Saturday, November 4, 2023

November 12, 2023 – Isaiah in the New Testament – Like a Child

Like a Child

Isaiah 28:7-16 - New International Version (NIV)

And these also stagger from wine
    and reel from beer:
Priests and prophets stagger from beer
    and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
    they stagger when seeing visions,
    they stumble when rendering decisions.
All the tables are covered with vomit
    and there is not a spot without filth.

“Who is it he is trying to teach?
    To whom is he explaining his message?
To children weaned from their milk,
    to those just taken from the breast?
10 For it is:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there.”

11 Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
    God will speak to this people,

12 to whom he said,
    “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;
and, “This is the place of repose”—
    but they would not listen.
13 So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
    Do this, do that,
    a rule for this, a rule for that;
    a little here, a little there—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
    they will be injured and snared and captured.

14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
    who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death,
    with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement.
When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,
    it cannot touch us,
for we have made a lie our refuge
    and falsehood our hiding place.”

16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
    a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it
    will never be stricken with panic.

Who will “stumble when rendering decisions” (verse 7)?

What are the tables covered with (verse 8)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to, “Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there” (verse 10)?

How will God speak to this people (verse 11)?

How did “this people” respond when God said “this is a place of repose” (verses 11 and 12)?

What will the word of the Lord become to them (verse 13)?

What will happen to the people (verse 13)?

Who is to “hear the word of the Lord” (verse 14)?

Why do the rulers of Jerusalem say “when an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us” (verse 15)?

Who “will never be stricken with panic” (verse 16)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal about the conflict between worldly people and the Lord?

Luke 18:9-17 – New International Version (NIV)

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Who did Jesus tell “this parable” to (verse 9)?

What did the Pharisee and the tax collector do (verse 10)?

What was the Pharisee thankful for (verse 11)?

When did the Pharisee fast (verse 12)?

Where would the tax collector not look (verse 13)?

What did the tax collector pray (verse 13)?

Who “went home justified before God” (verse 14)?

Who will be humbled (verse 14)?

Who will be exalted (verse 14)?

How did the disciples react to the people “bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them” (verse 15)?

What did Jesus say when He “called the children to him” (verses 16 and 17)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal about the conflict between worldly people and the Lord?

In your opinion, who is Luke 18:9-17 is most like the “priests and prophets” of Isaiah 28:7-16?

1 Corinthians 14:20-26 - New International Version (NIV)

20 Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. 21 In the Law it is written:

“With other tongues
    and through the lips of foreigners
I will speak to this people,
    but even then they will not listen to me,
says the Lord.”

22 Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24 But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, 25 as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.

What does Paul tell the “brothers and sisters” to stop doing (verse 20)?

Where is it written, “With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord” (verse 21)?

Who are tongues a sign for (verse 22)?

Who is prophecy for (verse 22)?

What will “inquirers or unbelievers” say if they come in and everyone is speaking in tongues (verse 23)?

How will “an unbeliever or an inquirer” be affected if everyone is prophesying (verses 24 and 25)?

Why must “everything” be done (verse 26)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal about the conflict between worldly people and the Lord?

In your opinion, what does Isaiah 28:7-16 help us understand about Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 14:20-26 that “tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers”?

In your opinion, how is receiving “the kingdom of God like a little child” which Jesus encourages in Luke 18:9-17 different from “thinking like little children” which Paul instructs us to stop doing in 1 Corinthians 14:20-26?

Philippians 2:5-11 – New International Version (NIV)

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Where are we to have “the same mindset and Christ Jesus” (verse 5)?

What did Jesus not consider as “something to be used to his own advantage” (verse 6)?

What nature did Jesus take (verse 7)?

How did Jesus “humble himself” (verse 8)?

Where did God exalt Jesus to (verse 9)?

What will “every knee” do (verse 10)?

What will “every tongue acknowledge” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal about the conflict between worldly people and the Lord?

In your opinion, how is the mindset of the “priests and prophets” in Isaiah 28:7-16 different from the mindset of Christ that Paul describes in Philippians 2:5-11?

In your opinion, what do both Luke 18:9-17 and Philippians 2:5-11 help us understand about who God exalts?

In your opinion, how does Philippians 2:5-11 help us understand what our tongues can do to fulfill the instruction of 1 Corinthians 14:20-26 that “Everything must be done so that the church may be built up”? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Isaiah, Luke, 1 Corinthians, and Philippians teach us about how we can receive the kingdom of God like a little child”?

In your opinion, once we are in the kingdom, how do avoid the pitfalls of the world so that we can bring “glory to God the Father”?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

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