Isaiah 51:9,10 - Awake, awake, put on your strength

51:9

Rahab here is a poetic name for Egypt (Ps 87:4), it is not Rahab the prostitute. Isaiah calls on God to awake and once again fight for Israel. Of course, God had not fallen asleep! He had not forgotten Israel, but Isaiah longs to see the day when He actively fights for Israel again. In the past God had set the people free from Egypt, and defeated the Egyptian army when they chased after the escaping Israelites.

51:10

Isaiah recalls the events of the Red Sea crossing, these events had been recorded and Isaiah knew about them. At that time God had dried up the sea so that the Israelites could walk through on dry land. You may well have heard of some sceptics who claim the water was actually only a few inches deep. This verse gives the lie to that claim. And even if it didn’t, there is the famous riposte of “praise the Lord for drowning the entire Egyptian army in only a few inches of water! God had made a highway so that His people could escape to freedom. Isaiah wants Him to do a similar feat in his day.

2 Corinthians 7:8-10 - I do not regret it

7:8,9

Paul now talks about the letter that he had sent, the painful letter. It had caused the Corinthians pain. Paul at times regretted sending the letter, but now that he sees the good effect that it had he did not regret it any longer. So we see that Paul had genuine concern for the Corinthians, and the normal human doubts and emotions that we all had. He wondered if it was the right thing to have done or not. He was not sorrowful anymore because the letter led to repentance on the part of the Corinthians.

7:10

There are fundamental differences between Godly and worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow means realising what we have done, or the way we were thinking, was wrong, and that God’s ways are better. So we are sorrowful at the way we are and we turn from our ways to God’s ways. That is repentance. This leads to salvation, and no regrets for we are glad to be rid of the old ways, and welcome the new ways (God’s ways). Worldly sorrow is usually sorrow at being found out, or sorrow that someone else thinks differently to us, then we become embittered or resentful.

Isaiah 51:7,8 - For the moth will eat them up

51:7

“Hear me ...” God speaks to those who know what is right and want to live life God’s way. When we put our trust in the Lord that is not the end of our troubles, there will be opposition. There will be reproach from various sources, along with insults. It is normal for the world to tell us that we are wrong, as we very much experience today in the West. In many other parts of the world they experience far worse opposition. Our natural reaction in those circumstances is to be afraid, but God tells us not to fear. For the Spirit of God does not make us timid (2 Tim 1:7).

51:8

Those who oppose us are but mere mortals. The opposition will fade away, it will decay. Conversely, the righteousness of God will last forever, and our salvation from generation to generation. We need to know what is eternal and what is not, and the opposition is temporal. Notice also that there is no mention of demonic opposition here. The devil is active in opposing God’s plans, but the opposition usually manifests itself in human form, through the actions of men.

2 Corinthians 7:5-7 - Harassed!

7:5

Paul is continuing the narrative from 2 Cor 2:12,13. He had left Troas to go to Macedonia. “This body of ours had no rest”. Paul felt the turmoil within himself. We sometimes think that if only our faith was strong enough then we would have perfect peace all the time. The New Testament record says otherwise! In this letter we have read of the turmoil that Paul experienced. Jesus Himself said His soul was in anguish (Lk 22:44).  In addition to the inner anguish of wondering about the situation in Corinth, and Titus, Paul was harassed externally (ie by others) as well. “Conflicts on the outside, fears with in”. This is part of the normal Christian life!

7:6

So experiencing “conflicts on the outside, fears within” is normal, but so is the comfort of God! At the beginning of the letter Paul spoke a lot about receiving comfort from the God of all comfort, and he does so again here. Our God “comforts the downcast”. So if we are downcast we should expect to receive the comfort of God at some point. God did this here by sending Titus. Sometimes the comfort will come through inner peace, at other times it will come through other Christians, in this case Titus.

7:7

Paul was comforted both by the arrival of Titus and the news that he brought with him, about the deep concern that the Corinthians had for Paul. The practical things of life matter. God works through practical ways and through spiritual ways. In fact the two go together.

