November 26, 2023 – Isaiah in the New Testament – A Remnant Pressing On

 

A Remnant Pressing On

Isaiah 29:5-14 - New International Version (NIV)

⁵ But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
    the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,
⁶     the Lord Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
    with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
⁷ Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
    that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
    with a vision in the night—
⁸ as when a hungry person dreams of eating,
    but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,
    but awakens faint and thirsty still.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
    that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹ Be stunned and amazed,
    blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
    stagger, but not from beer.
¹⁰ The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:
    He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
    he has covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹ For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” ¹² Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

¹³ The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
¹⁴ Therefore once more I will astound these people
    with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
    the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

What will happen to the “ruthless hoards” (verse 5)?

Who will come “with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire” (verse 6)?

For whom will it be “as it is with a dream” (verses 7 and 8)?

In your opinion, who is to, “Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer” (verse 9)?

Who has “sealed your eyes” and “covered your heads” (verse 10)?

What is the “whole vision” (verse 11)?

Where are the hearts of those who come near the Lord “with the mouth and honor me with their lips” (verse 13)?

What will happen to the “wisdom of the wise” (verse 14)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about how people can react to God and His Word?

John 19:1-16 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe ³ and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

⁴ Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” ⁵ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

⁶ As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”

But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”

⁷ The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

⁸ When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, ⁹ and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

¹¹ Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

¹² From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

¹³ When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). ¹⁴ It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

¹⁵ But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

¹⁶ Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

What did Pilate have done to Jesus (verse 1)?

Who “twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head” (verse 2)?

What “basis for a charge” did Pilate find against Jesus (verses 4)?

How did the chief priests and officials respond when “Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” (verses 5 and 6)?

Why did the Jewish leaders say that Jesus must die (verse 7)?

How did Jesus respond when Pilate said “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you” (verses 10 and 11)?

What happened when Pilate tried to set Jesus free (verse 12)?

What did Pilate tell the Jews after he “brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat” (verses 13 and 14)?

How did the chief priests answer when Pilate ask “shall I crucify your king” (verse 15)?

What did Pilate do with Jesus (verse 16)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about how people can react to God and His Word?

In your opinion, how is God’s statement through Isaiah in Isaiah 29:5-14 that “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” shown to be accurate by the words of the chief priests and Jewish leaders in John 19:1-16?

Romans 11:1-10 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ² God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? ⁴ And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

⁷ What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, ⁸ as it is written:

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
    eyes that could not see
    and ears that could not hear,
to this very day.”

⁹ And David says:

“May their table become a snare and a trap,
    a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
¹⁰ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
    and their backs be bent forever.”

“Did God reject his people” (verse 1)?

What did Elijah do (verse 2)?

How many prophets to God did Elijah think were left (verse 3)?

How did God answer Elijah (verse 4)?

How is the remnant chosen (verse 5)?

What is the choice not based on (verse 6)?

Who did obtain “what the people of Israel sought so earnestly” (verse 7)?

How long had God given them “a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear” (verse 8)?

What did David ask would “become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them” (verse 9)?

Why did David want “their eyes to be darkened” (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about how people can react to God and His Word?

In your opinion, what is similar between the circumstances in Romans 11:1-10 and the circumstances in Isaiah 29:5-14 that make the quote about a spirit of stupor, eyes that can’t see, and ears that can’t hear applicable to both?

In your opinion, what does Paul in Romans 11:1-10 reveal about how the choices, words and decisions of the Jewish leaders about Jesus in John 19:1-16 bind or limit the choices, words and decisions of the Jewish people about Jesus?

Philippians 3:3-14 – New International Version (NIV)

³ For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— ⁴ though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

What do those “who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus” not put confidence in (verse 3)?

What are the things Paul lists as reasons of confidence in (verse 5 and 6)?

How does Paul view those things that “were gains” (verse 7)?

Why does Paul “consider everything a loss” (verse 8)?

Where does the “righteousness” that Paul has come from (verse 9)?

Why does Paul want to know Christ (verse 10)?

What does Paul want to attain (verse 11)?

Why does Paul “press on” (verse 12)?

What does Paul forget (verse 13)?

Why does Paul “press on toward the goal” (verse 14)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about how people can react to God and His Word?

In your opinion, what does Philippians 3:3-14 reveal about how those that the Lord has brought a “deep sleep” over in Isaiah 29:5-14 must change to wake up?

In your opinion, what does Philippians 3:3-14 reveal about the change in Paul to move him from being like the Jewish leaders persecuted Jesus in John 19:1-16 to the person who boasts “in Christ Jesus”?

In your opinion, how does Paul in Philippians 3:3-14 help us understand how confidence in the flesh could be part of the reason for the “spirit of stupor” that he says the Israelite people have in Romans 11:1-10? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Isaiah, John, Romans, and Philippians teach us about what it takes to move from being part of the majority with hearts far from God to the remnant who boasts in Christ Jesus?

In your opinion, how can each of us “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” today?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)