Devotionals

Making Sense of the Book of Isaiah By Henry Jaegers Lesson 2

by Henry Jaegers
07/06/22
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Making Sense of the Book of Isaiah

By Henry Jaegers

Lesson 2

The Call of the Prophet and The Response of the People

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Matthew 5:11,12)

As a follow-up to the testimony of Isaiah, I thought it was necessary to explain what it means to "follow Jesus. And I felt the best way to begin this message was by sharing this portion in the sermon on the mount with you. I often wonder why no one is preaching on the sermon on the Mount and maybe it's the presence of this verse that keep men from doing so. But as you look at the life of Isaiah and Jeremiah. What God called them to do was know the pleasant or self-glorifying task. If you want to know what it means to follow the call of God, read about the life and teachings of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah preceded Jeremiah by about 100 years but they both had this in common. They were called to preach to people who were not listening. Do you know what that is like? To have a message from God that no one wants to hear?

One of the thoughts that occurred to me this morning as I was preparing this, was what if these two books of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah were not in the Scriptures? What would we know about them? Men were called who were generally unrecognized by the people to whom they were sent. Jeremiah was raised in Anathoth, a place reserved as set forth by Joshua for the priests to live. But it was from these priests, that Jeremiah received his greatest opposition. Their response to Jeremiah's message was a determination to destroy him. And what about the call, when Jeremiah was wound up being thrown in the well, with mud up to his armpits? And if it was not for Embed Moloch, another unknown servant raised by God to help Jeremiah, that would have been the end of Jeremiah. Think of that. If God called us to preach to people like that, what would our response be? 'But God does not tell us" what happens next" when he calls us to follow him. When called by God to preach a message, the response of the people might be that of rejection. . But the saddest part of all, is how their lives ended. They didn't enjoy the comfortable retirement with a home in the Bahana's. The response of the people to Jeremiah was, that they took him to Egypt and stoned him to death. That was the response of the people to the message from  God. In the case of Isaiah, it was almost unimaginable what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah did to him. It was so bad and hard to describe what he had to face, Legend tells us that he was taken by Manasseh, stuffed into a log, and sawn in half. That is how much love the people gave to Isaiah.  And now the verse before us begins to make sense.

As I mentioned previously, God does not usually call "high profile people to deliver his message. And God does not promise that we shall spend our lives on "flowery beds of ease when we are faithful to declare his message.

Times are no different today. The message of Isaiah and Jeremiah is just as pertinent to our present age as well as back then, but who is going to declare it and who wants to face rejection when they do?

And if God has given you a message to share with others in your message is rejected by the people, remember the life of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and consider the verse before us. Our part is to be faithful and we must leave the outcome to God. Remember, God never tells us " what happens next So don't be surprised if things do not turn out the way that you expected

The most important thing to consider is that these prophecies were not meant to glorify the prophets. But as we consider the message: It ultimately turned out to be the glory of  God.  He received the glory. And hopefully, when our work is finished, God's Glory will be manifested. And now, Isaiah is beginning to make sense.