Isaiah 51:6 - Lift up your eyes to the heavens

51:6

There will be a complete transformation. Isaiah is urged to look both at the heavens above, and at the earth below. The heavens will vanish and the earth wear out. This could be a physical event, or it could be just metaphoric language for a great social change. I tend to think it will involve both a physical and a social change. “Its inhabitants will die like flies”. The message of Isaiah is not a simple one, not a “nice” one. There is judgement and death involved. But this verse is stressing the temporal nature of things. We need to be sure that we realise the fragility of the human structures and powers that we see around us. Otherwise we will put our hope in things that will fail, or we fear things that will soon pass away. The only thing that will last forever is God’s salvation and His righteousness. We must put our hope in the right place.

2 Corinthians 7:3,4 - I have spoken with great frankness

7:3

“I do not say this to condemn you...” Often our first reaction when it is pointed out that we are doing something wrong is to assume we are being condemned. Paul wanted to assure the Corinthians that he was not condemning them, he wasn’t out to get them! He has already said that they were close to his heart and he meant it. He wanted to be united with them, in life and in death. People react the same way to God, and it leads to tremendous misunderstanding and wrong reactions, both in the church and in the world. We know that God loves the world and loves people, therefore we think that we shouldn’t talk about sin! Yet the whole of the Bible talks about sin, and it does so because we are a fallen race, we have sinned against God and this is our biggest problem. So the gospel tells us that sin is our biggest problem (and if we omit this part then we not preaching the gospel at all). But it also says that through the cross and resurrection God has dealt with the problem in Christ and we can be set free. God dealt with the problem entirely at His own expense. If we neglect sin then we actually have nothing to say.

7:4

Paul had great hopes for the Corinthians. He acted and spoke with boldness because he loved them, he also had great pride in them, and was filled with great comfort. Paul was suffering much, but he was also filled with overflowing joy because he knew that his sufferings were benefitting the Corinthians.

Isaiah 51:5 - My righteousness draws near

51:5

Righteousness and salvation go together. In Romans Paul stresses the righteousness of the gospel. On the cross our sins were not simply overlooked, nor swept under the carpet, rather the full price of our sin was paid for by Christ on the cross. And we see here again God’s plans are for the whole world, this is a major theme in Isaiah. God’s arm will bring justice to the nations. Men have made various attempts to “bring justice to the nations”. The League of Nations after the First World War sought to do that, but failed, leading to the Second World War. The United Nations sought to do that. It has had some success, but also has a habit of defending depots of various hues. Only God can bring true justice to the world. “The islands will look to me”. There will come a time when nations do look to God for help.

2 Corinthians 7:1,2 - Let us purify ourselves

7:1

“Since we have these promises”. These are the promises given at the end of chapter 6, taken from various parts of the Old Testament, namely that God will dwell with us, and that we would be His sons and daughters. Our response to these promises is not to be proud or complacent. Two common types of errors that crop in churches, and have done so throughout history, are on the one hand to be legalistic or on the other hand to be antinomian (to be against rules and laws). The legalistic error branch sees the Bible as a set of commands and laws that must be obeyed, neglecting the grace of God and relational heart of the Bible when it talks about God and His people. The libertine or antinomian branch says that God has forgiven us, or that God loves us, so it doesn’t matter what we do, God loves us anyway. The Biblical view is that God does love us, and more deeply than we can ever imagine, and has completely forgiven us, and this as an act of grace, therefore we should with all our strength seek to live lives pleasing to God. It is not just a matter of what we are saved from (sin and its consequential judgement), but what we are saved to (to be evermore Christlike). Believing the gospel involves having an appreciation of the true horror and destructiveness of sin, and an appreciation of the unlimited beauty and goodness of God. Therefore we seek to steer clear of all that would contaminate us, and to pursue all that would be pleasing to God.

