OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 15

Isaiah 15:1-9

15:1-4 A proclamation against Moab; God promised destruction of the corrupt city.

15:5-9 Sin and corruption cause desolation. Unrighteousness ruins people and places that could have been verdant and thriving.

OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 14

Isaiah 14:1-32

14:1 Despite our tendency to disobey and even disregard God, He still chooses us. He chooses us and He takes care of us. And such was the plan for Israel, even when they opposed Him. After a period of discipline to realign them with righteousness and their God, He planned to settle them once again.

14:2 Obedience to God, faith in Him, brings complete reversal to our desolate situations. We are freed by faith, literally and figuratively. Captives of no man, as children of God. God's presence provides the prosperity of peace.

14:3-8 Israel would receive rest and relief from their captive, Babylon.

14:9-11 They would witness the complete destruction of Babylon by God's hand. And in a prophetic sense, so will we. The whole earth will rest and praise God for His removal of the wicked.

14:12-15 These verses correspond with Revelation 12 and Ezekiel 28; Satan's pride and lust for power culminated in the biggest ever act of rebellion against God. It also resulted in God sentencing him to death for his corrupt plan for power.

14:16-17 God will put Satan and his acts on display so that humanity will know that Satan was never actually powerful at all.

14:18-21 Because of his unrepentant, consistently evil work, Satan will be removed from existence.

14:22-23 God will thoroughly remove the house of the wicked and those who uphold it. 

14:24-27 Isaiah prophesied for the house of Israel as well as for the future, all wicked enemies destroyed. No man or nation can escape from the plan God has established.

14:28-32 Isaiah delivered a message to several corrupt nations, and also to the corruption at the end of times: destruction is scheduled for release.

OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 13

Isaiah 13:1-22

13:1-3 God's prophet was instructed to get the Babylonian nation's attention: God has a message for them. Their corrupt behavior caused God to allow an enemy into their land to take it over. Evil cannot retain its land, its power or possessions. It cannot retain its life. 

13:4-5 A massive army approached to bring destruction to the entire land. 

13:6-8 The wicked will be made to lament because of their unrighteous lifestyle. They will witness the loss of all of their corruptly-obtained power and possession.

13:9-10 Isaiah prophesied for an ancient Babylonian people but he also prophesies for the ultimate arrival of God. God will arrive with judgement for the unrighteous and His presence will be enough to rewrite the laws of nature as we know them.

13:11-16 The system of the world will be punished and humbled because of its corruption. God's wrath is ignited when unrighteous harms the well-bring of His children and therefore He arrives with a firm and fierce plan of judgement. 

13:17-22 The corrupt kingdom/system of the world turned to a wasteland. A wasteland to reflect what their own corruption had done to it.

OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 12

Isaiah 12:1-6

12:1 The Psalmist chooses to praise God, understanding that God's discipline is an act of vehement love. God provides us with discipline as well as comfort; our journey of instruction from Him is a rewarding one.

12:2 After all, God's loving discipline is meant to rescue us. He is always leading us toward something better, or a more mature version of ourselves. Those who love Him, trust without fear, because He has promised blessing to those who obey His righteous will.

God is our Lord, the compassionate, capable, powerful authority in our lives. God is our strength, He supplements every weakness we have and helps us to develop those figurative muscles to avoid weakness in future. God is our song, He is the hope playing steadfastly in the background of our every moment. He is the sweet joy we have, as His presence always secures us in purpose and love and safety.

12:3 Therefore it is with joy that we listen to Him, follow Him, obey Him. It is with joy that we study His word, because from it we derive the wisdom of life and heart and spirit. To draw from God is to draw from a well of salvation, constantly renewing and restoring.

12:4 We praise His name among our family, friends, community, region, nation, and world. We praise because we love Him; we praise because others' deserve to know that they can have a relationship with Him, indeed we praise as a testimony. We praise because He deserves praise for all of the plans of justice, righteousness and compassion He has for humanity and us as individuals. We praise because He is good and honest and kind and fair and beautiful and creative... we praise everyday for more and new reasons. We praise about the hope He ensures we are right to believe in.

OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 11

Isaiah 11:1-16

11:1-2 This chapter prophesies the life and majesty of Jesus. Jesus who is the embodiment of the word of God, with the Spirit of God, wisdom,understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and reverence of the Lord. Jesus would be born through David's, the son of Jesse, lineage.

11:3-5 Jesus' delight is the revere the Lord. Without partiality or subjectivity, Jesus judges with righteousness. He powerfully delivers justice to the poor and meek. He powerfully destroys the wicked, corrupt, and cruel of the world. He is faithful to and righteous in the will of God.

11:6-9 When the Kingdom of God comes to earth, there will no longer be contentious spirits between anyone, even animals. The knowledge of God will subdue the wickedness from the whole earth.

11:10 And the whole earth will have Jesus... and will seek Him and find rest in His glorious presence.

11:11 The Lord will remember and recover His lost and scattered peoples.

11:12 He will gather His child and be a banner to them, beckoning them home.

11:13-16 Envy and dispersion will desist. Adversaries will lose their power and their voice. God will restore power to the righteous and the righteous, by God's power, will overcome the evil. It will be a clear and lighted path for those who, of their own volition, wholeheartedly choose to walk into the Kingdom of God... according to the will of the kingdom of God.

OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 10

Isaiah 10:1-34

10:1-4 God assured punishment for the people who had corrupted society. They participated in deceit and theft, neglect and injustices. In the day of punishment, God knew that they would be caused to realize that their behavior could not save them... the wealth and power they had accumulated would not be enough. Then they would realize that their actions were ruthlessly nonsensical.

10:5-12 God was angry and indignant. He loves His children very much, therefore when someone harms them or corrupts the system of justice they are supposed to have, His anger is fierce. Though mighty nations arrogantly believed they were all-powerful, God promised to humble all who needed it.

10:13-14 God reads the hearts of the arrogant, corrupted ones and knows that they believe their own cleverness and strength is sufficient evade God's judgement and ensure their power and possession. 

10:15-19 But such arrogance is ridiculous because no one can be mightier than their creator, God. God teaches that lesson to humanity in that ultimately, He humbles the proud and exalts the humble. God intended then (and intends now) to send a consuming and thorough fire on corrupt and evil souls.

10:20-23 God will separate the righteous from the unrighteous. And while the unrighteous disappear, the righteous will live with glorious dependence on God.

10:24-26 We are told not to fear; God wants us to understand that His anger is directly at the evil. The destruction that takes place will not harm or dismember in any way the people who live with righteousness and love for God.

10:27 God will release His innocently-imprisoned children; the heavy burden of ramifications of others' corrupt actions will be lifted.

10:28-32 But God warned the corrupt then, and warns the corrupt now, that their destruction was approaching, inevitable.

10:33-34  God's plan is to restore order, to take power from the corrupt and hand it to the righteous.

OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 9

Isaiah 9:1-21

9:1 Although God does discipline His children with tough-love, His ultimate plan is a restorative end to it. Jesus the Messiah is prophesied of in this ninth chapter; He is the light that shines through the dimness.

9:2 The people who have walked in darkness, that is, the people who have sinned or grieved or feared or fallen have been presented with the light of Jesus, the love and word of God. 

9:3 Through Jesus, God's love and word come into the world and multiply the joy of the people. The number of people with good, restorative faith increases. Jesus' life brings joy because He teaches of the path and hope of God that have led so many to blessing. 

9:4 God's word instructs us and leads us out of the chains that bind us; His love lifts our burdens from our shoulders. He guides us out of darkness, out from under heaviness, and straight through lethargy. He provides clear instructions on how to live righteously, productively, compassionately and His way revives our souls, changes the atmosphere around us, and leads us to new heights, new blessings, new places of opportunity.

9:5 Ultimately, there will be no need for war. God will bring everlasting peace to the earth. Jesus once told us that war and rumors of war must be for now, Matthew 24:6, while humanity exercises its free will. But those who freely, willingly decide here to live in God's kingdom, will experience war no more... and the instruments of war will become obsolete, good only as fuel for fire.

