Last week we looked at God’s judgement on nations surrounding Israel – especially the nation of Tyre.  What is the common denominator in their sin and their eventual downfall?  It is pride. Pride expressed as splendor, idolatry, insolence, fame and haughtiness.  What is their punishment? Shame, humiliation, and eventually destruction. Their promise has been perverted by their pride. I have b ...[Read More]

As we have said, Isaiah is the prophet to Jerusalem and Judea while Micah is the prophet to both Judea and the Northern Kingdom. However, in chapters 13 – 23 Isaiah stretches his vision and issues a whole series of oracles and prophecies against some of the kingdoms of the world.  While the major sin of them all is pride expressed as splendor, idolatry, insolence, fame and haughtiness, it ta ...[Read More]

I love quotes. Sometimes I will Google a book and read through the quotes and excerpts and think I have read the book. That’s part of the challenge in our study of Isaiah.  It’s one of the most quoted books in the Bible and, in fact, is quoted over 100 times in the New Testament. So, we feel like we have read and understood it just by the quotes we’ve seen and read. Or, we take familiar sections a ...[Read More]

For many of us the image of an Old Testament prophet looks like a scraggly homeless person weaving along the street mumbling to himself with no one listening. For others it may be a wild and austere figure like John the Baptist from the desert eating locusts and honey while dressed in camel’s hair with a leather belt shouting about repentance. For some it may be a stomach-acid-washed Jonah kicking ...[Read More]