7:2

Paul then goes back to the relationship between the Corinthians and himself. Note that this follows on from a discussion of our relationship with God. True reconciliation between people, whether individuals or groups of people, can only be found in reconciliation between ourselves and God and a proper understanding of our relationship with God. Paul and his co-workers had wronged no one, nor had they exploited anyone. All the accusations against them were utterly false.

Isaiah 51:3,4 - For the Lord comforts Zion

51:3

We should read this in the light of all the sin that Zion has committed, and the number of times that she has rejected the Lord. It is this disobedient and rebellious nation that God will comfort. Likewise, it is disobedient and rebellious people whom Jesus saves. Our rebellion has got us into an absolute mess, but the Lord will look with compassion on our ruins. And He will transform our lives and the land of Israel. The desert places will become a fruitful garden. Mourning and sorrow will be replaced with joy and gladness. 

51:4

But this promise of restoration and salvation does not mean we just sit back and do nothing, and it definitely does not mean we carry on in our old rebellious ways. Instead we are to listen to the Lord. All too often the church seems all too ready to listen to any voices except the voice of the Lord. See that God addressed His words to “my people” and “my nation”. Instruction comes from the Lord, and it goes out to all the world, becoming a light to all the nations. Israel may have felt small, as believers in an increasingly secular nation we may feel small. But we should remember that God’s word goes out to all that nations, and will be the only word that is left standing.

2 Corinthians 6:15-18 - I will be a Father to you

6:15

Belial originally meant worthlessness, but had come to be a term used for Satan. We need to be aware of the sharp distinction there is between Christ and the world. This is a distinction that all of the New Testament writers were acutely aware of. “What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” We need to appreciate the fundamental change that takes place when we truly believe. It is not just a matter of a person choosing to follow one path as opposed to another. The person is born again, it is a matter of ending the rebellion against God.

6:16

The Corinthians needed to have a clear idea of the distinction between God and idols, and also of the importance of our bodies. We are temples of God, temples of the Holy Spirit! The purpose of God is that He makes His dwelling with us. Revelation 21:3 declares that the dwelling of God is with man. We are holy, our lives and bodies are to be holy places. Therefore we cannot mix ourselves with unholy things.

6:17,18

The material in 16-18 is an amalgamation of several scriptures, probably using the following as the basis for Paul’s words here: Lev 26:11,12; Is 52:11; Ezek 20:34; 37:27 and 2 Sam 7:14. There is a sense in which we are to be seperate from the world. This does not mean we become hermits, but does mean that we do not have the same values or approaches as the world, we live as God’s holy people. In human terms this can be lonely or difficult, but God has promised to be a father to us. If we follow His ways we will find that God comes increasingly close and real to us.

Isaiah 51:1,2 - Listen to me

51:1

There has just been a word to those who want to go their own way. Now there is a word to those who want to go God's way. It can seem impossible to go God's way, we look at ourselves and think there is no chance we can manage it. The fault with this sort of thinking is that we are putting our focus on ourselves. Here God tells us where we should be looking. First He points us to how God works, and His plans are never based on our goodness nor abilities. To demonstrate this He calls on us to look to Abraham and Sarah.

51:2

It is worth noting that both Abraham and Sarah are mentioned here. God's plan was to bless and multiply Abraham. However, there was a problem, Abraham was just one, with no prospect of children. Humanly speaking there was no way the plan could succeed, hut succeed it did. That happened because of what God did. We need to understand that God's plans and promises are founded on what He does and will do.

2 Corinthians 6:14 - Do not be yoked with unbelievers

6:14

“Do not be yoked with unbelievers”, or “ do not be unequally yoked”. This is commonly taken as a warning against marrying unbelievers but also has wider application. Marrying or dating an unbeliever is a dangerous thing to do and is an act of disobedience. Now someone will bring up an example of someone who did date or marry an unbeliever and the unbeliever came to faith as a result. Well praise the Lord, thank goodness He is merciful and full of grace, but we should not put the Lord to the test. In most cases the unbeliever will tend to drag the believer away from Christ. And it does also apply to other relationships, such as business relationships. This does not mean Christians cannot do business with non-Christians, it depends upon the type of relationship. Why does Paul give this command? It is because an unbeliever is living in rebellion against God. In the Corinthian context it would be a warning against allying with the predominant culture. “For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?” When the church thinks allying with the LGBT agenda, eg supporting Gay Pride marches, it is being incredibly stupid. How can light have fellowship with darkness?

