Wonderful in counsel, Magnificent in wisdom September 30, 2007
Posted by t1rene in OT#23 - Isaiah, Old Testament.add a comment
mm… reading through Isaiah is not easy, so many prophesies. Honestly, I got lost in most of the text. But God is gracious to pepper Isaiah with nuggets of truth that sparkle my adoration of Him ~ God is not far to be found 
Isaiah 28:23 – 29
Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear what I say.
When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?
Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?
When he has leveled the surface,
does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin?
Does he not plant wheat in its place,
barley in its plot,
and spelt in its field?
His God instructs him
and teaches him the right way.
Caraway is not threshed with a sledge,
nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,
and cummin with a stick.
Grain must be ground to make bread;
so one does not go on threshing it forever.
Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it,
his horses do not grind it.
All this also comes from the LORD Almighty,
wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.
In short, God gave His people the trade secret of agriculture, the most important economic sector of that time. Out of the few verses, there are 3 phrases that I noted.
1. Listen and hear my voice, pay attention and hear what I say.
~ our responsibility to act
2. His God instruct Him and teaches him the right way.
~ because God is going to teach us the right way to do things in our daily lives, marketplace in this context
3. All this also comes from the LORD Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.
~ for Who He *is*
As I meditate on the truth, I realised that God is asking me to listen to Him, He wants to instruct me in the job that I’m assigned at work - one of the things that’s on my mind these few days. Nothing can beat that, He is wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom
Awesome!
Delight in the fear… ? September 25, 2007
Posted by t1rene in OT#23 - Isaiah, Old Testament.add a comment
Isaiah 11:2-3a
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him -
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
Often, some of us pray the prayer for the seven Spirit of the LORD to be upon us. However, this is the first time that I noticed the verse did not end there, it goes on to say, “…and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.” Mm… “delight in the fear of the LORD” that’s a paradox to ponder. Under normal circumstances, we would want to avoid fear. BUT.. under this divine circumstance, it is the fear of the LORD. I believe it is all in a package, the seven Spirit of the LORD & the delight in the fear of the LORD.
The word “fear” appears 326 times in the bible (NIV). Just by sampling a few related verses, the bible gives some insights on how we can start living in the fear of the LORD and begin to enter into this delight:
1) fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart ~ 1 Samuel 12:24
2) fears God and shuns evil ~ Job 1:8, Proverbs 3:7
3) fear the Lord… revere the Lord ~ Psalms 33:8, Isaiah 59:19
4) fear the Lord and honour His name ~ Malachi 3:16
5) Cornelius and his family, devout and God-fearing; gave generously to those in need and prayed regularly ~ Acts 10
6) (do a word study for more 
Wanna join in the mind-blowing delight ? Why not act on one of the above today ?
Dear Spirit of God, teach me to delight in the fear of the LORD. Give me the grace and the mercy to learn and live this delight.
How can God possibly bear all the evil and suffering in the world? April 12, 2007
Posted by enerjhee in Jhee's Sharing, OT#23 - Isaiah.add a comment
God did! He bored all our sins, past, present, and future, on the cross and hence all the evil and suffering that results. So the suffering that Christ endured on the cross is literally unimaginable given that He does, in fact, weep over every sparrow and grieve over every evil and every suffering. Just imagine every single pain in the history of the world, all rolled together into a ball, eaten by God, digested, fully tasted, eternally.
Isaiah 53
1Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should [a]be attracted to Him.
3He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
7He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.
Taken from Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
