirit Christ has perfect eyesight seeing in all places and in all hearts.

https://www.bible.com/bible/116/rev.6

 

 

 



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