Isaiah 50:10,11 - You shall lie down in torment

50:10

The gospel call is a call issued to those living in darkness. Notice also that here we are called upon to"obey the voice of His servant". We think of a servant as being one who is subservient, but God's servant is one with authority. We see that in the gospels Jesus had authority and expected to be obeyed. If we have no light then the solution is to "trust in the name of the Lord and rely on His God". We should also note that the gospel call is fundamentally a call to the lost. Jesus came to dsave the lost.

50:11

While all of us should trust in the Lord, most choose to trust in something else, even anything else. They kindle their own torches. God has severe words for such people. He says "if you want to follow your own way then do so, but the consequences will be dire". You shall lie down in torment. People fear that God will stop people going their own way, what we should really fear is that God does let us go out own way.

2 Corinthians 6:9-13 - Open wide your hearts

6:9,10

Paul was getting well-known, yet was regarded as a non-entity. He faced death, yet kept on going. He was beaten up, but wasn’t killed. He experienced much sorrow, yet was also always rejoicing. He was poor, yet made many rich. This latter reference would primarily be spiritually rich, but the gospel can bring prosperity. Not in the sense of the “prosperity teachers”, but in putting someone’s life back together, and that may well bring material gain as well. And a nation that turns to God will be better off than one that rebels against God. He owned little, yet possessed everything because everything belongs to God.

6:11-13

Paul is not just issuing instructions to the Corinthians, he is not being merely a guardian. He is being a father. He is opening his heart to them, letting them see the hard part of following Christ, and the reward part. He is letting them see what following Christ really means. In exchange, he asks the Corinthians to open their hearts to him. For Christian ministry to work properly there needs to be openness on both sides. Obviously there also needs to be care, otherwise this can become abuse, but there needs to be honesty. The Corinthians were treating Paul and his co-workers as if they were just teachers, a “product” to be bought or rejected. In the church we go wrong if we treat pastors as hired hands. This most definitely does not mean that we should not treat them and pay them properly, but there needs to be more than an employer-employee relationship.

Isaiah 50:7-9 - But the Lord God helps me

50:7

So the servant has made this decision to resolutely carry out the task for which he was sent. How is he to manage to do this task? This task which on all human levels will result in him being disgraced. The answer is that he will not actually be disgraced because the Sovereign Lord helps him. There may be times when we have to make difficult decisions, and we need two things. One is to be committed to the Lord, so that our hearts are directed towards Him. The second is to know that in carrying out His work we will receive help from God Almighty.

50:8,9

Jesus would be vindicated by the Father. He would be raised from the dead, and then would ascend to heaven to be seated at the Father’s right hand. Jesus could face any accuser, but so also can we. In Romans 8:33 Paul asks “who can bring a charge?”, note the similarity with thi verse in Isaiah. Why can we be confident? Because the Lord has justified us, Jesus is our righteousness.

So we are helped by the Lord, and justified by the Lord. So many may seek to bring charges against us, or to attack us, but in doing so they have to contend with the Lord Himself, so they will only succeed in wearing themselves out.

2 Corinthians 6:7,8 - Through glory and dishonour

6:7

Having gone through what they experience, he now delineates how they fight. They do so with “truthful speech”, in the “power of God”, and with “weapons if righteousness” in both hands. So they eschew the weapons of the world (see 2 Cor 10:4,5), speaking only truth. They rely on the power of God. In all that we do we ultimately rely on God to bring about change. Our goal is to see men and women to repent and turn to God, to have a change of heart, and it is only God who can do that. If we think it is our responsibility to change people’s hearts we will fall into error. We may become manipulative, or we may start going soft on the word of God, seeking to please people. We do have a part to play, and that is to present the gospel clearly and faithfully, both in word and in deed. We do the “deed” part with weapons of righteousness.

