Tag Archives: promises of God

Isaiah 40: one prophecy with three fulfillments

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Isaiah 40:1-11 may be one of the best-known passages among all the Old Testament prophets. As anyone who knows Handel’s Messiah will immediately recognize, the text for several movements in the first part come from the first eleven verses:

  • Isaiah 40:1-4, the first tenor recitative and aria, “Comfort ye my people” and “Every valley shall be exalted”
  • Isaiah 40:5, the first chorus, “And the glory of the Lord”
  • Isaiah 40:9, part of the first alto aria (with chorus), “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion”
  • Isaiah 40:11, the second alto aria, “He shall feed his flock”

We associate these verses with the Christmas story because John the Baptist claimed to be the “voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,” words quoted in the tenor recitative.… Read the rest

Heart’s desires: reading and misreading Psalm 37:4

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Have you ever looked for or seen lists of Bible promises? Psalm 37:4 probably appears on most of them. According to the New American Standard Bible, it’s “Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”

It’s such a great promise. Unfortunately, it’s easy to miss what the verse actually says. We make it say what we wish it said instead. Even some modern Bible translations fall into that trap.

The New Century Version, among others, misses the point badly: “Enjoy serving the Lord, and he will give you what you want.”

Claiming a promise God doesn’t actually make can lead to heartbreak and loss of faith.… Read the rest

Taking God’s promises and commandments personally

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Bible opened to John 3:16 -- God's promisesYou’ve read a lot about claiming promises in the Bible. But then you look at many of them and find that God made them to specific individuals for specific purposes.

Are those promises really for you? What can you do with them?

Somehow we don’t have the same curiosity about commandments in the Bible, but at least some of them raise the same questions.

In Joshua 1:6-9, God gave commandments and promises to Joshua. Joshua had long known that he would succeed Moses as Israel’s leader and take them into the Promised Land. Now, Moses had died. It was time for him to step in.… Read the rest

Divine Prosperity in Times of Calamity

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God wants his people to prosper. That hardly means that he will not allow them, or rather compel them to go through times of trial in which prosperity seems impossible. We have to put aside our human idea of prosperity and let God define it for us.

Jeremiah proclaimed the message of divine prosperity even in calamity in a letter to the Jews in Babylon, that is, to victims of a recent national catastrophe. The invading Babylonian army had taken King Jeconiah, his mother, all of his court officials, and all of the skilled craftsmen and artisans in Jerusalem as captives back to Babylon.… Read the rest

Isaiah 40: one prophecy, three fulfillments

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Isaiah 40:11 stained glass windowIsaiah 40 may be one of the best-known passage among all the Old Testament prophets. Anyone who knows Handel’s Messiah will immediately recognize the text for some of the familiar pieces. “Comfort ye my people” and “Every valley shall be exalted” (the first tenor recitative and aria), “And the glory of the Lord,” (the first chorus), “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion” (the first alto aria, (with chorus), and “He shall feed his flock” (the second alto aria) all come from first eleven verses of the chapter:

We associate these verses with the Christmas story at least because John the Baptist claimed to be the “voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,” words quoted in the tenor recitative.… Read the rest