9:6 For Jesus came as a child and become the authority of humanity. And not only a righteous authority but also a "wonderful, counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." 

9:7 There will be no boundaries to the peace of God's kingdom, no end to its length. God will establish justice forever.

9:8-12 But at this point in Isaiah's story, God's children had gone rogue and caused much harm to each other. They arrogantly believed that they were not subject to repercussion or even the will of God. God promised, therefore, to ensure that they would be humbled, overtaken and thus stopped from their wicked behavior. 

9:13-17 Even the leaders of the faith were corrupt, and there wicked-work caused the rest of the people to become worse. God promised to destroy from top to bottom, the entire corrupt system. He knew the wrongdoing of each man and woman and caused them to answer for it.

Indeed it angers God to witness His children cause harm to one another.

9:18-21 Their own in-fighting and cruel lifestyles would burn the children of Israel up from the inside. Unrighteous behavior always results in desperation, chaos, and destruction.

OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 8

Isaiah 8:1-22

8:1-2 God wanted His prophesy to be written down; the name He used in the prophesy meant that His people were swift to sin and therefore swift to become prey.

8:3 To further illustrate His point, God named the child of a prophetess the same.

8:4-10 There would be a complete takeover of the kingdom. God promised the enemy would be strong, swift and thorough because of Judah's corruption.

8:11 God taught Isaiah to remain committed to righteousness.

8:12 He taught Isaiah not to behave deceptively, not to be afraid. Basically God pointed out the many ways Judah had turned to corruption and thus instructed Isaiah and us how not to follow their path. 

8:13 The best thing we can do against corruption is to listen to the Lord, and to let His discipline be our driving force rather than fear or lust or greed.

8:14-15 God is a sanctuary to His faithful children, but those who oppose Him will stumble and fall and be broken and taken. Evil behavior leads to such outcomes.

8:16-18 Isaiah instructed to prophesy to bound up. It was official and would undergo no changes. In the meantime, Isaiah vowed to wait patiently on the Lord, for His will to unfold. He vowed to have hope in God; and as any child of God knows, hope is an essential element of our faith.

Though Isaiah described God's face to be 'hidden' from the house of Jacob, God had actually removed Himself because they rejected Him. But God was (and is) very much present with His righteous children and is working signs and wonders in their lives at all times.

8:19-20 The people had stopped consulting God. We want to be careful never to rely on any other thing for hope, counsel or strength. Judah's downfall began when they stopped consulting, trusting, hoping in God.

8:21-22 The difficult circumstances, caused by their abandonment of righteousness, would cause them to be hungry and angry and desperate. God hoped that in such a place of desolation, they would again seek their God, repent and change their wicked ways.

OT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 7

Isaiah 7:1-25

7:1-2 The kingdom of Israel and Syria joined together to take Jerusalem. They did not prevail in their attempt; but it was deeply hurtful that Israel would attack its brother-kingdom, Judah with another, non-family member.

7:3-6 Judah was afraid of the threat but the Lord spoke through Isaiah. God would cause their efforts against Judah to fail.

7:7-9 In fact, God continued and explained that Israel would be taken into captivity by their enemies. (They, like Judah, had become a corrupt kingdom).

7:10-12 God told Ahaz that he could ask for a sign, but Ahaz knew better. We are supposed to have faith in God without requiring proof or signs. Our strength is in our faith.

7:13-16 Unfortunately, the house of Judah had turned corrupt and it wearied God. In fact, God is wearied by corrupt actions done by humanity which is why, in this next verse, He promises the coming of Emmanuel, Jesus, God with us. Indeed Jesus' life was prophesied of in the Old Testament. God had a plan to save humanity since long ago! 

7:17 But before that, Judah would go into captivity.

7:18-20 God promised to allow their enemies into their land to completely take over their kingdom.

7:21-22 Those who would remain in the land would subsist on very little, just enough to live on.

7:23-24 Indeed their enemies would take over easily, through politics rather than war, and the land would become desolate. For the land was a beautiful vineyard under the authority of God, but because of corruption it would become desolate.