6:8

There will be “glory and dishonour”, “bad reports and good reports”. Some will see the truth and will praise us for speaking and living the truth, but others will abuse us, heaping opprobrium upon us. We must live with integrity, but even so there will be some who will accuse us of hypocrisy.

Isaiah 50:4-6 - The word that sustains the weary

50:4

Remember that an awful lot of Isaiah is reminding Israel of her sin, yet God’s purpose in all this is to restore the nation, just as His purpose is to bring salvation to people. He knows that the people are weary, but they also need to know that the reason they are weary is that they rejected the Lord, they failed to call upon Him. Yet to this rebellious people God sends His servant, and His servant comes with an “instructed tongue” and a “word that sustains the weary”. The servant is constantly listening to God in order to receive instruction. Remember that Jesus often retreated to a quiet place in order to pray, He went to receive instruction.

50:5,6

We see here prophecies of the things that would happen to Jesus, and how He would live His life. He was not rebellious in any way, instead He lived a life of perfect obedience. When men sought to beat Him and ultimately kill Him, He let them do it. Jesus did not turn away from suffering.  He was resolute in fulfilling the task with which God had sent Him.

2 Corinthians 6:5,6 - In purity

6:5

“Beatings, imprisonment and riots”, we find examples of all these things in Acts. The giving of lists of things (virtues, vices etc) was a common rhetorical practice, and one frequently used by Paul.  These beatings etc were accompanied by “hard work, sleepless nights and hunger”. Paul’s life was no easy living. Sages of the day listed hardships to contrast themselves with charlatans, and Paul is doing the same.

6:6

Along with the beatings, virtues were produced in Paul: “purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love”. There are obvious similarities to Galatians 5:22,23. Hardship and suffering do not automatically produce virtue. People who suffer may become bitter, they be utterly crushed, but some develop amazing character, being full of love, gentleness and determination. We need the Holy Spirit to ensure that the good stuff is produced!

Isaiah 50:1-3 - Why was there no one to answer?

50:1

Under the Law if a man divorced his wife then he had to give her a certificate of divorce (Deut 24:1-4). The implication of this verse is that God did not divorce Israel, he was not like a man divorcing his wife because she displeased him, nor did God give her up because He owed something to someone, He did not owe a debt to Babylon! The reason Israel was “sent away” was because of her sins and transgressions. The fault all lay with Israel.

50:2,3

God called to the nation, but no one responded. When threatened they could have called out to the Lord, for He was perfectly capable of saving them. But no one called upon the Lord. It only takes one word from the Lord for the sea to dry up, or to make rivers flow in the desert. The Lord is Lord of all creation and nothing is too difficult for Him. We are foolish when we do not call upon the Lord for help, but instead turn to idols.

2 Corinthians 6:3,4 - In great endurance

6:3

“We put no stumbling blocks ... so our ministry will not be discredited”. This may be contrasting themselves with travelling teachers/philosophers who used manipulative methods, or sought money from their hearers. Paul and his co-workers sought to act with integrity so that there would be no unnecessary hindrance to the gospel. 

6:4

Paul then launches into a description of how they sought to fulfil their gospel mission, and it did not present a superficially attractive picture! First they acted as servants of God, seeking to present themselves as faithful servants of God. We can see the opposite of this in many ways in the world and even in the church. Again, prosperity teachers and liberal “Christians” give two good example. One are effectively servants of money or of themselves, the other are servants of the world. Neither are servants of God, nor are they presenting themselves as servants of God, but they seek to use God to serve their own ends. Paul’s mission involved endurance, troubles, hardships and distress. Now we should not think that Paul considered his mission to be one of misery! He is being realistic and truthful, and he is also contrasting the reality of serving Christ with the superficiality of the “super apostles” that the Corinthians seemed so enamoured with.

Isaiah 49:23-26 - I am the Lord your saviour

4:23

There will be a complete turnaround in events. Instead of being a despised people, the people of Israel will be respected by all. “Those who hope in me will not be disappointed”. We all need to remember this, for there are times when this seems to be far from the case, when circumstances seem to say there is no way that this can be true, as indeed was the case with Israel. Yet God’s plans and vision is far greater than ours. we should never lose hope.

4:24-26

Verse 24 stresses the seeming impossibility of the situation: “Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives be rescued from the fierce?” The rational answer is No, but God’s answer is yes. How and why will this happen? Because the Lord will do it, He will contend with the enemies of Israel, and will save her children. The gospel, faith in God, is not just a moral code, it is also about the God who is actively involved. Things will not turn out well for Israel’s oppressors. If they persist in their rebellion then they will “eat their own flesh” and “be drunk on their own blood”. This seems to be a very bloodthirsty way of putting things to us, but it is in effect saying that the things that they inflicted upon Jerusalem (when these things did happen during the siege) would happen to Babylon.

2 Corinthians 6:1,2 - Do not receive God's grace in vain

6:1

In all of Christian theology, both academic and real-life, there is a dichotomy between what God does and what we do. In terms of grace and works the dichotomy is between God forgiving us and everything being dependent upon Him, and what we do with our lives making a difference. In Calvinism and Arminianism there is the dichotomy between our salvation being utterly and completely dependent upon God’s decree, and being dependent upon our faith and repentance. What are we to do about this? One of the most important things to note is that the Bible does not have any problems with these matters! There is no hint in the Bible that because we are saved by grace and mercy it doesn’t matter what we do with our lives, quite the opposite in fact. The Biblical view is that because of the grace of God it is all the more urgent that we seek to live our lives well, in a godly manner. And we find that here as Paul urges them “not to receive God’s grace in vain”. God has created us as being in His image, what we do with our lives matters. You can get yourself into an academic fankle if you want, but we are far better getting on with living our lives in the light of God’s grace and sovereignty.

6:2

Paul then quotes from Is 49:8 to back up his point, and note that the focus is on God’s favour. Paul’s urging of us to live our lives well is based on God having been gracious to us. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. This is the day of salvation, this is the time when God has shown favour to us, so we should no longer live in a godless manner, but seeking to be ever more Christlike. When we do this we will find that we are walking in step with the Spirit.

Isaiah 49:20-22 - Who has borne me these

49:20,21

God’s plans go far beyond anything we can think or imagine. His purposes are far greater than ours. We have too small a view of God, and of His purposes. At present Jerusalem was in a mess. The “children born during her bereavement” are those born during the time of exile, born into a desolate ruin. Yet even they would live to see a time when the space was too small. Zion will wonder where the children have come from. Zion saw her people as limited to the Jews, but in the gospel we see that God brings people into His kingdom from all over the world, and this is a fulfillment of the promise to Abraham in Gen 12:2,3. They were born while Zion was barren, we could now see this as the thousands of years after AD70 up to the present.

4:22

God now makes it clearer what He will do. He will “beckon to the nations”, ie the gospel will go out to the world. The people who come in will be “your children”. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:11-22, God is making one people. There will be perfect unity between the believing Jews and Gentiles, for all will be united in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:19-21 - We are Christ's ambassadors

5:19

So how does God reconcile the world to Himself? It is in Christ and it entails not counting our sins against us. The gospel is not just that “God loves us”. This is a far too wooly and unbiblical picture, and a rather meaningless one. The starting point of the gospel is that we have sinned against God, this goes right back to Genesis 3, and all of us have been living in rebellion ever since. Sometimes people object to the church saying that certain things are sinful, as though a certain group of people were being singled out. This is nonsense, for all have sinned (Rom 3:23). We are all sinners, all in need of forgiveness, and all can receive that forgiveness through faith in Christ. This is the message of reconciliation that has been committed to us. We should also note that since the root problem is the need for us to be reconciled to God, it is God who sets the terms of reconciliation, and we have no right to change those terms.

5:20

Being a “minister” of the gospel in any sense at all is not a matter of doing things our way, or representing our own ideas. We are “Christ’s ambassadors”. An ambassador represents the interests of the party he is representing, not his own interests. A good ambassador will use initiative and skill, but he or she uses it in the interests of the party they are representing. So we work as though God were making His appeal through us. So we “implore on Christ;s behalf: Be reconciled to God”. This is the message, the appeal. It means we have no authority to abandon the things that God has said that He cares about.

5:21

The gospel is all about dealing with the problem of human sinfulness. How did God do this? He made “him who had no sin to be sin for us”. Our sin was placed upon Christ and He took the judgement that should have been ours. That is the means, the goal is that we “become the righteousness of God”.  What does it mean to say we are the “righteousness of God”? It can be looked at in a forensic sense and a transformative sense, and I think we need to take both. Man is always trying to prove himself “righteous” (though often he will not use that term), he tries to prove himself “good enough”. In common parlance, most people think they are “basically good”. But this will not impress God! It is Christ, His death and resurrection, alone that makes us righteous. So in a forensic sense we are declared righteous because of Christ. But we are also being transformed, and on the last day will be made perfect. Moreover, you cannot separate the two, and the Bible does not separate the two (though at times it may focus more on one than the other). 

Isaiah 49:18,19 - Lift up your eyes around and see

49:18

It seems as if God is still speaking to Jerusalem, and it is obviously speaking about the future. There will come a time when Jerusalem’s “children” come flooding back to her. Now we need to be clear that this is much more than the Jews physically returning to Israel. It should be obvious from the Bible that being physically in the land is not it (this does not mean the land of Israel is of no importance, just that there is much more to it than this). It is looking forward to a time when the people put their trust in the Lord. Up to this time the people had, quite frankly, been a disgrace, and the same is true of us all. But a time will come when the people are an ornament, a credit to Jerusalem, “like a bride”.  And Revelation 19:7 speaks of the bride having made herself ready, and this refers to the “righteous acts of the saints”.

49:19

The land had been decimated. When they were in Babylon Jerusalem was utterly desolate. There can be times when our lives feel like that, or the lives of people we love look like that. We should not lose hope, for our God is a God who restores the desolate places and the desolate people. So Jerusalem would become too small for her people. In Zech 2 the prophet is told that the new Jerusalem is to be a city without wall, and this is why. God’s plans are always so much greater than ours.

2 Corinthians 5:17,18 - The new creation has come!

5:17

“If anyone is in Christ , the new creation has come”. Following Christ, or becoming a Christian, is not a matter of choosing to follow a new set of ideas, nor is it even a matter of using all our strength to follow Christ (we will fail!). It is a matter of being born again, of becoming a new creation. There is a radical spiritual change that takes place. Being “born again” is an excellent (and Biblical!) way of expressing this, for it describes new life, and that the lie has lots of growing and developing to do. When we are saved we are a new creation, but there is much to learn.

5:18

All the blessings of the gospel come from God, they are not the product of man, so to judge things in a worldly way is not a sensible approach to take! And God can give these blessings to us because He has “reconciled us to Himself through Christ”. And we have the ministry of reconciliation. This is not a nebulous thing, or a rather general reconciliation, it is talking specifically about men and women being reconciled to God, and this only takes place through Christ. Our ministry is to end the divide that there is between men and God, and this is why it so stupid of churches then they think that adopting a sin-affirming approach is a senisble thing to do. How on earth is someone going to be reconciled to God by continuing in their sin and thinking that God is quite alright with their sin?! This is doing no one any favours, least of all the sinner.

Isaiah 49:16,17 - I have engraved you on my palms

49:16

In Ex 28:9-12 we read of the names of the tribes being engraved upon stones. God speaks of their names being engraved on the palms of His hands. Obviously God is using figurative language here, and He is stressing two things. One is that He can never forget them, the second is that all His plans, all His work, are geared towards bringing the Israelites to salvation. “Your walls are ever before me”. Walls surrounded a city, and this might be a reference to God’s future plans for them. At present their walls lay in ruins, but that would not always be the case.

49:17

In fact it looks as if God is addressing Jerusalem. For the “children” would be the Israelites, and He is speaking of them returning from exile. It is perhaps worth noting that a relatively small number of the Israelites actually chose to return. So it is only those who have faith who are part of the new Jerusalem. In contrast, those who laid waste to the city will depart from it, they will be defeated.

2 Corinthians 5:15,16 - He died for all

5:15

Jesus did not die only so that we could be forgiven. He died and rose again so that we could live a new life, and the hallmark of that new life is that we do not live for ourselves, but for Christ. This is so important. On the negative side it highlights the error of various parts of the “church”. It shows up the error of the prosperity gospel which essentially presents the gospel as being about us. Yes, it is based on Jesus dying for us, but then is about us living for us. It also shows up the error of the sin-affirming parts of the church that say it is fine to be part of the LGBT agenda. The fact that we have desires for something most definitely is no grounds whatsoever for living according to those desires.

5:16

“We regard no one from a worldly point of view”. The Corinthians were judging people, in particular preachers and teachers, essentially by how impressive they seemed. This is the wrong approach. The right approach is to regard people from Christ’s perspective. In terms of preachers and teachers the two prime criteria are (i) how consistent with the word of God is their teaching? And (ii) how Christlike is their lifestyle? We can also take this more widely. Someone may look as though they are a dead loss from a human perspective, but what if the grace of God got a hold of their life? The prospects are then radically changed. “We once regarded Christ in that way”. If we look at Christ from a purely worldly perspective we will not be impressed, and will not see the real truth of who He is. 

Isaiah 49:14,15 - Yet I will not forget you

49:14

“The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me”. I daresay that all of us have thought this at some point in our lives, and Israel certainly have felt like this. She had been exiled for many years. Jerusalem and the temple had been utterly destroyed. When we read the Bible remake a mistake if we read it purely as “theology” in an academic sense. Right doctrine is important, it affects our lives, but the Bible is also about heart as well as about mind, and it is not afraid of the emotions that we encounter. So here we have the lostness of Israel expressed. Next we will see how God responds.

49:15

This is one of the passages where God likens Himself to a mother. Those who use such verses to argue that God should be addressed as “she” are mistaken. “He” is God’s preferred pronoun! However, we were made in His image, male and female.  However, this verse has not been given so that we can argue about the gender of God! It has been given to express the deep love that God has for Israel. “Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”. God’s dealings with us are more complex than we often think. God has a far deeper appreciation of us than we have of ourselves. He knows the depths of sin within our hearts, and the hurts that have affected our lives, and He has a plan for dealing with them.

2 Corinthians 5:13,14 - Out of our mind

5:13

Paul and his friends were utterly committed to the gospel, carrying out the mission in a Christlike way, living by godly standards, not worldly ones. Therefore some thought Paul was mad, they couldn't understand what he was doing. In such cases Paul's life was for God, God appreciated it even if the Corinthians did not. If the Corinthians did appreciate it, did think Paul was acting wisely, then they would benefit from Paul's message. We need to be careful not to always judge our lives by "results", otherwise we will find our lives and churches being dictated to by the culture.

5:14

ESV has "the love of Christ controls us". NIV has "Christ's love compels us". We might think this verse is saying  our love for Christ compels us, but what it is actually saying is that it is Christ's love that controls us. Paul's "methods" were dictated by Christ. "Christ died for all". Paul could not limit the extent of his ministry, for Christ died for all. Anyone could be saved. "For all have died". The corollary of Christ having died for all is that all needed Christ to die for them, everyone is dead in their sin. We are not preaching a message to a world that is basically doing OK and just needs a nudge in the right direction or a pep up. We are preaching to a world that is dead in sin and in desperate need of Christ, whether it realises it or not.